Vote: Changed your mind on the Pacific trade deal?

The U.S. International Trade Commission traces its roots all the back to 1916. It’s the independent, bipartisan agency that is the go-to outfit that assesses trade and trade deals. To be sure, in recent years critics have said its estimates are overly optimistic.

That thud you heard this week was the ITC’s report on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the proposed managed trade deal involving the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations. The report is 792 pages evaluating the 6,000-ish page TPP agreement,

It’s conclusion is that TPP would have an extremely modest positive affect on U.S. gross domestic product and employment going 15 years out (information and technology firms might do better). Economist Jared Bernstein breaks the high points down here. He cautions, “There’s geopolitics in the mix, along with powerful corporate interests pushing for market access, protected by rules they helped to write. It is on those criteria that one’s view of the deal must be formed.”

But now there’s also politics in the mix. TPP, championed by George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has lost support of both parties in this insurgent election season. Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are all against it. Washington is expected to be different, as one of the nation’s most trade-dependent states.

But have you changed your mind?

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This Week’s Links:

• Why widespread low-wage work is bad for business and all of us | Nick Hanauer

• Goldman’s tangled relationship with Tesla draws fire | MarketWatch

• Overworked America: causes and consequences | Washington Center for Equitable Growth

• Message from the Fed to Wall Street: Don’t expect us to stand pat in June | Tim Duy

• The economic source of the current anger | Washington Post

Today’s Econ Haiku:

Build near an icon

Needle views will be shut off

At least we’ll have space