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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (19316)	10/3/2004 2:28:58 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

I'm sure you realize a big part of the high prices in Japan is due to multiple layers of mark-ups between the importer and the consumer - in addition to the many goods with import duties and subsidies. No import restrictions or tariffs make up the price of a $55 cantaloupe, my favorite example. The Japanese importer buys the cantaloupe from many of the same wholesalers that a Safeway does. But while Safeway then sells to the consumer with a mark-up, the Japanese importer adds a mark-up then sells to a wholesaler, who in turn adds a mark-up and sells to a jobber, who in turn adds a mark-up and sells to a retail store who adds a mark-up and finally sells to a consumer. Many goods proceed through five layers of mark-ups before the final sale. The new free-trade agreement between Australia and America will take as long as 16 years to fully take effect. Australian farmers have bitterly complained that the agreement was worse than nothing. Yet American farmers are so up in arms about it that it's questionable whether Congress will endorse it. The US, Europe, and Japan have a lot of business welfare schemes to dismantle before they start lecturing other nations about free-trade.