Clinton, Obama Distort NAFTA Views

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) made a fine show of indignation in Ohio over the weekend, accusing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) of distorting her positions on the North American Free Trade Agreement," The Washington Post reports. "Both candidates have been trying to convince Ohio voters that they would fight to protect the interests of American workers from trade deals such as NAFTA. But neither Obama nor Clinton is being entirely honest on the NAFTA issue. Both of them have exaggerated their opposition to the 1993 free-trade agreement with Mexico and Canada and have misstated the other's position."

Daniel Griswold, director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, comments: "Both Democratic candidates are peddling a cruel illusion on trade. They raise the false hope that tinkering with a 14-year-old trade agreement will somehow bring an industrial renaissance to Youngstown, Ohio, and other industrial cities.

"The real record of NAFTA is overwhelmingly positive. The half dozen years that followed NAFTA's implementation on January 1, 1994, were among the best the U.S. economy has experienced in decades, with low inflation, strong growth, and robust job creation. Since 1993, we've added a net 26 million new jobs, household income and earnings per hour are up smartly, and manufacturing output has climbed by 66 percent."

E.U. Fines Microsoft $1.3 Billion

"The European Union fined Microsoft Corp. a record $1.3 billion on Wednesday for charging rivals too much for software information," CNN reports. "E.U. regulators said the company charged 'unreasonable prices' until last October to software developers who wanted to make products compatible with the Windows desktop operating system."

In "The Case Against Antitrust," Cato senior fellow Robert Levy writes: "Antitrust laws are fluid, non-objective and frequently retroactive. Because of murky statutes and conflicting case law, companies can never be sure what constitutes permissible behavior. Normal business practices -- price discounts, product improvements and exclusive contracting -- can somehow morph into an antitrust violation when examined by government antitrust regulators. Companies can be accused of monopoly price gouging for charging more than their competitors, or accused of predatory pricing for charging less, or accused of collusion for charging the same. Antitrust is bad law, bad economics and bad public policy. It deserves to be buried -- sooner rather than later."

Medvedev Appeals to Voters

"Russia's likely next president Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday appealed directly to voters to back him in Sunday's election, saying he knew how to make the country strong and successful," Reuters reports. "'We have many problems that have not been resolved. The country must move forward,' Medvedev, overwhelming favorite to win the presidential election after being endorsed by President Vladimir Putin, said in an address broadcast on state television."

In "Enabling the Kremlin," Cato senior fellow Andrei Illarionov writes: "[Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice commended Medvedev, Russia's first deputy prime minister, as a 'very intelligent person' and a politician 'of another generation.' But Rice is dead silent about democratic candidates. It is striking that while American officials advocate democracy and call for competitive elections, their practical actions pull in the opposite direction. Rice's reassurances lend comfort not to those fighting for democracy but to those who would destroy it, not to victims of persecution in Russia but to their persecutors.

"The March presidential election is being buried -- by ex-Soviet secret police operatives and by Western leaders who have already accepted an illegitimate heir to the Russian throne."

In the Cato-@-Liberty blog post "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss," Jamie Dettmer, Cato's director of media relations, writes: "As if to emphasize that Putin will remain the real boss in the Kremlin, Russia's new ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told the Financial Times, 'Putin's role will be as strong as ever.' Closely linked with Putin, Rogozin, a well-known nationalist politician, can even sound like the bullish outgoing president. Asked in the interview about Japan's protest this week over a Russian bomber violating the country's airspace, Rogozin joked: 'It's been a long time since the Japanese have seen the Russians in the air. They got quite a surprise.'

"It looks like we are going to see a routine of good cop, bad cop. Some analysts wonder if Medvedev will be prepared to play a secondary role to Putin. Will a divided power system emerge? My money is on Putin and his KGB friends to retain the upper hand."