The Republican platform is too large a document and covers too many issue areas for one person to dissect entirely. I covered my core competency by going through the housing plank. But for those who did have the time and resources to do a full overview, the picture becomes clear that this is a pretty [...]

The Romney campaign decided to put its new attack dog, Paul Ryan, out on a foreign policy measure today. Specifically, they had him discuss global trade, and Chinese currency manipulation. Ryan, the GOP vice presidential candidate, was speaking in North Canton, Ohio, on Thursday. “We also need trade that works for us. We come from [...]

The Bank of England, People’s Bank of China and the European Central Bank all cut lending rates or added quantitative easing today, a near-global spurt of monetary stimulus designed to increase economic growth. Because the Federal Reserve hasn’t joined in, the dollar is growing stronger, which is bad news for US exports. China and the [...]

The leaked documents from the Trans-Pacific Partnership showed the possibility for the agreement to expand well beyond the original countries that are party to the agreement. And before the TPP has completed negotiations or been signed, we’re already seeing evidence of that. In remarks yesterday at the outset of the G20 summit, Mexican President Felipe [...]

Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach has an analysis of that leaked document from the negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and it’s really even worse than anticipated. The leaked text provides stark warnings about the dangers of “trade” negotiations occurring without press, public or policymaker oversight. It reveals that negotiators already have agreed to many radical terms [...]

While I was watching a generally weak set of questioning of Jamie Dimon at the Senate Banking Committee (outside of Menendez, Brown and especially Merkley), Zach Carter was reporting on a key leaked document from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. This is the “NAFTA for Asia” trade deal that Senators sought more transparency for earlier in [...]

Some Senate Democrats and even some Republicans are concerned about a controversial trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which critics have denounced as “NAFTA for Asia.” And they are making their opinions known to the Obama Administration about the relative secrecy under which the deal is being negotiated. As first reported by Zach Carter [...]

I can’t believe that anyone tried to trot out as conventional wisdom the idea that Europe’s troubles would cause no economic turmoil in the US. We don’t export much to Europe, the story went. The financial channel is more dangerous, but US banks have insulated themselves from the problems over there. Wrong and wrong. In [...]

Neoliberals and conservatives will get to trot out their favorite phrase, “trade war.” And to be sure, there’s a jobs vs. environment question to be asked about this latest move by the Obama Administration. But the Commerce Department has moved ahead with slapping high tariffs on Chinese solar panels: The United States on Thursday announced [...]

As expected, the US approved the implementation date for the recently-passed Colombia Free Trade Agreement, despite continued violence against trade unionists in the country. The announcement timed with President Obama’s appearance at the Summit of the Americas. “Colombia has passed those laws and regulations necessary in order for the free-trade agreement to enter into force,” [...]

We’ll see if gas prices have truly peaked, because we’re not even up to a summer driving season that usually leads to an increase in demand. But the peak is often late spring, within the next several weeks (usually the low month for gas prices is November, in a boon to incumbent politicians), and other [...]