While you were distracted by Syria and Russiagate, President Trump was busy walking back everything he promised during his campaign regarding trade.

NAFTA:

If those poor, delusional Trump supporters in the Rust Belt thought they were going to get a break with Trump's renegotiation of NAFTA, they are in for a nasty surprise.

I had never heard of Charlie LeDuff until last week when this interview showed up in my YouTube feed. Spasiba Comrade Putin!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT_GOWnMgQM&t=1072s width:600 height:360]

I missed the furious debate in the comments of last week's essay by gjohnsit, The Free Trade Lie Is Exposed. Ironically, I missed joining in because of an effect of free trade: the crappification of everything. My laptop appeared to have finally blown its power supply.

Two pieces of news came out today that could have dramatic effects on how far you can stretch your paycheck.
First of all is the news out of Canada.

Dear communitarians, not be confused with Commie-pinko-radical bastards, being as yesterday was Christmas, I, like many of you, overate. As a result I am still suffering from a case of shoe-in-mouth disease.

One of the first things President Trump did was pull out of the TPP.
So that's that, right? Not so fast.

The fifth round of NAFTA talks did not go well.

The first round of NAFTA renegotiations happened this week, and they have a very familiar feel.

Despite promises in March by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer (USTR) that the negotiations would be transparent, the USTR now considers the documents and negotiations “classified” and they’ll be cloaked in secrecy.