Snow Says He Will Press G7 for Faster Economic Growth

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Thursday the Bush administration backs a strong dollar and wants overseas trading partners to speed up their growth to help shrink a record U.S. trade deficit.

Barely a week ahead of a Group of Seven finance chiefs' meeting in London where the United States is expected to come under fire over its deficits, Snow said he will tell the G7 they have "a shared responsibility" for the U.S. trade gap.

"The current account deficit ... basically reflects differential growth rates between the United States and our trading partners," Snow said, and if Europe and Japan grew faster they would buy more U.S.-made goods.

The current account, a broad measure of trade in both goods and capital flows, is in deficit to the tune of about 6 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=7457870&src=rss/ElectionCoverage

[Spazito]

1. To the G7, Snow has the credibility of.....

a POS and smells as bad. He is a laughing stock to all.

[Eurobabe]

2. another Snowjob!

eom

[sweetheart]

5. without the actual white stuff... and in winter!!!

Therez a sucker born every day.... and it seems they all eat snow.

[hedda_foil]

3. Ummm ... does this make any sense to anyone at all?

[Rose Siding]

6. I was hoping for some informed comment on the idea that

our trading partners have somehow retarded their growth to do us harm.

The nonsense I'm seeing is that our problems are all someone else's fault :shrug:

[sweetheart]

7. Well, when a bull shits...

Lots of stench be stinkin' up the place.... i could put it in more
technical terms... but the bull analogy is more concise.

[Robbien]

8. Well, China is now Japan's biggest trading partner

knocking the US out of top trading partner status.

Perhaps Snow is demanding that the countries stop dealing with each other and deal with the US ? Ha!

[mulethree]

19. reforms

Europe needs to reform their labor markets and product markets in order to stimulate growth. Labor has too much control over their own wages, and the government has too much control over business.

So bust up unions, weaken fire/layoff protections and put re-training burden onto the workers. You'll get cheaper labor = more workers for the same payroll cost = more production = growth. -If- you have customers to buy the extra, otherwise it just becomes more profits or you end up lowering costs to increase sales at the expense of quality. Lower quality + less control + less security = lower worker pride -> even lower quality.

Similar story on the product market. Reduce regulation and you'll increase profits and often prices but decrease quality. Unless the regulation is truely screwed up. Customer and worker satisfaction goes down. Spare capacity, safety factors, long term investment go down.

More freedom - to exploit workers and customers = more growth. But it would seem to work better if you're competing on pure quantities of junk and not competing based on quality. Does not seem like a good idea for Europe to try to compete on quantity versus quality.

Whats wrong with having 1.8% GDP growth when you have 0.6% population growth? (3:1) The U.S. is 3.1% GDP growth : 0.92% population growth = 3.3:1 without including undocumented immigrants.

[mojavekid]

21. Exactly. Snow Speak says: "Do to your economy what we have done to Ours"

- and all will be well in the world. The truth is, the world has come to recognize that it ain't so great to be like America, and are saying to themselves, that it is us who have got it right.

[dweller]

4. G7 ??

BINGO!


dp

[hadrons]

9. "wants overseas trading partners to speed up their growth ..."

yup, this can be done on demand :eyes:

[TahitiNut]

16. It's the Cheney Edict -- "Go Fuck Yourselves" (that's population growth)

:shrug:

[MisterP]

10. "growth" means exploitation of environment, people, and nations

in Snowspeak.
He looks like the monster from Young Frankenstein, no? Or Harlan Hartley from Dr. Dolittle (the Eddie Murphie movie--same actor).

[4MoreYearsOfHell]

11. Gotta keep growing that economy, you know

El Chimpo says that's the way out of the deficit...

and he has NEVER made a mistake...since not being born a chimp, that is...

[VegasWolf]

12. They will concede nothing until the US gets its own house in

order. Given the ever-growing tumourus deficit, low
manufacturing output, money wasted on a totally useless
war with no end in sight, the others will keep a huge
distance from us. They don't want to be pulled down
as the US dollar crashes.

[54anickel]

15. How the U.S. Became the World's Dispensable Nation

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7838.htm

01/26/05 "Financial Times" -- In a second inaugural address tinged with evangelical zeal, George W. Bush declared: "Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world." The peoples of the world, however, do not seem to be listening. A new world order is indeed emerging - but its architecture is being drafted in Asia and Europe, at meetings to which Americans have not been invited.

Consider Asean Plus Three (APT), which unites the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations with China, Japan and South Korea. This group has the potential to be the world's largest trade bloc, dwarfing the European Union and North American Free Trade Association. The deepening ties of the APT member states represent a major diplomatic defeat for the US, which hoped to use the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum to limit the growth of Asian economic regionalism at American expense. In the same way, recent moves by South American countries to bolster an economic community represent a clear rejection of US aims to dominate a western-hemisphere free trade zone.

Consider, as well, the EU's rapid progress toward military independence. American protests failed to prevent the EU establishing its own military planning agency, independent of the Nato alliance (and thus of Washington). Europe is building up its own rapid reaction force. And despite US resistance, the EU is developing Galileo, its own satellite network, which will break the monopoly of the US global positioning satellite system.

The participation of China in Europe's Galileo project has alarmed the US military. But China shares an interest with other aspiring space powers in preventing American control of space for military and commercial uses. Even while collaborating with Europe on Galileo, China is partnering Brazil to launch satellites. And in an unprecedented move, China recently agreed to host Russian forces for joint Russo-Chinese military exercises.

big snip>

...The bullying approach of the Bush administration has ensured that the US will not be invited to take part in designing the international architecture of Europe and Asia in the 21st century. This time, the US is absent at the creation.

[oppositionmember]

13. Snow is a fucking moron.

How he ever got a PhD is the mystery of the ages.

[VegasWolf]

14. By sucking up to his major professor the way he sucks bush? n/t

[pinniped]

17. Where are the bazillion jobs mr. Snowjob said were coming?

Jerk.

[mulethree]

22. Where are the Brazilian

Philipine? Mexican? All these places in our 'sphere of influence' where we've spread 'freedom' and 'liberty' in the past so they would establish good standards of living and become our future customers?

[leesa]

18. Hey, Snow...the US has NO credibility anymore....you're talking to

yourself you bag o' shit

[TexasLawyer]

20. Bush backs a strong dollar?

Just like he backs healthy forests, clear skies, children not left behind and an America safe from terrorists.