International Forecaster Weekly

Global Trade is Seizing Up

The dramatic slowing of trade growth is serious and should serve as a wake-up call. It is particularly concerning in the context of growing anti-globalization sentiment.

James Corbett | September 28, 2016

The same tinfoil crackpots that warned of the housing bubble last decade (and were promptly laughed at by the bootlicking lackeys of the financial establishment) have been warning for at least a year now about a dramatic slowdown in global trade. Well, it looks like the mainstream economists and their mouthpiece media are finally having to admit this harsh reality, too.

The WSJ along with Reuters, the New York Times, and the other propaganda fronts for the deep state are now all jumping on board with the "dramatically reduced global trade outlook" after the WTO cut its 2016 global trade growth forecast to 1.7%, down from a predicted 2.8% just a few months ago. This would officially mean that global trade would be at its lowest point since the global financial crisis of 2008.

Again, none of this is surprising, but it certainly is alarming. Given that the anemic global growth we've seen since the global financial crisis has been fueled by precisely two things (central bank funny money and cheap Chinese trinkets), losing the second (admittedly much shorter) leg of this already precarious two-legged stool can only mean more pain and hardship for people around the world who are continuing to see their share of the overall economic pie reduced...and as the looming threat of automation threatens to make entire sectors of the labor force redundant.

But here's the interesting (if no more surprising) part of the WTO's announcement. It comes from WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo:

"The dramatic slowing of trade growth is serious and should serve as a wake-up call. It is particularly concerning in the context of growing anti-globalization sentiment. We need to make sure that this does not translate into misguided policies that could make the situation much worse, not only from the perspective of trade but also for job creation and economic growth and development which are so closely linked to an open trading system."

In other words, they've already got their excuse for this breakdown of global trade. It's you. You the Brexiteers who fought against EU consolidation. You the anti-TPP campaigners, the anti-TISA campaigners, the anti-CEDA campaigners and all those opposed to the alphabet soup of crony-supporting "free" trade agreements. You who recognize that agreements like NAFTA were never about free trade in the first place, but in carefully managed and coordinated trade by and for the benefit of the handful of politically-connected corporations who helped to write those agreements in the first place.

It's a beautiful idea on the WTO's part (and on the part of all the media hyping this report). Create the conditions that lead to the breakdown in global trade, and then blame your opponents for the breakdown. Oh if only some globalist trade agreements were in the pipeline to save the day, and if only populist politicians wouldn't pander to those dumbed-down "low information" voters who don't understand what's at stake.

If there's any solace to be taken from this, it's that no one who would possibly be effected by such a sleight of hand is listening to the WTO (or the WSJ or Reuters or the New York Times) in the first place. But as always, it's important to keep in mind that the only time the MSM ever get around to reporting some tasty morsels of economic truth is when they've figured out how to coat it in a poison frosting of lies.