The reason why the NAFTA flap resonates is because Goolsbee

[merbex]

is a distinguished professor from the school that Milton Friedman made (in)famous - the Chicago School of Economics

The economists that come out of that school are zealots about being for Free Trade, privatization, no governmental interference, let the markets run all and all will be well.

Because the distinguished Professor, Mr Austen Goolsbee, is the senior economic advisor to Barack Obama that means that Mr Goolsbee is responsible for developing and articulating to the press and public and, yes, foreign governments should they ask about Barack Obama's position on matters pertaining to trade and monetary policy.

This position isn't for some schmuck.... this guy Goolsbee holds a position in the campaign that could eventually lead some day to a position like Sec of the Treasury, or Asst Sec.

A person in Goolsbee's position doesn't have to ask permission to talk to foreign governments.

It really does behoove people to look at who is advising these people( candidates) and then there will be a better understanding why George Will writes an admiring column about Goolsbee, or why school vouchers is spoken of favorably by Obama, likewise, merit pay for teachers - it's pretty much what Milton Friedman advocated and for more on the pernicious influence about the "Chicago boys" read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine The Rise of Disaster Capitalism"

You'll wonder why a Democrat running for President would have as an economic advisor someone who believes what Milton Friedman preached.

You'll wonder how much "change" there can be had when their economic doctrines(those "Chicago boys" hailing from the Chicago School of Economics) are what we already have now under Republican administration.

On edit: you won't wonder much about who the source might have been for Jeremy Scahill's news this week that an Obama administration would keep private security forces in Iraq. I already wrote of how the "Chicago boys" LOOOVE, privatization. So if I had to guess, I'd say that little nugget had Goolsbee's fingerprints on it as well.End edit.

Obama is not running as an economic progressive, and that's why this story has legs - his advisor is a free marketer hailing from the high alter of free marketerism: The Chicago School of Economics.

Here's some free market advice....

Buyer beware

[rinsd]

1. Not sure if I agree with all the OP but that closing is excellent

Here's some free market advice....

Buyer beware

[Larkspur]

2. Hillary has Mark Penn, whose company represents union-busters

and other such ilk.

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. But Penn is not a likely Cabinet appointee

Goolsby is. Penn spins the message, Goolsby determines the message.

[merbex]

12. Sums it up beautifully

Marc Penn will never be considered for Sec. of the Treasury

Goolsbee with this position could be in the running in any future Obama Cabinet

[merbex]

11. That's right and that's my point: know who is advising these candidates

and then you'll get a sense of what's possibly coming.

It doesn't surprise me that Edwards got a lot of union support - David Bonior was famously against NAFTA if I recall correctly.

[carlotta]

3. Thanks for that post

makes a lot of sense

[Flabbergasted]

4. K and R.

I have to admit I am getting more and more troubled by Obama. I never had much faith in him, near my last choice of the dem field but it just gets worse and worse. It has definately become a choice of better of two evils. I hope Obama is the right side of that.

[meow mix]

6. "He's not quoting me" whats so hard to understand here. it was made up

that's this guy's language," Goolsbee said of DeMora. "He's not quoting me.

"I certainly did not use that phrase in any way," he said.

[Marie26]

7. It was a paraphrase, not a quote

So of course it won't be the same exact words. It's another non-denial.

[Flabbergasted]

10. "Goolsbee said (this) sentence is true and consistent with Obama's position"

Goolsbee "was frank in saying that the primary campaign has been necessarily domestically focused, particularly in the Midwest, and that much of the rhetoric that may be perceived to be protectionist is more reflective of political maneuvering than policy," the memo's introduction said. "On NAFTA, Goolsbee suggested that Obama is less about fundamentally changing the agreement and more in favour of strengthening/clarifying language on labour mobility and environment and trying to establish these as more `core' principles of the agreement."

Goolsbee said that sentence is true and consistent with Obama's position. But he said other portions of the memo were inaccurate.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-ap-democrats-nafta,0,7024247.story

[merbex]

26. I sit on 2 committees ( town boards) and I am Secretary of both

my job is not to quote when I write up the minutes. My job is to convey what happened,, tone and the overall purpose of the meeting.

I'd say that anyone working in any embassy who does this type of thing on a regular basis knows what was said and how to write it up. It is important for the gov't to know what they are dealing with.

There is no doubt that Goolsbee is a free market advocate. That is the point of the post.

[Marie26]

8. EXACTLY

This is what truly scares me.

[CaliforniaDemocrat]

9. Perhaps now we know the mystery behind the trust fund baby support.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. The NAFTA flap resonates because one of Obama's senior economic advisors

(the irrepressible and Hollywood-famous Austen Goolsbee) is a distinguished professor at the Chicago School of Economics who is in favor of free trade.

That's your argument?

[merbex]

17. My argument is that as an adherent of Milton Friedman, and one doesn't get

to become a chaired professor at The Chicago School of Economics without being an adherent of Milton Friedman, and due to his position as then being a proponent of NAFTA, free trade, without the enforceable regulations that free market advocates would say stifles free trade than yes, I firmly believe he signaled to Canadian officials that what they were hearing and would be hearing was just rhetoric and did not reflect true Obama economic beliefs about NAFTA.

Goolsbee is responsible for putting policy together for Obama. That's his job. and It behooves you and me and everyone else to learn what MR Goolsbee believes and who influenced him.

I can sum it up in 2 words:

Milton Friedman.

If you are interested, read Naomi Klein's seminal work dealing the pernicious influence of Milton Friedman and the other "Chicago boys" Milton Friedman influenced.

[Lucinda]

14. Thanks for the perspective. I didn't know anything about Goolsbee

I need to do some research! :hi:

[ProSense]

15. How does relying on a failed RW distortion mesh with the fact that

Edwards' senior economic policy advisor just endorsed Obama?

[merbex]

19. He's endorsing Obama and I notice he left out any mention

of school vouchers or merit pay for teachers or describing Social Security as being "in crisis" and chose instead to focus on where he had common ground on issues.

There is a lot of right wing economic talking points that come straight from Goolsbee.

As a Democrat, I was a Edwards supporter as well. I ended up voting for Obama with no ethusiasm but hoped that Obama will listen to the millions he has inspired instead of the few out the Chicago School of Economics.

I plan on being one of those progressives who will hold Obama accountable if he gets too right wing courtesy of Goolsbee.

[Marie26]

But why would

Obama even choose someone like Goolsbee unless he was fairly right-wing himself?

[merbex]

22. I don't know. It's a good question. n/t

[Marie26]

30. All three of Obama's economic advisors

are adherants of free market/privatization ideology. So... I don't think that's a coincidence. Obama chose these advisors, knowing that they would set his actual economic policy, and also knowing that most voters don't know who these people are. That suggests to me that his advisors reflect Obama's real, private, views & the progressive/populist campaign rhetoric is just that.

"Obama's Economic Advisers

Austan Goolsbee: U. of Chicago neoclassicist and “single payer universal health care critic claiming "it doesn't follow free market principles"

David Cutler: Harvard economist who believes that high health costs are good for the economy

Jeffrey Liebman: another Harvard economist and former Clinton adviser who favors privatizing social security ."

http://www.economicpopulist.org/?q=content/obamas-economic-advisers

[Armstead]

16. It's not good, but the Clinton loved Alan Greenspan and vice versa

Greenspan -- an ultra free market acolyte of Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand -- has said that of all recent presidents, Bill Clinton was the one closest to his own basic philosophy.

America will never be fixed until ALL Democrats stop listening to free market fundamentalists.

[merbex]

21. Exactly; when Americans are polled about change and say they want it,

they are really signaling that they want change from Friedman and back to Keysenian economic policy.

In other words, start to regulate these corporations again.

At least that's my humble opinion.

[Armstead]

29. That's a great way to put it

Perhaps a bit too cerebral for the campaigns, but that is exactly the point.

I'm old enough to remember when the center was more Keysenian. It wasn't utopian, but it was a hell of a lot more humane and productive for average people than the last 30 years of Markets Uber Alles.

[flyarm]

18. Is this the bullshit change Obama is spewing about? more of Leo Strauss bullshit?

wow this frosts my bananna!

hey aop just wait till the Obamaites of propagandists come and attack you...they are not the part of the democratic party i belong to..the dems i belong to ask questions and demand answers!

fly

[lumberjack_jeff]

20. How the hell did we get here?

Vote for one
A) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Boys">the chicago boys
B) Burston Marsteller

[merbex]

23. That's how I felt and why I was an Edwards supporter

If I could get one person to read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine and they got one person to read it.....

and then someone asked a basic question like

Senator Obama, would you call yourself more of a Keysenian in economic belief or one who ascribes to the free market philosophy of Milton Friedman?

I'd be very interested in the answer.

[Marie26]

28. I think we have the answer.

I've been wondering the same thing & looking for some signs as to their economic philosophy. Obama's bugged me for awhile because he tends to use free-market lingo when he discusses policy - talking about "market efficiency" "privatization" "charter schools", etc. This is Friedman ideology, not Keynsian. But now I'm sure of it - every single one of Obama's economic advisers favors free-market/free-trade ideology. I think Obama favors Friedmanism - which is one explanation for why he gets so many contributions from the financial industry.

Chicago Tribune:

"Free-market economic team

Key economic advisers include a few Washington veterans such as Michael Froman, a Citigroup executive and former chief of staff to then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, the Cabinet member most closely identified with the Clinton administration's pro-free trade, business-friendly policies.

There are also several scholars from prestigious universities whose approaches are anchored in dominant market-oriented economic thought. One is Austan Goolsbee, a 38-year-old star University of Chicago Business School professor and New York Times columnist with centrist Democratic views who has argued for eliminating tax returns for many Americans with simple finances."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-obama_mon_nusep17,0,5780374,full.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout

[redqueen]

25. The media is out of control...

and nobody seems to want to do anything about it.

[DerekJ]

24. CANADIAN PARLIAMENT WEIGHS IN

MSNBC

Jack Layton (NDP leader) called it "False Accusation".

If you don't know Jack Layton I urge you to google him, he is NOT known for throwing false claims.

[merbex]

27. Look, I've already considered the point that Canada has a conservative

Gov't/Prime Minister and that it could have been done so that the superficial story is that OIbama says one thing signal another a ll to benefit McCin in the general.

But the underlying story is that Goolsbee is who he is - a free trade Milton Friedman acolyte.

As such as described above - Goolsbee would not want any changes to NAFTA that involve regulations.

And additionally this is embarassing to the Canadian gov't because it gives the appearance of interference, even though I think they are doing what all gov't do - assesing who could be the next President of the US

They( all foreign gov'ts) need to know as much as we do.