Category Archives: Globalization

Gaius Publius: Astroturf “Progressive” Support for the TPP – Meet “270 Solutions”

It’s become routine to expose some of the supposedly organic proposals that come out of the Tea Party as actually sponsored by the Koch Brothers and other big corporate interests. We didn’t want to leave Democrats out in the cold in the astroturfing game. Gaius Publius discusses one ecosystem: a consulting firm, “270 Strategies” and one of its phony creations, the Progressive Coalition for American Jobs.

Did Ireland’s 12.5 Percent Corporate Tax Rate Create the Celtic Tiger?

Offshore banking and tax haven expert Nicholas Shaxson has launched a new blog, Fools’ Gold, to look at issues of ‘competitiveness’ and so-called ‘competition’ between nations. We’ve often taken issue with that policy goal, since it gives precedence to crushing labor as a way of lowering product prices to stoke exports. This approach is dubious for anything other than small economies, since all countries cannot be net exporters. Undue focus on exports as a driver of growth results in increasing international friction, such as the currency wars that are underway now. Moreover, as we have discussed separately, trade liberalization has gone hand in hand with liberalization of capital flows, in no small measure due to US efforts to make the world safe for what were then US investment banks. Yet Carmen Reinhardt and Ken Rogoff pointed out in their study of financial crises, higher levels of international capital flows are associated with more frequent and severe financial crises.

In addition, lowering wage rates reduces domestic demand. In countries like the US, where the domestic economy is much larger than the export sector, lowering internal demand to stoke exports is misguided.

Here we look at a first case study, the real reasons behind the growth and meltdown of the famed Celtic tiger, Ireland.

Look Who is Selling the TransPacific Partnership

Some Serious Economists have signed a letter supporting the TransPacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The missive says a lot about the discipline, and not in a good way.

Mapley Fights Back: How the Scammers Behind Virgin Gold Mining Corporation Bit Off More Than They Could Chew (VIII)

It’s high time I updated the APGMI part of the saga of Virgin Gold Mining Corporation. Here’s a round-up of the relevant parts of this sprawling series.

HSBC’s Money Laundering Nightmare (1): Mossack Fonseca

HSBC’s top brass have “no idea” about Mossack Fonseca. Here’s a primer.

The Administration’s Dishonest Response to Elizabeth Warren’s Attack on Secret Investor Arbitration Panels in Trade Deals

Elizabeth Warren is clearly getting on the Administration’s nerves.

Nurses Unite to Stop TransPacific Partnership Fast Track

In case you haven’t noticed, nurses unions have emerged as a particularly powerful and credible labor/lobbying group. So it’s encouraging to see them use their bully pulpit to rally voters to contact their Congresscritters and voice opposition to the upcoming vote on so-called fast track authority for the TransPacific Partnership. I’m heartened to see, in the Real News Network video below, that the nurses’ representative puts forward compact, factually sound arguments as to why this misnamed “trade deal” is a sop to major corporations at the expense of citizens.

Bond Star Sir Roger Moore, Three Million Phantom Geese in China, and a New Zealand Financial Services Provider

Mathew D. Rose: Greece – Dead Man Walking

Rose focuses on an issue that reader Swedish Lex and other have pointed out: the heavy-handed actions of Germany in the tempestuous negotiations between the Eurozone and Greece have wound up being a major own goal.

But the bigger issue that Rose raises is that last week’s ugly negotiations, in combination with the fiasco in Ukraine, is exposing Germany as a lousy hegemon, which he argues is producing a political crisis in Germany and fracture lines in Europe.

TransPacific Partnership: Fast Track to Financial Instability

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama said he would submit a bill to Congress that would grant him the fast track authority to finalize the TransPacific Partnership (TPP)—a trade pact with Pacific Rim countries such as Japan, Malaysia, Peru, and Chile. While free trade has brought benefits in the past, tariffs in the world economy are at an all time low and new deals like the TPP offer few new gains in terms of growth and jobs for the American people. And the TPP in particular comes at unacceptably high cost.

Fearless commentary on finance, economics, politics and power

Category Archives: Globalization

Gaius Publius: Astroturf “Progressive” Support for the TPP – Meet “270 Solutions”

Did Ireland’s 12.5 Percent Corporate Tax Rate Create the Celtic Tiger?

Look Who is Selling the TransPacific Partnership

Mapley Fights Back: How the Scammers Behind Virgin Gold Mining Corporation Bit Off More Than They Could Chew (VIII)

HSBC’s Money Laundering Nightmare (1): Mossack Fonseca

The Administration’s Dishonest Response to Elizabeth Warren’s Attack on Secret Investor Arbitration Panels in Trade Deals

Nurses Unite to Stop TransPacific Partnership Fast Track

Bond Star Sir Roger Moore, Three Million Phantom Geese in China, and a New Zealand Financial Services Provider

TransPacific Partnership: Fast Track to Financial Instability

How Third Way Trade Agreements Study Distorts Via Omission to Pave Way for TTP and TTIP

GXG: How the Scammers Behind Virgin Gold Mining Corporation Bit Off More Than They Could Chew (VI)

Questus: How the Scammers Behind Virgin Gold Mining Corporation Bit Off More Than They Could Chew (V)

How the Scammers Behind Virgin Gold Mining Corporation Bit Off More Than They Could Chew (IV)

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