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The TPP is an anti-free trade deal. It's mostly about strengthening intellectual property and giving multinationals their own special courts so that they can su

The TPP is an anti-free trade deal. It's mostly about strengthening intellectual property and giving multinationals their own special courts so that they can sue governments for lost profits if they implement environment/labor legislation. Nothing very free about any of that.

vinceguidry 12y ago
How do you know this? I follow economics blogs and the general reaction concerning TPP is that the secrecy hype is overblown and that it's largely just a mundane trade agreement with a few nasty provisions like the copyright stuff, but the good parts outweigh the bad. I'd be hard-pressed to argue with their opinion without actually reading the agreement, not to mention the years of education and exposure to global geopolitics I'd need to actually understand what the provisions being argued over mean and why they exist. Geopolitics is nuclear science that everyone seems to think is a bikeshed.
- crdoconnor 12y ago
  Which blogs? Geopolitics is NOT nuclear science. It's much less complicated. If somebody's trying to convince you that it is too complex for the layman to understand, they're likely trying to conceal something.
  - vinceguidry 12y ago
    Mostly Marginal Revolution and whatever he links to. He's got a way of making economics accessible that I've yet to really see elsewhere. I wasn't being literal. It's not very complicated, and you can understand it, but there's a lot of hidden context involved and the consequences of ignorance in that space are immense.
    - crdoconnor 12y ago
      If you want to see a teardown of this post: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/05/how-bad-are-the-investor-arbitration-clauses-in-tpp.html http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/05/how... See here: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/05/the-investor-arbitration-clauses-in-tpp-are-indeed-very-bad.html http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/05/the-investor-arbitrat...

vinceguidry 12y ago

How do you know this? I follow economics blogs and the general reaction concerning TPP is that the secrecy hype is overblown and that it's largely just a mundane trade agreement with a few nasty provisions like the copyright stuff, but the good parts outweigh the bad. I'd be hard-pressed to argue with their opinion without actually reading the agreement, not to mention the years of education and exposure to global geopolitics I'd need to actually understand what the provisions being argued over mean and why they exist. Geopolitics is nuclear science that everyone seems to think is a bikeshed.

crdoconnor 12y ago
Which blogs? Geopolitics is NOT nuclear science. It's much less complicated. If somebody's trying to convince you that it is too complex for the layman to understand, they're likely trying to conceal something.
- vinceguidry 12y ago
  Mostly Marginal Revolution and whatever he links to. He's got a way of making economics accessible that I've yet to really see elsewhere. I wasn't being literal. It's not very complicated, and you can understand it, but there's a lot of hidden context involved and the consequences of ignorance in that space are immense.
  - crdoconnor 12y ago
    If you want to see a teardown of this post: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/05/how-bad-are-the-investor-arbitration-clauses-in-tpp.html http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/05/how... See here: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/05/the-investor-arbitration-clauses-in-tpp-are-indeed-very-bad.html http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/05/the-investor-arbitrat...