The way out (4.00 / 2)

The U.S. corporate elite caused this emerging Great Depression 2.0 by causing domestic industry to atrophe, by impoverishing its middle class and by putting off the pain through an unsustainable debt orgy. The way out is for the U.S. to reverse course: put maximum funding and effort into building up domestic industry, rebuild the middle class by fostering a broad prosperity, and quit the narcotic credit addiction. Buy American is a necessary step in these efforts.

http://www.funnyordie.com/jame...

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by: mildewmaximilian @ Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 14:22:35 PM CST

Subsidy (4.00 / 4)

Oddly, tax credits for domestic manufacturers - as opposed to Buy America laws - aren't portrayed as "protectionism" even though they are just as much a subsidy as targeted procurement policies.

I'd actually go so far as to say this is backwards.  Tax credits help a company compete against foreign competition for anyone's dollar.  Buy America clauses in the stimulus are simply making a consumer choice where we as Americans are spending our stimulus money.

Say you are building a wind farm in Brazil.  Tax cuts for American companies will allow them to underbid competitors from other countries.  That is protectionism.

On the other hand, where we spend our own money doesn't have a direct impact on that theoretical Brazilian wind farm.  Thus, that is not protectionism.  In the short term, in fact, it will actually decrease the odds an American firm will be chosen, because they will not be able to meet the demand.  Long term, though, it guarantees we have a solid industry already established within our boarders.

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by: Mark Matson @ Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 14:26:04 PM CST

Correct (0.00 / 0)

Protectionism is using your tax system to make home-grown industry competitive against foreign industry, in spite of market forces that would otherwise make America uncompetitive.

Buying American isn't that at all.  It's buying American products with American tax dollars, which really shouldn't be controversial at all.

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by: TValley @ Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 15:26:40 PM CST

[ Parent ]

more from NYT -- (0.00 / 0)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02...

Foreign Firms Lining Up for Piece of Stimulus  --

... "America is suddenly positive about solar," said Kenichiro Wakisaka, a senior manager in Sanyo's solar division, "but it doesn't have enough production capacity to cover its demand."

Moreover, foreign business leaders point out that national origin can be difficult to determine these days.

...  But most foreign companies that could provide material for alternative energy or infrastructure are not setting up operations in the United States, and the broader "Buy American" provisions in the Senate bill would probably affect them, if passed.

Across Asia, for instance, companies are gearing up for American-size demand. A half-dozen Taiwanese start-ups have entered the solar market, including Gintech Energy, a two-year-old company with ambitions to produce 1.5 gigawatts of cells a year by 2011.

Industry analysts and executives say not just big manufacturers, but also Japan's legions of smaller companies, which make things from battery containers to the insulators used on wind turbines, also stand to profit.

One is Eurus Energy, a Tokyo-based company that builds and manages wind farms. The company's chief executive, Tetsuro Nagata, said the United States was already its biggest growth market even before the new administration. Eurus already operates wind farms in the United States, including one completed recently in Texas.

"America's sudden concern about global warming means that what was already a huge pie will suddenly get a lot bigger," Mr. Nagata said. "There will be enough for everyone, American and overseas companies, to share."
...

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by: amberglow @ Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 19:20:04 PM CST

The Senate may have just agreed to the Dorgan Buy American amendment by voice vote. (0.00 / 0)

Unclear; the amendment was #300. McCain is speaking on Buy American right now.

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by: rollthehardsix @ Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 19:25:55 PM CST

but if Obama has made clear he doesn't want it in? (0.00 / 0)

will he make them remove it in reconciliation?

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by: amberglow @ Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 20:00:13 PM CST

[ Parent ]

David, what do you know about Clinton in China on Energy? (0.00 / 0)

she's there now --

First Trip for Clinton Aims at China, Climate --
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes....

The visit to China meshes with early signals sent recently by President Obama's nascent energy and climate team about the importance of working with the industrializing giant on these entwined issues. ...

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by: amberglow @ Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 23:33:16 PM CST