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USA Loses In An Economics War And Is Now A Defeated and Conquered Nation

Published 10/24/09 Thomas Heffner - Print Article
E-mail - editor@economyincisis.org

USA Loses In An Economics War And Is Now A Defeated and Conquered Nation with a destroyed industrial infrastructure. We are forced to live on imports and on credit from anyone who will offer it. Here is how it happened:

Americans have been defeated in an economics war with consequences as meaningful and damaging as if having lost a military war. Strangely, the citizens do not feel the pain and economic destruction to the same extent as a perilous military defeat. Americans are oblivious to how this defeat happened and how it is affecting them, going about their merry way, living well in passive and painless submission, on borrowed money and cheap imports from China and Japan.

China and Japan each operate their economies as one huge business that is done first-and-foremost for the best interest of their countries. Functioning with a unique, effective and a most-creative system of guided and managed capitalism, their economies are set up to destroy any competitive economy that stands in their way.

These two nations may have a handful of rich entrepreneurs, but no one makes money at the expense or the well-being of their country. The economies of China and Japan are planned, guided and nurtured where necessary, with defined goals – for the benefit of their countries.

Witness Japan. From the ashes of the bombings in 1945, to today, after 63 years, Japan is now one of the world’s most productive nations. The country has accomplished this feat with only 4 percent of America’s land mass, 40 percent of America’s total population and no natural resources.

With far less people, land and resources, Japan has an $80 billion yearly balance-of-trade surplus with the U.S. It has the second largest current account surplus next to China and has accumulated $1.2 trillion during the last 20 years while currently lending America $517.2 billion. Per capita, Japan now outproduces all other nations while paying the world’s highest wages.

Americans should take note of Japan’s ability to rise from a tattered-and-torn nation, with a third-world country status, to one of the world’s most powerful countries. China and Japan operate their economies in a war-like fashion to destroy their competitors, strategically backing Americans into an increasingly impossible corner. These countries have now become America’s foremost bankers, which gives them leveraged advantage as our fiercest competitors. The U.S. cannot compete with these two global competitors, China and Japan.

It is impossible for Americans to compete with next-to-nothing Chinese wage rates, coupled with China's excellent technology. Japan demonstrates unparalleled strength through its superior capital and knowledge intensive manufacturing sector. Both nations have completely knocked the U.S. out of many of the industries the U.S. originally founded.

America’s TV manufacturing industry is 100 percent foreign owned, the sound recording industry is 97 percent foreign owned, and the motion picture industry is 75 percent foreign owned, with Japan controlling many of these individual companies. Foreigners own 79 percent of the commodity, contracts, dealings and brokerage business.

Nations that finance our foreign debt and export numerous products to the U.S. are building large currency reserves from their balance of trade surpluses: Arab countries have $3 trillion, China has $1.8 trillion and Japan has amassed $1 trillion. These currency reserves are economic bullets poised to strike and take out any American company.

All U.S. companies are for sale on the open stock market. We could not, in our "free trade" economy, prevent the takeover of U.S. companies. Having so many "economic bullets," foreign entities came in and obliterated American ownership of our companies. These were the companies (16,613 of them sold to foreign interests in the last 30 years) that formerly generated wealth and strength for our country; the means by which we became the world’s richest and strongest country with the highest standard of living.

Chinese and Japanese companies are not for sale. They understand their companies are the wealth generators, representing the best interests of the entire nation. American industries no longer benefit the people; they benefit a select few billionaires, millionaires and stock holders. These individuals are not concerned about the welfare of the country, only their own, often to the detriment of the country.

It is from the Chinese and Japanese business models that America must mold itself. Companies should not benefit a select few, but should enrich and empower the country as a whole. When America realizes this, businesses will not be bought-up, but industry primarily will remain domestic. This must occur to stop dependence on foreign capital and imports. We must modify our system to prevent takeover and predatory practices by foreign competitors, putting protective measures in place as most other countries have done. This will protect us and allow us to become productive, competitive and economically independent. If this is not immediately implemented, we must resign ourselves as a defeated and conquered nation. Living as a foreign owned colony, controlled and managed by foreign interests for their benefit, and we as their subjects.



Front Page Photo - myoctopusinc - Flickr (modified by E. David Ferriman) © Some rights reserved

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Article Comments From Readers

guest says "Of course the central bankers thought that far -" on 10/27/09
That was the whole reason for the detente with China.

For M-O-N-E-Y.

Why else would they do something like that?

Because they wanted to go to China and eat Peking Duck there?

biguru says "Burning your own house" on 10/26/09
The plan was to make a deal with the Asians and cut out the Americans.

I do not think, these bankers thought that far...that is knew that their own house (America) will burn. They are not that smart. When our National Intelligence Agnecies could not figure out what is happening to us - I doubt the super greedy bankers would.

guest says "The Chinese will become the scapegoats for " on 10/26/09
the rich bankers. And you can't deny that that is what's happening here, on this site, economyincrisis. The rich bankers who were the architects of America's financial ruin are escaping the blame. The Chinese get the lion's share of it.

The rich bankers had it all planned a long time ago.

They knew what they were going to do back in the early 70s. They had seen how industrious the Japanese were, and they cast a curious eye at the billion plus people in China, and made a prospective calculation about what kind of profit they could make if they put these people to work.

They sensed that the Chinese were ready. Their leadership had steadily become more pro-west since Mao's death.

And so, with one of their president pawns in power - Richard Nixon and with one of theirs, Kissinger, as his minder - they embarked on their plan. (And each successive president, except perhaps Carter, has furthered their plan for them.)

The plan was to make a deal with the Asians and cut out the Americans.

It was a deal that would profit both groups of people, the Asians and the rich bankers of America, but would hurt the American people.

The bankers knew 100% what they were doing back in the 70s, when Kissinger went to China and opened relations with that nation.

It was all meant to be about improved prospects for peace, and communism and capitalism coming together in friendship and all that rubbish.

That was what it was promoted as, at least.

But that was just a cover.

The hostilities between China and the US were a fake state of affairs, drummed up by the rich bankers of the west with their big media machines. The rich bankers knew they could turn off the hostilities any time they wanted to. The spigot could be turned up if it was convenient to them, and turned down if it was convenient to them.

It had been convenient for a long time to maintain hostilities but this was not the case any longer.

The rich bankers wanted to make more money and they had an idea how they could do that, and so it was time to turn the spigot down.

And of course, the Chinese responded as they knew they would. The Chinese nation's hostility was just a reactionary one to the Americans' hostility. The Chinese had no reason to have friction with the Americans but the Americans had been threatening their nation ever since it had become a communist nation so that the Chinese had no choice but to keep up a wall of hostility and suspicion against the US.

So relations thawed considerably. And the bankers had been successful in the opening gambit of their play.

So it was with full knowledge afore that the rich bankers of America made this deal with China - knowledge of the fact that in making this deal, the bankers were stabbing Americans in the back.

The rich bankers feel little loyalty to America, BTW. If you look at their origins and movements throughout the centuries, you will see that they have moved around a lot, from one old Rome to another new Rome. And most of the time, they have left Old Rome in tatters, in financial ruin, and at the bankers' enrichment.

They just shed one skin for another.

This time they had American skin on but America's time was up ever since the bankers made that deal, and the bankers knew it.

And so how to deal with all the inevitable criticisms about this deal? And the movement of capital and factories to China? Just call it globalization and make out that EVERYONE benefits.

In other words, lie to the people. Cover up the fact that the deal benefits the rich bankers and to a lesser extent, the slave minions of the Chinese factories, and hurts Americans.

And the media colluded with the bankers in the cover up. They would of course as the media is OWNED by the bankers.

The media is just their spokespeople in effect.

And also a few key economists espousing the globalization message were groomed and feted and lionized to keep the people fooled about a trade deal that would ultimately see them lose their jobs and become completely bankrupt.

And now the scales are starting to fall from the American people's eyes. Even those in the state of greatest denial cannot help but see the economic situation is rapidly worsening, notwithstanding the periodic bouts of optimism the controlled media reports.

They cannot help noticing that Joe Blow down the road has lost his job, and Sally Blow has lost her home, and so on. These things bring the truth home to the people.

The bankers do not care. They knew that the American economy would end up being ruined. They have made their packet and it's time to move on to healthier hunting grounds. If the media and Obama, another of their pawns, can spin it a bit longer, good. If not, it's not a disaster. You can't keep a state bankruptcy under wraps for ever. The rich bankers knew that the truth would out one of these days. And it looks like the spin is going their way in one respect. The Chinese are getting full media attention and the little people are also jumping on the "Blame China" train. The rich bankers are getting scant attention as the real cause of the Americans' pain, the evil genius so to speak behind the plan that has created America's economic disaster. The Chinese are actually pawns, to be used up as slave labor temporarily, and to become the New Rome for a while, until they too are ceremoniously dumped by the bankers. And there are also endless possibilities with the climate of animosity between jobless Americans and the Chinese. Perhaps a war? Hmmm.... some profit could be made there? It could also prove to be a distraction, no?

It was part of the plan, a known outcome of the deal - a deal entered into with full aforethought of malice.

But it wasn't really malice. The bankers didn't have anything against the American people. The American people were just useless to the bankers at this point in time as workers and were only good to them as consumers. So the Chinese became the workers and the Americans were the consumers, and the rich bankers got the biggest piece of the profit pie.

And so turns the harsh wheel of evolution. The bankers, small in number, outwitted the vast numbers of the American people. But that is the way in the natural world. The predators are small in number but they feed at the expense of the more numerous prey.

The American people fell for the trap and did not wake in time to see how the bankers were tricking them into being pawns - into being used to make money for the bankers. The American people did not see that their accumulated wealth over the past three centuries was being systematically stripped by the bankers until ... until they had nothing left.

It was almost a painless process in a way. Americans gorged themselves in the process of being consumers. But it was not for their gain that they were fed that way. It was for the bankers' gain, much as hogs are fattened up for slaughter.

Now it is 'slaughter time'. And Americans are going under one by one.

And their general ignorance means that most of them go to their deaths not knowing how their demise was engineered and who was behind it.fo

biguru says "Parasites" on 10/26/09
Industrial production will return to the USA shortly after the collapse of the USD.

Yes, that is the only way. But it will be a tough road ahead. That is because, we are top heavy in the consumption side. Our Consumption based Doctors, Lawyers earn $500K, while our Production base Engineers make $40K a year. Even in some places, our Policemen (another Consumption) make $90K a year.

We are the only Industrialized country where this disparity exists between Consumption-based workers and the Production-based workers. Unless that changes, it is highly unlikely we will go anywhere and be able to compete in the world fairly.

guest says "Bunk..." on 10/26/09
We rebuilt Japan after WWll and we built China by trading with them. I'm tired of reading how brilliant THEY Are. It's a joke.

These book smart academics think money has some national loyalty.

Industrial production will return to the USA shortly after the collapse of the USD.

biguru says "News" on 10/26/09
Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar weakened against the euro and the yen as Asian stocks gained on signs the global economy is recovering, reducing demand for the greenback as a refuge.

Looks like if our economy does not improve, Dollar will decline and Wal-Mart will be expensive to shop on top of Oil Price hike. Talk about between a rock and hard place.

And our Government is doing what now?

guest says "u.S. Economic war's" on 10/25/09
I'm Sooo Very glad I don't have any Children because of the economic condition of "Our" country? Thank You President Ronald Reagan, May Your soul Rot in Hell for Ever!!!!.

guest says "welfare system for LAZY people" on 10/25/09
The single mother has become a a weapon of financial mass destruction. Not just for the benefits, it's also the army of social workers baby sitting the dysfunctional familes. Than some of their children become a problem in the schools and many end up being a criminal justice system problem.
The cost of the nanny state & it's employee's is part of what is killing this country.

If parents or a parent doesn't earn enough to support a child or children, the kids should be sent to a boarding school year round and the parents should pay the state child support. Not just while their child is under 18, for life until they have paid the bill or as much of it as they could and no retiring at 65 and getting social security until their debt to society is paid or they are 80 years old or physically unable to work.

All tax breaks people get for having children should be eliminated and all the frills at the schools should be removed from school budgets and made part of parks & recreation and see if people are still willing to support multimillion dollar sporting activities at schools. I bet no other country pays a gym teacher as much as a physics teacher.

The teachers unions an organisations should be outlawed. The state & federal departments of education should be eliminated along with all education money coming from higher levels of government, it should only be collected at county level an used within the county.

Instead of rent assistance, male & female dormitories should be built for people down & out with mean house rules. No visitors, 8pm curfew unless they work 2nd or 3rd shift, drug & booze testing. No cable TV, cell phones or other frills allowed. Anyone who gets thrown out for breaking the rules should be subject to be arrested for vagrancy if they can't find somebody to put a roof over their head and put up with them.

No other country is running a Jerry Springer society like this country is.

guest says "Unfettered capitalism" on 10/25/09
A corporation has ONLY one obligation--to preserve and enhance shareholder value. We are told that unfettered capitalism is essential to our democracy, and the ignorant believe it.

biguru says "Social Welfare in Japan" on 10/25/09
Social welfare, assistance for the ill or otherwise disabled and for the old, has long been provided in Japan by both the government and private companies. Beginning in the 1920s, the government enacted a series of welfare programs, based mainly on European models, to provide medical care and financial support. Government expenditures for all forms of social welfare increased from 6% of the national income in the early 1970s, to 18% in 1989. The mixture of public and private funding have created complex pension and insurance systems. But a much older tradition calls for support within the family and the local community, and this is one of the reasons why Japanese society is the way it is.

The futures of Japan's health and welfare systems are being shaped by the rapid aging of the population (see Elderly people in Japan). Medical insurance, health care for the elderly, and public health expenses constituted about 60% of social welfare and social security costs in 1975, while government pensions accounted for 20%. By the early 1980s, pensions accounted for nearly 50% of social welfare and social security expenditures because people were living longer after retirement. A fourfold increase in workers' individual contributions was projected by the twenty-first century.

One thing for sure, Japanese do not spend a lot in Wars these days nor pay their Doctors half a million a year or pay hundred million to financial brokers.

guest says "The fundamental thing that the author overlooks" on 10/24/09
as the reason for Japan's and China's economic successes is that they do not have a welfare system for LAZY people. I have said this many times in comments and I will say it again.

It is the US supporting LAZY people that is hurting the US.

You look at Japan and China. They have very different social systems on the surface. But in many ways they are the same. Japan is a capitalist country but unlike the nations of the west such as the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and the nations of western Europe, it does not have a welfare system, or the welfare system it has is very rudimentary compared to the ones that exist in the west.

The implications of this are that if you do not work (or study hard) because you are lazy you had better have wealthy parents otherwise you are going to starve.

There is NO such thing as a single-parent welfare support. Can't take care of your children because you have no money? Put them in an orphanage. That's the way it works. Needless to say, most people in Japan and similar countries try not to have children if they have no income. Children represent a burden to these people.

As for China, many people would say that its system is the polar opposite of Japan's. Actually, it isn't. In communist China (not so much nowadays), EVERYONE had benefits from the government. But it wasn't on a per needs basis. The benefits were doled out more or less equally to everyone. What that meant was that there was less to go around. It was very thinly spread, though it was evenly spread.

This fact of the universality of the benefits puts a check on people using the benefits to live life on the hog. Life was still a struggle. There was no such thing as the government giving more benefits to someone because he or she had more children. It didn't work out that way. I am talking about before the one-child policy came into effect. In Vietnam, which is communist, it is a burden to have a large number of children because the benefits are so small and having a large family means that the benefits get more thinly spread among family members.

And also under the communist system, there is less exploitation or less 'unfairness' if you like, than under the welfare systems of the west, as EVERYBODY gets the same benefits. It is not a case of X working and getting no benefits, and Y not working and getting all the benefits, as happens in the west.

So the outcome of these social systems in Japan and China is that the LAZY people do not reproduce as much as the HARDWORKING people do. There is a check on lazy people to prevent them from reproducing in the systems that operate in Japan and China.

As a result, the hardworking and productive flourish and the lazy and nonproductive drop in number. And you get a society or a nation that reflects this. The nation becomes a hardworking and productive one as a whole.

Compare this to the west. In the west, under the welfare systems, lazy people are rewarded for reproducing. The more they reproduce the more they are rewarded. They do not suffer hardship from having large families - in fact, having a larger family brings more wealth. Benefits go up commensurately with the number of children.

Conversely, the hardworking and productive people are punished financially for reproducing. They have to support their families by themselves as well as support a number of single-parent welfare families. This means there is a check on these hardworking people reproducing.

As a consequence, lazy people flourish and hardworking people become smaller in number relative to them.

And the nation becomes a lazy and nonproductive one. (A nation's characteristics reflect the stock of the people.)

So is it any wonder that America has become the embarrassing trashheap of a country that it has become?

You encourage the lazy to multiply, and you will get more of them.

It may be that the US has passed the point of no return, and the number of lazy people has passed the threshold beyond which the country becomes irrevocably ruined. The nature of the people of the country has permanently changed and so the destiny of the nation has been shaped.

guest says "Oh, come on ........" on 10/24/09
No one has been attacking America. America has ruined itself purely through its own efforts.

I am sick of the supposition that China and Japan and to a smaller extent South Korea has been committing a stealthy economic jihad against America.

Stop being so paranoid.

Nobody put a gun to America's head and made it open relations with China.

In fact, if anything, AMERICA is the one putting guns to other nations' heads and telling them, "Turn capitalist or else!" See Korea, Vietnam etc.

And now that some nations have decided to trade with America, and are BEATING them at the game, Americans whine that these nations are colluding to undermine America's economy.

Let's examine what these countries are doing. They are offering cheaper prices - for their labor, for the cost of manufacturing goods over there - this is an accepted capitalist/market strategy - check.

These countries are also try to increase their market share - this is an accepted capitalist strategy - check.

These countries also try to create a monopoly - this is an accepted market strategy - check.

These countries try to undercut their competitors by using dumping strategies - a market strategy - check.

These countries try to manipulate their currencies to sell more of their products - a capitalist market strategy - check.

And so on ....

These countries are doing no less than what a student studying Business Strategy 101 in business school would be taught.

The nations are independent nations. They can set their currencies to any level they feel like. The governments of these countries can support any industries they want to. They can set the wages of the workers to any level they want to.

Just what does America think it is? That everyone should bend over backwards to please them? Just because the low currency rates of some of these nations mean that the American dollar is high in contrast and hurts American exports, does that mean the nations that set their currencies low should increase their value?

No, it doesn't. It means that Americans should devalue THEIR currency.

When you think about it, just a few decades ago, Americans were killing people by the millions for not being capitalist. (See Korea and Vietnam.)

And now they are bellyaching that the capitalist actions of some countries are hurting them.

It seems that you can't please Americans.

Americans are arrogant. They think that if something is wrong, everyone around them should change while Americans just stay the same. It is actually the other way around. If something is wrong, Americans should change.

And the comment that Japan and China operate their economies in a warlike way is very laughable.

REALLY.

Which country has been carrying on wars genociding people because they didn't like the economic systems of these people? And the same country in question is still carrying on, waging wars in a few other countries even as we speak.

I don't see Japan and China attacking any other nations at the moment.

Yes, China and Japan protect the interests of their respective nations as a whole but that is what nations SHOULD be doing.

Once again, if the US is not doing what it should be doing, don't blame other countries for doing what is right and normal; look at itself to see why it's not happening in the US, and change whatever needs to be changed to get the system back working properly again.

The US is so arrogant and ignorant, as I have said in a comment on another article.

guest says "Some good points and some typical responses " on 10/24/09
Don't buy Chinese or Japanese products. Impose tariffs to imported goods, kick foreigners out. The Chinese manipulated their currency. These are typical responses from the US. All these are not going to solve the US problems. Even if all these happen, the US is still lose the economic war and probably ends up worse. The US needs to look into themselves
and fix their problems otherwise the US is bound to fail. I suggest the US study about Germany as how a country can have a strong currency and highly skilled workers yet able to maintain their industry and export
their products worldwide as well as able to rebound back from the economic crisis so quickly.

guest says "Some good points and some typical responses " on 10/24/09
Don't buy Chinese or Japanese products. Impose tariffs to imported goods, kick foreigners out. The Chinese manipulated their currency. These are typical responses from the US. All these are not going to solve the US problems. Even if all these happen, the US is still lose the economic war and probably ends up worse. The US needs to look into themselves
and fix their problems otherwise the US is bound to fail. I suggest the US study about Germany as how a country can have a strong currency and highly skilled workers yet able to maintain their industry and export
their products worldwide as well as able to rebound back from the economic crisis so quickly.

guest says "Thomas Heffner: The USA is a defeated nation." on 10/24/09
WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US. Albert the Alligator said this to Pogo 50 years ago. Only Mr. Heffner says it better.

guest says "this article" on 02/09/09
this article is actually right

guest says "SOLUTION! " on 02/03/09
MAKE IT COMPULSORY TO BUY STUFF MADE IN USA.
KICK OUT PEOPLE WHO ARE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
DONT EMPLOY PEOPLE FROM ABROAD NO MORE H1 VISAS!
LESS CITIZENSHIPS GIVEN TO PEOPLE
HIGHER SCHOOL TUTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS CASH ON EDUCATION
HIGHER PRICES ON INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

guest says "Perspective" on 01/17/09
Let us have some perspective here.

2007 US_Imports US_Export (in $Billions)
China 321 65
Canada 313 248
Mexico 210 * 136
India 24 18

Includes oil import
Why are we importing Billions of stuff anyway? Can not make it at home?

glen says "No, we need white-collar jobs as well" on 01/17/09
I don't see why all products must be made in the United States--how would we pay for the federal government then, if we could not rely on the revenue tariff that Alexander Hamilton designated us to use for that purpose? You need imports--of both products and services--to pay the taxes. The free trade alternative of relying on income taxes and domestic taxes on our own manufacturing to pay for government ends up being just reverse protectionism--artificially hiking the cost of domestic products in order to keep foreign-made products tax-free and hence cheap.

India is just really a leech on the United States--it replaces our own technical workers both by our outsourcing to them, and insourcing via replacing Americans with H1-B's visas. They rely on their much lower cost of employment (and due to the work obligations of the H1-B's visas, indentured servant status of their workers) to do to our white-collar jobs what China does to our blue-collar ones.

biguru says "A Solution" on 01/17/09
Increase balanced trade between India and USA 30 fold. That act itself will solve our crisis. We need manufacturing, They have service. This is a complimentary activity. But make sure our American companies do not just buy from China and Sell it to India. All products must be made in the USA. This would benefit both countries fast.

biguru says "Tariffs" on 01/15/09
Tariffs on imported goods do not always gain a nation as seems to be assumed too many times.

Radiation treatment is done to save lives knowing it is a poison too. Tariffs are only necessary in the present condition. Then balanced trade should be resumed. The better choice is trade surplus like Germany, Japan, Korea, China etc. If you can have trade surplus withour tariffs, that would be ideal. Are we smart enough?


guest says "Tariffs" on 01/15/09
Tariffs on imported goods do not always gain a nation as seems to be assumed too many times. What tariffs do, even considering the US is a large influential state is increase consumer prices, so part of the money the government will get in tariffs are just paid by the consumers. Hopefully it will drive the world price of the goods down so a part can be a gain for the government, but then still, that part needs to outweigh the producer and cosumer distortion loss. Foreign producers of the good, if any, can increase their production because of the higher price, but that's barely beneficial, cause increasing their production require scarce resources, that could have been invested in more useful and more beneficial sectors for which the US can still have comparative advantage.

guest says "Manufacturing" on 01/08/09
The American Society for Quality has learned that when it comes to kids’ dream jobs, engineering is not on the list. An overwhelming 85 percent of youth say they are not interested in a future engineering career, according to a recent survey of youth and adults conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of ASQ.

“The shortage of 70,000 engineers by 2010 will likely cause less focus on innovation toward quality as well as aging and outdated standards,” said Cheryl Birdsong-Dyer, ASQ member and process engineer. “In addition, knowledge transfer from retiring engineers to incoming engineers will continue to weaken threatening progress. This will increase infrastructure costs for generations to come.”


Too bad, our lawyer politicians are oblivious to this.

guest says "Asian backstabbing protectionism isn't free trade" on 01/08/09
I'm a fiscal republican, or a centrist as it's called and I have a huge problem with the incompetant blind parrots from the far right defending this. I'm calling out Clinton supporters as well as Bush supporters synchopants who defend this incompetance.

This isn't free trade if Asia isn't participating in free trade. America needs to handle that situation differently than the other countries who returned the trade sentiment with us.

1. The old white xenophobic, nationalist arrogant conservatives INCLUDING CLINTONITES defend the trade with China because China will have to buy from us.

WRONG!!
They bought their commoditiies from Australia and everyone else but the U.S. They counterfeited our goods. They get our money, they don't necessarily like us.

2. The old white xenophobic, nationalist arrogant conservatives INCLUDING CLINTONITES defend the trade with China devaluing our currency because a lower currency will make U.S. products more marketable to the world.

WRONG!!
-China refuses to raise the value of their currency. They refuse to allow inflation to reflect the economic growth in their country. Their lower currency value is their competative edge in global trade.
-the rest of the world is following the U.S. and keeping the U.S. Dollar as the reserve currency for the same reasons, THE WORLD WANTS THE US DOLLAR TO REMAIN STRONGER THAN THEIRS because we have had the purchasing power.

Truth be told, our xenophobic, old white arrogant nationalist leaders in both the democratic and republican parties are dumbed down by their superiority complex, so much that they don't know how to market to asia. Or that they don't know that they can't market to asia.

The true test is to mass produce made in the U.S. slot machines, let Clinton personally sign them and market them to China. If China doens't buy, then they're not going to buy anything else. Market education to them. If they don't buy that, they won't buy anything else.

Asians value family, face, education and gambing above all else. If we don't market with this accomidation, we can't export to them. If we do and they don't buy, they're just not going to buy period.

It's time to protect America's internal markets from this. Not doing so will destroy America's economy altogether.

guest says "re: "Misleading"" on 12/12/08
You have obviously never been to Japan. It is true these countries rely on the $700 billion we send them each year as payment for the junk they make for us, but that is the point, we don't make things for our selves. If we made our own stuff we could send them loans or aid if they still needed it. The "global economy" is killing the US. This site seems to focus on the blue color worker, but the truth is that the white color workers are ALSO getting outsourced. It is a lose-lose situation. No one comes to the US to eat at McDonald's or shop at Wal-Mart. How will we make money if that is all we do? I doubt we will make it as the hamburger exporters for the world. The way things are going we will be exporting all the rich people as they start fleeing the country soon.

guest says "Misleading" on 12/12/08
First of all ... after World War II, the United States emerged as the hegemon and sent millions of dollars to both Europe and Asia to rebuild those war-torn nations. From this, the Japanese economy began to emerge from American support and spending, but this economy was not a model of freedom towards its citizens. It created a system of forced savings and government oversights favoring selected enterprises. As Americans, we maintained many liberties while the Japanese lost a myriad of those at the cost of their economy -- which is still dependent upon the American and no better-off. Japanese work days are longer than Americans -- at average 16 hours -- and they do not return home but sleep in the office or a small and tedious hotel in close proximity to the office so that they can be more productive to society. Many Japanese face this conundrum of forced state productivity at the cost of personal privileges. China's problems are quickly becoming evident.

China has never emerged in modern times as a superpower and should not be considered as a potential or true threat to the American lifestyle, future, or prosperity. China's weaknesses' have been exposed by the American downturn. Its economy is shrinking, it cannot afford to buy American treasury, both its export and manufacturing sectors are plummeting and as a nation of more than one billion people, many are poor and do not except the laissez faire economy that is failing. China remains a nation that possess a small upper class, almost absent middle class and a massive poor collective that often rebels in mutiny against the status quo. Worker repression, genocide, infant homicide remain among the many injustices that quickly propelled China into its short lived status as a major world hegemon. As history has ALWAYS shown, when the an almost absent middle class exists, the nation is destined for failure. Which is why the United States still holds the upper-hand on both China and Japan.

As much as the American middle class may be failing, it is not repressed, or mandated to save a certain quota of its paycheck, as the socialist states of China and Japan demand of their citizens. Both of these nations were -- and still are -- reliant on American funding, importing and exporting to sustain their economies. As witnessed currently, it becomes heir apparent that as America fails, so does China and Japan. We cannot compare our economy to these nations and judge winners and losers solely upon monetary denominations, but it must also be judged upon civil liberties and equality -- traits lacking in the far eastern nations.

guest says "In addition to re-regulating financial corporations and banks..." on 12/08/08
In addition to re-regulating financial corporations and banks, politicians need to do the following: First, repeal all sales taxes and replace the lost revenue with an import tax/tariff on imported labor and manufactured goods. Repeal all local tax incentives that shift business costs to taxpayers and that create poverty wage jobs; or change these incentives to pay a living wage, minimum wage of $14/hour (parent with one child). Second, enact a windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies; but, rebate this money through tax incentives for drilling and building refineries (including ethanol ones in other countries) as well as eliminating the $.54/gallon import tax on sugar cane ethanol. This strategy will slow these companies from using excess profits to enrich executives and to buy company stock. Third, increase taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations (eliminating corporate welfare and tax loopholes) to pay for the Wall Street bailout, the Iraq war and to pump more oil in Iraq for export. These strategies will lower the $11 TRILLION taxpayer debt leading to a stronger dollar that will reduce inflation and increase the number of good paying jobs with benefits for American citizens.

guest says "Free Trade and the Decline of the British Empire" on 12/07/08
Here are some exerpts from an interesting read I found about the decline of the British Empire and free trade:


"Britain's domestic agriculture and farmers were ruined by the loss of the Corn Laws protectionism. Irish farmers were emiserated, as their largest export market suddenly lowered food prices drastically, as a result of Corn Law repeal. The mass starvation and emigration of Irish peasants and their families in the late 1840's - the tragic Irish Potato Famine of 1845-6 and its aftermath - was a direct consequence of this "free trade" policy of Britain. England's prior policy toward Ireland prohibited development of a strong self-sufficient manufacture, demanding it remain the economically captive bread basket to supply England's needs. Now that bread basket itself was destroyed in pursuit of the fictional free trade. "

---

"In effect, repeal of Corn Laws protectionism opened the floodgates throughout the British Empire to a "cheap labor policy." The only ones to benefit, following an initial surge of cheap food prices in England, were the giant international London trading houses, and the merchant banks which financed them. The class separations of British society were aggravated by a growing separation of a tiny number of very wealthy from the growing masses of very poor, as a lawful consequence of "free trade."

---

"The Great Depression of 1873

However, as a direct consequence of this British free trade transformation, a deep economic depression began by the early 1870's in England following a financial panic. The Free Trade doctrine had been premised on the assumption that British influence could ensure that same dogma would become economic policy in all of the world's major trading nations. That homogeneity was never achieved."

---

"The Bank of England, a private holding controlled not by the Government at the time, but rather by the financial interests of the City, realized that if it merely raised its central bank discount or interest rate to a sufficiently high level, relative to rates in competing trading countries, which might be draining Britain's gold reserves at any time, then the drain would cease, and, if rates were driven sufficiently high, gold would eventually flow back into the banks of the City of London from Berlin, New York, Paris, or Moscow.

This interest rate policy was a powerful weapon in central banking, which gave the Bank of England a decisive advantage over rivals. No matter that the usuriously high interest rates created devastating depressions in British manufacture or agriculture. The dominant faction in British economic policy, increasingly after the 1846 Corn Laws repeal, was not industry or agriculture, but finance and international trade. In order to ensure the supremacy of British international banking, those bankers were willing to sacrifice domestic industry and investment, much as happened in the United States after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in the 1960's.

But the consequences of this new Bank of England interest rate policy for British industry came home with a vengeance when the Great Depression hit Britain in 1873, and lasted until 1896.

The lack of capital investment into British manufactures was already evident at the International Exhibition of 1867. Products from entirely new manufactures of machinery, even textiles from Germany and elsewhere, clearly overshadowed the stagnant technological levels of British manufacturing, the world leader only two decades earlier. British exports of iron, steel, coal, and other products declined in this period. It was a turning point in British history which signalled that the onset of "free trade" some three decades earlier, with repeal of the Corn Laws, had doomed English industrial technology to decadance in order for financial interests to assume supremacy in the affairs of the Empire.

The period of Britain's easy leadership among the world's industrial nations was clearly over by the 1890's.

The free trade dogma of 19th Century British Empire, and its Malthusian rationalizations, were doomed to fail eventually. Its foundation was cannibalization of the economies of increasing parts of the globe in order to survive. Only a quarter century after the repeal of the Corn Laws, the British Empire sank into the worst and longest economic depression of its history."

Source - http://mailstar.net/engdahl.html

Hmmm... What will happen to the US if it goes the way of free trade? Who's benefitting from free trade?

guest says "NO MORE IMPORTS!" on 12/07/08
Our government has let us down. We need to look to ourselves for the answer. We should start by throwing all the imports into the sea until tariffs are re-established. Only then can we start to rebuild.

guest says "good news for those in low places" on 12/07/08
doom and gloom gets people off who are not doing well, the tens of thousnds of americns who re millionaires arent worried.

this is propaganda, usa will alwys rule and find a fix

u can argue all u want, u can predict the future and what actions the greatest nation in the world will take to stay ontop, my money says we do whatever it tkes. good luck japan and china, hope we dont hve to go nuke on anyone again

guest says "Blame everyone else" on 12/06/08
Hi,

It is so easy to blame everyone else (somewhat xenophobic and small minded) - in reality the US has shot itself in the foot. Many of the structural problems (hollowing out of manufacturing for instance) in the US economy arose from policy decisions that stretch back to the Regan years. The unfettered leading in the housing sector and removal of lending controls - for instance the repeal of Glass-Segal Act allowed commercial banks, insurance companies, investment backs, etc, all to play in the same pond has also triggered the current situation. There has been nothing to prevent the US adopting a national approach as in the case of many other countries - except an irrational belief in something called 'free market'. This is a mythical thing and the US is paying for not understanding that the state and commerce need to work together to achieve national objectives.

guest says "Great article! You summed it up. Your statements in bold say it all. " on 12/06/08
"If this is not immediately implemented, we must resign ourselves as a defeated and conquered nation.
Living as a foreign owned colony, controlled and managed by foreign interests for their benefit, and we
as their subjects.


Great article! You summed it up. Your statements in bold say it all.

I guess that I will learn what is was like for my European ancestors who were serfs in the feudal system.
Life was not "good" for them. They knew "full well" what slavery was all about: oppression and poverty,
with no rights as human beings. (If they knew what we are doing to ourselves they would have to think
that Americans are the dumbest people on the face of the earth.)

Yesterday I called my two Democratic US Senators and my Democratic Representative as well as a US
Republican Representative in a district close to mine, as I do several times per week. I also call other US
Congressmen and talk to friends, acquaintances, and strangers. I personally think that we are going
(gone) under, since the American people and their representatives don't seem to care as long as they
can buy foreign goods for less money and get elected. It is ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE! Americans
don't get it. They just don't get it! My eight year old grandson could figure it out! I keep trying to wake
people up, but it is "real" late.

The question for me is will we follow the Weimar Republic into oblivion and get a leader like the Germans
got? What are Americans thinking about? Or are they thinking? There has to be something in the water.

The pain of seeing our country disappear is constant. The pain never goes away. We are talking about
country!

guest says "ECONOMICS WAR" on 12/06/08
BLAME THE REPUBLICANS,DEMOCRATS, THE CEOS OF THESE COMPANIES IN THE USA AND THE GOVERNMENT FOR LETTING THIS HAPPEN, THE GREED FACTOR TOOK THEM DOWN,I BELIEVE THE CONSTITUTION SAYS FOR THE PEOPLE, CHINA AND JAPAN GOT IT AND ARE TAKING CARE OF THEIR PEOPLE, WE HAVE OUR GOVERNMENT AND GREEDY CEOS SCREWING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC,TAKE A LOOK AROUND,BANKRUPTIES, PLANT CLOSINGS, LAYOFFS, FORECLOSURES, BUSINESSES CLOSING AND THE GREEDY PIGS ARE BACK AT THE TROUGH LOOKING FOR MORE OUT OF A DECIMATED AMERICAN PUBLIC,MORE MONEY FOR THEIR POCKETS,JUST PLAIN AND SIMPLE GREED,I KNOW WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SAY TO THESE PEOPLE, BUT IM JUST NOT A PIG