The wrong trade czar
Wisconsin's Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold says he knows the effects of bad U.S. trade policy all too well. "I would hope that Representative Portman . . . would recognize what has happened to his state, my state, and so many other states in terms of the loss of jobs, especially manufacturing jobs, because of these bad trade agreements that we've approved over the years," he says. "I would hope that as U.S. trade representative he would begin a new era of questioning trade agreements that are unbalanced, and a good place to start would be the Central America Free Trade Agreement."
I would urge Portman to consider another of Einstein's observations: "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." What is now required is an intelligent policy of fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial trade to overcome our trade deficits. Economic markets, whether domestic or international, reward bold and innovative thinking. We've learned that those same markets only punish those who believe that faith in markets is all that's needed to ensure success.
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