Leo Hindery Jr.

A liberal Huffington Post contributor and board member of the website's Investigative Fund rained on Ed Schultz's GM success story victory parade on Thursday.

After the MSNBC host crowed about the positive earnings report from the government-owned car company, he clearly expected that left-leaning guest Leo Hindery was going to join him in the celebration.

Quite to the contrary, the admittedly "progressive" Hindery, who has contributed almost $1.5 million to Democrats in the past ten years, quickly threw a heapin' helpin' of cold water on this party before it got started.

"I love being on this show. But I`m going to push back a little bit on your accolade for GM," he marvelously began. 

"There will be more jobs created in Mexico by the Big Three automobile manufacturers than will be created here in the United States" (video follows with transcript and commentary, pay particular attention to the smile being washed off Schultz's face):

Mercantilism [emphasis added]: An economic doctrine that flourished in Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Mercantilists held that a nation's wealth consisted primarily in the amount of gold and silver in its treasury. Accordingly, mercantilist governments imposed extensive restrictions on their economies to ensure a surplus of exports over imports. In the eighteenth century, mercantilism was challenged by the doctrine of laissez-faire.

When Barack Obama talks—and talks—about the future, does he really mean "back to the future"?  You have to wonder after reading the column by one of his economic advisors in today's LA Times.  In  Renewing America's 'contract with the middle class, Leo Hindery Jr. explicitly calls for a return to mercantilism, the discredited theory of economics popular during the 17th and 18th centuries.  Hindery [emphasis added]:

It is imperative -- way past time, in fact -- for America to be as mercantilist as are our trading partners.