January 30th
There are a lot of things to hate about the “stimulus” package floating around Congress. Other than the fact it is mostly spent on political Christmas gifts than actual stimulus, there is the provision that added “manufactured goods” to the list of items that must be American-made in order to qualify for stimulus dollars.
If this passes, one hopes that the US is only reprimanded by the WTO for trade violations. The other alternative is for other nations to reciprocate.
To keep this simple, if the US policy dictates “Buy American”, expect the rest of the world to dictate “Don’t Buy American”.
If that happens, no need to imagine what the Great Depression was like.
