From: Steve Davies (steve365@btinternet.com)
Date: Wed Aug 22 2001 - 12:39:07 MDT
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@datamann.com>
To: extropians@extropy.org <extropians@extropy.org>
Date: 22 August 2001 18:39
Subject: Re: ECONOMICS: Globalization and corporate power
>"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>>
>> For those of you who did not see it last night, PBS had a program
>> on P.O.V. titled "Life and Debt" about the havoc being caused in
>> Jamaica by "globalization" and "free trade".
.
>snip
>>
>
>> the U.S. exports are being produced with very large government
>> subsidies.
>
Mike Lorrey said
>US farm subsidies are actually quite low at the moment, only a few
>billion for a multi-hundred billion dollar industry. They don't
>subsidize low prices either, they are used to prop up prices. If we
>ended subsidies entirely, US food prices would be far lower.
>
>Absolutely, but does the US D of Ag subsidise exports? I don't know how it
works there but here in Europe we also have artificially high prices in
Europe itself plus subsidised selling of the resulting surplus on world
markets at below cost prices. In the case of sugar this means expensive beet
sugar from England and Belgium is sold at a very low price so efficient
producers in the West Indies or Australia are driven out of business. The
ones who gain all the way are pampered European farmers. I know there were
big cuts in US farm subsidies a few years ago but I had heard they were
creeping back. Steve D.
>
>Yes, this does seem inequitable, unless of course you consider the
>record of third world countries in defaulting on loans, late in
>payments, etc. Extending credit to such countries is like giving a
>platinum card to a recovering shopaholic who lives on welfare: i.e. a
>really really dumb idea.
Unless that is you're the bank extending the credit with protection from
central banks wearing their "lender of last resort hat" SD
>
>>
>
>>
>> For sure in my mind I don't think the IMF or the President
>> should be demanding that third world countries eliminate import tariffs
>> or that preferential trade relationships must be ended while the U.S.
>> and Europe are subsidizing agriculture to the degree that they do.
>
Not just agriculture either - there are all sorts of barriers still in place
to prevent people in poor countries having access to markets in rich ones.
SD
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