planet earth looks blue

In Rome yesterday finance ministers met to discuss the direction they wanted to collectively move into as we move into the heart of the financial crisis.  Representatives from Britain, France, Canada, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Japan were present.  And they all agreed, we need to keep global trade open, nobody can pull the protectionist card.  Logic would tell you that if any country started moving towards a protectionist stance, that other countries would either do the same, or ban together and boycott the isolationist.  In both cases, the problem would be on a one way road to further disaster.  Because this is a world issue, nationalism doesn’t fit into the equation.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at the meeting, “These are global challenges and it is imperative that we work together to address them,” according to AP.  Despite Geithner’s words in Rome, the sentiment back home is different.  People are worried about American jobs, and the failure of American companies.  The American media is spending more time attacking immigrants for “taking” too many jobs from hardworking Americans, than addressing the bad decisions that the leaders of big business have been making (i.e., paying themselves huge sums of money, and then turning around, shrugging their shoulders, announcing round after round of layoffs.)  Americans are looking for a scape goat, and looking to protect their own, as they did in the 1930’s, restricting trade and implementing tariffs.  

And in the stimulus package, Democrats have been pushing for protectionist legislation.  For example, they want to include requirements for materials used in infrastructure projects to be American.  This directly contradicts what the US is saying at the G7 talks.  Can Obama reign in the lawmakers and convince the people that the rest of the world, is who we need to be reaching our hands to?