Official Bedtimes, Stimulus Creep and Free Trade Agreements

Japan’s Environment Ministry is encouraging its citizens to go to bed an hour earlier at night, and get up an hour earlier in the morning.

The stimulus package is going to cost at least $75 billion more than the $787 billion the Obama administration claimed.

Canada ratifies a free trade agreement with Colombia.

1. NANNY STATE

Japan’s Environment Ministry is encouraging its citizens to go to bed an hour earlier at night, and get up an hour earlier in the morning.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Journalism Fellow Ryan Young on this ludicrous regulatory measure.

“It is astounding that the Japanese regulators think that your bedtime is government business. Then again, this is the same country that has a legally allowable maximum waistline.

 

2. ECONOMY

The stimulus package is going to cost at least $75 billion more than the $787 billion the Obama administration claimed.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Counsel Hans Bader on how the stimulus has failed.

“Obama claimed the stimulus package was needed to prevent the economy from suffering from ‘irreversible decline,’ although the CBO predicted the economy would eventually recover with or without the stimulus (the CBO said the stimulus would increase the economy in the short run, while shrinking it in the long run). The stimulus ended up being useless even in the short run, since its regulations destroyed thousands of jobs by triggering trade wars with other countries that killed jobs in America’s export sector.”

 

3. TRADE

Canada ratifies a free trade agreement with Colombia.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith on how American will benefit from a free trade agreement with Colombia.

“With all the talk about President Obama’s new export initiative, leaving Colombia out of the equation doesn’t make any sense.  After all, Colombia is the largest market for U.S. agricultural products in South America, according to the U.S. Trade Representative.”