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.

More on "the mosque"

Karen Hughes in making one of the most reasonable cases for not building the mosque at Ground-Zero says, "Putting the mosque at a different site would demonstrate the uncommon courtesy sometimes required for us to get along in our free and diverse society". She is right. With almost 70% of America hurt at the thought, shifting the mosque would make the Imam and the Muslims look like considerate, sensitive, mainstream Americans.

And Richard Bernstein says, "There is no significant Muslim population in lower Manhattan, much less one that requires a $100 million community center. Therefore, it stands to reason that the proposed center’s proximity to Ground Zero, where Muslims killed nearly 3,000 people, is the primary impetus for its construction  ...  So what’s the real issue? ... The Islamization of America. The demand for a mosque at Ground Zero is just one of many tests to see how far America will go to accommodate Muslims. As revealed during the Holy Land Foundation trial in 2008, Muslims have a “100-year plan” to gradually destroy us from within ... Moreover, this plan will be implemented incrementally, so Americans will be largely unaware of what’s occurring until it is too late. Such implementation has already begun. Airports in Kansas City, Phoenix, and Indianapolis have already installed foot baths for Muslims. Huge mosques and Islamist schools (madrassas) have been built all over the country. Their goal? To bring Sharia Law--a seventh-century political and legal system that discriminates against non-Muslims, homosexuals and women--to America. Think it can’t happen here? Think again. In 2008, England declared that Sharia law can be enforced in Muslim communities. In Canada and Europe, Sharia family tribunals are already functioning on a limited scale" How do we know that Mr. Bernstein is not right and how do we know that those refuting his facts are not Islamization of America cadres - willing or unknowingly that?

Either way in a democracy majority should prevail and with almost 70% public opinion against it the mosque would be a travesty of the democratic process and irrespective of the liberal rhetoric justifying it a defeat for the American majority.

Layoffs are back

"Layoffs are back, and that's bad news for the fragile economic recovery. Without more jobs, consumers will not feel secure enough to spend much money, further slowing the economy. The grim outlook has economists lowering their estimates for growth in the second half of the year"

So the bad news continues without any change in anything except the continuing misery for those Americans affected by globalization.

American Apocalypse

David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's Director of the Office of Management and Budget, equates GOP's economic policies with the "American Apocalypse"

He is equally critical of Democrats' large government and spending process.

Andy Grove has expressed a similar sentiment, as has Robert Reich.

Protecting our own interest is not any more protectionist than protecting our borders. Protecting American economy therefore Americans is a matter of national self interest and needs bipartisan committment to boost local manufacturing and job creation. If that means taxing imports and job exports then that needs to be done strongly like our response to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Happy Independence Day India

Wishing India the best with wishes that it finds its idealist roots again, those of Gandhi and Nehru, of bringing progress to villages and not villagers into urban slums, of tolerance not destroying temples and mosques.

On the midnight of August 14, 1947 Nehru said:

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance"Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru

That India of freedom, aspirations, ideals Rabindranath Tagore best describes in India’s National Anthem:

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.

China beats us - again

http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/27/technology/china_clean_energy.fortune/index.htm

I quit - being optimistic about America. First we said (lied) that we will only export low skill manufacturing jobs (which destroyed our factories and families dependent on those factories).

Then we sent away call center, research, analysis, processing, programming jobs with a promise that that won't hurt us a bit as we'll be doing other high paying jobs - which was a lie as not even .1% have been able to transition from a CSR to a high paid project manager or something/ anything high paying.

And now CNN reports that China has left US behind in developing and deploying clean, green technology. So from toys to turbines we lag and we still don't realize we have a problem?

The problem is Wall Street, its White House and they are a problem because you all/ we all don't do a fuck about it - don't vote for those who support globalization and refuse to do business with firms that outsource processes and export jobs - or be pulverized by Asia. Your choice.