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Machine tools are machines which make other machines and are vital to national security, unless of course, you imagine that buying chips, steel and other things for the nation's defense from Red China is actually a good thing.

From the link:

"American factories produced 17% less in 2001 than in the previous year. Moreover, consumption fell 21% placing the U.S. out of first position as leading consumer for the first time since 1993. Production and output are not likely to turn around quickly, since orders, as tracked by the U.S. Machine Tool Consumption (USMTC) series of survey showed 2001 down 34% in orders compared to the year before. Those order levels, in fact, posted a 55% decline from their peak in 1997. "

All that adds up to a horrific decline in productivity. One can't produce unless one has the tools to produce with. Simultaneously, lots of foreigners are brought in to work at lower wages while Americans get the heave-ho. This creates a disincentive for Americans to go into those formerly well paying fields. We then wonder why there is a recession when lots of people are unemployed or scared about their jobs and hang on to their wallets with both fists.

It is apparent to me that you, like the other "free traders" around here, have forgotten a basic fact: regular folks, who make up the economy, can't buy stuff unless they make money, and they can't make any money unless they make stuff to sell. Rock music, cheeseburger franchises, and software just don't cut it.