EU and US 'in biggest trade deal' … UK Prime Minister David Cameron has announced plans for what could be "the biggest bilateral trade deal in history" between the EU and the US. He announced the start of formal negotiations on a trade deal worth hundreds of billions of pounds, aimed at boosting exports and driving growth. Mr Cameron said a successful agreement would have a greater impact than all other world trade deals put together. The talks were announced ahead of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland. US President Barack Obama said the first round of negotiations would take place in Washington in July. They aim to conclude by the end of 2014. – BBC

Dominant Social Theme: The wise man of Downing Street has a deal for YOU.

Free-Market Analysis: British Prime Minister David Cameron is under attack on all fronts. The British economy is sprawled on the world stage like road-kill, British unemployment remains agonizingly high and the furor over Britain's continued presence in the European Union is causing Cameron serial headaches.

So what to do? How about a trade agreement? That's what we learn from the BBC in this excerpt above. And not just any trade agreement but the biggest, most expensive and "best" yet.

The idea is surely to advance the notion that the European Union is a free-market and democratic kind of outfit. It's to the advantage of power brokers not just in the EU or Britain but in the US, as well.

In truth, the British and the US have been behind the European Union. Dominating Europe after the war, globalists on both sides of the pond decided the best way to create more internationalist government was to build a United States of Europe.

But as the fractious tribes of Europe were not themselves adequately consulted on the formation of this nascent empire, resentment has expanded along with the inevitable economic and political failures of the union. And therein lies the trouble.

Nowhere is that more in evidence than in Britain. Despite pressure, the antagonism to the EU was such that the British never joined the eurozone or gave up their pound.

These days, as the European Union continues to unwind, certainly from an economic standpoint, the determination in Britain to leaving the EU altogether continues to expand. It has even fostered a quasi-libertarian party, heir to the great liberal tradition of old, called UKIP.

Cameron is well aware of all this. He is what would be called a neocon in the US, an individual committed to globalist bigness, and thus to the EU, even though portions of his party despise Britain's continued entanglement.

Here's more:

Mr Obama said he was confident of reaching an agreement. "There are going to be sensitivities on both sides… but if we can look beyond the narrow concerns to stay focused on the big picture… I'm hopeful we can achieve [a deal]."

Mr Cameron said the deal could be worth £100bn to the EU economy, £80bn to the US and £85bn to the rest of the world. He said the pact could create two million jobs, and lead to more choice and lower prices in shops. "This is a once-in-a-generation prize and we are determined to seize it," said Mr Cameron.

European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso. who will lead the negotiations with President Obama, said that integrating the EU and US economies would not be easy but "we will find convincing answers to legitimate concerns". "We'll find solutions to thorny issues, we'll keep our eyes on the prize and we will succeed," he said.

Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, said: "Together Europe and the United States are the backbone of the world economy. Opening up that space further for opportunities for business and consumers is simply common sense."

Everyone is queuing up, as we can see. There will be adulatory articles in the mainstream press about Barroso and Van Rompuy. But the most elaborate praise will no doubt be reserved for David Cameron himself.

No doubt the talks will be structured in such a way that certain issues will linger until the last second. The entire trade agreement will seem in danger of crashing but then the top men of Brussels along with Cameron and probably Obama will meet early in the morning in some darkened hotel room and, bleary-eyed, work out a final deal.

How the praise will resound! How the mainstream media will rejoice. Millions of jobs will have been created with the stroke of a pen. The world's economy will be said to have been resuscitated because these wise men simply would not give up.

Is this the plan? In truth, jobs can never be created by politicians, though the removal of some regulations can allow individual entrepreneurs to have more success. But the chances are that the sort of trade negotiations now being planned will probably add to the regulatory burden instead of subtracting from it.

This planned trade summit shows us how the powers-that-be attempt to manipulate public opinion using the levers of government and big business. As we have seen, however, these manipulations work less well in the 21st century than the 20th.