Talk ensues as officials question whether we are in the midst of a recession. The number of jobs created has now dropped for six straight months, according to ABC News.

The Department of Labor reports startling figures regarding America’s current economy: 8.5 million Americans are without work while unemployment has risen to 5.5 percent.

Changes need to be made to amend this problem. It is imperative to protect domestic U.S. companies and make sure they remain on U.S. soil to ensure Americans are provided with jobs, technology and steady profits – this is one step to retain and create jobs. We next need to stop depending upon imports as our means of survival. Once we become an export nation and a producer of numerous products, jobs will be created and maintained by Americans while our dependence on foreign nations will decline.

Gas again hit a new record price-per-barrel Thursday morning at $145. All signs point to gas reaching $160 a barrel by the end of the year, according to Forbes.com.

This is completely unacceptable … the rising price of gas is reeking havoc on Americans and the economy. The correlation among high gas prices, consumer confidence, the slowing economy and decreased spending is undeniable.

The solution to this problem is to cut our dependence of oil. Our current money goes to the unfriendly OPEC nation’s sovereign wealth funds, which they turn around and use that same money to purchase American bonds, portions of the treasury and American industry. They are slowly acquiring America through our oil addiction. This practice must stop by creating an oil free future.

Job cuts continue to trouble Americans and the economy, May saw a 29-month-high job loss total of 103,522 people, while second quarter cuts – highest since 2005 – were 275,292, according to Reuters.

More companies are planning and implementing eliminations to weather this storm of a recession and stay afloat. Job reductions – from General Motors to Starbucks – are breaking the backs of Americans and decreasing their opportunity to spend. The economy desperately needs spending at this point and it may not arise if Americans do not have work.

The dollar sank to a 10 week low on Wednesday after news of a troublesome job loss report, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The failing dollar spells problems for the future of the currency. OPEC nations are now accepting the euro, challenging to dollar’s current status as the world reserve currency. Soon, other nations will lose interest in purchasing and investing in the greenback if we continue to print more with nothing to back it up.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the world’s toughest geo-political question was how to integrate into the global economy the 4 billion people who had been long separated from the West by their political systems, which were primarily communist or socialist. The United States, Europe, and Japan chose the solution now termed “globalization.”

The United States’ first major step towards globalization was ratifying the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993. The second step came in 1994 when the U.S. joined the newly formed World Trade Organization (WTO), the principal institution of globalization.

By joining NAFTA and the WTO, the United States radically altered its economic policies with other nations. This new approach made corporations wealthy when they transferred their manufacturing and service work to nations with penny-wage labor and weak environmental laws and worker rights; it threatened bankruptcy for companies that kept their production and jobs in the United States.