OK, so US lawmakers have slipped in some “buy American” provisions into the stimulus bill that President Obama is trying to get passed into law. I expect that the people who had those provisions put into the package had the best of intentions towards the thousands (millions?) of Americans currently seeking work or on the verge of losing jobs.

In many ways the policy makes a lot of sense, when the people closest to you are hurting, why wouldn’t you want to move to give them a hand up? In fact, it is a bit hard to believe that any government wouldn’t have that approach as a first line of purchasing, buying from domestic sources if at all possible or even  if it might cost the taxpayer a bit more in the long run. After all those firms don’t only pay taxes, they employ people who pay taxes.

I am inclined to think that the bigger problem the Americans might be taking on is determining what is ‘buying American’ in a global economy where American firms have moved production offshore to cheaper locales thus reducing their American workforce. Read the rest of this entry »