Category Archives: Globalization

Is Japan Playing Ball with the US on the TransPacific Partnership?

Earlier this week, the Nikkei Asian Review published At odds with US, Japan reaches out to other TPP partners. The title would lead you to believe Japan is working with other countries to strengthen opposition to the toxic, mislabeled trade deal known as the TransPacific Partnership.

The text of the article suggests otherwise, that Japan’s prime minister Abe will feel compelled to offer some concessions when Obama visits next month. On the surface, that would represent a significant shift.

Matt Stoller: The Hippie Peaceniks Behind Corporate Global Trade Agreements

Yves here. Among other things, this post shows what passes for analysis among elite technocrats.

Don Quijones: Corporate Colonialism – Winners and Losers of Global ‘Free’ Trade

I think of globalisation as a light which shines brighter and brighter on a few people, and the rest are in darkness, wiped out

Wage Shares Fall in the US, Germany and Many Other Countries While Financial Shocks Hit Emerging Economies

ves here. This Real News Network interview with Yilmaz Akyuz, formerly the Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), describes how the problems that produced the financial crisis have morphed into new, no less troubling problems. One key part of this discussion focuses on how China has adapted to its considerably smaller trade surplus, and why having Germany as the new excessive exporter poses new perils to the global economy.

Matt Stoller: “Free Trade” Pacts Were Always About Weakening Nation-States to Promote Rule by Multinationals

Yves here. I hope those of you who are in countries being browbeaten to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership or the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will circulate this post widely.

Obama Lame Duck Watch: Pelosi Puts Another Nail in Toxic Trade Deal Coffin, Says She Opposes Giving Administration “Fast Track” Authority

Obama now has another hurdle to overcome if he is to get his toxic trade deals, the TransPacific Partnership and the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, passed in time for him to take credit for handing the keys to America over to multinational corporations and turning out the lights.

Governments and Activists are Fighting the Corporate “Right” to Sue Governments

This post contains several troubling examples of how investors have used provisions in existing trade deals to attack the laws of nations that attempt to enforce environmental, labor, and consumer protections, or simply discipline bad-faith behavior.

US Sours on its Own Secretive Trade Shocker

As anticipated, citizens in the nations that the US has been pressuring to join the toxic TransPacific partnership are taking note of stiffening opposition here.

Former IMF Chief Economist, Now India’s Central Bank Governor Rajan Takes Shot at Bernanke’s Destabilizing Policies

As Bernanke is about to take leave of office, attacks on his policies are becoming louder, thanks to financial markets turmoil resulting from the Bernanke/Geithner approach to the crisis: do whatever it takes to restore as much of status quo ante as possible. The problem, of course, is that status quo ante is what got us in this mess in the first place.

Mirabile Dictu! Reid Tells Off Obama on Fast Track, Killing Toxic Trade Deals for 2014

Obama made yet another pitch in State of the Union Address for his gimmies to multinationals known as the TransPacific Partnership and the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Today that idea went down in flames, at least as far as getting the deals done this year are concerned.

The Empire’s New Asian Clothes – America’s Strategic Rebalance As Covert Retreat

Yves here. This article provide perspective on Obama’s unseemly anxiety to push through the toxic trade deal known as the TransPacific Partnership. the TPP is that it is a crucial part of Obama’s “pivot to Asia” strategy. One of its aims is to isolate China by creating a trade bloc that excludes the Middle Kingdom. The article below helps explain why non-military means of reinforcing US hegemony are particularly important now.

Global Dollar-Based Financial Fragility in the 2000s (Part I)

Yves here. It’s been frustrating to see orthodox economists continue to invoke the Bernanke “saving glut hypothesis” as a significant driver of the crisis. That view was rebutted in gory detail in a 2010 paper by Claudio Borio and Piti Disyatat of the BIS, “Global imbalances and the financial crisis: Link or no link?” (see Andrew Dittmer’s summary here). Not surprisingly, the orthodoxy has chosen to ignore this paper.

A new working paper by Junji Tokunaga and Gerald Epstein, “The Endogenous Finance of Global Dollar-Based Financial Fragility in the 2000s: A Minskian Approach,” builds on the perspective of the Borio/Disyatat paper. Readers should find this summary to be a straightforward, persuasive discussion of an important topic.

China Credit Worries Rise as Large Shadow Banking Default Looms

China faces the first big test of its shadow banking system, in the form of a pending default. How is it likely to fare?

Japan to US: You Can’t Railroad the Trans-Pacific Partnership

By Clive, a regular Naked Capitalism commenter and self-confessed Japan-o-phile

The headline, in a one liner, is what this article is saying. You may have to take my word for it if you’re not a Japanese reader, but read on to find out why I hope you can.