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) Dr. Dollar on the Ex-Im Bank. Our latest piece from the (still in production) Sept/Oct issue: Arthur "Dr. Dollar" MacEwan answers this question from D&S reader Arne Alpert: "Congressional Republicans and the Heritage Foundation are making a big deal about the Export-Import Bank, calling it “crony capitalism.” Are they right? Does the Ex-Im Bank serve a useful purpose, or is it just propping up the profits of trans-national corporations?"
(2) Susan Holmberg and Mark Schmitt, The Overpaid CEO. Interesting piece that focuses on the costs of high CEO pay. When CEOs get huge paychecks, "the company is choosing to pay executives instead of doing other things—distributing revenues to shareholders, raising wages for workers, or reinvesting in the business. But the greater cost may be the risky behavior that very high pay encourages CEOs to engage in, especially when pay is tied to short-term corporate performance." This piece resonates with our July/August cover story, Marianne Hill's Taming the Corporate Beast.
(3) David Cay Johnston, Corporate Deadbeats. The awesome DCJ has a cover story in Newsweek, which is back in print as of March (it stopped last December). The subtitle: How Companies Get Rich Off Of Taxes." Key quote: "How can a tax burden become a boon? Simple. Congress lets multinationals earn profits today but pay their taxes by-and-by. In effect, Uncle Sam is loaning these companies all that money they do not immediately turn over as taxes. And all of these loans come with the same attractive interest rate: zero." Great article; I'm not sure I like "Off Of" in the subtitle, though. Did Newsweek lay their editors off between December and March?
(4) Abby Scher, At Least Some Unions Step Up for Big Climate March. Former D&S co-editor Abby Scher had this piece at Truthout on Sunday. Choice quote: "The transit workers are my personal heroes of the climate justice movement; when you encounter members of Transport Workers Union Local 100 while flyering for the march on city streets, not only are they already on board, they often have something to say about the state of a world that doesn't deal with the reality of climate change."
(5) National Jobs for All Coalition, Green Jobs for All flyer. Hat-tip to Trudy Goldberg for this flyer that folks from the National Jobs for All Coalition will be handing out at this weekend's Climate March in NYC. Print some up and hand them out if you're going to the march! "Creating green jobs would solve both environmental and unemployment crises—as well as decrease our growing economic inequality."
(6) Americans for Financial Reform, Cost of the Crisis: A briefing paper from AFR, to mark the sixth (!) anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing. A summary:
Cost of the Crisis – An Updated Reckoning, Six Years After the Lehman Bros. Bankruptcy
On the sixth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing (Sep. 15, 2008), the financial crisis is still severely affecting our economy. Today, Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) released an updated compilation of the quantifiable costs of the financial crisis. A few highlights:
With $613 billion in debts, the Lehman bankruptcy was the largest bankruptcy in US history and a defining moment of the financial crisis.
That's it for now.
--Chris Sturr