Global Economy Bursting?

[Dee Dee]

It will be nearly impossible to resuscitate the loss of jobs, regardless of who's in the White House. Anyone who thinks that either party has the perfect solution hidden up their sleeve....perhaps waiting to play it once they are voted into office....has got to be kidding themselves. Anyone who's fool enough to wait for the government to find them a job is, quite frankly, pathetic. I'm not sure when the citizens of this country started thinking that it was the government's responsibility to keep everyone employed, but it seems people on both sides of the fence are guilty lately.

A huge percentage of those jobs that were lost were people who were self-employed or employed by smaller companies that were real-estate related businesses, and many of them began floundering about 5 years ago. Construction workers, construction material manufacturers and retail outlets, mortgage brokers, property flippers, real estate salespeople, home decorators, furniture stores, appraisers....the list goes on. The sad part is that while nearly everyone had their snout in the real estate boom trough over the "real estate only goes up!" years, many other types of jobs were quietly moving overseas, probably never to return. We have few options available to replace those jobs, and certainly no employment niche that could replace the massive employment loss that the exploding housing bubble caused.

 

[prasercat]

It will be nearly impossible to resuscitate the loss of jobs, regardless of who's in the White House. Anyone who thinks that either party has the perfect solution hidden up their sleeve....perhaps waiting to play it once they are voted into office....has got to be kidding themselves. Anyone who's fool enough to wait for the government to find them a job is, quite frankly, pathetic. I'm not sure when the citizens of this country started thinking that it was the government's responsibility to keep everyone employed, but it seems people on both sides of the fence are guilty lately.

A huge percentage of those jobs that were lost were people who were self-employed or employed by smaller companies that were real-estate related businesses, and many of them began floundering about 5 years ago. Construction workers, construction material manufacturers and retail outlets, mortgage brokers, property flippers, real estate salespeople, home decorators, furniture stores, appraisers....the list goes on. The sad part is that while nearly everyone had their snout in the real estate boom trough over the "real estate only goes up!" years, many other types of jobs were quietly moving overseas, probably never to return. We have few options available to replace those jobs, and certainly no employment niche that could replace the massive employment loss that the exploding housing bubble caused.

That's true! The real estate boom created a bubble in many interdependent businesses and masked a migration in other jobs. Could it have been intentional? A smoke screen? A pacifier for the masses?

I guarantee, if we halted all imports of certain products currently imported (forever), we would have companies opening up tomorrow on our own soil to fill the void. Simple as that....... If a foreign company wants to import product here, they open up a factory here and sell it here - no imports of big ticket items! This is China's formula, we can benefit from it too!

 

[Couch Potato]

That's true! The real estate boom created a bubble in many interdependent businesses and masked a migration in other jobs. Could it have been intentional? A smoke screen? A pacifier for the masses?

I guarantee, if we halted all imports of certain products currently imported (forever), we would have companies opening up tomorrow on our own soil to fill the void. Simple as that....... If a foreign company wants to import product here, they open up a factory here and sell it here - no imports of big ticket items! This is China's formula, we can benefit from it too!

 

[prasercat]

Couch, are you getting a little heavy on that Carolina CATDADDY?

Well, I guess that's one way out of a depression! :new_all_coholic:

 

[Couch Potato]

Couch, are you getting a little heavy on that Carolina CATDADDY?

Well, I guess that's one way out of a depression! :new_all_coholic:

I'm not the one proposing a recipe for deepening the decline in the US economy with a ridiculous protectionist scheme. :new_all_coholic:

You grossly overestimate the importance of the US market to companies with worldwide markets. Some companies would indeed start US production, but they would likely not offset the 13% of GDP lost when companies retaliate, and stop accepting our exports.

Rather than closing the door, I say open it wide. Stop limiting immigration to the US and watch our economy boom. Nothing would solve the housing crisis quite like a several million people pouring over the border.

 

[prasercat]

I'm not the one proposing a recipe for deepening the decline in the US economy with a ridiculous protectionist scheme. :new_all_coholic:

You grossly overestimate the importance of the US market to companies with worldwide markets. Some companies would indeed start US production, but they would likely not offset the 13% of GDP lost when companies retaliate, and stop accepting our exports.

Rather than closing the door, I say open it wide. Stop limiting immigration to the US and watch our economy boom. Nothing would solve the housing crisis quite like a several million people pouring over the border.

China is the most protectionist country in the world - it sure seems to work for them. Is there rhetoric regarding retaliation - Yes! - And they can worry all the way to the bank with massive surpluses. They need to implement Fiscal and monetary policies to prevent their economy from overheating. Yes, they have many worries.

A steel company that forms in the US for US buyers, is a domestic company for the domestic market. How can that steel company compete against cheap foreign steel imports- it can't unless their are tariffs on imports or imports aren't allowed into the country. US companies try to buy Chinese companies all the time - they can't. US companies want to export to China all the time - They can't. They can only build factories inside China, employ chinese labor and ship to China's market and export to the rest of the world from China. The one's that benefit are the businesses that participate in the Chinese economy, not the people of the US - that wealth doesn't land here. Unless you consider the few percent of people whom reside in the US that own international companies, that have their employment overseas. Most of their wealth stays overseas anyway.

I'm not talking about foreign internationals building factories here, I'm talking about new companies forming here for the domestic market - screw the internationals if they don't want to open a factory here.

US goods can differentiate themselves if we can offer a superior product and even though they may cost more, people will buy them overseas if they want to, if not, let it be.

The way it should work is: The US needs to be primarily self sufficient in the most important industries for our economic and political security - the more dependent we are on international products for our survival the more we will suffer in the long haul. Anything above that baseline can be imported. We need to foster this self-sufficiency again. The government and people need to decide what are these basic necessities (Energy production and resources, Raw Materials for Construction of vital products, Clean Air and Resources, Technology, etc., ) Can we import olive oil from italy, sure, that only makes sense. Can we import solar cells from China? - I hope not. We need our own energy market. Can we import oil from other countries? - we have too! - but we need to do everything possible (outside of destroying our land and water) to become energy independent (which means to focus beyond carbon based energy - oil, gas, coal) - China is doing this already - they know what the word "finite resource" means.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

grossly overestimate the importance of the US market to companies with worldwide markets.

Companies who now "reside" in Switzerland or the U. Arab Emirates and who shelter their profits overseas but sell a lot back to the U. S. would have their fingers slammed in the door if they were not protected by their US presence. Slap a 10% import tax on all companies that don't repatriate their profits and watch 'em fall in line.

Europe and other countries don't allow for innovation and set labor laws companies don't like. Russia just steals your stuff. China demands you surrender all your trade secrets... Maybe a nice stable place like Libya or Syria. so where are you going to base your multinational company?

Canada allows the proviences to absolutely butcher the oil companies upon occasion and you see the impact when the rig count in Canada took a huge dive in 2009 after Alberta whacked the companies with a 40% tax. The drilling dropped to a 10 year low...they quickly changed the rate and it recovered.

The U. S. needs to worry about the welfare of the people and not the corporations who are playing us against other countries in the globalization game. Why do you think your service techs are from Bombay?

 

[Dee Dee]

Nothing would solve the housing crisis quite like a several million people pouring over the border.

....assuming they have jobs to pay for them.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

assuming they have jobs to pay for them.

which ought to free up a lot of cheap Mexican housing where we might be able to afford our doctor on our meager SS check

 

[prasercat]

I was shocked to learn there is a new enterprise in the US funded by global investors that cannibalizes our own corporations (both medium and large).

To me it is a cancer that is eating away at what is left of our economy - stealing profits, stifling innovation, robbing tech and new innovating companies of their cash, putting some out of business, and making overseas investors rich at our expense by exploiting flaws in our own legal and patent systems.

If you own a medium to large corporation in the US, you are probably worried about receiving a certain letter in the mail, as many have already. The problem is growing at a fast rate - beware!

Read or listen here:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack