Trade quotebook

Friday, February 17, 2012

Trade quotebook -- mark A or D (Agree or Disagree) as your response to the bold parts of each quote

1. ______ "Some countries are so poor that they don't have a comparative advantage in anything."
    Anonymous professor, 1986.

2. ______ "To those of you in the audience who are business people, pretty simple: If you're paying $12, $13, $14 an hour for factory workers and you can move your factory South of the border, pay a dollar an hour for labor, hire young -- let's assume you've been in business for a long time and you've got a mature work force -- pay a dollar an hour for your labor, have no health care -- that's the most expensive single element in making a car -- have no environmental controls, no pollution controls and no retirement, and you don't care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south."
    Ross Perot, Presidential debate, Oct. 15, 1992.

3. ______ Peter Angelos, trial lawyer and owner of the Baltimore Orioles: "His credo is always 'to buy American.' When bestselling author Tom Clancy, an Orioles investor, bought a Mercedes-Benz, Angelos called it 'a German piece of s---.' Clancy has since purchased a Cadillac, the same brand Angelos owns (his wife drives a Lincoln). It is every American's responsibility, Angelos says, 'to buy American, even if it's inferior to a foreign product. You have to support your fellow Americans.'"
    Los Angeles Times Magazine, Feb.26, 1995.

4. ______ "China can manufacture anything cheaper than any other nation."
    Chalmers Johnson. "Economic fanaticism is bad for Seoul." Los Angeles Times, Jan. 27, 2002.

5. ______ "American factories are closing because they can't compete with cheap foreign labor. No manufacturer wants to pay workers our guaranteed wage of $7.45 an hour when they can have people in third world countries doing the work for $2 a day." (Frank DePaulo, owner of Fernbrook, a conglomerate of twelve textile factories.)
    Pattie Mihaulik. "Hanging by a thread." Times News, Dec. 13, 2002.

6. ______ "Forcing our middle class to compete with cheap foreign labor will result in systemic job loss..."
    Lou Dobbs. Optimize, September 1, 2004

7. ______ "No single economic stimulus initiative would do more in the short and long term to resuscitate U.S. employment ... than a fair 'buy American' program."
    Leo Hindery Jr., Leo W. Gerard and Donald Riegle. "'Buy American' -- why not?" Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2009.

Trade quotebook -- mark A or D (Agree or Disagree) as your response to the bold parts of each quote

1.	______ To save the economy of this country, as well as to bring about constructive foreign trade, requires the swift adoption of a policy that would halt international wage-cutting competition...that shifts our desirable high-wage and skilled industries and jobs to other countries.
		Culbertson, John M. "'Open Markets' Drag Us Down the Wage, Skill Ladders." The Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1987: 5.

2.	______ Although U.S. labor unions are predictably concerned about the potential inflow of Mexican products and the 'loss of jobs' from the United States to Mexico, those concerns are largely misplaced.... American workers would benefit from the increased supply of lower-cost Mexican products and from increased U.S. sales to Mexico.
		Feldstein, Martin, and Kathleen Feldstein. "Environmental Purists May Be Mexico's Curse." Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1991: B7

3.	______ An unrestricted U.S.-Mexico free-trade agreement will be a disaster for workers in both countries.
		Democratic National Committee. Platform, 1992.

4.	______ [For the U.S.,] Nafta's benefits would fall on skilled labor, while the unskilled would suffer a slight decline in real income.
		United States. International Trade Commission, 1993.

5.	______ The recent quantum leap in the ability of transnational corporations to relocate their facilities around the world in effect makes all workers, communities and countries competitors for these corporations' favor. The consequence is a 'race to the bottom' in which wages and social conditions tend to fall to the level of the most desperate. (Jeremy Brecher, author and historian)
		Isaak, Robert A. Managing World Economic Change. Prentice-Hall, 2000: 108.

6.	______ One of the most persistent criticisms of open markets and free trade is that they make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
		Beattie, Alan. "New risk to poor in digital divide." Financial Times, January 25, 2001: 4.

7.	______ I think outsourcing is a growing phenomenon, but it's something that we should realize is probably a plus for the economy in the long run. We're very used to goods being produced abroad and being shipped here on ships or planes. What we are not used to is services being produced abroad and being sent here over the Internet or telephone wires. But does it matter from an economic standpoint whether values of items produced abroad come on planes and ships or over fiber-optic cables? Well, no, the economics is basically the same. (N. Gregory Mankiw, Chair, Council of Economic Advisers)
		Andrews, Edmund L. "Democrats Criticize Bush Over Job Exports." The New York Times, February 11, 2004: Section A; Column 4; National Desk; Pg. 26.

8.	______ For the vast majority of Americans, the gains in lower prices because of trade and cheap imports long ago began to be outweighed by wage losses.
		Leo Hindery Jr., Leo W. Gerard and Donald Riegle. "'Buy American' -- why not?" Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2009.

1.	______ "Some countries are so poor that they don't have a comparative advantage in anything." Anonymous professor, 1986.

2.	______ "To those of you in the audience who are business people, pretty simple: If you're paying $12, $13, $14 an hour for factory workers and you can move your factory South of the border, pay a dollar an hour for labor, hire young -- let's assume you've been in business for a long time and you've got a mature work force -- pay a dollar an hour for your labor, have no health care -- that's the most expensive single element in making a car -- have no environmental controls, no pollution controls and no retirement, and you don't care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south." Ross Perot, Presidential debate, Oct. 15, 1992.

3.	______ Peter Angelos, trial lawyer and owner of the Baltimore Orioles: "His credo is always 'to buy American.' When bestselling author Tom Clancy, an Orioles investor, bought a Mercedes-Benz, Angelos called it 'a German piece of s---.' Clancy has since purchased a Cadillac, the same brand Angelos owns (his wife drives a Lincoln). It is every American's responsibility, Angelos says, 'to buy American, even if it's inferior to a foreign product. You have to support your fellow Americans.'" Los Angeles Times Magazine, Feb.26, 1995.

4.	______ "China can manufacture anything cheaper than any other nation." Chalmers Johnson. "Economic fanaticism is bad for Seoul." Los Angeles Times, Jan. 27, 2002.

5.	______ "American factories are closing because they can't compete with cheap foreign labor. No manufacturer wants to pay workers our guaranteed wage of $7.45 an hour when they can have people in third world countries doing the work for $2 a day." (Frank DePaulo, owner of Fernbrook, a conglomerate of twelve textile factories.) Pattie Mihaulik. "Hanging by a thread." Times News, Dec. 13, 2002.

6.	______ "Forcing our middle class to compete with cheap foreign labor will result in systemic job loss..." Lou Dobbs. Optimize, September 1, 2004

7.	______ "No single economic stimulus initiative would do more in the short and long term to resuscitate U.S. employment ... than a fair 'buy American' program." Leo Hindery Jr., Leo W. Gerard and Donald Riegle. "'Buy American' -- why not?" Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2009.