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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gregor_us who wrote (570)	2/24/2004 9:46:54 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Thanks. I did not get any recs for that on my board on the FOOL. I think I posted it on the BBB (bond bubble board) as well and do not recall any comments. I cross post the best of my FOOL board here and the best of here on the FOOL, and in fact I take some of the best of the BBB board and post it here as well. I want to attract quality not quantity. This board is way smaller than my FOOL board. Mish

To: gregor_us who wrote (570)	2/24/2004 9:52:34 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

WTO gives EU permission to slap sanctions against U.S. GENEVA (AP) — The European Union received the go-ahead Tuesday to start imposing trade sanctions against the United States in a dispute over an 88-year-old law that U.S. steel producers and other companies have used to fend off low-priced imports. A panel of arbitrators for the World Trade Organization ruled that the 15-nation bloc can start the sanctions in retaliation for the U.S. failure to repeal the Anti-Dumping Act that was ruled illegal by the WTO almost four years ago. "The decision of the arbitrators is a welcome reaffirmation that the WTO is a rule-based system and members may not ignore their obligations with impunity," EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said in a statement issued in Brussels. "I hope that rapid action from Congress will make sanctions unnecessary." The 1916 law, which armed the United States to fight foreign competition after the end of World War I, had been considered obsolete until Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel brought a lawsuit against importers of Russian and Japanese hot-rolled steel in 1998. The company, based in Wheeling, W.Va., claimed that the companies were guilty of dumping — selling steel at below-cost prices to unfairly gain market share. Some of the defendants settled with Wheeling-Pitt while other cases are still outstanding. Last December, a federal jury awarded Illinois-based Goss International $31.5 million in a case against a Japanese company accused of dumping newspaper printing presses on the U.S. market. Three European companies are still facing action, according to the EU. The WTO, acting on an EU complaint supported by Japan, ruled the law illegal in March 2000. It found it unacceptable because it allowed for fines and imprisonment of individuals and fines for companies found guilty of dumping, as well as the payment of damages. Under WTO rules, import tariffs are the only remedies allowed to combat dumping. That decision was upheld by an appeals panel later the same year. The United States was given until July 2001 — later extended until December 2001 — to repeal the law. When it failed to do so, the European Union asked the WTO for permission to start imposing retaliatory trade sanctions. An arbitrator was appointed to rule on the correct level of sanctions, but the EU agreed to suspend the hearing to give Washington more time to repeal. In September, however, it demanded the restarting of the arbitration, citing "persisting inaction" by the United States. The arbitrators ruled that the EU could base its sanctions on the amount European companies were fined under the law, or the amount they paid in out-of-court settlements. They declined to rule on the EU's plans to adopt a "mirror" law that would allow U.S. companies to be prosecuted in the European Union. The ruling comes a week before the EU plans to start imposing sanctions of $370 million in another WTO dispute over tax breaks for U.S. companies. Numerous cases linked to steel have been heard by the World Trade Organization. In the biggest so far, President Bush dropped additional "safeguard" duties on steel imports after the WTO ruled them illegal. In the most recent case, the EU complained this month that U.S. anti-dumping duties on imports of steel — as well as pasta and chemicals — are being wrongly calculated. usatoday.com

To: gregor_us who wrote (570)	2/24/2004 11:48:29 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

From GoofyinMD on the FOOL on jobs: I was listening to three economists on the Diane Reems show today. One was with the very conservative American Enterprise Institute, one a writer for the Washington Post, and the other an economist with the Federal government whose job is to help create the unemployment stats. The subject was jobs. Consensus among the three: 1. A lot of people are working. As many people working now as in the early 90's. Late 90's unemployment numbers unsustainable. 2. Wages are up, but only at the top. Median income fell by a percentage point in 2001, but there was a recession then. But the suprise was it fell by 2% in 2002 against all expectations. Teh net result is J6P feels disconnected and insecure because his standard of living is really declining. 3. Why the drop. Although the job market is steady, there is no great new job creation that would increase labor value. This maybe partially explainable by technology increases, and to a lesser extent outsourcing. 4. The Bush administrations prediction on job increases came straight from the model used for years by the Council of Economic advisors. The big waiting in that model is GDP. So with GDP booming so should job growth, but it just ain't happening. 5. Who is the culprit? The model of job creation being driven by GDP growth doesn't work anymore. But why doesn't it work anymore? Know one knows. And no one wants to tinker with the model because the Council is a beauracracy and is deathly afraid of being criticized for playing politics with the numbers. All of the above were the consensus opinion of economists from different sides of the political spectrum. Enter the Misheldo board vigilantes. Has it not been discussed to death that the job growth rantings of the right are bogus. Have we not also pointed out that the GDP numbers may mean nothing, either becuase of the way GDP is measured, or cheating in GDP measurements, or just because GDP isn't a very useful measure of a leveraged economy? Hell, we don't even get paid for this.