The Custom-House

Urban moose Doug O'Harra in

Urban moose

Doug O'Harra in the Anchorage Daily News reports on a part of Anchorage life, here: "Male moose wage war on local hammocks, swing sets. Cranky critters risk injury, death when antlers become entangled"

"Itchy to rub antlers and aroused for fall mating season, bull moose have been tangling with hammocks on the Anchorage Hillside this week...

"At least three hapless moose have been caught since Sunday, and another four have been reported snarled in hammocks or swing set chains over the past two weeks, said Jessy Coltrane, assistant area biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game...

"The situation happens every fall when adult males bang and rub their antlers against objects to remove summer velvet. With hormones starting to rage, the bulls also become more rambunctious as they start following cows and confronting other males..."

Friends in Anchorage tell me that moose are common in some neighborhoods. A year ago on a visit, I passed a moose about a block away while I was walking about a half mile from downtown. I was happy to see him move away from me, through a convenience store parking lot.

Nina, here's Kevin Drum's Krugman

Nina, here's Kevin Drum's Krugman interview:

"AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL KRUGMAN"

Does the U.S. current account deficit end with a bang (Krugman) or a whimper (DeLong)? DeLong reacts to Krugman's Drum interview: "The Endgame for the U.S. Current-Account Deficit".

"...The U.S. current account deficit is unsustainable, and as Herb Stein used to like to say, if things are unsustainable they will stop. I used to think it would stop as demand in the rest of the world grew and demand for U.S. exports grew along with it. That's becoming less and less likely. So I have to agree with Paul that the current-account deficit will end one day when foreigners decide that the U.S. is not a good place to put their money, and the dollar falls in value by somewhere between 25% and 50% in a relatively short period of time. If Bush is reelected and continues his feckless fiscal policies, my bet is that this dollar crisis comes between three and five years from now.

What consequences does such a shift in capital flows and a collapse in the dollar entail? I do find myself much more optimistic than Paul Krugman..."

But take a look at where DeLong sees the big crunch coming.

Daniel Drezer comments on the Drum-Krugman interview, here: "Paul Krugman opens up"

"...I was entranced by the interview's mix of defensible economic critiques and wild-eyed political paranoia (and a hat tip to Drum for doing a great interview)..."

Post Cancun post formerly: Suicide

Post Cancun post

formerly:

Suicide protest at Cancun

Today's New York Times carries a James Brooke profile of the South Korean farmer who killed himself in Cancun last week to protest negotiatiosn to reduce agricultural tariffs, here: "Farming Is Korean's Life and He Ends It in Despair".

"JANGSU, South Korea, Sept. 15 � Before Lee Kyung Hae left for Mexico on his final mission to defend South Korean farmers, he climbed a hill behind his old apple orchard here. In the quiet solitude of his former farm, he cleaned up around his wife's tomb.

"He cut all the grass before departing," Lee Kyang Ja, his older sister, said with surprise today, coming upon the site after climbing a dirt road behind the farm. On Wednesday in Canc�n, Mexico, Mr. Lee, a 55-year-old farm union leader, scaled a barricade outside a meeting of the World Trade Organization and then fatally plunged his old Swiss Army knife into his heart...

"...in rural communities like this one in southern South Korea, Mr. Lee, a three-time member of the provincial assembly, was seen as a heroic figure, a defender of debt-ridden farmers struggling to maintain an age-old agrarian tradition in a fast-developing country where manufacturing is king..."

Today's (Tuesday Sep 16) Washington Post has a column by Jefferson Morley on developing world media reaction to the failure of the Cancun ministerial meeting (with links to seven or eight papers):"After Cancun, Rich Man's 'Debacle' Is the Poor Man's 'Moral Victory'.. The column indicates general satisfaction with the outcome among the cited newspapers. The satisfaction seems to stem not so much from the failure of the trade talks, as from a perceived ability of the developing world to stand together against "unfair" set of developed world practice and an unfair agenda.

Geitner Simmons at Regions of Mind posts on barriers to trade between developing countries, here: "Not so selfless.

"Some of the developing countries that led the fight against the United States and the EU on the farm subsidy issue are themselves guilty of heavy protectionism against fellow developing countries -- in some instances, against their very neighbors.

"I got a hint of this when I saw an article from last weekend in The Hindu Times, a newspaper in India, about proposals being considered at the WTO negotiations in Cancun over reductions in farm subsidies:

"The new draft puts India in considerable difficulty since it would require the country to eventually make substantial reductions in import duties on agricultural products..."

Simmons also links to a Progressive Policy Institute report on developing country trade barriers, and cites generously from it.

Kieran Healy points out that Cancun fell apart over investment and capital control issues rather than agriculture, and points to a paper by Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Olivier Jeanne�s on �The Elusive Benefits from International Financial Integration" (and to one of his earlier posts on it), here: "Capital Mobility".

Daniel Davies argues that Cancun fell apart over investment and capital control issues it shouldn't even have been discussing, here: "High Noon in Cancun"

"...The WTO is the World Trade Organisation, which was set up in order to facilitate trade in goods and services, something which more or less everyone agrees to be a general good. Free mobility of capital and investment is a much more controversial topic..."

What happened in Cancun Jacob

What happened in Cancun

Jacob Levy links to post-mortems on the trade talk collapse at the Volokh Conspiracy, here: "Trade".

Here's how it ended: Peter

Here's how it ended:

Peter Gallagher fills in some of the details about the collapse of the Cancun trade talks: "It's over ... for now ". The actual collapse wasn't triggered by the disagreements on the agricultural issues:

"The failure point was the four so-called 'Singapore issues': specifically the objections of a broad coalition of Asian, Carribbean and African countries to proposals for further work on Trade Facilitation (improving the regulations affecting the movement of goods through ports, and regulations surrounding financial transactions and customs clearances)..."

What's the best inflation rate,

What's the best inflation rate, and what is it worth to achieve it?

Brad DeLong: "Note: Strong Views Weakly Held"

Where will it all end?

Where will it all end?

CalPundit interviews Paul Krugman. Krugman is concerned about U.S. fiscal policy and sees three possible outcomes, none attractive: "Why Paul Krugman Is Depressing".

Cancun trade talks collapse The

Cancun trade talks collapse

The Washington Post says the Cancun talks have collapsed:

"CANCUN, Mexico -- Talks designed to change the face of farming around the world collapsed Sunday amid differences between rich and poor nations, the second failure for the World Trade Organization in four years...."

("World Trade Organization Talks Collapse in Cancun"). Evidently much of Sunday's discussion was spent on non-agricultural issues:

"Before the talks collapsed, delegates spent Sunday debating not the key changes to farming policy that they have spent much of the conference negotiating, but instead four proposals about foreign investment and competition from the European Union and Japan.

"Delegates said the Europeans agreed to back off on three of the proposals, but insisted they be granted one. That was unacceptable to many developing nations...

"...Many of the poor nations were frustrated that officials delayed discussion of agricultural reform on Sunday. Delegates had hoped to slash the subsidies rich nations pay their farmers and lower the tariffs many countries charge for importing farm goods."

Elizabeth Becker at the New York Times says the breakdown was precipitated when a group of developing nations walked out (agreements are by consensus):

"CANCUN, Mexico, Sept. 14 �— Trade talks dissolved today when a group of developing nations walked out of the final session saying wealthy nations had failed to offer sufficient compromises on agriculture and other issues...

"...Richard L. Bernal, a delegate from Jamaica, said that a group of African, Caribbean, Asian and Latin countries felt they had little choice. The United States and Europe, he said, were not generous enough on reducing their agriculture subsidies, on helping poor African countries dependent on cotton, or understanding their difficulties in taking on such new trade responsibilities as investment."

See "World Trade Talks End in Failure, Delegates Say".

Alaskana: the Joe Vogler story

Alaskana: the Joe Vogler story

Sam Bishop tells the story of Alaska Independent Party figure Joe Vogler, in this Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story: "Vogler death: Conspiracy or robbery gone bad?"

"...After growing up poor in Kansas, Vogler graduated from the state university and then earned a law degree, but never practiced. During World War II, his strong opinions led him to curse the president and got him fired from a job, so he headed for Alaska in 1942.

"He homesteaded, logged, fished and mined.

"Through it all, he continued cursing, literally. It was mostly aimed at the bureaucrats who were trying to bend Alaska habits to the new ways of land, water and air management..."

Cancun trade meetings drawing to

Cancun trade meetings drawing to a conclusion

Today is the last day of the Cancun trade meetings.

I posted yesterday (here: "What's the 'Group of 22' ") on the status of the agricultural negotiations.

Today Peter Gallagher brings the story of the negotiations up to date through Saturday afternoon, here: "Battle at the buffet table ".

The New York Times website has a Reuters story filed today: "Clock Ticks Down at Tough Cancun Trade Talks"

"CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Deeply divided and running out of time, world trade ministers made a final push on Sunday to bring rich and poor countries together and rescue troubled talks on freeing up global markets.

The trade talks on Mexico's Caribbean coast are laboring to bridge a North-South split on issues ranging from rich nations' massive farm subsidies to many developing countries' refusal to negotiate new rules on foreign investment...

Many delegates believed they would walk away from this beach resort with some kind of agreement but some questioned whether it would amount to a major breakthrough...

Ministers need to find enough common ground in Cancun to keep negotiations alive on new trade liberalization pact by the end of next year. The World Bank says a good deal would add more than $500 billion a year to global incomes by 2015 and lift 144 million people out of poverty.

Diplomats say failure in Cancun could kill off hopes for such a deal until way beyond 2004..."