Obama: Will Anti-Free Trade Policy Hurt The Global Economy?

Clearly demonstrating his total misunderstanding of how a free-market works, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said ‘it would be a shame’ if Anheuser-Busch (BUD) was sold to a foreign company.According to a Reuters report, Obama said, ” I think we should be able to find an American company that is interested in purchasing Anheuser Busch if in fact Anheuser-Busch feels that it’s necessary to sell.”

Huh?

Who is the ‘we’ Obama is referring to? Is it the government? Since when is the US government an investment banker? It’s not exactly a secret that the maker of Budweiser is in play. If there was a US company interested in purchasing Anheuser-Busch, they could put out an offer. The lack of a competitive offer means that no one is interested based on the asking price. Isn’t that rather obvious? Maybe the government should nationalize the company, in order to keep it in American hands!

Is Obama advocating the worst kind of government intervention? Does he really believe that he knows better than the market, regarding whether a publicly traded company should be sold and to whom? His protectionist tones mimic his beliefs on NAFTA. It sure appears that Obama has shown a consistent policy of being against free trade.

What’s wrong if an American company is sold to a foreign buyer? As fellow IOI colleague Zack Miller says, ” Isn’t his policy xenophobic?” Conversely, what are his feelings about an American company buying a foreign firm?

From the little we know about his stance on free trade, the impact to Israel as well as the global economy could be profound. If Obama wants to make the US into an economic island, it would cause not just catastrophe to nations no longer able to export their goods into the US, but would harm the US consumer, with less choice and more costly goods.

Someone needs to ask Obama to explain in depth his belief that we need to find an American company to buy Anheuser-Busch. As I mentioned, if he really is a protectionist, shouldn’t the voters be made aware of this and shouldn’t he need to explain his position?

In order for the economy to grow we need less government intervention not more. Let the market sort things out, and keep the government out of the way.

Disclosure: Author’s fund has no position in any stock mentioned as of 7/09/08.

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