Ted Rall for May 20, 2015
Transcript:
Soon, the U.S. Senate will vote on the trans-pacific partnership "free trade" agreement. (Man: Nice democracy) (Woman: Can't have the people know!) To read it, senators have to go to a secured vault. No copies to take home. (Man: No talking about what you read inside!) They leave their cellphones outside. They can't look up confusing jargon on a computer. They can take notes... but they can't take them out of the room. Finally: A good use for google glass. (Man: No one leaves before doing 6 jello shots)
The trade agreement has been criticized widely, and I’m divided about what little I know of the details. But what most observers miss is that this places the US in league with other Pacific Rim countries without including China. So, we will have effectively have provided some sort of counterbalance to China’s growing regional economic hegemony. This is an interesting and perhaps necessary global strategy. The environmental, labor, and corporate governance issues are troubling, but it may be the best chance to address the longer term issue of Chinese influence across the Pacific region. Dialing back global trade would lead to a global depression, I’m afraid, as each country would raise trade barriers in response to other countries’ actions. The impact of global trade is one of those questions with no clear or easy answers.