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.As the Clinton administration and their Republicanauxiliaries stressed as the vote went down to the wire, the fight was aboutforeign policy, about the globalist policy that the United States has beenpursuing since Woodrow Wilson, and certainly since World War II.It wasabout the Establishment- Keynesian dream of a New World Order.Naftawas a vital step down the road to that order.Politically, such an order means a United States totally committed to aform of world government, in which US/UN police forces dominate theworld, and impose institutions to our liking around the globe.Economically, it means a global system devoted not to free trade butto managed, cartelized trade and production, the economy to be governedby an oligarchic ruling coalition of Big Government, Big Business, andBig Intellectuals/Big Media.On the vital currency front the New WorldOrder is slated to fulfill the Keynesian dream: of a World Reserve Bankissuing world paper money ad lib, to make sure that all countries caninflate and enjoy easy money together, with no country s currencyinflating more than the others, and thereby suffering declines in exchangerates or outflow of a reserve currency.Internationally coordinatedfiat money inflation is the Keynesian goal.As for the shibboleths about free trade, the freedom is strictlyOrwellian.The Establishment s concept of free trade, since World WarII, is exports subsidized by the taxpayers.The idea is to privilegeAmerican exports, either by foreign aid or by the international inflationwhich will pour more buying power into the hands of foreigners who will Economics Beyond The Borders 279purchase American products.The U.S.business Establishment is willingto accept imports only as a bargaining chip to pressure foreigners intobuying American exports.Within American business, the war over Nafta was a war betweenexporters, and the bankers who finance them, as against business firmsthat suffer from import competition.It was a contest which the domestic-oriented firms and their union supporters were doomed to lose, since theirarguments, by denouncing competition and loss of jobs, were clearlyboth special pleading and economically ignorant.As a result, the exportersand their financiers came across as wise statesmen, and their opponentsappeared as both dumb and narrow-minded.The truth is that the exporters were simply more sophisticated andbetter con artists; for one thing, they had in their camp the articulateeconomists and self- proclaimed champions of the free market.Well, theexporters and their bankers have, and have had for decades, the moneyand the power.And, unfortunately, in this world, if they have the moneyand the power, all too often the Big Intellectuals and Economists and Free-Market Champions will follow in their wake.The good news, on the other hand, is that Nafta is only the beginning ofthe struggle.The New World Order is a Utopian project.Not only is itstatist and cartelist and opposed to genuine free trade and free enterprise; itcuts against the interests and the freedom of the broad mass of the people.Furthermore, it also cuts against the rising and rampant nationalisms thathave been re awakened throughout the world upon the collapse ofCommunism and the Soviet Empire.The broad public in the U.S.and inother nations, coupled with renascent nationalisms, could well be enoughto put the boots to the New World Order.All that is needed areintellectuals and leaders courageous enough to tell the truth.The truth can make us free; and the panic of the entire Establishment inthe weeks before Nafta shows that they know what they will be up againstonce the public is on to their game.89 Fairness And The Steel StealWhenever anyone talks about fairness, the average American hadbetter look to his wallet.When social pressure groups invoke fairness, it 280 Murray N.Rothbard: Making Economic Sensemeans that American business must be saddled with quotas for mandatoryhiring or promoting of myriad special interest groups, depending on whocan get themselves organized and win the ear of the politicians.When businessmen talk of fair trade or fair competition, it meansthat they are pressuring the government to use coercion to cartelize theirindustry, to restrict production, raise prices, and allow the flourishing ofinefficient and uncompetitive practices.In business, the other guy, your competitor, if he is efficient and issuccessfully cutting into your business, is by definition engaging in unfair competition and unfair trading practices. Such strictures, of course and again by definition, never seem to applyto the subsidies you may be receiving from government or to these verycartel policies that you are calling for.Of all the industries in the United States, the one that has mostconsistently and successfully run whining for special privilege to the U.S.government has been iron and steel.Since 1969, the iron and steelindustry, facing new competition from European firms that had recoveredfrom World War II, lobbied for and received from the U.S.a system ofsteel import quotas, which severely restricted steel imports, drove up steelprices sharply, and caused repeated shortages for American steel-usingmanufacturers.Such steel import quotas, strong-armed and enforced bythe U.S.government, were referred to in Orwellian fashion as voluntaryrestraint agreements, though agreed to under substantial duress by theforeign governments.These import quotas were always supposed to be temporary, to allowAmerican steel companies to recover from whatever crises they claimed tohave suffered, but the quotas of course kept being renewed.Finally, in thespring of 1992, they were allowed to lapse, but not because of an attack offree-trade fervor in the steel industry or in the free trade Bush administration.On the contrary, the steel industry decided that theyhad captured so much of the market share under cover of the quotas, thatthey were ready to shift the form of their protection from import quotas tohigher tariffs, since the quotas were no longer keeping out verymuch foreign steel.The Bush Commerce Department decided that a dozen countries,Mexico plus mainly European nations, were unfairly subsidizing their Economics Beyond The Borders 281own steel industries, and that the tariffs against them must rise to offsetthis advantage.The fact that the U.S.steel companies are themselvesheavily subsidized by the government (e.g.with special loans,development grants, and pension guarantees), did not of course enter intothe equation.Tariffs on various forms of steel must now rise up to 90%.The result will be higher costs, restricted production, and higher pricesimposed on a myriad of American steel-using industries, notablyappliances, automobiles, and construction, which will harm the Americanconsumer and hurt the competitiveness of American industry at home andabroad.Moreover, the Commerce Department and the U.S.government sultimate decision-maker, the International Trade Commission, will rule onstill higher steel tariffs, to offset the alleged dumping of steel by 20foreign countries, that is selling at prices below what the U.S [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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