Barak Obama's Labor-day speech

Obama's speech

"I don’t want to see solar panels and wind turbines and electric cars made in China. I want them made right here in the United States of America. I don’t want to buy stuff from someplace else. I want to grow our exports so that we’re selling to someplace else — products that say “Made in the U.S.A.”

Amen! Hope he means it and pray that he can deliver it.

Land of Opportunity turning barren

Rex Nutting says in Marketwatch, "With millions of people twiddling their thumbs waiting for a job, the Land of Opportunity is in danger of becoming barren. Nearly three years into our economic wilderness, we still can't seem to find our way out. Fifteen million Americans are looking for work, and most of them know the job they once had is gone for good. Millions more are working, but need something better than part-time hours or a dead-end job .... "

But Rex pointedly misses or declines to mention the direct corelation between our trade deficit (and the resultant job exports), and American unemployement rate (and the consequent decline in the quality of life of lower middle class Americans which is also in direct proportion to the rise of the new lower middle class in India and China).

Unless we sell more than we buy we will be broke - so its time we go back to school for Adam Smith and Economics 101 because we've obviously forgotten the basics.

A case for stimulus

"OUR national debate about fiscal policy has become skewed, with far too much focus on the deficit and far too little on unemployment" - Laura Tyson

Ms. Tyson's essay merits attention but doesn't address the American need fully. China and India are rich because they export product and import opportunity. We need to copy that economic model because ours is not working.

The Onion says

Still not even a twinkling of light at the end of the tunnel for the unemployed and under-employed Americans and for the general prospects of American economy. But rather than citing more morose facts, here's the Onion on our state of economic affairs:


Treasury Department Issues Emergency Recall Of All U.S. Dollars

Stocks drop after sharp fall in July home sales

"Without a boost in job creation, (buyers) just won't have the confidence to step in and buy a new home," David Katz, principal at Weiser Capital Management said.

The same old bad news requiring simple solutions: more jobs in America which means more manufacturing in America, less outsourcing and offshoring and higher levies on imports with a reminder that roaring Indian and Chinese economies are manufacturing based.

Not enough - but a start

2 good pieces of news:

• lowering the tariff on raw materials for US manufacturers (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/12/c_13440711.htm)
• higher visa fees for Indian firms who fly in low paid workers rather than hire Americans(http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2010/08/indian_government_calls_h1b_vi.html)

If its Made in India or China it needs to be taxed so its competitive with Made in EU/ Japan/ Taiwan to make it a level playing field.

On Immigration

Some say that immigrants take away jobs from Americans.

How many American nurses and computer programmers are out of work because of cheaper immigrant labor, and how many American doctors are unemployed because of Indian doctors? And how many American gardeners and laborers are jobless because of Mexicans or Vietnamese?

In most cases the answer is negligible.

Is it better to have immigrants here doing jobs in America, paying taxes, shopping at American stores, building American economy or we should export jobs to keep out immigrants? Is that not like cutting our nose to spite our face?

We have failed to create high demand jobs. Other countries have created affordable career education directly linked to international industry demand patterns, therefore foreign nurses, doctors and computer programmers in America - and that's why more job exports because now the same trained work force is available in cheaper currencies in their native countries.

The answer is not fighting immigration. It is creating a competitive work force right here in America by making education affordable. If the States dealing with millions of unemployment claims got proactive about educating the unemployed ONLY in in-demand careers situation would improve but they are not, that is why we are not seeing a reduction in the unemployed ranks. Which State is going gung-ho on programming, nursing, project management, SAP, Oracle training? None, and those training courses are priced out of reach of most, but in India they are not, so we are pricing education out of reach of most Americans, and blaming Immigrants on our woes. Silly, isn't it?

As far as undocumented workers are concerned they are an easy target. If they went away would Americans take up $7 jobs, or want more because they are worth more? Not taking a cheap job and not being able to get a higher paying one is our problem, and no Immigration bill will fix it. Affordable education, taxes on imports and companies exporting jobs will fix it.

America read this

If you must read 1 story, and subscribe to 1 blog then this is the one:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-american-people-dont-need-more-handouts-what-they-need-are-good-jobs/comment-page-1#comment-7746

It may sound obsessive, but with 10 million Americans out of work, a huge trade imbalance that no one is addressing, and no clear solution in sight to stem job erosion its time to get obsessive, so get obsessed about saving our country by fighting to save our jobs.

Why do we not do what we must??

So Obama is extending unemployment benefits. Great - really for those who need it it's a must have as no one sits on their ass doing nothing thriving on unemployment benefits, you can't thrive on pittance, though pittance puts some of the food on the table - I know it from experience, so thanks Mr. President, but this isn't enough, nor is the Wall Street fix bill, what's needed is JOBS, so why do we as a people not boot out, boycott those who are the reason for our misery, those who export jobs and import goods which shut down American factories?

In its boom time in 50s-60s America was an industrial nation producing most of what it consumed and Americans were able to afford to buy Made in America because they earned wages according our standard of living. Now the greedy have shifted jobs abroad so they do not have to pay good wages and benefits to Americans and to do business with such people who rob us of our jobs is plain stupid.

Ask those campaigning for November elctions why are they silent on job exports (have they been bought by the enemies of the American people - the very rich powerful people and corporations); vote out anybody who supports globalization and job exports, stop doing business with banks and other businesses which have shifted call-centers (we can answer our own phones in this country) abroad, cut your Made in Abroad by 30% and designate 1 day every week to buy ONLY MADE IN AMERICA.

It makes total sense, so why do we not do what we must?

Asking Americans ...

Did you buy American today? If so, that was the smart, patriotic deed of the day. Let's all repeat that again tomorrow to create jobs and rebuild our country and lives.

If not then when will you stop the practice that creates trade deficit and job erosion, decimates the manufacturing sector and innovation in America?

God bless America, and may you be a part of those blessings. Listen to Andy Grove, he tells the truth as is.

Listen to Andy Grove, now!!

Pointless debating when the obvious has been obvious for years, now its imperative we as the people and our government as our representative and also responsible for our well being listen to Andy Grove, as not listening to him is continuing committing suicide. We've been fed a myth and Mr. Grove refutes it, baring the truth, that outsourcing manufacturing is not a panacea that it's made out to be but a guillotine that we created and use daily to kill our jobs and standard of living. So listen to Andy Grove, and Make it in America and buy Made in America, and also question (the motives and loyalties of) those who advocate job exports in today's day and time.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_28/b4186048358596.htm

"Clearly, the great Silicon Valley innovation machine hasn't been creating many jobs of late—unless you're counting Asia, where American tech companies have been adding jobs like mad for years.

As time passed, wages and health-care costs rose in the U.S. China opened up. American companies discovered that they could have their manufacturing and even their engineering done more cheaply overseas. When they did so, margins improved. Management was happy, and so were stockholders. Growth continued, even more profitably. But the job machine began sputtering.

That means for every Apple worker in the U.S. there are 10 people in China working on iMacs, iPods, and iPhones. The same roughly 10-to-1 relationship holds for Dell, disk-drive maker Seagate Technology (STX), and other U.S. tech companies.

But what kind of a society are we going to have if it consists of highly paid people doing high-value-added work—and masses of unemployed?

How could the U.S. have forgotten? I believe the answer has to do with a general undervaluing of manufacturing—the idea that as long as "knowledge work" stays in the U.S., it doesn't matter what happens to factory jobs. It's not just newspaper commentators who spread this idea. Consider this passage by Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder: "The TV manufacturing industry really started here, and at one point employed many workers. But as TV sets became 'just a commodity,' their production moved offshore to locations with much lower wages. And nowadays the number of television sets manufactured in the U.S. is zero. A failure? No, a success."

I disagree. Not only did we lose an untold number of jobs, we broke the chain of experience that is so important in technological evolution. As happened with batteries, abandoning today's "commodity" manufacturing can lock you out of tomorrow's emerging industry.

The rapid development of the Asian economies provides numerous illustrations. In a thorough study of the industrial development of East Asia, Robert Wade of the London School of Economics found that these economies turned in precedent-shattering economic performances over the '70s and '80s in large part because of the effective involvement of the government in targeting the growth of manufacturing industries.

Levy an extra tax on the product of offshored labor. (If the result is a trade war, treat it like other wars—fight to win.)"

Two Streets of America

Mr. Robert Reich

" The real problem was on Main Street, in the real economy. Before the crash, much of America had fallen deeply into unsustainable debt because it had no other way to maintain its standard of living. That's because for so many years almost all the gains of economic growth had been going to a relatively small number of people at the top"."As long as income and wealth keep concentrating at the top, and the great divide between America's have-mores and have-lesses continues to widen, the Great Recession won't end -- at least not in the real economy". Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration

Main Street is hungry, broke, and in a bad shape that keeps getting worst as Wall Street bounces along.

The readers of this blog will know my belief that the Wall Street American Dream is the Nightmare on Main Street of America of outsourced jobs; capital without boundaries pitting personal and corporate gain versus patriotic national interest:

1. Wall Street self interests are in direct conflict with American quality of life interests - better wages, decent health benefits are costs which erode profits, therefore sending jobs abroad boost earnings, so damn the American worker is the evident Wall Street premise.
2. Wall Street earns billions creating bubbles - 80's real estate/ S&L crash, 2000 .com bust and recent/ current CDO and Toxic asset catastrophe - 3 cataclysmic events in less than 25 years pillaging America and pocketing billions in proceeds, and because frail, powerless governments have watched as impotent voyeurs, it likely will at will do the same anytime it can create a situation of profit.
3. Dow Jones highs do not meant more money in the average guy's pocket. Though it's lows equate to job losses and benefits cuts.

Reading The New Republic and Mr. Robert Reich in Salon express similar sentiment, albeit with less sentiment, is not a comfort to ego but a small growing assurance that if more people take umbrage at the rape of America there maybe a method of stopping the rapist.

Salon, The New Republic - keep talking as this is the gospel that will harrow our hell.

Why is Manufacturing Essential for American Well-being

Noam Scheiber - The New Republic

Noam Scheiber's "Why we should cry for our shrinking Manufacturing Sector" should be required reading for Policy Makers and All Americans - as many if not most (Americans) do not realize the impact of globalization and loss of manufacturing jobs on everyday life in America.

Since coming to the US in mid 80's I've personally experienced and observed a steady decline of income across mature industries. Each closed factory means not only displaced workers but also factory owners, who cannot or have not been able to make a transition from making towels and nuts to building a Google. I am not sure if there is an agency counting numbers like me who once were American middle class and now struggle to find jobs, but I know there are many treading bleak spaces, which will remain bleak unless we start making more things locally for our own consumption and ALSO sell in world markets because selling Boeing is not enough to offset the American trade imbalance.

Trade imbalance is a threat because in our case it equals shrinking employment base.

Wine, cheese, fashion, iPod, iPhone, small batch Bourbon prove that there is a whole lot of American enterprise and creativity creating products that China and India cannot make based on knowledge and cultural factors, therefor the key to is to develop small manufacturing across sectors to repair and rebuild the American Dream.

The proof that manufacturing and economic growth thus prosperity are related is India reporting 7.9% growth in its economy for 2009; and China going gangbusters, in these hard times - both large, diversified manufacturing nations.

Americans with blinders on blunder along ....

The current economic situation is directly linked to the loss of jobs to foreign nations, which is directly correlated to the reduction in the number of small American business which has directly decimated large chunks of American middle class.

When I came to the USA there were thriving small businesses on thriving Main Streets of thriving small cities. Then the big box stores opened and destroyed smaller hardware stores and nurseries by flying in roses from Columbia and tools from China, and large video store chains ate up mom n' pop video stores, and gigantic grocery stores killed smaller butcher and fresh produce stores. And all the displaced people were not absorbed by technology companies - many went from being secure Americans to mired in debt Americans.

Now we have a chance now that we have a President who seems to have a heart and the balls to do something about America and Americans. And that chance is to create small businesses which made us the richest people on earth - not funky, weird stuff like MLM but real businesses like fruit stands, egg ranches, jam and jelly factories, clothing companies (American Apparel proves it can be done profitably in America).

It's time to reinvent the economy by being directly involved in it by creating businesses and jobs. Like dinosaurs died current Wall Street business model will perish too because it is anti people, anti American, its a model which makes health-care costs soar, destroys American middle class and jobs, and makes most American poor by making a few Speculator Americans rich.

It's time we manufacture what we can buy and it's time we boycott those who do not sell Made in America. In a Nation where Consumer spending accounts for 72% of the economic activity WE THE AMERICANS have a huge clout. Let's wield that clout now. Let's make things here and lets buy what's made here and let's bankrupt those who are against us.

And it's time we took off our blinders and stopped blundering and instead rebuild the nation with the courage and enterprise with it was originally built. We are the free and the brave so now let's create an economy in which we are not the slaves but the owners.

Think of Americans FIRST - a Note to Policy Makers

Once again everyone - the Politicians, the Economists and the Bankers - miss THE key point that unless the benefits of tax cuts reach the Main Street and the American Consumer our economic recovery will splutter and fail.

72% or is it 76% of the US economy is consumer (spending) driven, so unless that majority feels secure to spend and earns enough to spend nothing will change.

Bailing out the banks while the American consumer bleeds to death by high credit card interests is a national shame and a Pyrrhic hypocritical effort to save those whose greed drove this great country and the world into this peril.

Solution is simple:

• Lower credit cards rates while freezing spending limits until balances get reduced to avert credit card defaults which hurt banks
• Work with home owners who have lost jobs or earnings to save their homes from foreclosure

These 2 alone will boost Consumer Confidence (CCI) and with reduced interest rates and security and peace of being able to keep their homes Americans will go out and shop again and things will improve with more money in circulation.

Messers Bush, Paulson, McCain, Obama, think of people before you think about financial institutions and the results will surprise you. THINK OF AMERICANS FIRST IF YOU WANT AMERICAN ECONOMY TO IMPROVE.

Can Indian Economy sustain 9% growth

Comment on: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Finance/Indias_economy_strong_enough_to_weather_global_crisis_PM/rssarticleshow/2731427.cms

Dr. Manmohan's Singh's assurance that Indian economy can continue to grow at 9% (his status as an architect of modern Indian economy is unimpeachable) unaffected by the inevitable slow down of US economy doesn't seem realistic as the only other economy that has maintained that growth is China and that growth is based on that country's status as a major exporter to global markets, holding a net trade surplus with its trading partners.

India doesn't have the global market share that China does so it is vulnerable to (the drop in) BPO earnings, and its foreign exchange earnings are propelling infrastructure growth and consumer spending, so to ignore that is to live in a make believe world.

If the US economy slows down, and the dollar falls to the Rs. 32 range, Indian economy will slow down.

Chinese Dragon Roars At Indian Elephant

This blog is a comment on http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/03c92950-c390-11dc-b083-0000779fd2ac.html
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On the 3rd I’d written something similar called Apples & Garlic and Italian Terracotta.

The writing on the wall is clear for those who know how to read. And it says that China cannot be contained unless China is matched with Chinese determination that quashes doubt and doubters, and Chinese manufacturing and training infrastructures that can produce huge quantities of anything, and Chinese quality that now is pretty much a world standard for mass produced affordable consumer goods or reliable industrial components and products.

iPod is produced in China, so China is able to fabricate and manufacture excellence - given that in this case it is building on amazing excellence in product design. But it also means it can be trusted to produce very fine items.

USA, Japan and Germany haven’t been able to contain China, and one by one their core industries like clothing, footwear, industrial products, household goods have been wiped out. India will not fare any differently unless it gears up to compete with China on Chinese terms and turf of massive complexes producing good quality, on time.

The dream of selling services and technology to China has broken many hearts and dreams. Chinese trade surplus with the US - and now India - proves that China has a lot more of what the world needs than what the world can sell to it because the Chinese may not even fully know what they want or can have. In the interim the world is as dependent on China as a junkie on heroin. Always needing the pusher because what the pusher has it can’t do without.

Most of the Western world has shut its plants unable to compete with Chinese prices. As industrial jobs are lost, or as jobs are sent abroad demand for cheaper goods increases since many have to reinvent themselves in middle age ending up with lower paying jobs - every laid off machinist hasn’t become a programmer that is for sure, perpetuating the dependence on Chinese goods.

The only way to beat or compete with China is to do better than what China does, or lose your industries. Or do something that China doesn’t know how to do, or wants to do, yet - design products and technology. So Cisco, Apple and other thought and innovation leaders can propel American economy because of their intellectual and marketing strengths.

India needs to be very careful - or Hosiery’s in Ludhiana, Laboratory products factories in Ambala, Garment makers in Trichur, Bed sheet and towel manufacturers in Gujarat, Plastics extruders in MP, and host and most of other low technology companies will vanish. Gone will be electrical cable, plumbing and pipe fitting, transformer and relay, rubber chappal and shoe, luggage, furniture, bicycle, battery and consumer electronic manufacturers. The owners of those companies might emerge okay as they will shift manufacturing to China and retain distribution control of the Indian market. However the Indian factory worker, the raw material suppliers, the small entrepreneurs and the general industrial and manufacturing procceses will be bloodied.

India cannot take that chance, and instead of basking in the glow of massive foreign reserves which will shrink quickly if the US dollar falls to Rs. 30-32 range, needs a plan to become the manufacture for the world markets as its own domestic demand might drop with the drop of BPO earnings. So Reliance, Tata and other biggies should look at the Chinese model and create companies that will sustain Indian economy and be profitable by creating and fulfilling global demand for daily life products.

And that India doesn’t have an Apple or HP or Dell makes it’s economy more vunerable than the USA because the USA has a global market for its design technology companies. India doesn’t have design and technology companies with worldwide markets.

And TILL IT EMERGES AS A GLOBAL BRAND LEADER it has to create sustainable, scalable global suppliers of high demand items. It needs a trade surplus in its favor to invest in reserach and technology. Or what it earns from the US it will spend on China netting nothing.

China is the world’s biggest maker of socks and panties and bras. India knows how to make all that. Now it needs to make all that as fast, as good, and at the same price as China. And to do that India will have to stop patting itself on the back and get into a serious fight for not only global domination but also survival. At this time India is not a global leader of any industry, so it needs to stop pretending and get serious about success - maybe starting with using Times of India as toilet paper since that (paper) skewers perspective and reality.

The dance of elephant and dragon is not the right dance for India. India needs to be a dragon slayer or an aggressive animal, faster than the dragon, so a Cheetah perhaps?