I write this from Austin, where I'm attending the SXSW Interactive conference. The social events have already begun full-bore, including Break Bread with Brad and a stupendous karaoke session where Ernie brought down the house with his rendition of Oops, I Did It Again, complete with dramtic vignette during the instrumental.
Austin also has wireless access all over the place. I'm in the lobby of a nearby hotel where I can pay $10 for a day's worth of unlimited high-speed wireless Internet access. The rumor is that there will be free wireless access from the trade show floor, but so far it's not there yet.
Gotta run! W
President Bush agreed to impose tariffs on imported steel. What a horrible idea!
In a time when our economy is just starting to recover from recession, this needless measure could spike the rebound and prolong our economic ills.
Yes, just like all the rest, the steel industry is suffering. But this recession isn't isolated - it's worldwide. If anything, American steel companies have a competitive advantage over their foreign counterparts, and the tariffs could torpedo that advantage and make the problem worse, not just for the steel industry, but for the entire American manufacturing sector.
As bad as we have it here - not all THAT bad unless you're an Internet professional - foreign economies have been hit harder. Japan is in a funk it may never get over. Europe is in the nascent stages of trying to digest its member states into a single coherent economy. No country on Earth is as strong as the U.S., even in times of recession. Big Steel's foreign competition has only one place to market - here in the States. If demand slumps here, domestic producers have the immense advantage of being on the same side of the ocean as their markets. Foreign competitors have to ship their steel - one of the heaviest commodities you can ship - across the ocean in large, costly boats. Then add a 30% tariff on top of that. Why can’t American steel compete?
As many jobs that the steel industry provides here, steel consuming industries provide many times over that. A steel tariff would hurt those businesses, increasing costs, sparking layoffs, and dropping domestic demand for products made with steel - like cars. That’s bound to have a serious ripple effect, since the steel consuming industry is a much larger portion of the American economy than the steel producing industry.
I’m surprised that George Bush is the one who’s pushing this, especially at a time when he’s trying to cozy up to unions like the teamsters and, yes, the auto-workers too. Didn’t the Reagan-Bush-Clinton free trade policies prove themselves over the last twenty-two years? But apparently Bush feels the need to appease a handful of special interests in likely swing electoral states rather than promote the greater good by protecting our economy from the disastrous effects tariffs will have. What a shame. W
Stupid Tugboat Tricks: Partial proof of the amazing resilience of stupidity. W