The real debate is about ‘free trade’. Even more than the monetarist philosophy of the US academic hot shots, the concept that ‘protectionism’ is what caused the Great Depression, is an ideology nearly impossible to argue about because the belief system is very, very ingrained and utterly illogical. This is typical of thinking systems that can’t stand on their own legs. That is, all incoming data shows crystal clear, that ‘free trade’ is a total catastrophe for the US.
All dissension in trade issues has been brutally stamped out. Poor ‘let the CIA torturers go free’ Obama has seen fit to go on TV today to chide the Iranian government for beating up and killing demonstrators. Meanwhile, the US and its NATO allies have been extremely brutal to any and all demonstrators no matter how peaceful they are. Imagine stopping traffic on a business day in NYC! Demanding free trade be stopped.
The numbers of dead would be astonishingly high and many would be passerby victims who, like that poor man in London, walk accidentally between the rows of Killer Kops and demonstrators. I can’t even begin to imagine anyone filling the streets of Manhattan, day after day, without the entire military force of the US empire is brought smashing down on their heads!
I remember when we tried this in the sixties. We decided, if we could go around, organizing many anti-war events, day after day, the government would cease ignoring our message. Yes, they did cease ignoring us and began killing us!
All the anti-war demonstrations I have been part of or helped organize since then have been on Sundays or other holidays when there is no audience and the media pretends we don’t exist. Poor ‘bomb Afghani civilians’ Obama also talked about the need to not murder peaceful demonstrators. This dude forgot to tell our dear Israeli IDF buddies this information. Note that no top politician in America said a peep when the IDF shot an American and destroyed his brain. Even worse, bomb, bomb, bomb Obama didn’t say a peep during the massacre of unarmed civilians in Gaza.
Many people on the left are leaving Obama because he is obviously oblivious to us even though, nearly always, we are right and the right is wrong. Obama never, ever mentions the trade deficit. Nor does hardly anyone in our government, and in our media, it is mentioned in passing but not analyzed. Due to this, we have a moronic national discussion of the destruction of our economic base that can’t even get off of first base. Here are some examples from today:
World Leaders Haven’t Learned Protectionism Lesson — Seeking Alpha
You would think that the world would have learned, but it is very apparent that it has not. Leaders are obviously trying their best to revive and protect their economies even though the perils of the 1930’s has shown that that leads economies into greater difficulties.
All normal leaders who want to keep their necks out of the guillotine better keep a close eye on trade deficits. Most smart ones run trade profit systems. These governments take cynical advantage of the crazy US negotiators who all believe that any trade barriers are evil and so we kicked our own down and now stand in the middle of a downpour, wondering why our economic house has collapsed.
Now, the U.S. and UE are going after China’s export policies. That is a slippery slope that will surely be intercepted by threats by China regarding U.S. treasury bonds and counterclaims that we have aided the U.S. auto industry to the detriment of the global industry. Also, it will be fun to watch the WTO squirm as they are reminded about the “BUY AMERICAN” edict that has been added to the recent U.S. stimulus package.
Are they simply posturing? What is the point anyway…?
Dear Mr. Hororwitz: did you ever bother looking at the immense US trade gap? We poured gallons and gallons of red ink into our economy via this method. I seriously doubt the sanity of anyone writing about trade, if they are an American, if they support ‘free trade’.
Free trade has been a roaring DISASTER for the US. If you are foolish enough to believe that the US can run a trillion dollar trade deficit each year, you are nuts. The US has run back-to-back trade deficits since 1971 except for one key year: when Bush Sr. sold our entire military system to Kuwait and let them use our military as a mercenary force!
Outside of that singular occasion, the US has only seen its trade imbalances get worse. The only time this imbalance shrinks is when global trade collapses. Even as our international trade falls off a cliff, we still run trade deficits! This must be fixed or our nation shall die. We will go bankrupt to the nations that run trade surpluses with us.
Only a child would ignore this dire news. You seem awfully young.
Our trade imbalance is mostly the result of our insane energy policy.
If we were to extract the abundant energy that sits underground in the US, we would have a decent balance sheet.
The fact that our elected officials are putting up road blocks to nuclear power, oil shale, off shore drilling, coal liquification, ect… is nothing more than treason to me.
They are killing jobs and cheap energy at home so that we may be forced to buy from those that we bow down to.
The only real problem I have with your argument is it’s basis. The US has not had ‘free trade’ for decades.
No, it has had mostly one way trade…to our great disadvantage…with all our trade partners. Name one major manufacturing, even one MINOR manufacturing nation that we ran a trade surplus with.
http://www.opec.org/home/Monthly%20Oil%20Market%20Reports/2009/pdf/MR062009.pdf
We can see how the blue bars showing OPEC production, was too much from August, 2008- November 2008. In the graph below, we can see how US consumption of fuels has risen and risen ever since 1982. Imports rose faster than consumption during this time frame! The US can fix its trade deficit with the oil producing nations the exact same way Germany and Japan did this: via higher energy taxes. It is that simple. And political suicide.
The people who decry trade protectionism love to mention oil imports as if this forgives us for running immense, deadly deficits. This is the reverse: the energy imports can and should be greatly reduced and this means ending the entire gas guzzling culture of the US. Again: political suicide if anyone suggests this.
So we circle back to the entire issue of ‘free trade’: did this bring prosperity to the US or will this bankrupt the US? The answer is obvious: any system running constantly in the red and which gets worse, much worse, during good times, is a doomed system. Good times should be when we balance our books and can pay off our debts while having plenty of consumption and an expansion of our financial profits. Good times is when we collect capital.
Bad times is when we spend our savings and use up our capital to keep from going bankrupt. Any nation that decides that bankruptcy is OK is one that will be on the slick slide downwards like Argentina. Down, down, down, no one trusts any future promises from Argentina! The US went bankrupt exactly once: right after our revolution. Our Founding Fathers swore to never do this again. Well, we obviously can’t figure out that running our system deep in the red is bankrupting us! Worse, many Americans including quite a few leaders, actually think it is a fine thing to eventually go bankrupt.
Certainly, our ability to even think about our trade deficits shows the hallmarks of a mental bankrupt. This sort of person is like the NYT reporter who thought, if only he found more creditors, he could run up as many debts as he wanted, to hell with paying anyone back.
Dallying Democrats Should Outsource Trade Office: Amity Shlaes – Bloomberg.com
President Barack Obama is desperate for budget savings, so desperate that no cut seems too small. He’s even mentioned saving $632,000 by shutting a post no one knew existed, the Paris office of the U.S. Education Department.
So far, though, the president has failed to mention one budget cut that could save a good $45 million: eliminating the job of U.S. trade representative.
The idea sounds perverse. Trade can strengthen recoveries, and the current trade representative, Ron Kirk, has been known as a skilled trade hand since his days as Dallas mayor.
Here it is again: trade ‘strengthens’ recoveries! Increased trade is a symptom, not a cause. Once whatever it was that was destroying world trade is done with its destructive work, trade begins again…BUT ON A NEW BASIS. More about that in a minute.
Kirk’s staff — 220 or so full-timers — is among the hardest-working, brightest and most dedicated in Washington. They have negotiated bilateral agreements with a number of nations in recent years, among them Colombia, Panama and South Korea. Given that tighter trade ties will make it easier to keep the countries out of the grip of dictators like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, the trade representative could be crucial.
But for that person to succeed, Congress has to endorse the agreements the executive branch negotiates. And since 2006 the protectionist wing of the Democratic Party has blocked most of those agreements…
Neurosis over trade is always expensive, but especially during an economic crisis.
The academics who have taught several generations of students all sorts of silly things about the Great Depression, have enshrined this stupid idea that trade prevents world credit collapses. This mixes up cause and effect. World trade expands tremendously when there is a credit bubble! When the bubble pops, world trade collapses!
How amazing is this concept? Seems pretty simple to me.
price-to-income-ratio.jpg 500×372 pixels
We see in this graph that in the 1980’s, the US was running price to income levels well above the 2.5-4 ratio which is normal. Even during recessions, it fell mostly to the 4-5 ratio levels. But since 1996, it has risen relentlessly until it was in the ‘red zone.’ The ratios being more than 10 to 1. This means obviously, there is too much debt creation going on!
In this graph, locating the early 1980’s is very easy: this is when our trade deficit started leaking lots of red ink. Things were brought to rights only via the selling off of our soldiers so they could die to balance our trade deficit. We also had a grinding recession during this time frame. But since then, even with recessions, the trade deficit goes on and on and on. This is very simple: the last barriers to this trade have been removed.
The free trade academics won the fight. Our major media is all for free trade. Nearly all our politicians love it, too. The only thing that is now killing free trade is the collapse of the immense credit bubble that grew from 1990 to 2007. Ergo: the ONLY tools we have now to balance trade is…WARS and HUGE RECESSIONS! Wow. Isn’t that fun? I would far rather have some trade barriers than those two monsters.
New findings:
- World industrial production continues to track closely the 1930s fall, with no clear signs of ‘green shoots’.
- World stock markets have rebounded a bit since March, and world trade has stabilised, but these are still following paths far below the ones they followed in the Great Depression.
- There are new charts for individual nations’ industrial output. The big-4 EU nations divide north-south; today’s German and British industrial output are closely tracking their rate of fall in the 1930s, while Italy and France are doing much worse.
- The North Americans (US & Canada) continue to see their industrial output fall approximately in line with what happened in the 1929 crisis, with no clear signs of a turn around.
- Japan’s industrial output in February was 25 percentage points lower than at the equivalent stage in the Great Depression. There was however a sharp rebound in March.
The above article is very good. Has lots and lots of really great graphs. I am showing just one of them. That is, the decline in industrial output (AND trade!) came AFTER the world stock and financial markets fell apart. No one can do business if there is little credit. Since the banks screwed up and lost all their capital, they can’t bankroll trade.
Of course, our bankers weren’t bankrolling trade. Our trade rivals were bankrolling trade via their FOREX holdings and buying US public and private debt so we could enjoy a wonderful credit bubble while buying their goods thanks to their currencies being weak against the dollar! Duh. So why is this so difficult to understand?
Propaganda and the religious nature of our minds makes it nearly impossible for humans to ‘think outside of the box’. Generally, we lock ourselves very tightly into a box and then turn it into a coffin. Instead of keeping an open mind and even better, sticking to real data and keeping an eye on what really matters, we tend to get sidetracked.
A wonderful example of this is the goofy ‘billions of bonds’ story from Italy. I have yet to see any interesting data out of that such as a close up photo of the bonds. Nada. Just a very silly story. But many want to ‘see’ into this story things that are unknown and this excites people and they rush into it like gawkers at a carnival, to see the tricks being pulled out of various hats.
Meanwhile, the real fight is over things like ‘free trade’ and the meaning of money and how trade, gold and banking have become shattered and what this means in the historical context and how on earth can we avoid WWIII? These are the real questions. From the OPEC report:
http://www.opec.org/home/Monthly%20Oil%20Market%20Reports/2009/pdf/MR062009.pdf
The manufacturing index for the entire world has fallen but not as badly as the above graph shows. This may be due to people using different raw data as well as the method of graphing things. The line graph goes down and down while this bar graph shows the bars going upwards. A visual trick of the eye that causes the brain to see the bar data as less dangerous than the line data.
This is why I like using more than one source and one way of looking at things. The manufacturing index did fall, a lot! But not everywhere. From the same OPEC report:
China and India’s production didn’t fall like Europe, Japan or America. Japan’s fell very badly because they crushed their entire domestic markets. While China has a very vibrant domestic market. But look at this article from Zero Hedge.com:
Zero Hedge: Guest Post: China – Economic Catastrophe Unfolding
The news here is actually worse than I realized. One very alarming thing is that the Chinese banks have avoided writing down bad debt. I should have assumed this would happen, since it is hard to see how it could be avoided, given the nature of the Chinese culture. This is NOT a good idea. It is like pretending that defaults and bad debt simply don’t exist, and this is very bad for the financial sector in the long run.
This is exactly what the Japanese banks have done, and it is partly because of this that their stock markets have imploded over the last 20 years, and their economy has been stagnant for many years—-the Nikkei collapsed in late 1989 after peaking at about 39,000. Now, a full 20 years later, it is only trading at around 8800, and would have to rise another 450% just to equal the old highs, and that would not even consider the effects of the reduced buying power of the yen today vs. 1989. When you take that and inflation into consideration, the Nikkei would probably have to rise more like 700% or 800% or more from current levels to equal the equivalent of 1989 values. This is actually not very atypical for an imploded bubble. And that is exactly what the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets are looking at, since you have the exact same lethal combination in 1989 Japan as you do now in China: dual bubbles in real estate and stocks (one has imploded), and a decided reluctance to face facts and write down bad debt and defaults. In contrast, in the US in March 2000, we had a bubble in the stock market but not the real estate sector. And even though 7 trillion dollars in stock equity disappeared after March 2000, there was an increase in value of the real estate markets of 8 trillion dollars that more than offset those losses. That is a major factor that allowed the economy to expand in subsequent years, but that is not possible in China, just as it was not possible in 1989 Japan.
The sentences I highlighted shows clearly what ails this particular pundit: the housing boom that burst out of nowhere after the Dot Com bubble popped was a CREDIT BUBBLE and thus, very poisonous. Couple that with the charts and graphs above, we see that, far from ‘offsetting our losses,’ this stupid housing bubble DOUBLED our losses! Nay, Quadrupled them!
During this stupid credit bubble in housing, our trade deficit became utterly monstrous. It was utterly out of control. We ran everything deep in the red: public and private spending, corporate debts and banking leverage games, the Japanese carry trade went berserk and we saw a tsunami of credit wash over our shores and now, all is in ruins!
Japan, in 2007, injudiciously threatened to flood China with this same carry trade credit. So the Chinese retaliated and now the yen is much stronger than the dollar and the Japanese are gnashing their teeth over this. The writer of this article thinks, China WANTS this credit bubble! And can’t have it!
He also never mentions that China is a creditor nation that is even bigger than Japan! The Chinese are seeing things go down just like us. But they are in the attic and we are in the basement! So when there is a flood, they will get their feet wet and we will drown in red ink! Imagine that. So before throwing bricks and bats at the Chinese, I would suggest we get our own houses in order!
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there is still hope that our assets as a people will be monopolized against us using debt to finance the endeavors of a corporate culture that rewards a ‘popular culture of transaction dependence’. so the rest of us can wonder what we can do thats so special
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http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-53565441845289277&q=nuclear+fision&total=185&start=10&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
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i swear upon the your children i deserve $35 million
you were doing so great until i get to this part: “….Propaganda and the religious nature of our minds ….”
…and the religious nature of our minds…????
oh well. you are once again (deliberately?) mistaking what they (i.e. our owners, the dividers, the manipulators, the sophist parasites) tell the meek distracted little people for what the masters said and meant soooo baaad!
Free Trade is a misnomer, Ponzi Trade would be much more appropriate. Stock market manipulation, window dressing of financial stats, doctoring of GDP figures, unemployment rates, secretive congressional meetings, the list goes on and on. It just doesn’t stop. Everyday more and more comes out, information on who, how and why these manipulative and destructive actions were carried out. By public figures who used and abused the peoples trust.
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It turns out Clinton used the ESF to effectively cap the gold price and benefit his friends. So the budgetary balancing act during his watch was pretty much manipulated window dressing. To make matters worse, the governments that inherited this sub-rosa arrangement continued to unabatedly.
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As of last week, in response to an inquiry from Bridge News, Secretary Summers “categorically denied” that the Treasury was selling gold. [With all due respect to the Secretary, this is not the allegation that knowledgeable gold market participants and observers are making. Their allegation is that the ESF — by writing gold call options or otherwise — is making sufficient gold cover available to certain bullion banks to allow them safely to take large short positions in gold, thereby putting downward pressure on the price and in the process making huge profits for themselves.] Read the whole nine yards @ http://tinyurl.com/ntgy8p
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Well, we really shouldn’t be surprised. The thing is if you and I are reading this, so are many around the world, and the credibility of the US is fast approaching zero. No one likes being taken for a ride, eyes open. This is what happens when form takes precedence over function. That has to change, and quickly. I sure hope the current bag holder of Pax Americana is paying attention. Question is, even if he is, can he do something about it? Maybe when the pensioners over at Fairfax County take their cue from German pensioners and take Tricky Dicky for a ride…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers
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Lawrence Henry Summers (born November 30, 1954) is an American economist
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what a weird read i wanted to see the economic ideas of rubin/summers and its like the VDOz got them smirking and talking dummed down i want alot ‘imean tonz’ but as little as possible… and there wiki is just scandal/failure/resignation… not that there are any good speakers that have valid view point on the planet but wow… i had no idea these guys look like they ‘filled’ government out of shame
“I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that . . . I’ve always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly underpolluted.” [4]
Summers was successful in pushing for capital gains tax cuts.[citation needed] During the California energy crisis of 2000, then-Treasury Secretary Summers teamed with Alan Greenspan and Enron executive Kenneth Lay to lecture California Governor Gray Davis on the causes of the crisis, explaining that the problem was excessive government regulation.[10] Under the advice of Kenneth Lay, Summers urged Davis to relax California’s environmental standards in order to reassure the markets.[11]
And California still produces 60% of its energy 10yrs l8r
Summers hailed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, which lifted more than six decades of restrictions against banks offering commercial banking, insurance, and investment services (by repealing key provisions in the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act)
In an October 2001 meeting, Summers criticized African American Studies department head Cornel West for missing three weeks of classes to work on the Bill Bradley presidential campaign, and complained that West was contributing to grade inflation.
West, who later called Summers both “uninformed” and “an unprincipled power player” in describing this encounter in his book Democracy Matters (2004), subsequently returned to Princeton University, where he taught prior to Harvard University.
Summers offended many people by his discussion of why women may have been underrepresented, His third and most controversial hypothesis was what he called “the different availability of aptitude at the high end”. He said that his “best guess” was that “there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude”. He said that this variation, combined with other factors, “probably explains a fair amount of this problem.”[17]
In July 2005, the only African-American board member of Harvard Corporation, Conrad K. Harper, resigned saying he was angered both by the university president’s comments about women and by Summers being given a salary increase.
Harvard and Andrei Shleifer, a close friend and protege of Summers, settled a $26M lawsuit by the U.S. government over the conflict of interest Shleifer had while advising Russia’s privatisation program. Summers’ continued support for Shleifer strengthened Summers’ unpopularity with other professors:
Resignation as Harvard President
At development firm D. E. Shaw & Co. He was paid $5.2 million in his second of two years working there, while working just one day a week.[1]
Relations between Summers, President Obama’s top economic adviser, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker have also been strained recently, as Volcker has accused Summers of delaying the effort to organize a panel of outside economic advisers, and has cut Volcker out of White House meetings and has not shown interest in collaborating on policy solutions to the current economic crisis. [33]
Summers has recently come under fire for accepting perks from Citigroup, including free rides on its corporate jet last summer.[34] According to the Wall Street Journal, Larry Summers called Chris Dodd asking him to remove caps on executive pay at firms which have received stimulus money, including Citigroup. [35]
On April 3, 2009 Summers came under renewed criticism after it was disclosed that he was paid millions of dollars the previous year by companies which he now has influence over as a public servant. He earned $5 million from the hedge fund D. E. Shaw, and collected $2.7 million in speaking fees from Wall Street companies that received government bailout
Found this video.
http://tinyurl.com/aojmad
Common sense talk from an economist. Imagine that! It seems to me to be the most reasonable thing in the world to write off the toxic debt created by derivatives, but instead our rulers treat the problem with bailouts. About as helpful as putting a band aid on a corpse. Lousy gnomes will drag us all down into the pit.
@nah: Summers is the guy who sank the Harvard endowment funds. For that he was rewarded with a cushy White House job as economic confidante to the Changemeister™ since he proved capable of turning a profitable learning institution into a hoobled semi-bankrupt shell of its former self. He passed the Bankster Baccalaureate with flying colors.
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But don’t worry, there is safety in numbers, you are not alone, according to the Adam Smith Institute, British taxpayers would have to hand over every penny they earned between January 1 and June 25 to pay for this year’s vast public spending programmes. (http://tinyurl.com/nl9cne)
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That is just for Q1-Q2 2009. They are in a deeper hole than America. Of course, the British are probably using accurate economic stats and not dressing them up as their American cousins, eh?
Harvard University, where half the students who attended are awarded A’s
Elite, that is so elite
Haaaaaa-vard – what a joke.
Not as bad of a joke though as Yale.
Give Geronimo’s family back what was stolen.
Don’t mess with the Spirits!
Ivy-League pompous Jekyll Island jerk-offs!
I’d spit on them if they were sitting here with me.
I’m sick of their sick-twisted version of economics that fails to recognize the “human element”.
Gracious.
Elite my ass.
Iranians have now an important task to mend the wear and tear caused by the Zionist and CIA-inspired colour-coded campaign. They should remember that very advanced techniques of social psycho-engineering enable malefactors to use social networks like Twitter in order to capture and destroy societies. The ordinary Iranians who were captured by this form of mind control are as innocent as if they were poisoned. The time for throwing stones is over, now is the time to gather them.
http://rense.com/general86/irnn.htm
On March 20, 1969, Dr. Richard Day, the National Medical Director of the Rockefeller-sponsored “Planned Parenthood” told a meeting that American industry will be sabotaged and shown to be uncompetitive.
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Much of what Day promised in 1969 is looking like a rear-view mirror today. But ominous events have yet to transpire. They do want to implant a chip in us so they can find and identify us, as well as monitor and control our purchases.
They are weaning us off national allegiance and will resort to terrorism to win our assent to their global police state. They may use “one or two nuclear bombs to convince people we mean business,” Day said.
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This adds weight to the widely-held view that the central bankers are responsible for most terrorism, using MI-6, Mossad and the CIA. Dr. Day also said that “war is obsolete” given the danger of nuclear exchange so terrorism would be used instead. This was 1969.
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Dr. Day said sex will be separated from marriage and reproduction ( i.e. “sexual liberation”) to break up the family and reduce population. Abortion, divorce and homosexuality will be made socially acceptable.
“Homosexuals will be given permission to act out. Everyone including the elderly will be encouraged to have sex. It will be brought out into the open. Anything goes.” [The “Stonewall Riots” which unleashed the “gay rights” movement, took place three months later.] The ultimate goal is to have sex without reproduction. Reproduction without sex will occur in laboratories. Family size will be limited as in China.
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Pornography, violence and obscenity on TV and in movies will be increased. People will be desensitized to violence and porn and made to feel life is short, precarious and brutish. Music will “get worse” and will be used for indoctrination.
There will be unemployment and mass migration in order to uproot long established (conservative) communities. Social change will be introduced in port cities and work its way to the heartland. (Thus, the east and west coast are liberal.)
He said a cure to cancer exists in the Rockefeller Institute but is kept secret for purposes of depopulation. He said there will be an increase in infectious man-made diseases.
Dr. Day, who worked in weather modification during the war, said weather can be used to wage war or create drought and famine. The food supply will be monitored so no one can get enough food to “support a fugitive from the New System.” Growing your own food will be outlawed under the pretext of it being unsafe.
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Our political and cultural “leaders” are accomplices in a plot to re-engineer humanity to serve the Judeo-Masonic central banking cartel. Wars, terrorism, depressions, political and social change, entertainment and fads are all contrived to gradually bring about an Orwellian police state.
Dr. Day says politicians are manipulated “without their even knowing it.” Their failure to protect us from this Satanic conspiracy is a betrayal of the first order. We have to alert the sincere ones and reach soldiers and police too. Civilization hangs in the balance. We are in real danger and should organize in small independent units.
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Our society and culture are a fraud based on one central fraud, the monopoly over government credit in the hands of Cabalist private bankers. They are using this power to extend their monopoly over every aspect of our lives by manipulating world events and social behavior. The only way to save civilization from failure is to nationalize the Central Banks.
http://www.savethemales.ca/confirmedrockefeller_plan_to_g.html
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ELAINE: there are lots of FAKE stories floating about the internet. This is a prime example.
“the concept that ‘protectionism’ is what caused the Great Depression”
isn’t really the debate. The GD has a number of causes, but protectionism served to prolong it.
Look: you can argue for trade barriers, but so can everyone else. And if everyone huddles behind tariffs so that exports get hammered, you end up selling stuff only to yourself. That leads to import substitution, under which you end up paying more money for crappier stuff due to no competition.
There are arguments in favor of import substitution, but if we had tariffed Honda Civics in favor of Gremlins and Pacers would we really have been better off?
Honda and Toyota came out on top because they sold a better product for a more attractive price. That was bad for the US auto industry, but good for the US car buyer.
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ELAINE: There was never ‘free trade’. There was ‘export to the US’ trade. Defending ourselves from red ink is life and death. So what, if we drive crappy cars? We drive TOO MANY cars as it is! If we want to import nifty cars, we have to PAY FOR IT. And we are paying: being deindustrialized or having our industrial PROFIT move to Europe and Asia is not a good solution.
Shit. I really wish one could edit comments, so I could close my damn link. I suppose I should be grateful for having para breaks, at least.
It’s kinda like import substitution: be glad you have what you’ve got, and don’t look at what all those other people have: you may end up wanting something that’s not domestically produced.
the uprising in Iran? RIP
there will be no more revolutions anymore anywhere most likely. you know why not.
and it turns out if there is no god, it ceases to be a sin, or even bad form, for power to shoot you. if power snuffs you and everything you were and might have become for disagreement, it isn’t even a crime. and china isn’t going to save you either. so sad. such a waste. so unnecessary. goodbye nada.
you were deliberately diminished so small, so Insignificant, so unnecessary now….and smirked all the way about that progressive development.
and now we will perhaps learn the true meaning of loss…. bleah.
As official videographer for the U.S. government, Kurt Sonnenfeld was detailed to Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, where he spent one month filming 29 tapes: “What I saw at certain moments and in certain places … is very disturbing!” He never handed them over to the authorities and has been persecuted ever since. Kurt Sonnenfeld lives in exile in Argentina, where he wrote « El Perseguido » (the persecuted). His recently-published book tells the story of his unending nightmare and drives another nail into the coffin of the government’s account of the 9/11 events. Below is an exclusive interview by Voltairenet.
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Kurt Sonnenfeld: At the highest levels in Washington, DC, someone knew what was going to happen. They wanted a war so badly that they at least let it happen and most likely even helped it happen.
Sometimes it seems to me that the “nuts” are those who hold to what they’ve been told with an almost religious fervor despite all of the evidence to the contrary — the ones who won’t even consider that there was a conspiracy. There are so many anomalies to the “official” investigation that you can’t blame it on oversight or incompetence. I am familiar with the scientists and qualified professionals to whom you refer, and their findings are convincing, credible, and presented according to scientific protocol — in stark contrast to the findings of the “official” investigation. In addition, numerous intelligence agents and government officials have now come forward with their very informed opinions that the 911 Commission was a farce at best or a cover-up at worst. My experience at Ground Zero is but one more piece of the puzzle.
Voltaire Network: Those events are nearly 8 years behind us. Do you consider that uncovering the truth about 9/11 continues to be an important objective? Why?
Kurt Sonnenfeld: It is of absolute importance. And it will be equally as important in 10 years, or even 50 years if the truth still has not been exposed. It is an important objective because, at this point in history, many people are too credulous to whatever “authority” tells them and too willing to follow. People in a state of shock seek guidance. People who are afraid are manipulable. And being able to manipulate the masses results in unimaginable benefits to a lot of very rich and very powerful people. War is incredibly expensive, but the money has to go somewhere. War is very profitable for the very few. And somehow their sons always end up in Washington DC, making the decisions and writing the budgets, while the sons of the poor and the poorly-connected always end up on the enemy lines, taking their orders and fighting their battles. The enormous black-budget of the US Department of Defense represents an unlimited money machine for the military-industrial complex, figuring in the multi-trillions of dollars, and it will continue to be so until the masses wake up, recuperate their skepticism and demand accountability. Wars (and false pretexts for war) will not cease until the people realize the true motive of war and stop believing “official” explanations.
http://republicbroadcasting.org/?p=2722
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ELAINE: I remember the months after 9/11. I must have been one of only several dozen people online who pointed out that Bush and his gang were completely complicit in the crime. NO one listened to us. Now, many years later, everyone is popping up making wild claims. Not one of these claims has what is recognized by any courts, as ‘proof’. Most are suppositions or hearsay.
The real crime is our trade deficit. And the destruction of our currency. Plus our many war crimes all of which are easily investigated and even known, in full. The US is way, way overdue for a Nüremberg Trial over our many war crimes as well as a possible revolution at home due to economic crimes.
The whole 9/11 business has become a wild rabbit hunt while the real wolves continue to run off.
Also, Kurt Sonnenfeld is dumber than rocks: wars are VERY profitable…for MANY Americans! It is one quarter of our economy! And our ruling elites make oodles of profits from our wars. This is why even ‘unpopular’ military adventures go on and on and on and on until public bankruptcy finally ends it. It is immensely profitable for many people, working class as well as ruling elites.
do you suppose it is technologically possible for power and the owners to trace every “twitter” from everyone protesting or commenting in iran? and that will be sufficient proof? proof of their….treason?
reading of taoist times in history in china, i would often read of power literally chopping a foot, or feet, off those who complained….and that was a sign of the chopees being official actual crap to the little people….plus one hell of a “sign” to the clueless. but what useful purpose…what did that do for the evolution of those unfortunates who sought? well enough of this peppy stuff during my morning coffee.
i mean 1/3 to 1/2 of the young in iran don’t even have any job to do! so if they are literally actually “nothings” anyway ….? well we will see what happens when people willingly happily believe they are nothings….so they can masturbate their minds guilt-free. what comes if nobody, including you, believes in you once you cannot serve a function.
openly hidden – are you a sophist in disguise?
Ha. Ha.
Back for just a moment to tariffs and trade barriers… let’s look at an actual example.
In the US, sugar costs about 7 time what it costs elsewhere. There are protections in place for US producers, and they like it that way. The Corn Refiners Association (including ArcherDanielsMidland and Cargill) likes it, too: since sugar is expensive and high-fructose corn sugar isn’t, food and beverage manufacturers (like Coca-Cola) use HFCS instead of sugar. HFCS, however, isn’t especially good for you.
So how does that play in the real world? Glad you asked. I don’t drink a great deal of Coke, but when I do I’d rather it contain sugar, not HFCS. Fortunately, a specialty store in my neighborhood sells Coke which has been imported from Mexico and contains real sugar. It’s expensive – a buck-fifty for a half-liter – but the US producer won’t sell me a product I want to buy because some pressure group has a tariff in place.
Tariffs and trade barriers are a safe haven for incompetence and greed.
i am reality….and you would like to kill me now wouldn’t you….haha!
this old world is a tough old hoe!
listen for the music ken. peace to you and stoik up now!
corn is good. good for you and good for me. any dissention gets dealt with pronto! signed, people of the corn.
how do i know the entire corn sweetener thing, like global warming thing, isn’t more sophism? after all the claims come from sophists. hahahah! what was the story about the boy who cried wolf all the time? major in sophism and get a career! this is what comes of fucking with the boy scout creed. now up is down, forwards is going back, evil is progress, lies are pragmatic, and god is dead…so said the beetles! and oh yes, power to the people. monkey see, monkey do. goodbye neda! its all so apt.
and this is also why all wise and ancients everywhere learned to shut up and take the pain….and had no opinion. i bet even the neandertals died stoik. but will we go quietly? we will see candidate. we will see.
hopefully when our time comes, we can all be together in the same crappy nursing home with indifferent staff. wouldn’t that be something special.
I ain’t ever going to a nursing home. Kill me first please.
Unless of course there are a bunch of “sweeties” there….that could change my mind.
Just joshing with you hiddenly open — oops, I mean openly hidden.
Anyhow, JSmith knows what JSmith is talking about. I have concluded that, but it took me awhile.
Incidently hiddenly open Openly Hidden – your recent rant was top notch, but let me ask you this….What did it accomplish?
Peace,
Ken
and for a change of pace – isn’t that SC governor story something. Almost as interesting as the 134.5 B (fake or NOT) story.
I’m working on getting to the bottom.
I’m working and I’m getting paid too!
I have something to offer of value.
You want it?
truth is, there is very little that actually “accomplishes” anything ken. that IS the point of everything, don’t you agree. still, perhaps i have been repulsive long enough today. i don’t mean to, but reality bites. sucks to be you sucks to be me. rain seems to be over now.
I just finished reading Philip Sheron’s(sp.?) book on the 9-11 Commission. First, the Commission’s main focus was to NOT endanger Bush’s re-election bid in 2004. The executive director of the Commission, Philp Zelikow is a Bush lackey. Zelikow had worked on the Bush 2000 transition team. Zelikow was a good friend to Condi Rice. Zelikow, while on the Commission, was in frequent contact with Karl Rove. Zelikow fought hard to try to establish that there were indeed ties to Iraq and al-Qaida. Defending/protecting Bush, this was Zelikow’s job. Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, the alleged co-chairs, ran neck and neck for second place in the Bush lackey contest. ALL ties to Saudi Arabia and the 9-11 hijackers–which were extensive– were reduced to footnotes, if brought up at all. And Philip Zelikow? He did such a good job protecting Bush, that he got a plum job at the State Department. Zelikow’s boss at State? Condi Rice.
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ELAINE; At first, it was supposed to be the Saudi lackey, Kissinger. Then he had to resign. Not only were all Saudi materials footnoted, about 90% of it was completely blacked out. And there was ZERO investigation of Mossad’s role in all this.
The 9/11 Commission was a white wash job. The most important players were not put under oath. No one was indicted. The failure of the commission led to the mess we see today where no one can discuss that event without lots of shouting, wild accusations, lies from NEARLY EVERYONE….hint to everybody: don’t trust anyone in this matter. Don’t even trust me!
The 911 business is a wonderful and pretty useless distraction at this point. It is like arguing about the color of a get away car while the crooks are in the middle of sticking up the bank!
openly hidden – I do not agree with your premise.
Give a little bit why don’t you.
It might surprise you.
Glad the rain is ending for you.
Peace, OH.
Ken
Condi Rice – I call her the “b-hole bitch”. No offense meant, but some things are obvious.
And to think she has some big oil tanker named after her. How fitting.
You reap what you sow.
No kidding.
JSmith, I’m not an expert on trade, free or otherwise, by any means; but I think you could choose a better example. The problem with sugar, especially its cost, isn’t directly related to tariffs. The problem is Archer Daniels Midland and other corporations having massive amounts of money to spend in Congress. That’s the problem that needs to be addressed–corporate control of elected officials. It isn’t the tariff; it’s the “pressure group” you should be criticizing.
In addition, I believe you are oversimplifying the situation. It’s not a “tariffs bad, free trade good” situation. Protectionism, used properly, is about leveling the playing field, not using tariffs as a weapon. (And at the heart of capitalism is the concept of a level playing field in which competition results in many benefits to consumers.) But modern economic America is run by corporatists and financial predators, not capitalists. They have conspired with politicians to create the most unlevel playing field possible. In short, to be opposed to proper tariffs is to be anti-capitalist.
Take environmental regulation as one small example. If, as a American manufacturer in an impoverished foreign nation, you can dump the toxic byproducts of your process into any nearby stream, you will be able to manufacture your product more cheaply than you would in the US. That’s not competition–that’s an unfair advantage for the corps. that flee America for foreign lands.
Consider pharmaceuticals too. Do you want to take meds made in somebody’s basement in Pakistan or would you rather take a drug made in the USA under the very watchful eye of the FDA? If the foreign drugs were subject to the same quality demands, then fine, the playing field gets more level–but they aren’t.
So the next time you’re enjoying your Mexican, sugared Coke, ask yourself, “Who set the standards for how clean this bottle had to be? Who decided how many bug parts could be in the sugar? Where did the water come from that was used to make this Coke?”
I know the answers to those questions for American Coke. Do you know the answers for Mexico?
I support whole-heartedly level playing fields. If we can approach that, then we have an awesome chance.
Keeping it local helps – alot.
Corporations are NOT alive.
That would be a first step toward remedy.
It was some stupid stenographer error anyhow supposedly that gave them life. Life does not commence with an “error” and errors eventually are corrected. Big Momma makes sure cause she is all about balance.
Thanks Daliwood.
The fact is, the US cannot run trade deficits forever and forever. Period. I don’t care what is going on in other areas of thinking or self-regard. What matters is this wonderful concept we call ‘THE BOTTOM LINE’. This is what is being ignored.
Either we fix this ‘bottom line’ mess or we die. This is not, ‘I want to keep on doing this forever’ involved in this business.
We either fix it or we die. Period. End of story. There are many ways to fix trade deficits. Libra will fix them in the end, her usual brutal way. Namely, do note that ALL trade deficit reductions happen during global crashes!
So, we will get a long, long, long global crash. The more we open to free trade that wrecks our bottom line, the deeper our global depression will be, as Libra resets us back at zero, over and over again.
Eventually, we will have nearly no economy if we keep trying to run perpetual deficits.
Elaine – I agree.
Very good article.
In my opinion, it is all a matter of market timing. It does not matter if it is gold, oil, or Microsoft, if you have access to good market timing signals, they will help you get in and out at a profit.
No guarantees in this business, but if they are right most of the time, you can still make $s.
There are may web sites providing them out there (search Google). Just find one that works and use it! Check out http://invetrics.com as an example.
Its Dow Jones timing signals are up 43% as of 6/23/09 while the Dow is up just 29% off its March lows.
Following a market timing system works!
Michael – is that you?
I’m not kidding, and not to be too personal, but I swear I was thinking about you today.
Good to know that you are still around – assuming that is you of course!
🙂
But, I don’t think timing is everything. Time moves on. Some things when it comes to the “human element” are even more fundamental then time, and money ain’t that important in the big-scheme of things.
Big Momma knows.
Henry Kissinger. WHY is he still around? Bush wanted Kissinger to head the 9-11 Commission, but Kissinger wouldn’t not disclose his client list of his “consulting” business. Then they asked George Mitchell. Mitchell was making too much money as a foreign lobbyist, so he declined. Don’t you just love our public servants? Absolutley NO sense of civic duty, BUT we should rely on these people to advise our government. This is sleazier then sleazy. “Dubaya” spent 6-7 days getting ready for his Q and A with the Commission. And Bush and Cheney did their Q and A together. Cynics would say this was so the two could keep their stories straight.
The 9-11 commission wasn’t nothing but misinformation and misdirection.
Have you ever played the game of “Diplomacy” (pre-WWI startup). Classic moves. Easily understood.
Paul S – you are the best.
Wonder if Calvin-No will show up next.
We are in a WAR.
Right – its a war of wills. An economic war.
And if someone wills WW3 – if you want my opinion, they will be “pre-empted” and they will NEVER see it coming.
I have faith in the human spirit.
Why not?
I wouldn’t be hanging out here if it wasn’t worthwhile for me, and furthermore another site that I frequent is DOWN just now.
A focussed attack.
I hope so because then the gnomenly usurpers will become evident.
I can’t wait to expose them.
Naked – as in naked hiking. Right governor?
And anyhow, if there is a WW3 it will end quick.
Fine by me.
And worse, neither Bush nor Cheney were under oath. We made fun of them back then. I even did a cartoon of Cheney using Bush as a puppet on his lap.
Arrest them all.
Elaine, you were brave and audacious after 9/11, but Kurt Sonnenfeld was arrested, jailed, tortured?, harassed, threatened and through difficult experience learned that discretion is the better part of valor. Some people’s capacity for pain in limited. I do not take that against him.
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Still I would love to see all his photos. That was a really “small” jet turbine in one of his pictures, more fitted to a cruise missile.
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Has anyone heard anything about U.S. embassies worldwide are being advised to purchase massive amounts of local currencies; enough to last them a year? Scuttlebutt is all over the net c/o The Harry Schultz letter.
Daliwood: “It isn’t the tariff; it’s the “pressure group” you should be criticizing.”
Where do you think tariffs come from, if not from pressure groups? Once you open the door and offer trade protections, anyone and everyone who makes something will be lined up begging for protection for their own little piece of the pie.
That’s how Smoot-Hawley got to be such an abomination. It started out as protection for agriculture, and ended up “protecting” over 800 products and industries.
(Elaine, of course, will argue that that was a Good Thing.)