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America Is Now More Vulnerable Than At Any Time In Its History

Published 03/13/07 Thomas Heffner - Print Article

America is losing control of its economy and is now quietly being taken over by foreign countries through their purchase and control of our strategic industries (TV manufacturing is now 100% foreign owned, sound recording industry 97%, movie industry 75%, metal ore industry 65%, book publishing 63%, cement industry 81% and many of our other major industries are now foreign owned).

The American economy is no longer competitive. We can't compete with Chinese wage rates nor Japanese technology. Any business that can’t be competitive will soon go out of business. Many of our major businesses are now non-competitive and are forced to outsource their manufacturing, close up or sell out. We have sold almost 14,000 of our major companies since 1980 (Click to see the list of companies sold).

We have become uncompetitive through the effects of ill-conceived policies, disastrous trade agreements (W.T.O., Nafta and Cafta), escalating trade deficits, crumbling industrial infrastructure, and the sale of our most valuable companies.

We now no longer produce enough for ourselves and are increasingly compelled to live on imports, borrowed money, and the income from the sale of our best companies.

Balance of Trade Deficits (The means through which foreign countries accumulate our money to buy us out)

2001 - $363 billion = $690,000 per minute
2002 - $421 billion = $801,000 per minute
2003 - $495 billion = $942,000 per minute
2004 - $611 billion = $1,200,000 per minute
2005 - $711 billion = $1,400,000 per minute
2006 - $765 billion = $1,450,000 per minute

These are funds accumulating in foreign hands from selling us more than we can sell them. Foreign companies and governments use this money to buy any US company they like (most of our companies are for sale on the open stock market).
With the sale of these companies go our future production, profit, technologies, taxes and the means through which we became a super power. As more of these companies fall into foreign ownership and control we have fewer American owned companies remaining that can produce products to sell, so our balance of trade deficits are destined to increase yearly with no hope of stopping or reversing this trend until we have no companies left to sell.

We will then have developed the profile of a third world country. Our lifestyle will revert back to conditions similar to those when we were subjected to live under colonial rule when England controlled America.

Through their foreign trade surpluses, countries like Japan and China each now have accumulated $1 trillion of currency reserves. General Motors has a stock market value of $20 billion, Japan or China could theoretically buy GM for only 2% of its present amount of our money they have in the bank. These funds are economic bullets poised to strike and take out most of our companies listed on our stock exchanges.

Many countries, particularly Japan and China manage the political and economic matters of their country like they were conducting a war - to destroy competitors. America has just lost the all important economics war. We lost it because we didn’t even know we were in it, so we planned no defenses like tariffs to protect our industries. We had no offense to create conditions that would allow our manufacturers to profit in America without outsourcing its manufacturing.

We have been totally misled and blinded to reality. We are now being controlled by our competitor bankers (Japan, China, UK and others) from whom we have borrowed and now owe trillions of dollars (Click here to view countries to whom we are now indebted, and the amounts).

In globalization, an advantage for one country often results in a disadvantage for another. Presently we won’t or can’t compete with Chinese wage rates, as a result, they had a $230 Billion balance of trade surplus in 2006 alone. We can’t compete with Japanese superior technology, as a result, Toyota had an approximate $10 billion dollar profit last year. General motors had an approximate $10 billion loss and Ford lost over $12.7 billion.

We are now in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, we have no plan to win these wars and we have no exit strategy. We are presently bleeding to death and to debt in these wars. If we admit defeat and pull out we will survive. We have just lost the larger economics war. We may survive but not like we were. Our standard of living will become greatly diminished. We presently have no plans to change or overcome the devastating effects of this loss.

We are temporarily supported through the good graces of Japan and China from whom we receive much of our needed merchandise and loans to run our government.

What is the matter with us? Are we blind, are we stupid? Can we not see we can’t continue like this, living on imports, debt, and from the sale of our best companies? Please ask your congressional leaders what they are doing about this.
We invite criticism and suggestions relating to this article.


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Article Comments From Readers

guest says "Guess whos to blame?" on 10/31/07
You bastards who voted the devil into presidentcy! Screw this country...you have it to where the mexicans own it now, and theres no such thing as "THE AMERICAN DREAM"! Now its the "MEXICAN DREAM" Fuck you Bush I hope they bury you! You need a 45 cent bullet in your head to get our economy back in order! Cheapest way out! Now Im just another american that owned his own house and had great children that Im afraid to see go through this police state run bullshit! Why do you think teenage suicide is at an all time high? He has run this country to the ground to line his own pockets! Ive been on the face of this earth for 45 yrs and have never seen it worst then since bush has been the president! WAKE UP AMERICA AND TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK FROM THE DEVIL HIMSELF!

guest says "second guest is an idiot" on 06/29/07
Yor are right, the second guest suggests America has enough money to buy... he probably has no idea of what constitutes money. I wonder how much money second guest has after subtracring liabilities

guest says "the second guest is the idiot" on 03/16/07
you do not see clearly. free trade has never been a good thing and how do you expect to use certain items as a consumer, that are not made in america anymore, without buying it foreign. YOU ARE FORCED! There are goods that you need to live. And how about if you go work for ten cents an hour, like these people who have no other option. you are a disgrace! i would treat a dog better than I would, you. It has more decency. Your unemployment figure is wrong. you do not understand economics, and you are one of the reasons this country has been sold into slavery. And you to will be a slave and will know what it feels like to work for 10 cents. take your retard ideas elsewhere.

guest says "America Is Now More Vulnerable Than At Any Time In History " on 03/15/07
I would like to know if America would not be able to use its military muscle for economic gain? Did the US earn money from the Saudis in the war against Iraq in the 1990's? But it does not seem it is making any money or getting any oil from its presence in Iraq? The US can never be treated as a colony as suggested in the article since it has the military might to subdue and to occupy non-nuclear nations, particularly of the Third World variety.
Why can't the US cancel foreign debt? But I believe manufacturing is still important and doing well in the service industry in not enough. Good luck for this bastion of democracy and liberty. And, I hope others, including powerful and highly organized constituencies in the US do not abuse it. Have not other nations, such as the UK and Europe used it to their advantage, for example, to fight communism? What about South Korea? The Americans are extraordinarily nice people but they are a bit naive and get exploited by lobbies from within and nations from without! The common American needs to be more informed about the world and as to how he can put his weight behind checking the exploiters! But who is going to educate the nice American about what really is going on?

guest says "idiotic" on 03/14/07
The arguments presented in this article lack common sense as well as any correct economic analysis. Free trade is always a good thing. We are not "forced" to import foreign goods, rather we choose to import them because we have enough money that we cannot produce all that we want. The unemployment rate is at the generally agreed lowest natural level it can be (about 5%) and inflation is low. Any low end jobs that move oversees do so because it is no longer economically efficient for them to be here. Many "foreign" companies employ a great deal of Americans (Toyota does the majority of its prodcution in the U.S.), and many Americans own stock in foreign companies. Besides, the future of the American economy is service and information based, not in archaic manufacturing factories of the industrial era. The only reasonable point made is the massive defecit and debt we have running, though the majority of it is for hugely expensive entitlement programs and inefficient government beaurocracy. By far the worst argument however, is that we are somehow reverting back to colony status. European nations used their colonies for natural resources and as markets to sell back manufactured goods at inflated prices by legislating against manufacturing. We on the other hand are the biggest consumer of natural resources (oil), and import from other countries because their goods are more efficiently manufactured at a cheaper price, not because they are forcing us to. Finally, other countries buying our currency suggests the strength of the dollar, not weakness. Furthermore, these countries do not hold us hostage or influence us by holding dollars. In fact, it gives us a degree of control over them (would you tick someone off who owed you a lot of money if you ever wanted to be repaid). If anything is troubling about America's future, it is the decline of education and the huge size of government. We should work to control these problems, not complain about countries which are outproducing us. If they want to pay their workers 10 cents an hour... fine. That means cheaper goods for us.

guest says "We can't let this happen" on 03/14/07
Bush is the biggest terrorist of all time. If we keep letting him to whatever he wants we will end up worst than Iraq.

guest says "reverse revolution" on 03/11/07
The War for Independence freed us from foreign domination. Now fools make us dependent again just so they can shop the world for everything.

guest says "loss of a nation" on 03/11/07
with every other country buying in to america, we americans are losing are own country.

guest says "CNBC" on 03/11/07
CNBC says the US economy is the greatest story never told according to Nutlow. Our Treasury Secretary basically says that foreign purchase of US debt shows that the US is still the best investment on the globe. As Merle Haggard once sang, "We will all be drinking that free bubbleup and eating rainbow stew." We must not allow negativity to invade our thinking as I was advised the other day and further advised as far the National Debt goes we can just print more money and pay it off. Mark Twain I believe once said, "For every complex problem there is a simple answer and it is wrong."

guest says "George Bush" on 03/10/07
George Bush is the most anti america president in history