The United States has been engaged in a trade war since the end of World War II. Having the only industry after the World War II, we spread the doctrine of free trade to open markets in Europe and the Pacific. But the most important country in the East, Japan, closed its market, subsidized its manufacture, and sold its exports at cost, making up the profit in the closed market. By 1960 the country was losing a substantial portion of its textile industry and jobs due to the predatory practices of Japan. I testified before the old International Tariff Commission as Governor of South Carolina on behalf of the Northern and Southern textile industries about the loss of jobs and the trade war that ensued. When the Commission ruled against us, President John F. Kennedy, in May 1961, promulgated his seven-point program saving and protecting the textile industry. The War Production Act of 1950 called on the president to ensure that we had the equipment and materiel necessary to the nation's security. President Kennedy called for a cabinet hearing; I helped bring the witnesses, and the hearing concluded that, next to steel, textiles were the most important to our national security. At the time the saying was: "We can't send them to war in Japanese uniforms and Gucci shoes."
Corporate America was fully engaged in this trade war. As a U. S. Senator in 1968, Senator Norris Cotton of New Hampshire co-sponsored my textile amendment to secure better enforcement of our trade laws. And with the help of corporate America, the bill passed the United States Senate on a 68 bi-partisan vote. The White House immediately blocked any consideration of the measure in the House because they knew it would pass overwhelmingly, and President Johnson, not wanting to veto it, thought it more important to spread capitalism against communism in the Cold War. Coached by the Tri-lateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, President Carter vetoed one of my trade bills; President Reagan vetoed two others, and President George Herbert Walker Bush vetoed a fourth. To pass these bills through both Houses of Congress, I had the enthusiastic support of corporate America. But President Clinton went for the money. He put the white tent up on the White House lawn, and the Fortune 500 came with their contributions. A vanguard of Corporate America with labor helped Evelyn Dubrow and me garner the votes to defeat NAFTA with Mexico. But President Clinton changed enough votes for passage by giving a cultural center to Jake Pickle, joining in golf matches, giving two C-17s to a Congressman and other freebies reported by the New York Times. When President Clinton sponsored China's admission to the World Trade Organization as an emerging nation, corporate America decided: "If you can't beat them, join them." And then came the off-shoring of America's industry and jobs hemorrhaged.
Corporate America changed sides, joining Wall Street, the big banks, and the financial world in calling for free trade. This is the crowd with Larry Summers and Secretary of the Treasury Geithner counseling President Obama against protectionism and "starting a trade war." And the poor president intentionally or stupidly goes along. No one thinks President Obama is stupid, so it must be intentional. If the president enforces the trade laws, immediately coming down on his head will be Wall Street, the big banks, the financial world, the Business Roundtable, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business and Corporate America -- all interested in cheap Chinese imports and big Chinese profits to keep the market up. The Congress, like the president, refuses to engage in the trade war for fear that the contributions will be cut off or used against them. And all the media go along with this nonsense of free trade, "don't start a trade war," when we've been in one for over fifty years.
As Henry Clay, one of Jack Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, stated about free trade on the floor of the United States Senate in 1832: "It never existed; it never will exist...." China makes Clay's free trade forecast true. China, like Japan, closed its market for all things produced in China, but has adopted an industrial policy of attracting research, technology, development, and production with complete control of finance and labor. China sets the pace in globalization, and countries in the Pacific, Europe, and South America all engage in globalization to protect their economy. Globalization is nothing more than a trade war with production looking for a country cheaper to produce. And in this commercial chaos, a nation must move to protect its economy. There is no free trade.
Now comes the best of political writers, Joe Klein, with the cover article of Time magazine entitled "An American Journey." "One road trip reveals the issues people are talking about -- but politicians aren't," writes Klein. In the first sentences of the Klein article, Joe writes: "Americans get to talking about politics these days ... that our best days as a nation are behind us ... that China is in the driver's seat." And he closes his article: "Bill later took me to a community meeting that was filled with all the same complaints -- about the incivility of public discourse, about the loss of jobs to China." Klein is on target. The people have known for some time that we are in a trade war. Long before the recession, South Carolina lost its textile industry; North Carolina lost its furniture industry; Michigan lost its automobile industry; Silicon Valley and Intel had moved to China, with Bill Gates' Microsoft supporting research in China. An American industrialist is not invited to Jack Welch's GE seminar on competition. It's always been limited to an in-house seminar. But recently Jeffery Immelt held it in China with two dozen Chinese entrepreneurs invited. All of America is catering to China. Even Klein writes: "Clinton used to say that the manufacturing jobs that went away weren't coming back, and he was undoubtedly right about that."
Klein is right if nothing is done about the off-shoring of our economy. That's the nation's problem. That's the people's frustration. Nothing is being done. At the local level, governors and mayors have an industrial policy to attract industry and jobs. But Washington finances and supports the off-shoring of industry and jobs. Washington and the Wall Street crowd that got us into this mess are not a bit interested in U.S. jobs or the U. S. economy. Corporate America and the financial crowd are interested in opportunities in China, India, Vietnam, or wherever. But Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution emburdens Congress to regulate commerce, and the president is supposed to enforce the regulations. Our only hope is for President Obama and Congress to sober up from their political campaigning and take care of the country's needs. As Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Ronald Reagan, states: "The only way the United States will again have an economy is by bringing back the off-shored jobs."
This economy can be turned around on a dime by cancelling the corporate income tax and replacing it with a 5 percent value added tax. The FY 2010 estimate for corporate tax revenues is $156.7 billion. A 5 percent VAT reaps $600 billion with $443.3 billion left over to pay down the debt. This will eliminate the tax incentive to off-shore; eliminate the corporate income tax; eliminate the tax on exports, and make it profitable to produce in the United States. All that industry or corporate America needs is the assurance that we will implement a plan to compete in globalization. The making of such a plan or policy is on the books. We have the War Production Act to make sure the United States has the necessary equipment and materiel for our security. We don't have to wait for an industry to go bankrupt, but when an industry vital to our economy is in danger, the President under Section 201 of the Trade Act can move with tariffs or quotas on imports. Suffering $6 trillion in trade deficits in the last ten years, we can move immediately with an import surcharge like President Nixon in 1971. We can enforce our anti-dumping laws. But Washington has to wake up and compete in the trade war.
Quit whining about China. China's leaders are students of government and are determined to develop its people economically and at the same time keep the Middle Kingdom together. China has a plan and follows its plan, while the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pentagon wait for China to collapse in chaos. China's not the problem. Washington has to stop waiting and whining, get into the trade war, and develop a plan or industrial policy for this country to survive.
As a professional scholar, Ben Bernanke devoted much of his academic life to studying the Great Depression. It is no surprise then, that the cause of the Depression was of particular interest to the current Fed chairman. In the end, Bernanke surmised that it wasn’t so much a particular action that caused the greatest economic downturn the world has ever seen, but a period of inaction, specifically, the time between the crash of 1929 and the beginning of FDR’s New Deal in 1933. He proposed that government was far too slow in taking steps to stabilize the economy and as a result, it took a massive public works program and World War to eventually jump-start the country.
Convinced as he was, when faced with a similar situation he was determined not to make the same mistake as his predecessors. In short, he was determined to stop the markets from failing. Together with Henry Paulson, they provided the framework for the $700 billion bailout of American banks, designed to infuse the market with fresh capital while making the US government a shareholder in the biggest financial institutions in the country.
Fast forward two years and a few things have changed. The majority of the $700 billion has been paid back but the spending hasn’t stopped, nor does Bernanke expect it to. In fact, he expects the United States to enter an extended period of recession, ala Japan since the 1990’s. Coincidentally, Bernanke is an expert of the Japanese economy as well, having studied the rise and fall of the Asian superpower and even lectured at their central bank about how they should have handled the bursting of their real estate bubble.
For a man who wields such an incredible power over the economy, much is expected and demanded. Without getting into my overall opinion of the Federal Bank, I want to talk about what the Fed is doing today to bring an end to this recession. Let me warn you, it is has little to do with real reform and everything to do with regulation and mind games.
By pushing consumerism as the cure for recession, the government contends that we can spend our way out of disaster. It goes like this- Americans lose money because home prices drop and jobs disappear, so naturally what was once spending money becomes a mortgage payment and food on the table. Spread that across the entire middle- and lower-class America and you can see how retailers and manufacturers are going to have a real problem making money. Retailers and manufacturers cut back on hours further exacerbating the problem.
What do you see as the problem in this scenario? The Fed has looked at this and said, “Aha! The problem is people aren’t spending enough money. We must find a way to make them part with their hard-earned dollar.” Alas, the Fed can’t force you to spend money (only Congress can do that, via taxes and the healthcare bill) but they can trick you into thinking that you can’t afford not to spend money. How? By lying about rising inflation to make consumers think their dollar is going to lose value every day that they don’t spend it. I look at this scenario and I see a consumer who has been forced to make difficult choices because of the state of the economy and should be as conservative with money as necessary to survive.
This inflationary method has been called “elegant” by Dean Maki, chief economist at Barclays Capital Inc., who also said “it’s unclear in practice whether short-term moves in inflation expectations really drive real growth.” I’ll go a step further than that: if this move has any impact at all on the economy, it will be a negative one. The last thing we need is for Americans to get themselves into deeper debt because they fear rising inflation.
Bernanke and Obama have prided themselves on stopping a financial crisis that could have been far worse had they not acted to bail out the banks with TARP and stimulate the economy with ARRA. They might be right- it probably would have gotten worse had they done nothing. The question remains: did they do the right thing for the future of America? This is something I have said before but it is worth repeating. America was founded on the ideal of freedom- the freedom to succeed and consequently the freedom to fail. As a father, there have been times I’ve had to let my kids learn the hard way. It’s painful for everyone, but we are stronger because of it.
This is what we are up against today. We have a central bank that is intent on giving away money they don’t have or didn’t earn and they are hell-bent on getting consumers to do the same thing, all in the name of recovery. Here is an idea: let the market decide what inflation is. Let consumers decide when they can and can’t afford a new car. Take the handcuffs off of small businesses and watch them begin hiring again. If they can’t cut it in this environment, let them go under. It’s simple, really. Freedom and liberty have to become the only currency in America.
robert shumake hall of shameiLounge news discussing the Loopt adds Facebook Places integration. Find more iPhone news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
Scott Ashjian calls himself the “Tea Party of Nevada” candidate for US Senate, but he tells ABC News that he would be “at peace” knowing he helped re-elect Harry Reid by siphoning votes away from Sharron Angle. The Note, authored by ABC ...
MacsimumNews - Your Leading Apple News Alternative. Apple number 65 on 'Newsweek' environmental ranking. Posted by Dennis Sellers Apple ico Oct 19, 2010 at 7:59am. image Yesterday we noted that “Newsweek” has released its list of ...
robert shumake detroit The United States has been engaged in a trade war since the end of World War II. Having the only industry after the World War II, we spread the doctrine of free trade to open markets in Europe and the Pacific. But the most important country in the East, Japan, closed its market, subsidized its manufacture, and sold its exports at cost, making up the profit in the closed market. By 1960 the country was losing a substantial portion of its textile industry and jobs due to the predatory practices of Japan. I testified before the old International Tariff Commission as Governor of South Carolina on behalf of the Northern and Southern textile industries about the loss of jobs and the trade war that ensued. When the Commission ruled against us, President John F. Kennedy, in May 1961, promulgated his seven-point program saving and protecting the textile industry. The War Production Act of 1950 called on the president to ensure that we had the equipment and materiel necessary to the nation's security. President Kennedy called for a cabinet hearing; I helped bring the witnesses, and the hearing concluded that, next to steel, textiles were the most important to our national security. At the time the saying was: "We can't send them to war in Japanese uniforms and Gucci shoes."
Corporate America was fully engaged in this trade war. As a U. S. Senator in 1968, Senator Norris Cotton of New Hampshire co-sponsored my textile amendment to secure better enforcement of our trade laws. And with the help of corporate America, the bill passed the United States Senate on a 68 bi-partisan vote. The White House immediately blocked any consideration of the measure in the House because they knew it would pass overwhelmingly, and President Johnson, not wanting to veto it, thought it more important to spread capitalism against communism in the Cold War. Coached by the Tri-lateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, President Carter vetoed one of my trade bills; President Reagan vetoed two others, and President George Herbert Walker Bush vetoed a fourth. To pass these bills through both Houses of Congress, I had the enthusiastic support of corporate America. But President Clinton went for the money. He put the white tent up on the White House lawn, and the Fortune 500 came with their contributions. A vanguard of Corporate America with labor helped Evelyn Dubrow and me garner the votes to defeat NAFTA with Mexico. But President Clinton changed enough votes for passage by giving a cultural center to Jake Pickle, joining in golf matches, giving two C-17s to a Congressman and other freebies reported by the New York Times. When President Clinton sponsored China's admission to the World Trade Organization as an emerging nation, corporate America decided: "If you can't beat them, join them." And then came the off-shoring of America's industry and jobs hemorrhaged.
Corporate America changed sides, joining Wall Street, the big banks, and the financial world in calling for free trade. This is the crowd with Larry Summers and Secretary of the Treasury Geithner counseling President Obama against protectionism and "starting a trade war." And the poor president intentionally or stupidly goes along. No one thinks President Obama is stupid, so it must be intentional. If the president enforces the trade laws, immediately coming down on his head will be Wall Street, the big banks, the financial world, the Business Roundtable, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business and Corporate America -- all interested in cheap Chinese imports and big Chinese profits to keep the market up. The Congress, like the president, refuses to engage in the trade war for fear that the contributions will be cut off or used against them. And all the media go along with this nonsense of free trade, "don't start a trade war," when we've been in one for over fifty years.
As Henry Clay, one of Jack Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, stated about free trade on the floor of the United States Senate in 1832: "It never existed; it never will exist...." China makes Clay's free trade forecast true. China, like Japan, closed its market for all things produced in China, but has adopted an industrial policy of attracting research, technology, development, and production with complete control of finance and labor. China sets the pace in globalization, and countries in the Pacific, Europe, and South America all engage in globalization to protect their economy. Globalization is nothing more than a trade war with production looking for a country cheaper to produce. And in this commercial chaos, a nation must move to protect its economy. There is no free trade.
Now comes the best of political writers, Joe Klein, with the cover article of Time magazine entitled "An American Journey." "One road trip reveals the issues people are talking about -- but politicians aren't," writes Klein. In the first sentences of the Klein article, Joe writes: "Americans get to talking about politics these days ... that our best days as a nation are behind us ... that China is in the driver's seat." And he closes his article: "Bill later took me to a community meeting that was filled with all the same complaints -- about the incivility of public discourse, about the loss of jobs to China." Klein is on target. The people have known for some time that we are in a trade war. Long before the recession, South Carolina lost its textile industry; North Carolina lost its furniture industry; Michigan lost its automobile industry; Silicon Valley and Intel had moved to China, with Bill Gates' Microsoft supporting research in China. An American industrialist is not invited to Jack Welch's GE seminar on competition. It's always been limited to an in-house seminar. But recently Jeffery Immelt held it in China with two dozen Chinese entrepreneurs invited. All of America is catering to China. Even Klein writes: "Clinton used to say that the manufacturing jobs that went away weren't coming back, and he was undoubtedly right about that."
Klein is right if nothing is done about the off-shoring of our economy. That's the nation's problem. That's the people's frustration. Nothing is being done. At the local level, governors and mayors have an industrial policy to attract industry and jobs. But Washington finances and supports the off-shoring of industry and jobs. Washington and the Wall Street crowd that got us into this mess are not a bit interested in U.S. jobs or the U. S. economy. Corporate America and the financial crowd are interested in opportunities in China, India, Vietnam, or wherever. But Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution emburdens Congress to regulate commerce, and the president is supposed to enforce the regulations. Our only hope is for President Obama and Congress to sober up from their political campaigning and take care of the country's needs. As Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Ronald Reagan, states: "The only way the United States will again have an economy is by bringing back the off-shored jobs."
This economy can be turned around on a dime by cancelling the corporate income tax and replacing it with a 5 percent value added tax. The FY 2010 estimate for corporate tax revenues is $156.7 billion. A 5 percent VAT reaps $600 billion with $443.3 billion left over to pay down the debt. This will eliminate the tax incentive to off-shore; eliminate the corporate income tax; eliminate the tax on exports, and make it profitable to produce in the United States. All that industry or corporate America needs is the assurance that we will implement a plan to compete in globalization. The making of such a plan or policy is on the books. We have the War Production Act to make sure the United States has the necessary equipment and materiel for our security. We don't have to wait for an industry to go bankrupt, but when an industry vital to our economy is in danger, the President under Section 201 of the Trade Act can move with tariffs or quotas on imports. Suffering $6 trillion in trade deficits in the last ten years, we can move immediately with an import surcharge like President Nixon in 1971. We can enforce our anti-dumping laws. But Washington has to wake up and compete in the trade war.
Quit whining about China. China's leaders are students of government and are determined to develop its people economically and at the same time keep the Middle Kingdom together. China has a plan and follows its plan, while the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pentagon wait for China to collapse in chaos. China's not the problem. Washington has to stop waiting and whining, get into the trade war, and develop a plan or industrial policy for this country to survive.
As a professional scholar, Ben Bernanke devoted much of his academic life to studying the Great Depression. It is no surprise then, that the cause of the Depression was of particular interest to the current Fed chairman. In the end, Bernanke surmised that it wasn’t so much a particular action that caused the greatest economic downturn the world has ever seen, but a period of inaction, specifically, the time between the crash of 1929 and the beginning of FDR’s New Deal in 1933. He proposed that government was far too slow in taking steps to stabilize the economy and as a result, it took a massive public works program and World War to eventually jump-start the country.
Convinced as he was, when faced with a similar situation he was determined not to make the same mistake as his predecessors. In short, he was determined to stop the markets from failing. Together with Henry Paulson, they provided the framework for the $700 billion bailout of American banks, designed to infuse the market with fresh capital while making the US government a shareholder in the biggest financial institutions in the country.
Fast forward two years and a few things have changed. The majority of the $700 billion has been paid back but the spending hasn’t stopped, nor does Bernanke expect it to. In fact, he expects the United States to enter an extended period of recession, ala Japan since the 1990’s. Coincidentally, Bernanke is an expert of the Japanese economy as well, having studied the rise and fall of the Asian superpower and even lectured at their central bank about how they should have handled the bursting of their real estate bubble.
For a man who wields such an incredible power over the economy, much is expected and demanded. Without getting into my overall opinion of the Federal Bank, I want to talk about what the Fed is doing today to bring an end to this recession. Let me warn you, it is has little to do with real reform and everything to do with regulation and mind games.
By pushing consumerism as the cure for recession, the government contends that we can spend our way out of disaster. It goes like this- Americans lose money because home prices drop and jobs disappear, so naturally what was once spending money becomes a mortgage payment and food on the table. Spread that across the entire middle- and lower-class America and you can see how retailers and manufacturers are going to have a real problem making money. Retailers and manufacturers cut back on hours further exacerbating the problem.
What do you see as the problem in this scenario? The Fed has looked at this and said, “Aha! The problem is people aren’t spending enough money. We must find a way to make them part with their hard-earned dollar.” Alas, the Fed can’t force you to spend money (only Congress can do that, via taxes and the healthcare bill) but they can trick you into thinking that you can’t afford not to spend money. How? By lying about rising inflation to make consumers think their dollar is going to lose value every day that they don’t spend it. I look at this scenario and I see a consumer who has been forced to make difficult choices because of the state of the economy and should be as conservative with money as necessary to survive.
This inflationary method has been called “elegant” by Dean Maki, chief economist at Barclays Capital Inc., who also said “it’s unclear in practice whether short-term moves in inflation expectations really drive real growth.” I’ll go a step further than that: if this move has any impact at all on the economy, it will be a negative one. The last thing we need is for Americans to get themselves into deeper debt because they fear rising inflation.
Bernanke and Obama have prided themselves on stopping a financial crisis that could have been far worse had they not acted to bail out the banks with TARP and stimulate the economy with ARRA. They might be right- it probably would have gotten worse had they done nothing. The question remains: did they do the right thing for the future of America? This is something I have said before but it is worth repeating. America was founded on the ideal of freedom- the freedom to succeed and consequently the freedom to fail. As a father, there have been times I’ve had to let my kids learn the hard way. It’s painful for everyone, but we are stronger because of it.
This is what we are up against today. We have a central bank that is intent on giving away money they don’t have or didn’t earn and they are hell-bent on getting consumers to do the same thing, all in the name of recovery. Here is an idea: let the market decide what inflation is. Let consumers decide when they can and can’t afford a new car. Take the handcuffs off of small businesses and watch them begin hiring again. If they can’t cut it in this environment, let them go under. It’s simple, really. Freedom and liberty have to become the only currency in America.
benchcraft company scamiLounge news discussing the Loopt adds Facebook Places integration. Find more iPhone news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
Scott Ashjian calls himself the “Tea Party of Nevada” candidate for US Senate, but he tells ABC News that he would be “at peace” knowing he helped re-elect Harry Reid by siphoning votes away from Sharron Angle. The Note, authored by ABC ...
MacsimumNews - Your Leading Apple News Alternative. Apple number 65 on 'Newsweek' environmental ranking. Posted by Dennis Sellers Apple ico Oct 19, 2010 at 7:59am. image Yesterday we noted that “Newsweek” has released its list of ...
robert shumake twitterrobert shumake detroit
robert shumake hall of shameiLounge news discussing the Loopt adds Facebook Places integration. Find more iPhone news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
Scott Ashjian calls himself the “Tea Party of Nevada” candidate for US Senate, but he tells ABC News that he would be “at peace” knowing he helped re-elect Harry Reid by siphoning votes away from Sharron Angle. The Note, authored by ABC ...
MacsimumNews - Your Leading Apple News Alternative. Apple number 65 on 'Newsweek' environmental ranking. Posted by Dennis Sellers Apple ico Oct 19, 2010 at 7:59am. image Yesterday we noted that “Newsweek” has released its list of ...
robert shumake twitter The United States has been engaged in a trade war since the end of World War II. Having the only industry after the World War II, we spread the doctrine of free trade to open markets in Europe and the Pacific. But the most important country in the East, Japan, closed its market, subsidized its manufacture, and sold its exports at cost, making up the profit in the closed market. By 1960 the country was losing a substantial portion of its textile industry and jobs due to the predatory practices of Japan. I testified before the old International Tariff Commission as Governor of South Carolina on behalf of the Northern and Southern textile industries about the loss of jobs and the trade war that ensued. When the Commission ruled against us, President John F. Kennedy, in May 1961, promulgated his seven-point program saving and protecting the textile industry. The War Production Act of 1950 called on the president to ensure that we had the equipment and materiel necessary to the nation's security. President Kennedy called for a cabinet hearing; I helped bring the witnesses, and the hearing concluded that, next to steel, textiles were the most important to our national security. At the time the saying was: "We can't send them to war in Japanese uniforms and Gucci shoes."
Corporate America was fully engaged in this trade war. As a U. S. Senator in 1968, Senator Norris Cotton of New Hampshire co-sponsored my textile amendment to secure better enforcement of our trade laws. And with the help of corporate America, the bill passed the United States Senate on a 68 bi-partisan vote. The White House immediately blocked any consideration of the measure in the House because they knew it would pass overwhelmingly, and President Johnson, not wanting to veto it, thought it more important to spread capitalism against communism in the Cold War. Coached by the Tri-lateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, President Carter vetoed one of my trade bills; President Reagan vetoed two others, and President George Herbert Walker Bush vetoed a fourth. To pass these bills through both Houses of Congress, I had the enthusiastic support of corporate America. But President Clinton went for the money. He put the white tent up on the White House lawn, and the Fortune 500 came with their contributions. A vanguard of Corporate America with labor helped Evelyn Dubrow and me garner the votes to defeat NAFTA with Mexico. But President Clinton changed enough votes for passage by giving a cultural center to Jake Pickle, joining in golf matches, giving two C-17s to a Congressman and other freebies reported by the New York Times. When President Clinton sponsored China's admission to the World Trade Organization as an emerging nation, corporate America decided: "If you can't beat them, join them." And then came the off-shoring of America's industry and jobs hemorrhaged.
Corporate America changed sides, joining Wall Street, the big banks, and the financial world in calling for free trade. This is the crowd with Larry Summers and Secretary of the Treasury Geithner counseling President Obama against protectionism and "starting a trade war." And the poor president intentionally or stupidly goes along. No one thinks President Obama is stupid, so it must be intentional. If the president enforces the trade laws, immediately coming down on his head will be Wall Street, the big banks, the financial world, the Business Roundtable, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business and Corporate America -- all interested in cheap Chinese imports and big Chinese profits to keep the market up. The Congress, like the president, refuses to engage in the trade war for fear that the contributions will be cut off or used against them. And all the media go along with this nonsense of free trade, "don't start a trade war," when we've been in one for over fifty years.
As Henry Clay, one of Jack Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, stated about free trade on the floor of the United States Senate in 1832: "It never existed; it never will exist...." China makes Clay's free trade forecast true. China, like Japan, closed its market for all things produced in China, but has adopted an industrial policy of attracting research, technology, development, and production with complete control of finance and labor. China sets the pace in globalization, and countries in the Pacific, Europe, and South America all engage in globalization to protect their economy. Globalization is nothing more than a trade war with production looking for a country cheaper to produce. And in this commercial chaos, a nation must move to protect its economy. There is no free trade.
Now comes the best of political writers, Joe Klein, with the cover article of Time magazine entitled "An American Journey." "One road trip reveals the issues people are talking about -- but politicians aren't," writes Klein. In the first sentences of the Klein article, Joe writes: "Americans get to talking about politics these days ... that our best days as a nation are behind us ... that China is in the driver's seat." And he closes his article: "Bill later took me to a community meeting that was filled with all the same complaints -- about the incivility of public discourse, about the loss of jobs to China." Klein is on target. The people have known for some time that we are in a trade war. Long before the recession, South Carolina lost its textile industry; North Carolina lost its furniture industry; Michigan lost its automobile industry; Silicon Valley and Intel had moved to China, with Bill Gates' Microsoft supporting research in China. An American industrialist is not invited to Jack Welch's GE seminar on competition. It's always been limited to an in-house seminar. But recently Jeffery Immelt held it in China with two dozen Chinese entrepreneurs invited. All of America is catering to China. Even Klein writes: "Clinton used to say that the manufacturing jobs that went away weren't coming back, and he was undoubtedly right about that."
Klein is right if nothing is done about the off-shoring of our economy. That's the nation's problem. That's the people's frustration. Nothing is being done. At the local level, governors and mayors have an industrial policy to attract industry and jobs. But Washington finances and supports the off-shoring of industry and jobs. Washington and the Wall Street crowd that got us into this mess are not a bit interested in U.S. jobs or the U. S. economy. Corporate America and the financial crowd are interested in opportunities in China, India, Vietnam, or wherever. But Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution emburdens Congress to regulate commerce, and the president is supposed to enforce the regulations. Our only hope is for President Obama and Congress to sober up from their political campaigning and take care of the country's needs. As Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Ronald Reagan, states: "The only way the United States will again have an economy is by bringing back the off-shored jobs."
This economy can be turned around on a dime by cancelling the corporate income tax and replacing it with a 5 percent value added tax. The FY 2010 estimate for corporate tax revenues is $156.7 billion. A 5 percent VAT reaps $600 billion with $443.3 billion left over to pay down the debt. This will eliminate the tax incentive to off-shore; eliminate the corporate income tax; eliminate the tax on exports, and make it profitable to produce in the United States. All that industry or corporate America needs is the assurance that we will implement a plan to compete in globalization. The making of such a plan or policy is on the books. We have the War Production Act to make sure the United States has the necessary equipment and materiel for our security. We don't have to wait for an industry to go bankrupt, but when an industry vital to our economy is in danger, the President under Section 201 of the Trade Act can move with tariffs or quotas on imports. Suffering $6 trillion in trade deficits in the last ten years, we can move immediately with an import surcharge like President Nixon in 1971. We can enforce our anti-dumping laws. But Washington has to wake up and compete in the trade war.
Quit whining about China. China's leaders are students of government and are determined to develop its people economically and at the same time keep the Middle Kingdom together. China has a plan and follows its plan, while the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pentagon wait for China to collapse in chaos. China's not the problem. Washington has to stop waiting and whining, get into the trade war, and develop a plan or industrial policy for this country to survive.
As a professional scholar, Ben Bernanke devoted much of his academic life to studying the Great Depression. It is no surprise then, that the cause of the Depression was of particular interest to the current Fed chairman. In the end, Bernanke surmised that it wasn’t so much a particular action that caused the greatest economic downturn the world has ever seen, but a period of inaction, specifically, the time between the crash of 1929 and the beginning of FDR’s New Deal in 1933. He proposed that government was far too slow in taking steps to stabilize the economy and as a result, it took a massive public works program and World War to eventually jump-start the country.
Convinced as he was, when faced with a similar situation he was determined not to make the same mistake as his predecessors. In short, he was determined to stop the markets from failing. Together with Henry Paulson, they provided the framework for the $700 billion bailout of American banks, designed to infuse the market with fresh capital while making the US government a shareholder in the biggest financial institutions in the country.
Fast forward two years and a few things have changed. The majority of the $700 billion has been paid back but the spending hasn’t stopped, nor does Bernanke expect it to. In fact, he expects the United States to enter an extended period of recession, ala Japan since the 1990’s. Coincidentally, Bernanke is an expert of the Japanese economy as well, having studied the rise and fall of the Asian superpower and even lectured at their central bank about how they should have handled the bursting of their real estate bubble.
For a man who wields such an incredible power over the economy, much is expected and demanded. Without getting into my overall opinion of the Federal Bank, I want to talk about what the Fed is doing today to bring an end to this recession. Let me warn you, it is has little to do with real reform and everything to do with regulation and mind games.
By pushing consumerism as the cure for recession, the government contends that we can spend our way out of disaster. It goes like this- Americans lose money because home prices drop and jobs disappear, so naturally what was once spending money becomes a mortgage payment and food on the table. Spread that across the entire middle- and lower-class America and you can see how retailers and manufacturers are going to have a real problem making money. Retailers and manufacturers cut back on hours further exacerbating the problem.
What do you see as the problem in this scenario? The Fed has looked at this and said, “Aha! The problem is people aren’t spending enough money. We must find a way to make them part with their hard-earned dollar.” Alas, the Fed can’t force you to spend money (only Congress can do that, via taxes and the healthcare bill) but they can trick you into thinking that you can’t afford not to spend money. How? By lying about rising inflation to make consumers think their dollar is going to lose value every day that they don’t spend it. I look at this scenario and I see a consumer who has been forced to make difficult choices because of the state of the economy and should be as conservative with money as necessary to survive.
This inflationary method has been called “elegant” by Dean Maki, chief economist at Barclays Capital Inc., who also said “it’s unclear in practice whether short-term moves in inflation expectations really drive real growth.” I’ll go a step further than that: if this move has any impact at all on the economy, it will be a negative one. The last thing we need is for Americans to get themselves into deeper debt because they fear rising inflation.
Bernanke and Obama have prided themselves on stopping a financial crisis that could have been far worse had they not acted to bail out the banks with TARP and stimulate the economy with ARRA. They might be right- it probably would have gotten worse had they done nothing. The question remains: did they do the right thing for the future of America? This is something I have said before but it is worth repeating. America was founded on the ideal of freedom- the freedom to succeed and consequently the freedom to fail. As a father, there have been times I’ve had to let my kids learn the hard way. It’s painful for everyone, but we are stronger because of it.
This is what we are up against today. We have a central bank that is intent on giving away money they don’t have or didn’t earn and they are hell-bent on getting consumers to do the same thing, all in the name of recovery. Here is an idea: let the market decide what inflation is. Let consumers decide when they can and can’t afford a new car. Take the handcuffs off of small businesses and watch them begin hiring again. If they can’t cut it in this environment, let them go under. It’s simple, really. Freedom and liberty have to become the only currency in America.
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Scott Ashjian calls himself the “Tea Party of Nevada” candidate for US Senate, but he tells ABC News that he would be “at peace” knowing he helped re-elect Harry Reid by siphoning votes away from Sharron Angle. The Note, authored by ABC ...
MacsimumNews - Your Leading Apple News Alternative. Apple number 65 on 'Newsweek' environmental ranking. Posted by Dennis Sellers Apple ico Oct 19, 2010 at 7:59am. image Yesterday we noted that “Newsweek” has released its list of ...
robert shumake hall of shame If you're a freelance writer, or thinking about becoming one, then you know that writing is the easy part. Finding places to pitch your writing, eg, marketing it, takes up the bulk of your time.
Well, there are a few ways on the Internet where you can start making money right away - as in, within one week. Following are three.
1. Write for Pay Sites (3 Reviewed)A. AssociatedContent.com: My favorite write-for-pay site. The beauty of writing for this site is that you write what you want and get paid for it - anywhere from $3 to $40 for a minimum 400-word article. They also accept videos for payment.
The reason I like this site is: 1) as mentioned above, you write what you want. No editor guidelines to follow, writing about subjects that you have no interest in and/or tons of research to do. 2) No minimum pay out to reach (many sites have a minimum you have to reach before you get paid); and 3) Fairly quick turnaround time They usually take 5-7 business days to read your submission and make you an offer.
If you have a hobby, a subject you are passionate about, or a subject you want to take the time to write about - for whatever reason - simply set up an Author's account with them (it's FREE!) and submit.
NOTE: On rare occasions, your article will be rejected. However, the editors usually leave a note explaining why and you then have the chance to make changes and resubmit the content. As I said, to be rejected is rare, but on the few occasions I have been, I always rewrote and usually got a higher than normal offer by acting on the editor's suggestions.
Since I've been a freelance writer for over a decade and had a large library of content, I made a couple of hundred dollars in a few week's time by submitting previously published material.
Didn't I mention that the material you submit doesn't have to be original? You will be paid less for it, but as it's already written and has probably been used for other purposes, it's like free cash. They pay more for original material and material that they specifically request (new topics are emailed from the administrator each Friday).
B. WriteForCash.com: With WriteForCash.com, it takes them up to two weeks to review your article, and more often than not, you will have to make some revisions before your article will be accepted.
Also, it takes them up to three months to get your article on the web. Another drawback of this site is that they own the copyright to the work (eg, you can't resell the content) and you have to choose from topics they list on which to write.
To their credit, the list of topics can be wide-ranging and they pay from $10 to $15 per article. But, if you have a hankering to write about, for example, the World Cup, and it's not on their list, you won't get paid for it.
C. Constant-Content.com: With this site, you basically put your articles up for bid, setting your own price. However, a lot of writers there offer their articles for free, which diminishes your chance of selling one - especially if it's in the same genre. Further, you have to keep your price pretty low to sell articles - anywhere from $1 to $5. Although, this can increase if you write for high-paying genres, eg, finance, technical, etc.
On the upside, you can resell content here. So, if you are going to write an article anyway and sell it elsewhere, you might as well post it here. However, another drawback is that you won't be paid until your account hits the $50 mark. Realistically, this can take months, especially if you are only posting one or two articles a week and selling them for $2 or $3 each.
There are tons of ways to sell your writing online; these three sites are just to get you going and/or supplement what you may already be doing.
2. Start an Article Directory: This takes a bit more work, but is very simple to start. What do people look for on the Internet - information - lots of it!
To start an article directory, all you have to do is put up a simple website and start soliciting writers to submit their articles to you - free of charge. Most article writers are promoters of something - e-books, seminars, software, workshops, etc. They are constantly looking for free and/or low-cost exposure.
Soon, you can have hundreds of pages of content. How will you make money? Add Google ads (details below). Every time someone clicks on one of the ads, you make money.
Many article directories take articles on many subjects; some specialize. Only you can decide which is right for you. I personally prefer niche directories because as the web expands, I think users will revisit a directory that carries quality information on a specific topic more often than one that carries a lot of articles on everything. Even if you separate them out by category, I find the "all inclusive directories" too overwhelming. Again, it's up to you.
The real key to making money with an article directory is promoting it and getting good, quality articles for your site. To get excellent articles, surf the web using key words on your subject. Once you find an article you like, contact the author (most will have their contact info in the resource box at the end of the article) and ask them to regularly submit articles to your directory. They will almost always say yes.
Once your directory has been indexed by search engines, many will start sending you articles automatically. This is when your site should really take off. Once you have a few hundred articles in your directory (and this can literally take as little as a few weeks if you put in the time), slap those Google ads on each page, and voila - you have hundreds of pages of content carrying ads that, each time they're clicked, is money in your pocket.
NOTE: There are many article directories online where you can automatically pull articles from to get started. Do a Google search for "article directory" and about 3.5 million (yes, million!) results pop up.
Article Directory Software: If you want to put out a little money, you can purchase software that will completely automate this process for you. Do a Google search for "article directory software" and close to half a million results come up. With most of the software you can choose to buy and install yourself, or have the publisher install it for you. Note: You have to be a real techie if you choose to go the self-install route.
Before starting an article directory, I recommend taking several hours and doing some reading on the subject. While it's a relatively simple concept, it can be a lot of work up front - but can pay huge dividends over the months and years to come.
To learn more about getting those Google ads you see on many websites, go to Google.com. Click on "Advertising Programs" (a plain text button right under the search box). Then click on "For Web Publishers: Google AdSense". Finally, click on "What is AdSense? Quick Tour". The program will be explained in detail and you can have it up and running in about 5 minutes.
3. Start a Blog: This is becoming old hat, but is still new and fresh enough that if you have a passion for something and can target a highly defined niche, you can start a blog on it, add some Google Adsense ads, and turn it into a few hundred bucks a month without too much effort. Want to make more? Like anything in life, the more time you commit to it, the more your income will rise.
There's even a new website, Scoopt.com, that acts as a blog literary agent. What do I mean by this? Specifically, they "help you license your blog for both commercial and non-commercial use." In essence, they help you sell your blog's content. See full details at their site.
Blogs are no longer just for ranting about your last bad relationship or the bad dye job your colorist did on your hair. They are professional outlets for making money now.
To read a case study of how a personal interest can be turned into a popular, moneymaking blog, go to ProBlogger.net and do a search of their site for ""Back in Skinny Jeans". The article should pop up. It's very, very interesting reading.
FYI, to start a blog, go to blogger.com, create an account and start blogging away. It's FREE!
SUMMARY: These are not get-rich-quick schemes. My mission at InkwellEditorial.com is to help creative and editorial freelancers earn a decent living. I will never promise you that you will "make thousands a month by just doing x", as many will. Don't believe the hype.
I have been in publishing since 1987, and have been a freelancer since 1993. Believe me, I've heard about and tried so many different programs. The only way to make money is to consistently plug away at something. It takes time and effort, effort and time. The good news is that if you are determined to make a living as a creative professional, the Internet makes it easier than ever. And, it can be done "relatively" easy if you choose effective methods and consistently implement them.
robert shumake twitteriLounge news discussing the Loopt adds Facebook Places integration. Find more iPhone news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
Scott Ashjian calls himself the “Tea Party of Nevada” candidate for US Senate, but he tells ABC News that he would be “at peace” knowing he helped re-elect Harry Reid by siphoning votes away from Sharron Angle. The Note, authored by ABC ...
MacsimumNews - Your Leading Apple News Alternative. Apple number 65 on 'Newsweek' environmental ranking. Posted by Dennis Sellers Apple ico Oct 19, 2010 at 7:59am. image Yesterday we noted that “Newsweek” has released its list of ...
robert shumake detroitiLounge news discussing the Loopt adds Facebook Places integration. Find more iPhone news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
Scott Ashjian calls himself the “Tea Party of Nevada” candidate for US Senate, but he tells ABC News that he would be “at peace” knowing he helped re-elect Harry Reid by siphoning votes away from Sharron Angle. The Note, authored by ABC ...
MacsimumNews - Your Leading Apple News Alternative. Apple number 65 on 'Newsweek' environmental ranking. Posted by Dennis Sellers Apple ico Oct 19, 2010 at 7:59am. image Yesterday we noted that “Newsweek” has released its list of ...
