Obama is working for the American 1%, who will profit inordinately from the TPP - which of course is not 'free-trade' but an investors' rights agreement, like Clinton's NAFTA; it will override government attempts to limit the depredations of corporations in regard to health, safety, workers' rights, etc.
Krugman downplays the notion "that TPP could add more than a fraction of one percent to the incomes of the nations involved.." But he ignores who will get that addition to income: the 1% and its allies. They're not stupid, just greedy: it's perfectly rational for them to destroy health, safety, workers' rights, etc., to insure a structural enhancement of their income.
"...alienating labor, disillusioning progressive activists" are child's play for Obama (and indeed any administration) in pursuit of their patrons' goals. It should occasion no surprise - just outrage.
--CGE
On Mar 11, 2015, at 10:59 AM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:
> Paul Krugman on the TPP: Why, exactly, should the Obama administration
> spend any political capital – alienating labor, disillusioning progressive
> activists – over a deal whose overall contribution to economic growth is
> sure to be tiny at best given that trade is already mostly open and which
> deal primarily benefits US-flagged intellectual property claimers like
> Pharma and Hollywood by extending their monopolies, which added profit
> incentive they surely do not need to produce new drugs and new movies?
>
> http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/tpp-at-the-nabe/
>
> ===
>
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
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