Apr. 03, 2005 - 20:44 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

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Just a little article in today's magazine section, "The Parade" struck my eye. No by line, in full:

Shrimp deal smells fishy

"Struggling to recover from the tsunami that hit three months ago, Thailand has been given another wallop. European Union bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to force the Asian nation to buy six Airbus planes for more than $2 billion or face steep tariffs on any shrimp Thailand exports to Europe. Thai shrimp are half the price of those from Norway, Europe's largest producer, and the EU policy would help protect Norway's shrimp industry. EU tariffs already cost East Asians $250 million a year.

It is ironic that Europeans are sending money to tsunami victims, only to have it diverted to help government-subsidized Airbus."

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Heh, all that knowledge I think is in my skull piece seems to be bits of hearsay. Must be some fire to support the smoke in a Parade ? The National Enquirer it ain't, and doesn't seem to be grinding many axes -- at least to me it doesn't.

Some day I am going back and finish Adam Smith's "Wealth Of Nations," seems to me that tariffs figured large in his writings. From what little experience I have my guess is that tariffs are a double edged sword with stickers in the haft.

Of course this could, if true, be another example of those that have go back For More . . . . . . . . . .