[FITZ]

Uneducated workers are fighting for their drill press jobs, and refuse to seek other means of earning wages.

Okay ---we should hope they starve to death but why aren't the 401K plans and the stock markets doing well? You'd think the stock market would be bursting through the top if free trade was working as it was claimed it would.

[Texaggie79]

The stock market is it's own beast. As evidence has shown, any government tampering has hindered it.

What is happening in the market now is a correction from the past several years of overvaluation. Government policy can do nothing to prevent that, or help it.

If investors are going to buy into the hype and invest their money in an overvalued market, they take the risk of loss.

[Protagoras]

why aren't the 401K plans and the stock markets doing well? You'd think the stock market would be bursting through the top if free trade was working as it was claimed it would.

In the first place as many here have pointed out, there is no "free" trade. And the outcome is proportional to the amount of interference.

Secondly, check out the time frame when the so called "free trade" agreements went into full effect and then check the level of the stock market then and compare it to now. You might be surprised at the results, even given the largest stock market crash since the depression.