Editorial by Peter Brebach, President, Iron Angels of Colorado

Tuesday, 12 January 2010 00:00:25 (GMT+2)

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I read SteelOrbis' interview with Peter Morici, "The economic picture for American industry," with disbelief and dismay! While I just disagree with some of Morici's statements on economic matters, I am simply outraged by his personal attacks on President Obama. 

To accuse the President of "thinking up new and better ways to sabotage American manufacturing" is just ludicrous and embarrassingly off the mark. If that were true, why would the Obama Administration bail out GM and Chrysler? Moreover, anybody in Mr. Morici's camp on the right will tell you that President Obama is beholden to the labor unions because they got him elected. The President has made it clear that he wants to serve a second term, so why would he upset those who got him there in the first place and who could conceivably help him get reelected?

It goes downhill from here. Morici goes on to say that he does not see the President "having the insight, wisdom, courage, character or conviction" to get the job done (which is fixing the challenges of China, oil imports and our dysfunctional banking practices). Besides this sounding like it's coming straight from the Republican National Committee, Morici appears to insinuate that all these problems started the day the Bush Administration left offices, less than a year ago.

I moved to the US in 1972 and thus remember the first oil embargo. It looks to me like we have had an oil import problem for over 30 years. The trade deficit with China got out of hand during this millennium and guess who was in office during that time? The guys who went to war with Iraq on false claims and falsified evidence.

That's wisdom, that's insight and that's character for you! And as to the banking problems, who has been blocking all attempts to install more controls and more regulations for the financial sector during the last 20 years? Those very same guys!

Did the Bush Administration ever stand up to China? Did they do anything about the oil import or the banking problems? On the contrary  --  their mantras of "greed is good, regulations are bad, and the markets rule" got us into this very deep hole we are having such a hard time crawling out of.

As to the professor's economic musings, I don't understand why he thinks we will slip back into recession as soon as our improving economy will result in higher imports from China. That simply makes no sense. And when he says the real danger is that the excess steel China is producing is going to come here, he shows how little he knows about our trade with China, as active dumping and countervailing duties leave little room for Chinese steel to hit our shores anytime soon. And while dumping suits are not automatically protectionist, they become so when the referee is the US Department of Commerce, which has never seen a trade case they did not like.

Last, Morici's derogatory comments about cap and trade come as no surprise. He and his ilk are always happy to criticize any and all attempts to curtail global warming, without ever offering any constructive alternatives. Cap and trade might not be the perfect solution to this problem, but doing nothing certainly won't do it.

Peter Brebach, Pres.
Iron Angels of Colorado, Inc.

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