He said the American Seafood Distributors Association feel threatened because they have reaped enormous profits from dumped imports and would rather that the shrimping industry be destroyed than see their ever-expanding profit margins interrupted, having extracted $4.2 billion above normal profits from U.S. consumers in 2002.

These are the same people (ASDA) that are trying to tell you that consumers will pay a higher price for shrimp….Give me a break. Fisherman are currently averaging between 65 and 95 cents a pound for shrimp as of 7/21/04.

July 12th, 2004 – the days spam hit my favorite blog.

I am Barrister AlhBello , a solicitor at law, personal attorney to Mr B . J ., a national Of your country,who used to work as a contractor in Lome Togo. Here in after shall be referred to as my client. On the 30th of April 2000, my client, were involved in a car accident along Kpalime express Road.

All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost there lives. Since then I have made several enquiries here to locate any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts,I decided to search through with his name which motivated me to contact you, to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you.I have contacted you to assist in repartrating the fund valued at US$20.5 million left behind by my client before it gets confisicated or declared unserviceable by the Security Finance Firm(bank) where this huge amount were deposited.

The said Security Finance Company has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have his account confisicated within the next twenty one official working days Since I have been unsuccesfull in locating the relatives for over 2years now, I seek the consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased since you have the same last names, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to you.Therefore, on receipt of your positive response, we shall then discuss the sharing ratio and modalities for transfer.
I have all necessary information and legal documents needed to back you up for claim. All I require from you is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction goes through and for more details.
KINDLY GIVE ME A SHORT CALL AFTER GOING THROUGH THIS MAIL. TELEPHONE NUMBER. 00228 924 20 80

Marrital status……………..
Age……………………………
phone number.. …………….
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Best regards.
FROM BARRISTER ALH BELLO
ROYAL CHAMBER LOME TOGO
LOME TOGO WEST AFRICA
TELEPHONE NUMBER. 00228 924 20 80

This is a text-book example on the dumping fallacy. One of the best article on this fallacy is on mises.org:

http://www.mises.org/fullarticle.asp?control=1551

Or should we be reassured by his running-mate who campaigned for the nomination on the basis that even Kerry wasn’t going far enough in challenging the free market?

Bush’s record on trading regulations is less than adequate, but I attribute a good part of that to an effort to head off a democratic rush for the moral low ground.

But last I looked, shrimpers in the USA tended to be piled up in the Gulf states… Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida… something tells me the free market and not pissing off a sensitive trading partner would be more important if we were talking about New England scrod…

I think we can expect more protective tariffs as needed for the next troubled industry in Swing Vote-istan… proponents of free trade should actually prefer Kerry’s record to Bush’s…

Your economy is not a free market if you impose “retaliatory trade measures”.

What most people never seem to get is that a government can only impose trade regulation on it’s own citizens. When you impose a tarrif on shrimp you’re hurting me, the consumer who wants less expensive shrimp, and you’re hurting the people here who would get it to me. We’re the ones the “retaliatory trade measures” fall upon.

Doesn’t that tell you you’re investing too much hope in politics?

The Agitator brings up the subject of shrimp tariffs. The following are excerpts.

The Commerce Department ruled that Vietnam is too loose with its government shrimp subsidies and, therefore, is selling shrimp in the U.S. at artificially low cos…

And Ann, you are spot on about the Enron mess starting on Clinton’s watch … the problem is, the wealthists are blind to that fact. I don’t know if he did have anything to do with that … but still, somebody should call Michael Moore and let him cherry-pick THIS!

Let him look into Loral, too.

I was out at Halliburtion HQ earlier today, and I find it interesting that the Leftists protesting there have fewer signs regarding the “war for oil” meme … guess that doesn’t resonate as much since we turned Iraq back over to its people.

Of course, they might not like the sign I was carrying as I walked behind them, then past them along Belt Line Road …

HELP! I’M SURROUNDED BY AMERICA-HATING IDIOTS!

As for reinstating farm subsidies that Clinton was phasing out – I’m totally against all the farm subsidies, but announcing big payouts now combined with a phase-out of future subsidies is an old Washington trick that the farmers never take seriously. Whenever one of these deals has been announced, if you ask farmers “aren’t you worried? in a few years, the subsidies will be gone!” they just shrug and say “the phase-outs never happen”. It’s not right, but it’s a distortion to blame the whole game on Bush and pretend that the reinstatement wasn’t expected all along under Clinton and wouldn’t have happened under Gore.

The only solution is to localise decision making to the area affected. If Alaskans want infrastructure, Alaskan taxes should pay for it. If Washington shrimp farmers want subsidy, then Washington taxes should pay for it. That way tax payers in those regions really feel the pain of subsidising public spending, while citizens of states which choose not to subsidise enjoy much lower taxes. The only tax and spend policies of central government should be those which affect the country as a whole (defence, for example).

I have a hunch we’d see lower taxes across the board.

I’ll have to remember that one :)