Wal-Mart shoppers fund communist China nuclear programs. And Wal-Mart's disrespect for our immigration laws is sickening as well.
Posted on 02/15/2006 10:42:45 AM PST by SirLinksalot
Our hollow prosperity
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Posted: February 15, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
PATRICK BUCHANAN
© 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.
Now that the U.S. trade deficit for 2005 has come in at $726 billion, the fourth straight all-time record, a question arises.
What constitutes failure for a free-trade policy? Or is there no such thing? Is free trade simply right no matter the results?
Last year, the United States ran a $202 billion trade deficit with China, the largest ever between two nations. We ran all-time record trade deficits with OPEC, the European Union, Japan, Canada and Latin America. The $50 billion deficit with Mexico was the largest since NAFTA passed and also the largest in history.
When NAFTA was up for a vote in 1993, the Clintonites and their GOP fellow-travelers said it would grow our trade surplus, raise Mexico's standard of living and reduce illegal immigration.
None of this happened. Indeed, the opposite occurred. Mexico's standard of living is lower than it was in 1993, the U.S. trade surplus has vanished, and America is being invaded. Mexico is now the primary source of narcotics entering the United States.
Again, when can we say a free-trade policy has failed?
The Bushites point proudly to 4.6 million jobs created since May 2003, a 4.7 percent unemployment rate and low inflation.
Unfortunately, conservative columnist Paul Craig Roberts and analysts Charles McMillion and Ed Rubenstein have taken a close look at the figures and discovered that the foundation of the Bush prosperity rests on rotten timber.
The entire job increase since 2001 has been in the service sector – credit intermediation, health care, social assistance, waiters, waitresses, bartenders, etc. – and state and local government.
But, from January 2001 to January 2006, the United States lost 2.9 million manufacturing jobs, 17 percent of all we had. Over the past five years, we have suffered a net loss in goods-producing jobs.
"The decline in some manufacturing sectors has more in common with a country undergoing saturation bombing than with a super-economy that is 'the envy of the world,'" writes Roberts.
Communications equipment lost 43 percent of its workforce. Semiconductors and electronic components lost 37 percent ... The workforce in computers and electronic products declined 30 percent. Electrical equipment and appliances lost 25 percent of its workforce.
How did this happen? Imports. The U.S. trade deficit in advanced technology jobs in 2005 hit an all-time high.
As for the "knowledge industry" jobs that were going to replace blue-collar jobs, it's not happening. The information sector lost 17 percent of all its jobs over the last five years.
In the same half-decade, the U.S. economy created only 70,000 net new jobs in architecture and engineering, while hundreds of thousands of American engineers remain unemployed.
If we go back to when Clinton left office, one finds that, in five years, the United States has created a net of only 1,054,000 private-sector jobs, while government added 1.1 million. But as many new private sector jobs are not full-time, McMillion reports, "the country ended 2005 with fewer private sector hours worked than it had in January 2001."
This is an economic triumph?
Had the United States not created the 1.4 million new jobs it did in health care since January 2001, we would have nearly half a million fewer private-sector jobs than when Bush first took the oath.
Ed Rubenstein of ESR Research Economic Consultants looks at the wage and employment figures and discovers why, though the Bushites were touting historic progress, 55 percent of the American people in a January poll rated the Bush economy only "fair" or "poor."
Not only was 2005's growth of 2 million jobs a gain of only 1.5 percent, anemic compared to the average 3.5 percent at this stage of other recoveries, the big jobs gains are going to immigrants.
Non-Hispanic whites, over 70 percent of the labor force, saw only a 1 percent employment increase in 2005. Hispanics, half of whom are foreign born, saw a 4.7 percent increase. As Hispanics will work for less in hospitals and hospices, and as waiters and waitresses, they are getting the new jobs.
But are not wages rising? Nope. When inflation is factored in, the Economic Policy Institute reports, "real wages fell by 0.5 percent over the last 12 months after falling 0.7 percent the previous 12 months."
If one looks at labor force participation – what share of the 227 million potential workers in America have jobs – it has fallen since 2002 for whites, blacks and Hispanics alike. Non-Hispanic whites are down to 63.4 percent, but black Americans have fallen to 57.7 percent.
What is going on? Hispanic immigrants are crowding out black Americans in the unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled job market. And millions of our better jobs are being lost to imports and outsourcing.
The affluent free-traders, whose wealth resides in stocks in global companies, are enriching themselves at the expense of their fellow citizens and sacrificing the American worker on the altar of the Global Economy.
None dare call it economic treason.
So, keep your UNION dollars where they belong....in the UNION!>>>>>>>>>
I have tried to make some sense out of this rave and I decided that you apparently think that I belong to a labot union. If that is the case you could not possibly be more wrong. I am not going to bother to try to figure out why you think so in the first place.
Hi, you will get absolutely zero argument from me regarding the penny stock promoters. It is the most blatant scam I am aware of in the market, and while professionals can get stuck in them too (I had one do two back-t0-back reverse splits in 2004 with a net reverse split of 1-1,000,000)), I assume the majority of bagholders are either 'players' (gamblers who have a thing for get-rich-quick as an actual possibility and buy penny stocks habitually) and novices who are completely unsuited to be touching a pinksheet/otcbb stock.
While I do trade otcbb/pinkies along with other equitiesw I will make very clear that they are the Wild West, you usually have NO idea if the company is any more than a po box or leased address, many of them exist primarily for the purpose of selling as much stock to the public as they can rather than actually being a bona fide business, and some are simply stock-printing factories where they sell as many touted shares to the public, then reverse split to eliminate overhead and start over again. If you ever let yourself believe ANYTHING about an otcbb/pinkie besides the above, expect to lose 100% of your investment. For this reason I have learned to never ever hold losers with penny stocks because some of them will go literally to zero. I know there are exceptions to this (Ionatron comes to mind) but they are so far and few between that there is no way to plan on it.
IANAL but it is my general understanding that if certain disclosures are made (i.e. paid in shares to promote) that the promoters are operating legally, as baffling as that is. That is not a legal opinion, just an anecdotal observation based on the types of disclosures the touters tend to include and the apparent lack of regulatory interest in them. If I were to speculate on why this goes on, I would offer two ideas - 1) that the total dollar value of pennystock shares sold to the public via stock promoter's touting is a small dollar amount relative to other areas of market concern and 2) maybe there is an attitude that since any industry will have thieves, giving them their own playground keeps them out of the listed stocks where shenanigans are NOT tolerated (anyone remember CAFE?). That last thought is purely speculation.
I don't think it is accurate to judge traders as a group by what is a very small part of the business, but at the same time it is dismaying to know that there are some very wealthy promoters (multi-millionaires) here near where I live sometimes (boca raton) who apparently have no trouble sleeping at night.
As to your general comment on rumors and manipulation, these are aspects of any market, and there are many examples throughout western history of this. Crowd psychology seems to have changed very little over the centuries, with greed and fear continuing to drive and be driven by markets, with the opportunity for some to start rumors or otherwise manipulate markets as real now as it was in the dutch tulip bubble or the south sea bubble of centuries past.
I'm not. My point was that no one wants to be the last one holding the bag of worthless green paper. Eventually the green paper will be traded for American goods or services.
China does spend the money, but it is spent in other countries (not in the US). They spend it on subs, planes, missles, etc. from Russia so that they can reverse engineer it, tweak it and then sell it to other countries. They used some of the money to buy a couple of unmanned helicopters with GPS from Yamaha (who is now in deep wasabi with the Japanese government), which they have used to create their own unmanned helicopters "to fight terrorism" that just happen to look a lot like the Yamaha ones.
That's a real problem that raises issues for prudential judgement. If we restrict trade with China, will the same goods and services simply be traded with other countries? Will they be funneled to the US through other countries? Will a trade embargo provoke a conflict with China? Will trade with the West promote democratic values and habits among the Chinese populace?
actually a lot of promoters do get paid in shares which they must sell in order to have cash to cover their expenses such as postage, printing, google adwords, etc. On some promotions you will see explicit language stating that they were paid xxx# shares which they will need to sell in order to collect their cash to cover their expenses.
contrary to your statement I suspect some promoters actually do buy enough stock to support and paint the tape at close during early parts of their promotions in order to shape the chart up. It does seem to be promoter-specific whether this is done or not.
the stocks he is talking about don't trade on any exchange, unless you call the pinksheets or otcbb an exchange, nor do either of the above have a floor.
These Republicans and Democrats may agree on trade but they differ on a few other minor issues such as foreign policy, the war on terror, abortion, Supreme Court nominees, etc.
Maybe Buchanan thinks that trade is the most important issue but I don't.
"For YOU to claim that the BOILER ROOM guy, who sent you the spam, "owned" the penny stock he wanted you to buy, is patently ridiculous to the nth degree!
You don't understand 1/1,000,000th of what I do about the market and never shall.
"
Ok since you are so knowledgable about penny stock promotion, please enlighten us. why do promoters promote? How are they paid? Please try to include actual information between insults.
Also, is the best you can do is one insult per sentence?
"They are also using the money to buy oil, the Panama canal, etc."
Can you let me know when china bought or is going to buy the panama canal?
FWIW the above is an urban rumor which grossly distorts a fact (the HW lease on balboa.cristobal ports). If you are under the impression that china owns, is going to own, runs, manages, leases, or controls the canal you have been grossly misled.
Wal-Mart shoppers fund communist China nuclear programs. And Wal-Mart's disrespect for our immigration laws is sickening as well.
"Oddly, I see the same thing for anything written by Alan Tonelson, or anything Lou Dobbs says."
Does that include the border issue (Lou Dobbs)?
Just enter in Google the following combinations joined by quotes:
"moral values" - 7,140,000 returns
"aesthetic Values" - 468,000 returns
"spiritual values" - 1,150,000 returns
"economic values" - returns
The above proves that my usage is quite in sync with the general usage.
I am not denying that economic values are real. What I am saying that they are rather of the lower order (utilitarian) and they are the means to the higher values but not the end.
Take this scheme of five levels of values and read the Christmas Carol as a study in them
At couple of jobs in America I was a member of the union. The one benefit I noticed was that management had to treat workers with respect.
Your side is the first to mention Hitler. Does it mean that you have lost the debate?
My theory about business is called Capitalism. What's your's called?
Individuals and businesses make choices all the time to be law abiding, ethical and moral.
If a shoe maker decides to go into the human organ trading business or the drug smuggling business or anything illegal, the have crossed the line into illegality.
If they simply moved their manufacturing facilities to point B, that's their right.
As it is your right to move to Maine or Oregon, but don't murder anyone at either location.
Could you provide some quotes from New Testament too?
If you like watching the left-wing channels, knock yourself out. I've got cable.
nopardons means that only things that can be sold or bought on the market have value. So he might make an exception for the beauty created surgically. Natural beauty has no value for him.
I assume that a splinter from the magic mirror got into his (and other free market worshippers eyes) and maybe in his heart too. Read the story:
FIRST STORY. Which Treats of a Mirror and of the Splinters
Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall know more than we know now: but to begin.
Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite, indeed he was the most mischievous of all sprites. One day he was in a very good humor, for he had made a mirror with the power of causing all that was good and beautiful when it was reflected therein, to look poor and mean; but that which was good-for-nothing and looked ugly was shown magnified and increased in ugliness. In this mirror the most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach, and the best persons were turned into frights, or appeared to stand on their heads; their faces were so distorted that they were not to be recognised; and if anyone had a mole, you might be sure that it would be magnified and spread over both nose and mouth.
"That's glorious fun!" said the sprite. If a good thought passed through a man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed heartily at his clever discovery. All the little sprites who went to his school--for he kept a sprite school--told each other that a miracle had happened; and that now only, as they thought, it would be possible to see how the world really looked. They ran about with the mirror; and at last there was not a land or a person who was not represented distorted in the mirror. So then they thought they would fly up to the sky, and have a joke there. The higher they flew with the mirror, the more terribly it grinned: they could hardly hold it fast. Higher and higher still they flew, nearer and nearer to the stars, when suddenly the mirror shook so terribly with grinning, that it flew out of their hands and fell to the earth, where it was dashed in a hundred million and more pieces.
And now it worked much more evil than before; for some of these pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand, and they flew about in the wide world, and when they got into people's eyes, there they stayed; and then people saw everything perverted, or only had an eye for that which was evil. This happened because the very smallest bit had the same power which the whole mirror had possessed. Some persons even got a splinter in their heart, and then it made one shudder, for their heart became like a lump of ice. Some of the broken pieces were so large that they were used for windowpanes, through which one could not see one's friends. Other pieces were put in spectacles; and that was a sad affair when people put on their glasses to see well and rightly. Then the wicked sprite laughed till he almost choked, for all this tickled his fancy. The fine splinters still flew about in the air: and now we shall hear what happened next.
[...]
(The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen)
Really, please explain.
Very good post.
What many have forgotten is that both sides of the equation have to equal in the end. Many seem to believe that we can play the game forever and all retire rich at 45.
Reality will be a bit different.
Thanks for the post.
Those charts are great.
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