Friday, December 27, 2013

Something is Really Fishy About the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Bob Murphy does a good job of bringing us all up to speed, here.

3 comments:

  1. “An advisor at Halliburton or the MPAA [Motion Picture Association of America] is given a password that allows him or her to go on the USTR website and view the TPP agreement anytime he or she wants.”

    Former Senator Chris Dodd heads the MPAA.

    http://peureport.blogspot.com/2011/03/chris-dodds-bright-lights.html

    I wonder if KKR's Ken Mehlman, the new Chair of the Private Equity trade group, has TPP website access?

    http://peureport.blogspot.com/2013/12/mehlman-to-head-up-pecker-group.html

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  2. more fishy.....

    Further Proof the Justice Department is Protecting JP Morgan from Criminal Prosecution

    From Newsweek:

    Bernard Madoff’s principal bank, JPMorgan Chase, has for years obstructed federal bank examiners trying to ascertain what it knew about his gigantic Ponzi scheme, an official document obtained by Newsweek shows.

    The Justice Department refused in September to back up Treasury inspector general staff who wanted a court order to enforce a subpoena, in effect shielding JPMorgan from law enforcement, the October 8 document shows.

    The Justice Department told the Treasury Inspector General “that they were denying the request for enforcement of the subpoena,” which means officials “could not undertake further actions regarding this matter,” wrote Jason J. Metrick, the inspector general special-agent-in-charge.

    The memo revealing that Justice protected JPMorgan from an obstruction complaint raises anew questions about how much the Obama administration has done to protect the big banks, whose lies about mortgage securities and other investments they sold sank the economy in 2008.

    http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/12/27/further-proof-the-justice-department-is-protecting-jp-morgan-from-criminal-prosecution/

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  3. Yes there is something fishy about the Trans-Pacific, and its not just fish.

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/trade-secrets-why-is-the-us-so-quiet-on-the-transpacific-partnership-20131220-2zqv2.html

    This Bloomberg sourced article (above) reminds me of Murray Rothbard's great critiques of multinational "free trade" groups as essentially neo-mercantilist trade blocs. (e.g. http://mises.org/econsense/ch87.asp ) "Washington Consensus" style free trade pacts, usually condemned by the left as "neo-liberal" are really "neo-mercantilist", and at times, "neo-socialist."

    Unfortunately the Bloomberg article above doesn't mention how the TPP's structure, being largely stacked against China, threatens to further divide the Pacific region into pro-American and pro-Chinese trade blocs increasing - not reducing - the degree of conflict in the region.

    These is some discussion here of a possible anti-china undercurrent in TPP:
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-china-relations-and-the-geopolitics-of-the-trans-pacific-partnership-agreement-tppa/5357504

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