TRADE DEFICITS AND LOSS OF MANUFACTURING JOBS

HUGE TRADE DEFICITS AND LOSS OF MANUFACTURING JOBS GO HAND IN HAND

Danielle DiMartino has another excellent column in today’s News entitled "Trade deficit pressures our economy." Click here (registration required).

What I found particularly interesting was her quotes from Dallasite Richard Fisher in a speech he gave this week. Fisher is the Dallas Federal Reserve President and former Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Texas. Here is what Fisher had to say about our trade deficit:

"What the numbers tell you is that we are far richer as individuals and as a nation than when we last ran a trade surplus. We are hardly ….. becoming weaker as we have incurred trade deficits."

If you believe those words from Fisher, then I have a bridge to sell you. DiMartino politely demurs from commenting directly on Fisher’s statement, but she does mention the views of the legendary investor Warren Buffett on the trade deficit issue. She agrees with Buffett "who warns that at this rate, the rest of the world will soon own our country. That’s because we have to borrow from other countries to finance the trade deficit. We’re mortgaging the farm an acre at a time, in his words."

I second Buffett’s views. Our huge trade deficits ($726 billion last year) are unsustainable no matter what pretty face Richard Fisher tries to paint on that pig.

If you want to read the views of a "serious economist" on what is happening to the U.S. economy, I urge our readers to read Paul Craig Roberts’ latest column entitled: "Jobs Update: Are You Ready for This?"

As Roberts points out, "U.S. manufacturing lost 2.9 million jobs (over the last five years) almost 17 percent of the manufacturing workforce. The wipeout is across the board. Not a single manufacturing payroll classification created a single new job." To read the full Roberts column, link here.

Republicans and Democrats seem to be locked into a name-calling battle as they fight to put their candidates in office in the next election cycle. Meanwhile, where are the party leaders on either side of the aisle with real solutions to the hollowing out of our manufacturing base and the steady destruction of our middle class?

To repeat what I said as recently as last week on these pages (link here), we had better start paying attention to reforming our business tax system along the lines proposed by Texas businessman David Hartman before it is too late.

>>As Roberts points out, "U.S. manufacturing lost 2.9 million jobs (over the last five years) almost 17 percent of the manufacturing workforce. The wipeout is across the board. Not a single manufacturing payroll classification created a single new job."<

I'm know scholar by any means, but I did hear somewhere, I think a fore father said it... "Without manufacturing, a country is not stable"... somethin like that...

IO think I know of the one you are speaking about. Here's three more.

Without competitive manufacturing a country becomes or stays Third World.

Wealth of a country or a nation is created by manufacturing.

Without manufacturing a country can't be self sustained.

Ya, that's it! I knew I was not imagining things!!