Let’s review the bill together! The legislation is an amalgam of two different efforts. A bill co-sponsored by Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) would give unions and industries greater ability to file claims against illegal Chinese trade practices on a case-by-case basis, and would allow the Commerce Department to factor in currency manipulation into any tariffs the US puts up as a result. This would increase duties against Chinese products, which are being effectively subsidized by currency manipulation. The Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that such a measure would collect $125 million in new tariff revenues, but the main impact would be to put political pressure on China to revalue its currency.

The Obama Administration wants Congress to move on the American Jobs Act and “pass the bill,” but Harry Reid wants to postpone consideration for now while the Senate focuses on the China Trade Bill.

Bloomberg asked 34 economists about the American Jobs Act, and by and large they said passage of the bill would prevent a recession.

The Greek Parliament passed a property tax levy, the latest austerity measure imposed by Greece’s creditors as a condition for receiving the next installment of funding from the Euro bailout mechanism. It’s looking like a morality play, in which creditors feel morally justified in punishing debtors.

After seemingly sitting on the sidelines during the Eurozone crisis, and watching Tim Geithner rebuffed by his Euro colleagues, the Obama Administration is now publicly pressuring the Euro nations, specifically Germany and France. But the pressure is more of the “do something!” variety.

Greece has enacted yet another round of austerity to please their paymasters at the EU and the IMF. They will cut current pensions by 20% and future pensions by 40%, and cut wages for 30,000 employees. That ought to get the economy moving! And to think, cutting pensions and wages is considered “progress.”

With Greece in a recession driven by austerity imposed by its European creditors, and creditors demanding more, some economic analysts are saying Greece would be better off defaulting and leaving the Euro than taking further punishment.

New numbers from Greece show once again that austerity is a foolish prospect in the middle of a global economic slowdown, as it takes away demand when governments should be fueling it.

In this country, we have a choice. We can move forward on a broadly popular manufacturing agenda, including many items that could be put in place without Congressional support. In particular, enforcing Buy American provisions on federal procurement would really help out the domestic manufacturing sector.

The Administration should take the opportunity to dissolve the Department and move its parts into other federal bureaus, and blame Republicans for forcing his hand to boot.

I welcome seeing China pressured on human rights – the media at the press conference today did its job on that front – but the trade announcements were essentially band-aids to make it look like China is cooperating on rebalancing the trade relationship legitimately. As the executive director for the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), Scott Paul, explained, “The state visit did little to change the underlying dynamic of the dysfunctional U.S.-China economic relationship. Business deals, while important, are no substitute for firm commitments from China to stop its currency manipulation and to end its illegal subsidies of industry. And they are no substitute for clearly defined consequences if China fails to make progress.”