There seems to be an emerging consensus that so-called "free trade" is dead. Even the business press is beginning to accept the inevitable. So, maybe we can now begin a rationale debate about trade, without meaningless marketing phrases like "free trade".

  For the life of me, I can't figure out why political leaders like John McCain are continuing to embrace a dying, discredited theology called "free trade". As a new national poll shows, by hinging his economic message in large part on support for so-called "free trade", McCain has punched another hole in his campaign appeal to large numbers of working-class voters.

  A couple of weeks ago, I noted that corporations were now beginning to think that China, with its rising prices and increasing wages (relatively speaking), wasn't cheap enough. And, so, comes another report via Reuters:

   The result is higher prices at U.S. stores like Wal-Mart and Target that have increasingly filled their shelves with Chinese-made goods. It may also mean thinner profit margins for a wide swathe of Corporate America, which for years looked to China to drive down costs. And it is beginning to spur a global treasure hunt for the world's next low-cost factory.

  Intuitively, a lot of people understand that war and a fragile economy are related. But, nothing brought home the connection better than the death of Andrew Seabrooks. His life, and death, speak more about what we face than any politician's rhetoric.

It's refreshing to see that some businesses are doing well in today's economy.  Perhaps the most success venture going today is the pawn shop.  From Peoria to Pasadena,  pawn shops are seeing a boom in clients.

  Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled against unions in an important case. In the decision, the Court made clear that it wants to encourage more tension in the workplace rather than promote workplaces that are harmonious and productive. It's a case that should make even more clear what the stakes are come November.

  Yesterday, Sen. Obama made comments to a business reporter that leave the impression that he is already shifting his stated position on NAFTA and, by extension, so-called "free trade". It is worth looking at as a sign where Sen. Obama really intends to lead us on trade if he wins the White House.

  I meant the "breaking" as a snark, in case it wasn't obvious. For everyone but the pro- so-called "free trade" crowd (economists, elites and too many Democrats), it's been crystal-clear that the driving force behind trade is wages, not efficiency, a better product, lower prices for consumers and all the other nonsense you read. Today, even some business people are admitting it, albeit, not intentionally.

  I almost broke my pledge of sanity not to blog on the weekends when I read Roger Lowenstein's monumentally stupid article on trade in the Sunday Times Magazine. The piece was so moronic as to...well, let's go to the text.

  Look no further for evidence that Congressional Republicans will be buried in 2008 then the vote yesterday to extend unemployment benefits. Republicans are threatening to block the bill in the Senate and/or President 28 Percent is promising to veto the bill. Please do--and stand back to usher in a filibuster-proof Democratic Senate and a huge new Democratic majority in the House. Here's why.

   Yesterday, I highlighted the rolling out of a very important piece of legislation: the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment Act of 2008 (cleverly, the TRADE Act). So far, the only Senate co-sponsors, who have joined the bill's sponsor Sherrod Brown, are Byron Dorgan, Russ Feingold, Bob Casey and Sheldon Whitehouse. So, today, it's worth asking Sen. Obama: will you add your name as a co-sponsor immediately?

 In good news: yesterday, a group of Congressional leaders--and I mean leaders in the sense that they take leadership, not that they hold some exalted post...posts that often make them not leaders but suppressors of leadership--set out to stick a shiv in so-called "free trade" agreements. Any reader of this blog knows what I think of so-called "free trade": it's a marketing phrase used to aid the imposing of a harsh economic regime of declining wages and corporate power around the globe. The plundering of the world's resources--human and physical--does not increase or decline based solely on the imposition of so-called "free trade" deals but these deals to grease the process.

There is one group in America really taking it on the chin in these tough economic times.

Justin Sullivan, managing director of Regent Jet, which leases private airplanes, said most clients in real estate and on Wall Street are switching to chartered jets over private jets, and cutting their flight budgets by about 25 percent. One New York real estate developer cut his budget to less than $250,000 a year from $1.5 million a year.

"A year ago, he would have only flown Gulfstreams," Mr. Sullivan said. "Now it’s moving to the point where he’s flying Beech jets and Learjets."

Imagine the shame and humiliation of flying a Learjet instead of a Gulfstream and having to cut your travel budget a staggering 83 percent!

  It doesn't astound me that people are angry and bitter. What astounds me is that somehow the goodness of most people keeps them from taking to the streets in mass rioting. To wit:

  To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, you haven't met a real elitist until you consider the life of John Paulson. His salary last year: $3.7 billion. That is not a misprint: three billion, seven hundred million dollars. Now that's doing elitism in a big way. Welcome to the new Gilded Age.

Hoooooray!

Read it and celebrate.

I was talking this morning with a friend who has interest in all things home-decor, and she showed me this article in the New York Times (buried in the Home & Garden section): Not Your Style? They'll Take It.

It's actually something of an uplifting story about an entrepreneurial former alcoholic who made a business out of buying recycled cabinetry and appliances from wealthy people who are renovating their multi-million dollar domiciles.

But it is also the story of the distortion of economic disparity.

  If I was Susan Collins, I'd be a bit miffed at my sister Republican Senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe. Collins is up for re-election and, though the polling in the state is not showing her in grave danger in her race against Democrat Rep. Tom Allen, that race will become competitive--and Snowe may have put Collins in a bind.