In response to Caitlyn’s post.

Many companies are having issues with profits and stock prices, in large part because of the increase in payroll taxes. These taxes hit twice, the consumer has less money to spend and the employer has to pay more.  Wal-Mart is very good at reading customers' shopping habits and adjusting quickly. You may see stores adjusting inventory toward lower-price items and smaller-packaged goods trying to maintain customers. I don’t think Wal-Mart is down for the count.

NAFTA

Government policies are complex and the information we receive about them is sometimes bias. Our text, Lamb, Hair, McDaniel (2013). Marketing What’s Inside, paints a picture of increased prosperity for all involved.  I found a couple of web sites that paint a very different picture. The links are below so rather than repeat the information I will just summarize.

*The US was able to move jobs to lower cost Mexico. Outsourcing.

*Mexico lost 1.3 million farm jobs because they couldn’t compete with the low priced products      coming from the U.S.

*Mexico environment deteriorated because the agribusiness used more chemicals to try to increase crop outputs.

*Mexican truck travel is limited to 20 miles within the US however, U.S. trucks, although they do not comply with restrictions imposed by the Mexican government, have unlimited access across Mexico.

Does free trade mean fair trade? There are a lot of web sites with a lot of information, you decide.  

http://useconomy.about.com/od/tradepolicy/p/NAFTA_Problems.htm

http://www.citizen.org/documents/NAFTA_10_mexico.pdf