Tapsearch Com EditorPlain Dealer Journalist rocks Federal Reserve (LINK)
January 25th 2008 03:59
Bizarre Politics Reports:
Elizabeth Sullivan says buying America is a tall order
Top scholarly journalist at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Elizabeth Sullivan tells it like it is.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says we should spend the extra money we may get from the economic stimulus package on "domestically produced" items instead of paying down credit card debt.
Elizabeth Sullivan says you can not buy something that does not exist. She says,
" It was the highest-level admission yet that, instead of a stabilizing and moderating force, the globalization of the world economy has created new headaches for the Federal Reserve Board and new dangers for the U.S. middle class".
Here is why:
Free Trade is not trade. It is primarily about moving factories from place to place anywhere in the world for the sake of cheaper labor. The money spent at retail follows this trail. The money moves too. It goes where the factories go. This is money that can not be recyled to grow local value added economies.
A balancing point is now being reached. Just like water seeks its lowest level. The value of labor is reaching its own level. The balancing point is somewhere between the former middle class workers in the USA and the impoverished workers in other countries. Labor as been sacrificed at the altar of greed.
The financial and investment communities have been separated and they are like oil on water. There are two separate channels now - labor and investment are split from each other. In the past, companies who could employ many workers while still making a profit were rewarded by the stock market in terms of value. Now the value of stock is based on workers getting fired instead of hired. The economist list this under an increase in productivity, but firing and hiring does allow any long term industrial advances. The companies that are still left, can not keep starting over and over with new employees.
A wall has been hit. The American consumers who were the backbone of Free Trade and Globalization have run out of money. They have lost the equities in their home - that is if they still have their home and their energy and fuel costs have hit the roof. Credit card debt is overwhelming. Many had to use their cards as emergency funds especially those who are between jobs. Only about 38 percent of all American workers have unemployment insurance. They either do not make enough money in any given period or work long enough at one job to qualify.
Sullivan says:
" The Feds prior reluctance to use monetary tools and its power of public policy persuasion to help bail out the heartland from a manufacturing-driven recession may be ending. But now that's on the deck, its tools to pound the economy back into shape are more limited."
And may I add this:
Alan Greenspan started out playing a saxophone in a band. President Clinton plays a sax too.
For many years Greenspan and Bill Clinton in the Land of "is", played Dancing in the Dark while the American Dream was Burning away. They danced together in celebration of prosperity that never was with a silent depression lurking in major cities across the land. President Bush came along and broke in and danced with Greenspan in the dark as a new Doctor Strangelove starting pre-emptive wars in the Middle East. Then lights came up in the room. All that was left were many Chinese standing there with imports in their hands. The dance is over and the lights are on. The celebration of the Free Traders is over.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says we should spend the extra money we may get from the economic stimulus package on "domestically produced" items instead of paying down credit card debt.
Elizabeth Sullivan says you can not buy something that does not exist. She says,
" It was the highest-level admission yet that, instead of a stabilizing and moderating force, the globalization of the world economy has created new headaches for the Federal Reserve Board and new dangers for the U.S. middle class".
Here is why:
Free Trade is not trade. It is primarily about moving factories from place to place anywhere in the world for the sake of cheaper labor. The money spent at retail follows this trail. The money moves too. It goes where the factories go. This is money that can not be recyled to grow local value added economies.
A balancing point is now being reached. Just like water seeks its lowest level. The value of labor is reaching its own level. The balancing point is somewhere between the former middle class workers in the USA and the impoverished workers in other countries. Labor as been sacrificed at the altar of greed.
The financial and investment communities have been separated and they are like oil on water. There are two separate channels now - labor and investment are split from each other. In the past, companies who could employ many workers while still making a profit were rewarded by the stock market in terms of value. Now the value of stock is based on workers getting fired instead of hired. The economist list this under an increase in productivity, but firing and hiring does allow any long term industrial advances. The companies that are still left, can not keep starting over and over with new employees.
A wall has been hit. The American consumers who were the backbone of Free Trade and Globalization have run out of money. They have lost the equities in their home - that is if they still have their home and their energy and fuel costs have hit the roof. Credit card debt is overwhelming. Many had to use their cards as emergency funds especially those who are between jobs. Only about 38 percent of all American workers have unemployment insurance. They either do not make enough money in any given period or work long enough at one job to qualify.
Sullivan says:
" The Feds prior reluctance to use monetary tools and its power of public policy persuasion to help bail out the heartland from a manufacturing-driven recession may be ending. But now that's on the deck, its tools to pound the economy back into shape are more limited."
And may I add this:
Alan Greenspan started out playing a saxophone in a band. President Clinton plays a sax too.
For many years Greenspan and Bill Clinton in the Land of "is", played Dancing in the Dark while the American Dream was Burning away. They danced together in celebration of prosperity that never was with a silent depression lurking in major cities across the land. President Bush came along and broke in and danced with Greenspan in the dark as a new Doctor Strangelove starting pre-emptive wars in the Middle East. Then lights came up in the room. All that was left were many Chinese standing there with imports in their hands. The dance is over and the lights are on. The celebration of the Free Traders is over.
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Elizabeth Sullivan -- Buy American? That's a tall order -- Cleveland Plain Dealer -- Jan 24 2008