Both Obama & Clinton want to renegotiate NAFTA. Why?

jr jr, the Energy Czar
You need his permission to drive your car.
Before you go fill up with gas
His Excellency requests that you kiss his ass.
But while he worries about American law,
the baby seals are being beaten raw.
Gas prices have made him nervous and mean,
Good luck, jr, and God save the queen.

 

This is your argument?
1) You'll get me at recess.
2) Most evidence -- most especially that of which you decline to cite even the smallest part-- proves me wrong. But you're too busy right now to make that historical case, so you'll just assert something based on magic words and be on your way.
3) Your complete laissez-faire utopia has never been tried, so we don't know if it would work, but if we ever did try it, it would work, so there.
4) JR's experience as a Canadian remains less relevant to the discussion than are your card-trading days in junior high, but he's the condescending one.

Impressive.
Play-Doh or Silly Putty?

 

Ragu,

You truly are a piece of work, pounding away on your keyboard about halfbaked ideas you seem to have picked up at an economics night course at your local library.

Your statement that NAFTA is a "2,000 page document that promises to eliminate hundreds of tariffs and trade barriers--most of which the document itself created" only proves that you are a know-nothing charlatan. I mean, seriously, that is one of the stupidest fucking things I've heard about NAFTA--and I've heard most of them

Let me repeat this-- because you're clearly dimwitted--you don't have a clue what you're talking about when it comes to the treaty. But you've proven that previously on healthcare, labour unions, Wal-Mart and newspapers so no one should be surprised about this most recent round of intellectual smoke and mirrors.

I dont give a shit whether you read the document, familiarize yourself with the rules of origin, dispute resolutions, anti-dumping legislation, regional value content or the energy measures. Just don't drone on and on about something that you are completely ignorant of, OK?

Your blythe statement that NAFTA is "unnecessarily complicated and perpetuates restrictions and nonsensical rules that ultimately hurt people economically" only shows that you probably don't have the intellectual capacity to understand a car lease.

And to set the record straight: I represent hundreds of companies who import under the rules of NAFTA every day so, yes, I in fact do know what I'm talking about.

BTW, the topic was not what Mr. Rand thought about free trade--it was the political posturing by HRC and Obama that they were going to renegotiate it. Try and stay with the tour, bud.

 

Those damn Invisible Handcuffs are mucking up free, unfettered trade. Things just haven't been the same on this contintent since the mid-1600s when Wampum fell sharply against the pound.

 

Cran,
I have five beaver pelts. Wanna trade?

That birchbark canoe and your Cal Ripken rookie card should do.

And we don't need a treaty!

 

I'll check with my lawyer. He may have some concerns and advise that some safeguards be negotiated into the agreement.

 

My canoe is open for inspection and I have a certificate of authenticity for the Ripken card.

I also have some nice land in Florida for sale

 

OK we can make the exchange in the middle of Lake Memphremagog. But I can't be held liable if my canoe tips and the Ripken card gets wet.

 

Your future transactions in the birchbark canoe/baseball card mercantile will go more smoothly if you first convert your wampum to guilders. Then, at the ComEx, hedge the guilders against birch futures. Buy on margin. Take the guilders remaining, convert them to doubloons, zlotys and kopeks, and head for the trading floor of the North American Bubble Gum Exchange. The markets in Eastern Europe and on pirate ships is very soft right now, even if the gum itself is not. Spread your investment capital across the entire range of bubble funds - stick, shredded, Dubble and Bazooka. Now you've hedged against a wet Ripken, ruined in a canoe blowdown.

It's a win, win, win for all markets right down the line.

 

Awesome. I'll tell the Abnaki they can re-invest their earnings in casinos on sacred tribal land ... or some barren reservation.

 

"A host of evils"?

Geez, before the parade of Big Old Strawmen arrived, this thread actually was funny.