David Brooks Warns of Economic Collapse and War Without TPP
The Washington chattering class is really upset that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) looks like its going down. David Brooks pulls out all the stops today, using his NYT column to yell at "Tea Party" Democrats for not supporting the fast-track authority that would facilitate the passage of the TPP.
Unfortunately, Brooks was largely unarmed with facts when it came to the attack. To start, he tells readers;
"The North American Free Trade Agreement, for example, probably didn’t affect the American economy too much. But the Mexican economy has taken off. With more opportunities, Mexican workers feel less need to sneak into the U.S."
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Got that, the Chinese are coming. So if we don't pass a trade pact that will make the countries of Pacific region pay more for our drugs and other protected products they will all turn to China.
Are you scared yet?
Okay, look for more of these hysterical diatribes as the one percent tries their best to sell the TPP. They have tons of money and power, so they may pull it off, but at least we get the entertainment value of these people making fools of themselves.
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http://www.cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/david-brooks-warns-of-economic-collapse-and-war-without-tpp
and here is the piece by that ratfucker. If these "arguments" seem familiar, it's because they're remarkably similar to the ones we see here from the DU pro-TPP contingent, the White House and the repukes:
The Democratic Tea Party
Last week, the Congressional Democrats defeated the underpinnings of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Let’s count up the things these Democrats will have done if this policy stands.
Impoverish the world’s poor. There’s an argument over what trade agreements do to workers in the nation’s rich countries, but there is no question they have a positive impact on people in the poorer ones.
The North American Free Trade Agreement, for example, probably didn’t affect the American economy too much. But the Mexican economy has taken off. With more opportunities, Mexican workers feel less need to sneak into the U.S. As Fareed Zakaria has pointed out, a regime that was anti-American has turned into one that is pro-American.
In Asia, the American-led open trade era has created the greatest reduction in poverty in human history. The Pacific trade deal would lift the living standards of the poorest Asians, especially the 90 million people of Vietnam.
As Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, wrote in his Marginal Revolution blog: “Do you get that progressives? Poorest country = biggest gainer. Isn’t that what we are looking for?”
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Imperil world peace. The Pacific region will either be organized by American rules or Chinese rules. By voting against the trade deal, Democrats went a long way toward guaranteeing that Chinese rules will dominate.
As various people have noted, the Democratic vote last week was a miniversion of the effort to destroy the League of Nations after World War I. It damaged an institution that might head off future conflict.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/opinion/david-brooks-the-democratic-tea-party.html
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