Sunday Quick Hits

I'm just back from some business travel, and there's lots to mention, so let's get right to it:

• Ten months of Section 421 tariffs on Chinese tires produce nothing except higher domestic prices and increased imports from other countries.

• New Cato briefer: The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill: A Blueprint for Future Trade Expansion.

• New Heritage briefer: Targeting the Yuan: A Feel-Good but Futile Response.

• Op-ed: Why imports are a boon for the US economy (and another reason why Keynesianism is dumb).

• In response to Krugman's latest China currency column, monetary economist rightly asks if we can revoke PK's Nobel prize.

• Boeing-Airbus dispute: the EU strikes back.

• WSJ editorial board asks an obviously rhetorical question: does Obama or the USW run US trade policy?

• Yet another trade dispute over "green" subsidies: this time Japan goes after Canada's "feed-in tariffs" for renewable energy generation.  You were warned, people.  You were warned.

• Shocker: Dems' anti-china push is based on politics, not economics.

• Excellent NYT op-ed on how visa reform is critical to the future of US global competitiveness.  Me: something China is already doing, by the way.

• Journalist notices that US pols attack China's currency policies to "save American jobs," but they don't seem to care about those same jobs when they block Chinese investment in the United States.

• Breakthrough?  Iowa farmers starting to balk at taking government money.

That should keep you all busy for a while.

Tuesday Quick Hits

I'm still shaking off the Labor Day cobwebs (no, not from LaborFest), and my fantasy football draft's tonight, so only some headlines tonight:

• Here comes Boeing-Airbus, Round II.  With most folks expecting the WTO to issue a pretty solid rebuke of American subsidies to Boeing, I wonder just how many members of Congress next week will take back all those nasty things they said about Airbus when its adverse WTO ruling came down. (Hint: it's somewhere between zero and none.)

• Have we already become a nation of men, not laws?  Word out of Nevada sure makes it appear that way, with plenty of so-called "Republicans" backing Sen. Harry Reid because of all that juicy pork (and influence) he brings to the state as Senate Majority Leader.

• Maybe there's hope for free trade in America just yet...  WaPo progressive blogger Ezra Klein mails in a yaantastic, and still wrong, lament about the sad state of the American manufacturing sector.  Normally, I wouldn't even give such trite nonsense the dignity of a even blog mention, but the debate in the comments section makes it noteworthy.  (Talk about a backhanded endorsement of Klein's work!)  Therein, several commenters actually set Klein (and other ignorant folks) straight.  And - I checked - none of the educated commenters was Cato's Dan Ikenson!  Maybe some of this stuff is actually sinking in.

•  ...Then again, maybe not.  Nate Silver at the NYT has an interesting analysis of the campaign platforms of 33 "toss-up" congressional seats.  We know that the Dems are running on protectionism, so it's not surprising that Silver finds a few of them doing so here.  But guess how many Republicans are running on expanding free trade?  Yep, zero.  Sigh. 

• Never fear, folks, Larry Summers is on the RMB case!  Oh, wait....  So the White House has dispatched Summers to China to discuss China's currency and other bilateral economic issues.  Problem.  Solved.  (<--- sarcasm)  Fortunately, this WSJ Asia editorial hits on several things that Summers could discuss with the Chinese which might, you know, actually help matters.  Crazy thought, I know.

• Clunkers Revenge.  I must admit that I find it really difficult to pity the folks who jumped at the chance for some free gub'mint cash but are now having buyers remorse.  Nevertheless, this news isn't good for the economy, and it's further proof that top-down, Keynesian economic planning is just an awful idea.

• Chances for the KORUS FTA may have just gotten a little worse.  Most experts opined that the upcoming implementation of the EU-Korea FTA was going to light a fire under the administration's butt to finally move the US-Korea FTA in 2011.  The news that Italy is threatening to derail the EU agreement might just pour a whole lot of San Pelligrino on any near-term KORUS plans.

And When France Calls You Protectionist.....

J'accuse!:

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France accused Washington on Friday of setting the wrong example on protectionism, suggesting there had not been a level playing field in the race for a $50 billion refuelling plane contract.

U.S. defence contractor Northrop Grumman and its European partner EADS withdrew on Monday from a renewed competition to supply tankers to the U.S. Air Force, saying the rules favoured rival bidder Boeing, the top U.S. exporter.

Boeing is now the sole known bidder for the contract.

Asked what he thought of the issue during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Sarkozy delivered a scathing attack on how the United States had handled the tender.

"I did not appreciate this decision ... This is not the right way to behave," Sarkozy said.

"Such methods by the United States are not good for its European allies, and such methods are not good for the United States, a great, leading nation with which we are on close and friendly terms," he said.

"If they want to be heard in the fight against protectionism, they should not set the example of protectionism."

For EADS , the parent company of the Airbus plane-maker, the stand-down was a setback in a major push to pierce the lucrative U.S. military market.

Yes, this is the same Nicolas Sarkozy who is demanding that all of Europe impose irrational, trade-war-inducing, economy-killing carbon tariffs on foreign imports, and who recently called free trade "immoral."  But still, the little French protectionist has a point here: this whole EADS/Boeing tanker mess stinks worse than room-temperature Camembert.  Too bad he has absolutely no credibility on the issue.