NYT front-pager yesterday on "Obama's Bid for Trade Pact with Europe Stirs Hope."
Impossible! I know.
If trade deals are hard in good times, then they must be harder in tough times, right? I mean, aren't we told by stern-faced national security experts about how the Great Recession is fostering trade wars and currency wars, so this move - amidst all such rising trade protectionism - is IMPOSSIBLE, correct?
Except trade deals like this get down EXACTLY during slow times. Remember when we got NAFTA, because this one will end up being just as big or bigger. NAFTA was Clinton's signature foreign policy achievement. I know, I got the grand tour of his library from the director when I gave a speech there years back, and NAFTA was front and center.
If successful (and this will be), then this will be Obama's big achievement - the one history will remember. Compared to this, the wars and the targetted assassinations will be miniscule, because they just deal with the friction caused by globalization's historic expansion, whereas this will fuel another wave.