Now, to Fix the Economy!

[micah719]

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall......(FAIL: noncompliance with workplace health & safety, safe storage of foodstuffs, misuse of public/private property)
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall......(FAIL: litigation!!! he was pushed!!! it was suicide, call in the psychologists!!! it was assassination by home-grown terrorists!!! insurance scam!!! product fault, recall all imported chinese bricks!!! regulate building industry, too many unqualified illegals!!! racism!!! gaaaaah!!!)
and all the King's horses and all the King's men.....(FAIL: sexist discrimination!!! animal rights abuse!!! imperialist paternalist capitalistic oppressive feudal form of government!!!
couldn't put Humpty together again........(FAIL: sabotage by the GOP!!! CIA plot!!! FDA/AMA incompetence!!! bring in proper healthcare!!! ACLU screams egg-rights abuse, he wanted/didn't want to die, you can't go against his will!!! PETA rejoices that egg-eaters go short!!! chickens mourn persecution of unborn young!!! Planned Parenthood vilifies mourning chickens for insinuating that unhatched eggs have rights or can be considered as lifeforms!!! Eggs emigrate to Antactica in fear!!! Homegrown terrorists sue everyone, claim terrorphobia, outlaw word and concept of "terror"!!! Mexican chicks swarm across border, vote King in for life!!! King outlaws chickens, eggs, walls, and anything else he says!!!)

Posted in full from:
Global Politician - Now, to Fix the Economy!
Now, to Fix the Economy!

Prof. Peter Morici - 11/7/2010

American capitalism is broken, and little that newly empowered Republicans and surviving Democrats offer is likely to fix it. American prosperity was built on technology, fair competition and sound finance. From Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs, America was repeatedly transformed by inventors coming up with new products, raising capital and earning fortunes in the marketplace. In established lines, intense competition compelled American enterprises to make and move goods more effectively than businesses abroad. When American companies came up short, foreign competitors like Toyota came here, and domestic businesses like Ford reinvented themselves to re-challenge foreign rivals.

In recent decades, the process was enhanced by a U.S. push for global free trade and intensified by domestic deregulation. Sadly, this has resulted in a wide open U.S. market abused by foreign competitors, U.S. multinationals and Wall Street financiers.

China, Japan and others are free to sell whatever they like in the United States, while they rig their currencies to subsidize exports, erect tariff and nontariff barriers to U.S. sales in their markets, and require American companies to give away technology to make and sell products in their markets.

American companies like Caterpillar, GM and GE relocate production to China and other places, become co-opted by their foreign hosts, and then lobby against U.S. government policies that would redress these competitive imbalances.

The result is a huge U.S. trade deficit that stifles demand for American made goods, suffocates jobs creation and smothers the economic recovery.

At home, New York financial houses have cynically abused deregulation. Five or six big banks, with help from government money, have monopolized deposits enough to dictate CD rates and extract big profits on corporate loans.

Only big multinationals have the sophistication and leverage to do business with banking behemoths.

Wall Street has cut off capital to the 8000 regional banks that service small and medium sized businesses that create most jobs in the United States, and these Gotham City giants pay their executives glutinous bonuses for ripping off monopoly profits

Now, about 3000 of regional banks face extinction, and ordinary Americans can only borrow money at government run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or at extortionist rates on big bank controlled credit cards.

Enter the Republicans with their Pledge to America. Nowhere does it explain how to fix the trade with China and other mercantilists, or the banks. And deregulation and tax cuts will only make the wealthy on Wall Street wealthier.

President Obama’s push for green industries won’t fix much. Batteries for electric cars, solar panels and windmills simply can’t replace most of the jobs lost to imports, and foreign competitors in government protected markets are working on the same ideas.

Redistributing income, a favorite Democratic ruse, through health care subsidies and higher taxes only destroys more jobs. It is reminiscent of Roman emperors giving away grain to restive citizens.

Americans must address the world as they find it, and not as they wish it would be.

The World Trade Organization and many other institutions of global governance have failed and do not serve U.S. interests.

It is not isolationist to say the U.S. government should start looking out for Americans as well as Beijing and other governments look out for their citizens. It’s high time to require many products patented and sold in the United States be made here.

The adventurers on Wall Street don’t need to be taxed more—they need their toys taken away. Once again, separate the banks from the Wall Street casinos and bust up the biggest banks to restore competition.

Don’t hold your breath. Both parties are too focused on 2012 to do any heavy lifting.*
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mischievous micah-note:
*vacation luggage, life pensions, salary increases, prosecution indemnities, golf clubs, kickbacks, porkbarrels, earmarks, special interests, sundry subsidies and campaign contributions excepted.

[Adopted Son]

Additionally, the original business models always expected an ever expanding market. When we stopped having large families and further began aborting a large number of our children, the US market (potential) hit a ceiling that the forecasters never accounted for. So we began looking at foreign markets in earnest.

A poor calculation at best, because the economist treated foreign population like Americans. I must have read and heard "there are 3 billion Chinese" a million times. But they don't have the same needs and appetites as Americans. AND, they possess a different morality structure allowing them to nationalize American plants and processes, then sell those goods back to us at prices which throttle the American competition.

American business has to detail the "true" available market, forecast for contingencies, and build cost structures which allow for a reasonable return on investment, and quit assuming there will be more volume in the future!

[Kenny64]

I don't think there is anything "we' can do to fix the economy or the direction our government is headed.
Prayer is and will always be christians only recourse.
"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and it will be yours.
~ Mark 11:22, 24