Word: steels
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Meanwhile, there's nothing even vaguely patriotic about the U.S. government conspiring to deprive carmakers, appliance makers, construction companies and the rest of the steel-consuming country of their capitalistic right to the best available steel at the best available price. Even companies that proudly buy made-in-the-U.S.A. steel don't deserve tariffs, quotas or any other anti- competitive shenanigans drive up world prices and their own production costs, and neither do the American shoppers that will be footing the bill...
...steel consumers and ordinary shoppers don't have the pull in Washington that Big Steel does (though you'd think they'd get a little more consideration in the middle of a recession), and it does look like the White House or Congress is going to have to fork over something to protect their political hides. Is there a way to balance America's values of free markets, free trade and competitive pricing with the patriotic nostalgia of the time when U.S. Steel was the industrial soul of an industrial nation...
...tariffs. Go down that road and you get a trade war, not to mention the other-shoe problem of cheaper Nissans made with cheaper foreign steel needing tariffs of their own to spare GM. It ain't quotas - raising product prices to prop up commodity prices is not a smart way to grow an economy in which services are 80 percent of GDP and consumers pull 66 percent of the economic weight. And Paul O'Neill going to Japan and telling them to shut down two plants so two can live in West Virginia? A superpower that believes...
...Here's what Washington should do for Big Steel. Let them merge to their heart's content - if it was OK for economy-of-scale-seekers Exxon and Mobil and Compaq and Hewlett Packard, the steel industry deserves the same shot. Heck, if it'll get their fast-track votes, give 'em $10 billion or so for the pensions - there's already 226 votes in the House - and let the retirees have their money. None of this is their fault...
...loose. No tariffs. No quotas. No production cuts ordered by diplomats. No more - if the U.S. wants to go nation-to-nation in the next decade pushing for freer, fairer global trade, it would do well not have any of those hypocrisies hanging around its neck. Let Big Steel find a size and a shape commensurate with its competitive abilities - 21st century America doesn't need its own steel behemoth any more than it needs its own TV makers...