WEEK 2

My first article, "NAFTA foes have hope for Obama renegotiation", talked about President Obama's trip to Canada, which is only a one day visit with Canadian Prim Minister Stephen Harper. The article pointed out that the day visit probably wasn't enough to get in the NAFTA talks and renegotiations the President's constituents would like, but that it was on the agenda for the meeting. Obama and his ex-democratic primary rival  and current Secretary of State Hilary Clinton both criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement which has tripled the trade between Canada, the United States, and Mexico, to nearly a trillion dollars. The agreement has been blamed for the loss of many jobs, especially manufacturing jobs in the midwest. However, drastic change to NAFTA will take congressional direction, which some fear. There are things the President can do to change the agreement such as redefine core labor rights and convince the Canadian and Mexican governments to adhere to new environmental issues.

From an economic perspective, free trade is usually seen as pretty beneficial. It lowers costs of goods and makes valuables more readily available to consumers. However, when different countries have different labor and market policies that may advantage one countries industry over another's, the "free" trade get complicated. This is why governments are sometimes forced to put tariffs and things like that on products, to protect the industries health in their own country. In my opinion however, the world is being globalized everyday, and with cheaper and faster transportation methods, I feel like countries that can afford to globalize will, giving them an upper hand, and that eventually the poorer countries will have to follow suit and let the market and international programs figure out where they fit in this massive, seemingly unsolvable puzzle of a world we have.

My second article was about the auto industry bailout. Some experts think the bailout could ultimately top 130 billions dollars, even though they have already received 17.9 billion already. GM and Chrsyler asked for 21.6 billion more in additional loans, on top of that, they are already pretty much set to get 7.5 billion for the financing arms of the companies and 25 billions to convert factories to produce my fuel efficient cars. But now, dealers and suppliers are also looking for aid, in the form of loan gaurantees of 5-20 billion and 18.6 billion respectively. Also, Ford is looking for 9 billion for a line of credit in case sales become worse than expected or a competitors bankruptcy causes widespread failures in their own supplier, which has become a likely forecast for the near future. There is also proposals "Cash for Clunkers" program which gives people 10,000 in tax credit to return old fuel-inefficient cars to be scrapped, as well a 9 billion proposal to allow buys to deduct auto interest loan from their payment.

In my opinion, the auto industry is not one to be looked down upon with sympathy. American car manufacturers have been losing out to more stable Japanese manufacturers for decades now and have been in trouble more than once. However, I do think this is a good opportunity to use government intervention to transform the auto industry into a more fuel efficient and technologically sound industry, while also giving government incentives for buyers to buy these cars. Also, letting these companies go bankrupt in this climate is not acceptable for it could become the nail that closes the coffin and put us into some of the worst financial standing in the last century.

My third article was about President Obama's newly unveiled plan to use up to 275 billion dollars to tackle the housing market. This package could help up to 9 million families refinance their mortgages if their defaulting or even about to see trouble. Also, 5 million homeowners still making payments who can't afford regualr refinancing because their home values have dropped could refinance through Fannie and Freddie, which will do much of the heavy lifting.This aid will aim to reduce borrowers payments down to 31 percent of their income.

The plan aims to lower the number of millions of U.S. homes that could fall into foreclosures, a number that is very high, up to 16 percent of all households by 2012. I feel really bad for the people who got indirectly shafted by those who took advantage of the mortgage system before this crisis, and I hope enough is being done to make sure people don't take advantage of this government bailout just as much.