Forbes, Sept 8, 2014 (I)

choi

Steve Forbes, Memo to Putin: Read Adam Smith.
www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes ... in-read-adam-smith/

two consecutive paragraphs:

Russia “is banning for a year a variety of food imports from [US and EU] But ponder what Moscow just did: It has imposed a trade embargo on itself. * * * There hasn’t been anything like this since Pesident Thomas Jefferson imposed a similarly self-destructive blockade on US shipping. In 1807 our Chief Executive barred US trade with Britain and France because these warring nations were seizing American vessels. Jefferson bizarrely reasoned that if he cut off trade with the two countries they would come to their senses and leave us unmolested. The result was a devastating economic contraction in New England and other trade-dependent parts of the US as American ships were holed up in home ports, not because of enemy warships but because of a presidential decree.

“So outraged was New England that a serious secession movement arose. Jefferson’s embargo was an utter flop. (We ended up going to war with Britain in 1812, a conflict that had rather mixed results for us, redeemed in memory by our brilliant victory in the Battle of New Orleans, which was fought after a peace treaty had been negotiated but before word of it reached the U.S.)

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) It is well known that New England was so enraged that a secession campaign was brewing. But I have not studied why.  The 1812 war was unpopular in New England; that is for sure.
(c) So I will leave this as food for thought.

choi

Abram Brown, Sparking Zippo. Americans don’t smoke much anymore, but that hasn’t stopped the iconic cigarette lighter maker from having its best year ever.
www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/ ... ts-best-years-ever/

My comment:
(a) Read paragraphs 1 and 3.
(b) “That’s also the guiding light Zippo is following in China. When [current non-family CEO Greg] Booth took over [in 2001], the Chinese business didn’t exhibit so much as a pulse. Now it’s 13% of Zippo’s revenue (60% of sales come from overseas).”

The pulse is the one taken in the wrist. It indicated that at the time Zippo’s export to China was little.
(c) “New products–a (legitimately appealing) clothing line and camping gear–and its first retail stores added fuel to the fire. * * *  The stores [in China] carry a Zippo-designed clothing line (logos on the interior tags only), with gear resembling J Crew’s preppy woodsman style. * * * For now those products [camping, and possibly clothing--it is unclear from the context] are partly made in China. Greater sales would make it economically feasible to move those overseas jobs to Bradford (pop. 8,600), where Zippo remains the greatest source of blue-collar jobs, employing around 950 workers.”

Bradford, Pennsylvania
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford,_Pennsylvania
(a city)