Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Scott Lincicome to discuss a court ruling impacting the Obama administration’s US-China trade practices, how this will impact the American marketplace, and how the Senate may come to the rescue.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

On China Trade, the Obama Administration Just Can’t Stop Digging
Bombshell: CAFC Rules US CVD Law Cannot Apply to China & Other “Non-Market Economies”
China CVD: Time to Unscramble the Eggs

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Ben on Twitter
Follow Scott on Twitter

Subscribe to The Transom

The hosts and guests of Coffee and Markets speak only for ourselves, not any clients or employers.

If you haven’t already, take a gander at a column authored by former Treasury Secretary and Clinton economic adviser Larry Summers in yesterday’s Washington Post.

In it, Summers contends that to truly turn around the nation’s housing market – a key economic indicator and driver – one must, in effect, double down on the sector, spending more in both public and private dollars.

“The central irony of a financial crisis is that while it is caused by too much confidence, borrowing and lending, and spending,” argues Summers, “it can be resolved only with more confidence, borrowing and lending, and spending. This is true, above all, of housing policies.”

That’s just dandy. True to the dogma of his former boss, Summers apparently believes we haven’t done enough damage to the housing market through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and Uncle Sam needs to be more involved in driving home construction and sales.

That is best carried out through financing, he posits. “[C]redit standards for those seeking to buy homes are too high and too rigorous,” Summers argues. Uhh, can someone quickly get him a history book and turn to the chapters from a few years ago where the housing market began to collapse? The reason wasn’t tightened credit but the exact opposite. Our lending institutions sponsored by the feds such as Freddie and Fannie were practically giving loans to anyone who asked for them – senseless amounts of money with little-to-no credit backing to vouch for the security of the loans. (more…)

From the Associated Press:

Congress approved free trade agreements Wednesday with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, ending a four-year drought in the forming of new trade partnerships and giving the White House and Capitol Hill the opportunity to show they can work together to stimulate the economy and put people back to work.

In rapid succession, the House and Senate voted on the three trade pacts, which the administration says could boost exports by $13 billion and support tens of thousands of American jobs. None of the votes were close, despite opposition from labor groups and other critics of free trade agreements who say they result in job losses and ignore labor rights problems in the partner countries.

(more…)

From Reuters:

China warned the United States that it would damage relations, and American jobs, if it forces Beijing to let its currency rise under a law to be voted on in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai on Monday underlined Beijing’s opposition to the bill, saying it could trigger a trade war and hold back global economic recovery. He said that relations could also be hurt by U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

(more…)

From AFP:

Republican US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney unveils his economic plan Tuesday, focusing on lower taxes, less regulation, scrapping the Obama health plan and ending trade “surrender” to countries such as China.

The former front-runner in his party, Romney said President Barack Obama “has had his turn at fixing the American economy” and has failed.

“For my part, I believe America can do better,” Romney writes in the USA Today newspaper ahead of a speech later in the day on his economic plan.

(more…)

Hu Jintao and Barack Obama sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Is America becoming more like China under President Obama? Or should we be upset that it isn’t? We’ll talk about the President’s jarring diplomatic trip to Asia and how the markets responded to Ben Bernanke’s New York speech on today’s Coffee and Markets, a daily podcast from The New Ledger on politics, policy and the marketplace with Francis Cianfrocca, brought to you by BigGovernment.com.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

WSJ: Common Ground With Obama and Jintao
AP: China and America, Working Together
WP: Obama, Hu vow to continue to strengthen partnership
Niall Ferguson: The Great Wallop
RCW: Asia and the West in the Age of Obama