- The government has reportedly told the UN to go f*ck itself concerning recommendations made by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) on migrant wives and workers. More specifically, the Ministry of Justice said “the suggestions contained factual errors and were based on a lack of understanding of Korean law.”
- The world’s oldest sheep has died. I just thought you should know that.
- Jesus, Korea has been a busy little bee in buying up overseas farmland: “South Korea announced it will spend nearly $26 million to buy land in Paraguay and Uruguay. South Korean investment companies have rented 94,000 hectares in Mindoro in the Philippines to produce corn. And Gaeunpam, a South Korean agricultural corporation, is planning to develop 52,000 acres of farmland for Korean farmers to use in the Bulgan province of Mongolia, according to news reports.” I’m still waiting for my farm in Africa, complete with a hill station bungalow.
- Speaking of Africa, check out this line in a JoongAng Ilbo editorial: “What Africans need is Korea’s development experience and know-how. We need to bring the Korean style of diplomacy to Africa, as it can actually contribute to the continent’s development and growth.”
- Government still struggling with getting Koreans to pop out some kids.
Odds and Ends 26/11/09
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Migrant *spouses*, please! We imported husbands have rights too.
No, you don’t. Didn’t your wife explain that to you already?
The mother-in-law actually. But it’s better than being sent back to deprived suburban England.
i’d recommend the vkw to help you out with the fine print. if she’ll let you, that is.
So now the Koreans control all the brothels and all the agricultural land of Mindoro?
Seriously!! They want to export parliamentary lock-outs and fisticuffs?
Well I guess this means we should all start investing in Korean Companies that own and charter dry bulk carriers. Knowing how incestuous Korean businesses are they sure aren’t planning on bringing the produce home on Chinese ships.
Evidently the Chinese (go figure) and even the Saudis have been buying land from Africa to Russia.
Any of you who are thinking of long term investments, think water….it will be worth more than oil.
Yep, we all know the commodities markets are busted and you have to buy or lease your own land around the world or else starve.
Anytime Korea tells the UN or any other int’l organization to go fuck itself, it’s good news. NGOs are basically meddlers that most countries in the developed world can do without. Korean immigration/residency policies are nobody’s business except the Koreans.
“What Africans need is Korea’s development experience and know-how. We need to bring the Korean style of diplomacy to Africa, as it can actually contribute to the continent’s development and growth.”
What Koreans need is to cut the crap about what Africa needs and focus instead on what Korea needs if it wants a piece of the action over there.
Japanese owns a lot of lands in Australia and Brazil.
More on the KORUS FTA…
Looks like Caterpillar just bought a Korean company and they are trying to expand into the South Korean market and are asking for Congress to pass the FTA as it stands:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703300504574567642205454348.html
From the article:
So… Caterpillar AND Boeing that want the FTA as it currently stands with Korea. Their combined market cap is almost $73B (Caterpillar’s market cap alone is $34B). GM’s market cap? Barely $400M.
Which of these companies are more important to the U.S. economy?
Nice try, WK! Pitting U.S. corporate, labor, and consumer interests against each other is exactly what Japan and Korea have done in their trade approach to the U.S. for decades, much to the detriment of key sectors of the American economy. Then as now, Washington is hopelessly unable to promote a coherent trade policy that matches the government-industry nexus that dominates industrial policy in these countries. And yet it’s the Korean and Japanese that label the U.S. administration and congress as transgressors against free trade orthodoxy! Now THAT’s chutzpah!
Your question poses a false dichotomy. It’s not GM versus CAT/BA. (Full disclosure: I own shares in all three.) This is what Korea Inc. would like us all to think. The answer to your question is that GM, CAT, and BA are all important to the U.S. economy, its investors, and its workers. U.S. trade policy…and the FTA…should reflect this. Right now, it doesn’t.
Awaiting your rebuttal, yours humbly,
DLB
Hey DLB,
Sorry for the late reply. I didn’t mean to establish or build upon the defense of Korean or Japanese trade bureaucrats. I was actually reciting the typical response that economists give in reference to protectionist policies. I’d also like to reiterate, for the record, that I’m not an Asian trade apologist nor I’m I too familiar in the details and difficulties of getting Japan to open up their markets. I know it’s pretty freak’in hard and there are a tons of non-tariff barriers, but I think the biggest barriers in Japan is that the streets are really small and cars need to be small. I understand the Jeep brand occupied a little niche segment there for awhile. Don’t know if it’s around anymore. Btw… It’s hard for Korea, Inc. to crack Japan as well. Samsung left and so did Hyundai recently.
Any ways, why do economists generally not like trade protectionism? Well, the theory is that protectionism protects an inefficient industry. For example, the textile industry. The U.S. is probably better served having its t-shirts made in Ghana and Sri Lanka. Hell, probably even Korea is better served having it’s clothes made elsewhere. The U.S. is better served designing high fashion clothes like Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein and having a third world country actually stitch and sew it. What if the U.S. government acquiesced to the textile industry and kept cheap clothes out? You’d have more expensive clothes and labor tied into lower wage paying light manufacturing. Labor and capital would not be freed up to take on high value service and/or manufacturing.
Well, that’s the text book answer. I know it doesn’t always end up like that and much of America has experienced a manufacturing “hollowing out” effect due to all the outsourcing we do of manufacturing to other countries. However, the U.S. has to ask themselves what they are good at. They were not good at making TVs and VCRs. The death of RCA and Zenith proved that. But American survived the death of its lower end consumer electronics manufacturing. IBM thought they could make computers or “business machines” for a living, but then decided that they could make more money with service, software and specialized technology products. They don’t make computers anymore and Taiwanese companies largely make those. America is going through the sort of transition that IBM did. It’s being more of a knowledge based, technology and service economy. People (or their children) who once sewed buttons on jeans and put chips on boards are now processing insurance claims, designing web sites, driving trucks, etc.
So… you have the U.S. auto industry. Should the U.S. have an auto industry? Well, Western Europe is about as developed as the U.S. and they have a viable auto industry. Japan has an auto industry and they are a pretty developed country so the answer is the U.S. may have an auto industry as long as the U.S. auto industry makes sound business decisions. However, the U.S. auto industry has been making such boneheaded business decisions for the past 30 years that I’m not so sure they deserve to be around anymore (well, with the notable exception of Ford). GM and and post Iacocca Chrysler has made so many bad business decisions, from getting hitched at the hip to gass guzzling SUVs to eliminating the electric car to giving tooooooo many concessions to labor and assuming onerous legacy costs of such labor that the capitalistic gods can only take so much. As a group and when you look at the cars that the Detroit 2.5 make, particularly high volume mid-sized sedans (where Toyota, VW and Honda excel), high volume smaller cars (where Japanese and Korea cars excel) and high margin luxury cars (where the Japanese and Germans excel), American cars provide less value for the money than foreign competitors and have been doing so for at least 20 years. What the hell do you think would happen!?!?!?! In this economic environment, at least 20 years of terrible business decisions by the Detroit 2.5 have simply come home to roost.
So, this inefficient domestic industry should be protected? At the expense of what? Don’t pass an FTA that could bring $10 billion of additional net trade to the U.S. (and $15 to $20B of new trade to South Korea) in near and medium term. It will help American agricultural companies, industrial goods companies, capital goods companies, aerospace companies, logistics companies and IT and industrial technology companies. DLB, we are both California residents. South Korea is the state of California’s second or third largest trading partner! It will help California and considering how bad our economy is, every little bit is helpful. More California rice, fruits, nuts and yes… iPhones and entertainment products goes to Korea! The fact that Korea reduced their subsidies by 50% to their movie industry even before the FTA was negotiated meant Hollywood movies made more in Korea. That’s been good for one of our state’s largest industries.
But autos? Michigan and the north Midwest has been jealous and regionalistic in sharing the the benefits of the automotive industry that it has ironically been foreign car manufacturers that haveshared the wealth, if you will, in other states, particularly Southern states. I’d rather sell half a million iPhones in Korea than 10k Malibus because it would have a far better effect on America’s (and particularly Cupertino, CA based Apple) economy. Can you imagine if the iPhone didn’t have any tariffs how much more money Apple could be making? Ask Michigan and the Democratic higher ups about that one.
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