Some Elements of a Progressive International Trade Policy
There are other ways to organize U.S. international trade. The neoliberal free trade of recent decades and the trade restrictions of Trumpian tariffs are not the only options.
1 min read
Just three links this week:
(1) Mark Karlin, The End Game of Shutting Off Residential Water in Detroit Is a Likely Privatization Attempt. Buzzflash at Truthout. Mystery solved (not that this is surprising).
(2) Gretchen Morgenson, Private Equity's Free Pass. The New York Times; hat-tip TM. Morgenson's focus here is on how PE firms avoid SEC scrutiny by not being designated as "broker-dealers."
(3) David Atkins, The Four Basic Reactions to Record Inequality. Washington Monthly's Political Animal blog. This is a nice piece. It starts with Anna Bernasek's recent Times piece, The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less, which reports on findings in a recent Russell Sage Foundation study, according to there was a 36% decline in the inflation-adjusted net worth of the average U.S. household between 2003 and 2013. Over the same period, the net worth of households at the 95th percentile increased by 14%. And the increase for richer households was greater. What I like about the Atkins piece is that he shows how similar the views of the "neoliberal/center-left "camp (who "believe that modern inequality is a problem, but that this too shall pass and we can trudge along as usual after a recovery") are to those of true believers on the center-right.
That's it for now.
--Chris Sturr