Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Foreign Policy and Trade

One of Senator Hagel's strong points is his expertise and experience in foreign policy and trade. The following is from what Chuck Hagel wrote the letter mentioned in earlier posts. Foreign policy and trade was one of his six priorities.

“Our foreign policy has always been anchored to a strong national defense. However, the world’s problems will not be solved by the military alone. We must understand that the success of our policies will depend not only on the extent of our power, but forming consensus of common interest with our allies and friends around the world. We must inspire our allies to share in the enterprise of making a better world. One way we do this is through America’s continued leadership in the global economy. The United States must expand free trade agreements and encourage intra-regional trade and investment in developing regions. During times of uncertainty and change, countries are tempted to close markets and protect domestic industries. Americans are not immune from this and have in the past sought refuge in an insular political tradition that has contributed to isolationism at home and instability abroad. These temptations must be resisted, and hard-earned lessons should not be forgotten.”

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Anonymous said...

We need a candidate to address U.S. economic threats in clear and direct way.
International Institute of Management (IIM) released a new report about America’s economic health. The report warns against costly policy mistakes and provides a detailed analysis of the economic, social and geopolitical risks facing the Americans. With this month's stock market meltdown, subprime pain, growing investment gap and trade deficit report, the U.S. economy is seeing the all the warning signs listed in the report. The most interesting thing about the subject is that few economists disagreed with the presidential state of economy speech on Jan 31st (citing strong Down Jones performance and economic growth). Med Yones, the president of the research, links current economic challenges to globalization forces and government policies. He recommends unusual strategies to mitigate the risks. The paper states that U.S. policy makers and the American public must acknowledge and accept that the solution must be long-term and cannot be pain-free. Current and new leaders must make tough decisions rather than push them on to the next presidency. The Government must be honest in communicating with the public and the approach must be direct.

U.S. policy makers must be able to effectively address following questions:
1. How can the U.S. Government mitigate social, economic and geopolitical risks and reverse the negative trend?
2. How can the United States fight and win the antiterrorism war and at the same time not lose international allies and economic partners?
3. What will be the price of recovery be from past and current policy mistakes?

The media is full of noise and conflicting reports on the outlook of the U.S. economy. Hardly any media program covers the impact of the negative economic conditions on the social system of the country. This paper cuts through all of the noise and focuses on the big picture rather than narrow short term performance. It’s a sobering assessment of the future of U.S. socioeconomic health.

On March 11th, Reuters published the a story, citing the part of the economic report http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSN0925116620070311

Another supporting point of view can be found in an article written by John Freeland, PhD, Credit Card Nation - Should the Government Get Credit Counseling?
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/john_freeland/2007/mar/01/credit_card_nation_should_the_government_get_credit_counseling
The complete text of the report is available at:
http://www.iim-edu.org/u.s.economyrisks/

March 16, 2007 at 6:13 PM

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