Trading Partners

Twice in one day I pin a hero badge on Paul Krugman? Really?

I had been watching the news regarding the South Korea trade agreement and Obama's statement about how it would create jobs in this country. I was thinking to myself that it would be a first; a trade agreement that actually created jobs here. I kept thinking of Ross Perot's "giant sucking sound" thing, which turned out to be accurate.

Despite Krugman's analysis today, the Korean agreement actually might favor us. It cuts the tariffs they place on our autos and allows us to maintain the tariffs we place on theirs. South Korean media is as unhappy as ours are happy. I find it interesting that an agreement that has been stalled for three years suddenly gets resolved just a few days after North Korea threatens war. Unrelated, I'm sure, and certainly our aircraft carriers were not mentioned during the trade meetings.

I'll believe the "job creation" thing when I see it, but trade agreements are a little different when you have 30,000 troops stationed in a nation which is being shelled by it's neighbor, and two aircraft carriers off its coast.