And when China is involved, the dangers are not just commercial. Beijing's strategy to undermine American industry while building up its own manufacturing base also works to shift the balance of power in Asia. So does undermining U.S. finances with the "twin deficits" and beating down neighboring states in trade battles. In the seminal Chinese treatise on modern strategy Unrestricted War by People's Liberation Army Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui published in 1999, the ongoing financial crisis is compared to military conflict: "Economic prosperity that once excited the constant admiration of the Western world changed to a depression, like the leaves of a tree that are blown away in a single night by the autumn wind. After just one round of fighting, the economies of a number of countries had fallen back ten years."
This is precisely their policy and agenda...and ultimately, it will lead to war.
Free Trade blows. It's killing manufacturing, and is now going after the service sector. It almost seems like the wto is the un of trade. Washington is either too stupid or too bought to fairly address trade issues. The middle class has been sold to the lowest bidder - Washington will miss us when we're gone.
This goes to the heart of the issue of the so-called "tax cuts as economic stimulus" policy of the Bush administration.
The personal income tax cuts seen thus far have had a negligible effect on stimulating economic activity. People just know that an extra $300 or $600 in their pocket will in no way offset the loss of a career whose earning power has left the country forever.
Businesses who benefit from somilar cuts are not investing in plant/equipment and hiring staff as they did in the 80s with the Reagan tax cuts. They're slashing their payrolls and offshoring everything they can. How does George W. Bush, in his wildest dreams, think this policy will lead to full employment and economic growth? My guess is he doesn't care. That this policy does what it is intended: to make Dubya's corporate cronies rich beyond the dreams of avarice and to hell with everybody else.
These threads are so similar and so hopeless that I just don't want to read and/or participate in them anymore. I get the picture. It's the sunset of the American dream, and nobody can do a thing about it. I really don't want to participate in the wake anymore.