US CENSUS: Made in China

A Chicago politician recently received a dozen boxes of promotional caps, blue denim shirts and T-shirts from the U.S. Census Bureau, and found that the caps were made in China, the denim shirts in Bangladesh, and the T-shirts in Haiti before the factory for them was ruined in the January earthquake.

The Pol said "even though there's an unemployment rate at 13 percent in the U.S., with some neighborhoods at 50 percent," the Census Bureau has given the jobs of manufacturing the promotional apparel to foreign citizens – even as it tries to get the attention of all Americans to fill out Census forms. "Am I the only one that sees the irony in this?" he said.

I fully support free trade, but stuff that the government uses should clearly carry a label that says..........

H/T Writeside

TRADE WAR???

Willis C. Hawley and Reed Smoot

The smell of trade war is suddenly in the air.(Not too sudden) Mr. Obama slapped a 35% tariff on Chinese tires Friday night, and China responded on the weekend by threatening to retaliate against U.S. chickens and auto parts.The Wall Street Journal reports

Back in May I wrote at YankeePhilip that Trade Wars Brewing. I also wrote in March Welcome back to 1930. Smoot-Hawley here we come. Way back in January, I wrote Will History Repeat itself.Others are beginning to notice.

Obama's "Buy American" already costing jobs.

Buy America could cost billions
and wipe out jobs

Canadian and American business leaders joined forces Thursday to warn of the growing threat to prosperity in both countries due to the so-called Buy American provisions in President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package.

"You can see billions of dollars that are in jeopardy, and tied to those billions of dollars are jobs," Myron Brilliant, senior vice-president of international affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told a news conference in Washington.

As many as 600 steelworkers in Pennsylvania, whose union lobbied for the Buy America law, are slated to lose their jobs at Duferco Farrell after the company lost orders from its biggest customer because some of its goods are partly produced abroad.
See the full story here