Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Unfortunately they ain't on a knife edge, poised above some lovely political abyss. Nope, as usual our federal power system is stuck on the same old, same old Orthrian teeter-totter. Up and down she goes, just 8 inches from the packed shit pile below.

Let's turn from this unedifying spectacle, for a moment, to another domestic "issue" -- our vast job- and wage-eating trade gap. Here's a second alert about the latest possible chance to build a people's speed bump on the road to zero industry. If nothing is done to renew it, the White House's "fast track" powers will soon expire:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_track_(trade)

As mentioned here in an earlier post, this extraordinary congo-busting executive power to ram thru the people's representaive bodies any old Wall Street-crafted "international trade agreement" expire before the Fourth of July, unless they're rescued by an act of Orthrian magic.

So it's in the hands of the party in power over on the Hill -- the one with the long, all-hearing, twitchy ears. The party that in part has control over there precisely because its candidates claimed, most loudly, of course, in certain strategic open trade-blasted industrial districts -- to be the party of good job protection through "fairer" trade policies.

It just might come down to one guy, and who knows what runs the mind of fry-haired Charlie Rangel? On that, we 'll simply have to see what we see.

To be fair-and-balanced here, I feel I need to show the other hand. Maybe this sleaze treason won't be pulled off under the cover of nearly complete public darkness, as it seems the media has slightly noticed the issue recently

If you want to bone up on the stakes, I suggest this piece by union economist Tom Palley:

http://www.thomaspalley.com/?p=79

Getting fast track renewed or extended has a lovely parallel to the shootin' side of the GWOT saga, and is also of the very essence of our two headed governing beast.

In a related story, we find this very same Tom Palley, among others, trying to stir the frog pond of academic economists. It all seems to have started, improbable as it may seem, with an article in The Nation. Here's the best pull-together of links:

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2007/05/a_role_for_hete.html

Upshot: the insider commanding heights of "the profession" are controlled by -- what else -- the society of sons of market liberty. But here's The Nation's scoop: seems these bold marketeers are willing to use "mafia tactics" to keep down skeptics and push outright heretics to the prestigeless margins.

Perhaps you're asking, "Just how, Owen, is this related to our killer trade gap and fast track?"

Summit orthodox econ-cons sing in all voices, "the best national markets are open national markets. Ergo, open wide, America, and take your medicine." The logic loons ask us to see that the best of all possible worlds requires we open up our national markets and let the TNCs bounce us jobblers back and forth till we ding so many profit bells for them that we all, at long last, feel like the "liberated" pinballs we are.