Say Anything Blog

Just not the sort of trade that might let some evil corporation turn a profit.

LORAIN, Ohio (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama assured U.S. trading partners on Sunday that he did not oppose free trade despite making increasingly critical comments about multilateral deals such as NAFTA.

Obama, an Illinois senator, has turned trade into a centerpiece of his campaign in Ohio, where trade agreements are particularly unpopular as domestic manufacturing jobs disappear. . . .

...Obama, who would enter the White House with only four years of experience as a U.S. senator in addition to several years in the Illinois legislature, said his misgivings about NAFTA did not mean he was opposed to such accords in general.

Asked how other countries should interpret his position, Obama responded that he supported free trade but wanted it to be fair.

“What the world should interpret is my consistent position, which is I believe in trade,” he said after meeting with workers at a manufacturing plant in Ohio.

“I just want to make sure that the rules of the road apply to everybody and they are fair and that they reflect the interests of workers and not just corporate profits.”

This is more economic fascism along the lines of Obama’s “Patriot Corporations” idea.  See, fascists saw their economic policies as splitting the difference between free markets and socialism.  In free markets the means of production (businesses, etc.) are owned by private entities.  In socialism, the means of production are owned by the state.

With fascism, the means of production are owned by private entities but the state controls them.  This is how Obama wants things to operate.  With Patriot Corporations he’ll only give tax and regulatory relief to companies that do business as he sees fit.  And with his stance on trade, he’ll apparently only trade with other countries in such a way as he deems “fair.”

But that, my friends, is not freedom.  That’s central economic planning, and history has taught us that it never works.