Millions of hours of media coverage and we still have no idea what their policies are. Believe me I have tried to find out, but the differences are small, vague and nuanced even when examining detailed websites - Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton. This repetitive shallow coverage of issues in the TV media particularly, reflects a dying dysfunctional democracy where big money rules. This sadly is America's biggest export and it has infected media around the world.
Neither, thanks. They are both protectionists that will do enormous damage to the world economy, and yes, that hurts people in the Third World as much as it hurts them or us.
ReplyDeleteI think Bush and McCain are protectionists as well.
ReplyDeleteBush certainly, but McCain less so, either of them less than the Democrats.
ReplyDeleteMark W, I will concede that McCain is less protectionist (in theory) than either Obama, Clinton or Bush. I do think in practise they will all be fairly similar however.
ReplyDeleteFree trade is a fine principle if applied fairly. Sadly I think it is sometimes confused with giving the largest corporations carte blanche to do what the hell they want.
To have healthy free trade you need to allow internationl competition to bloom not be snuffed out at birth. Remember that both Japan and Germany have healthy business environments that were built on an initial protectionist base that was internationally accepted. I also think that allowing China to manipulate currency values to flood markets with cheap goods is not in line with the principle of free trade.
I found Lessig's take on the whole thing quite interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://lessig.org/blog/2008/02/20_minutes_or_so_on_why_i_am_4.html
I'll try that again:
ReplyDeleteclick