Trade

Barack Obama And Ben Bernanke Continue To Defend Quantitative Easing, But For The Rest Of The World The Verdict Is In: They Hate It

Even as Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke publicly defend the Federal Reserve’s new $600 billion quantitative easing program, top finance officials around the globe are expressing alarm and outrage.  But what did Obama and Bernanke expect?  “Quantitative easing” is little more than legalized cheating.  For a moment, imagine that the global economy is a giant game of Monopoly.  Essentially what Bernanke has done is that he has just reached under the table and has slipped another $600 billion on to his pile of money, hoping that the rest of the players will not call him out on it.  The rest of the world has heavily invested in the U.S. dollar and in U.S. Treasuries, and this new quantitative easing program is going to devalue all of those holdings.  If the Federal Reserve continues to go down the road of monetizing U.S. government debt, other nations are rapidly going to get spooked and will soon refuse to invest in U.S. dollars and U.S. Treasuries.  When that day arrives, it is going to cause mass panic in the world financial system.

Already, investors across the globe are flocking out of the U.S. dollar and into safe investments such as gold and silver.  On Monday, gold closed at an all-time record high of $1,403.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and silver closed at a 30-year high of $27.43 an ounce.

Unfortunately, our leaders seem absolutely clueless about what is really going on.  In fact, Barack Obama is very much in Bernanke’s corner.  During his trip to India, Barack Obama made it clear that he very much supports this new round of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve….

“I will say that the Fed’s mandate, my mandate, is to grow our economy. And that’s not just good for the United States, that’s good for the world as a whole.”

This is the exact opposite of what Barack Obama should be doing.  He should be demanding accountability from Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve.  He should be trying to get the U.S. financial system back on some kind of solid footing.

But we all know that is not going to happen.  Obama had no problem renominating Bernanke to another term, and Obama has publicly supported him at every opportunity.

Well, if Obama isn’t going to do it, shouldn’t some of our other representatives in Washington D.C. be calling for the resignation of Bernanke?  After all, how many chances does one guy get?  Bernanke’s record is littered with so much gross incompetence that it makes Wade Phillips of the Dallas Cowboys look like Coach of the Year.  The video posted below shows Bernanke reassuring the public over and over and over between 2005 and 2007 that the U.S. economy was in great shape and that we would continue to experience solid growth….

How long is it going to be until everyone wakes up and starts acknowledging that “the emperor has no clothes” and Bernanke is running the U.S. economy into the ground?

At this point, Bernanke has lost virtually all credibility.  In 2009, he promised the U.S. Congress that the Federal Reserve would not monetize U.S. government debt, but now that is exactly what is happening.

Most of the top finance officials in other countries realize what is going on, and they are really starting to make their displeasure known.  The following are just a few examples of the global outrage that has been expressed about the Fed’s new quantitative easing program over the past few days….

*Xia Bin, an important member of the monetary policy committee of China’s central bank has called the Fed’s new quantitative easing plan “abusive” and is warning that it could set off a global economic meltdown.

*On Monday, Chinese Finance Vice Minister Zhu Guangyao expressed his extreme dismay regarding the Fed’s new quantitative easing scheme….

“As a major reserve currency issuer, for the United States to launch a second round of quantitative easing at this time, we feel that it did not recognize its responsibility to stabilize global markets and did not think about the impact of excessive liquidity on emerging markets.”

*German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who has called current Fed policy “clueless”, says that he is absolutely disgusted with the Federal Reserve at this point….

“They have already pumped an endless amount of money into the economy via taking on extremely high public debt and through a Fed policy that has already pumped a lot of money into the economy. The results are horrendous.”

*Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil, says that he is incredibly upset about QE2 and that he is going to arrive for the G20 meetings in Seoul ready “to fight”.

*Bloomberg is reporting that at the upcoming G20 meetings, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is going to “insist” that any future quantitative easing measures be globally coordinated.

*Even some top Fed officials are speaking out publicly against this new round of quantitative easing.  For example, Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig recently made the following statement about the new direction the Fed is taking….

“I worry that by pumping in significant amounts of dollars we then build the inflationary pressures for the future, and we do encourage then an easier credit environment that helped create this problem in the first place.”

The Federal Reserve had better hope that the rest of the world does not get scared off from buying U.S. government debt.  According to the Wall Street Journal, in order to repay maturing bonds and finance the budget deficit, the U.S. government will have to come up with 4.2 trillion dollars over the next year.

If the rest of the world cuts back on buying U.S. Treasuries, the Federal Reserve is going to find itself with a gigantic mountain of debt that it will be forced to monetize.

So what happens someday when China, Japan, Russia and the major oil producers in the Middle East decide that enough is enough and they are not going to buy any more U.S. debt?

Don’t think it can’t happen – these nations are not stupid and if they realize that the U.S. dollar is going to continually keep falling in value there could be a dramatic move away from U.S. debt.

If the rest of the world quits lending massive amounts of money to the U.S. government, our leaders will be faced with three options.  The U.S. government could start trying to operate within a balanced budget (which would crash the economy), interest rates on U.S. government debt could be raised until people would be willing to invest in Treasuries again (which would probably crash U.S. government finances and the economy), or the Federal Reserve could just start monetizing most of the debt on a regular basis (which would likely eventually crash the entire world financial system).

In order for the current world financial system to maintain stability, it is essential for there to be faith in the U.S. dollar and for there to be faith in U.S. Treasuries.  Once faith in them is lost, it will only be a matter of time until the world financial system totally crumbles.

This new round of quantitative easing could be the “tipping point” that opens the door to the eventual complete and total collapse of the U.S. dollar.  Let us hope that the dollar does not completely fail any time soon, but with jokers like Bernanke and Obama running the show, there is not much reason for optimism.

Unfair Trade: 10 Questions About Our Globalized Economy That Neither Conservative Or Liberal Supporters Of Current U.S. Trade Policies Can Answer

Most Americans still seem to be convinced that “free trade” is “fair trade” and that to be against current U.S. trade policies and globalization means that you are anti-business, anti-free enterprise and anti-American.  In the mainstream media, any unfair trade practices that are brought up are treated as minor nuisances that will be ironed out as we march towards the glorious globalized economy of the future.  But the truth is that the kind of world trade that is going on today is neither “free” nor is it “fair”.  Major exporting countries around the globe are openly manipulating their currencies, they are heavily subsidizing their major industries and they are erecting huge tariffs against many U.S. goods in order to protect their own domestic companies.  Meanwhile, U.S. consumers enjoy mountains of cheap goods, but thousands of factories, hundreds of thousands of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars of national wealth leave our country for good every year.  So how in the world is that good for us?  It is kind of like ripping apart your house to get more firewood just to keep the fire going.  Eventually you aren’t going to have a house anymore.

The other day, my article entitled “The Number One U.S. Export To China: Waste Paper And Scrap Metal” really struck a chord with many advocates of current U.S. trade practices.  For example, one reader identified only as “Someone” left a comment that was typical of many that were posted on the article….

“The author of this article has shown no knowledge of economics.”

Well, it doesn’t take a genius to look at the numbers and figure out that something is wrong.  In 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 6 million dollars for the entire year.  In the month of August alone, the U.S. trade deficit with China was over 28 billion dollars.

Can anyone else spot a disturbing trend there?

Years ago, I was also one of those who believed that because I was “pro-business” that also meant that I had to defend “free trade” and trade agreements such as NAFTA and the WTO.

After all, I didn’t want to be labeled “anti-business” or “anti-American” did I?

But the truth is that merging our economy with socialist and communist economies that allow their workers to be paid slave labor wages is not “pro-business” and it certainly is not “pro-American”.  Allowing entire U.S. industries to be destroyed because of the unfair predatory trade practices of socialist and communist economies is not “pro-business” and it certainly is not “pro-American”. 

If you want to have “free trade”, then by definition you must have a level playing field.  For example, trade with Canada (although not perfect) is mostly a very, very good thing.  Trade with China is not.

Many readers have suggested that all we have to do is get rid of the horrific regulations and taxes that are holding U.S. businesses back and our trade situation will be fixed.

And yes, the U.S. government has piled so many rules, so many taxes and so much paperwork on U.S. businesses that it is becoming very, very difficult to operate a profitable business inside the United States.  There has never been a more oppressive environment for business in the United States than we have today.

But would fixing that solve all our trade problems?  Would fixing that bring back all of our factories and jobs?

No, but of course it would help to an extent.

However, the reality is that unless we address the fundamental problems with global trade we are in a heap of trouble.

Unfortunately, not all of my readers agree.  One reader named Puzzled was quite blunt is his analysis of my recent article on trade: “I’d recommend a class on basic economics.”  Well, it turns out that I did take a number of courses in economics at one of the finest universities in the United States, but our education system has become so dumbed-down that I didn’t learn much.

So let’s hear from someone who is considered to be an expert in economics.

Just how dangerous is the trade deficit?  Well, world famous investor Warren Buffett once put it this way….

“The U.S trade deficit is a bigger threat to the domestic economy than either the federal budget deficit or consumer debt and could lead to political turmoil… Right now, the rest of the world owns $3 trillion more of us than we own of them.”

Advocates of current U.S. trade policies usually respond by saying something like this….

“The global economy is here to stay so you better get used to it.  There is no going back.  It is a good thing for factories and jobs to be going to China because they can produce things cheaper than we can.  We benefit because we get to enjoy large amounts of cheap products.  Yes, American workers are going to have a significantly reduced standard of living, but this is necessary as we merge all the countries of the world into a globalized economy which will be better for everyone in the end.  After all, it is better for goods and services to cross borders than it is for armies to cross borders.  U.S. citizens are just going to have to learn to live within their means.  If the United States cannot provide jobs for all of their people in this new global economy, then maybe they need to start implementing some population control measures.  Quit blaming China because they aren’t doing anything wrong.  Everyone knows that free trade is always the best alternative.  Are you an idiot?  Go take a class in basic economics you moron.”

The following is a sampling of actual comments that have been recently posted in response to my articles on globalism by advocates of current U.S. trade policies.

A reader named Frodo apparently thinks that I am “anti-freedom”….

You are totally wrong about free trade. “free trade” is part of “freedom” like the freedom of consumers to buy stuff they want made somewhere else.

A reader named John seems convinced that that United States has never lost even a single job to China….

No American has ever lost a job to China: what happens is due to USA govt industrial policy (get big or get out), new jobs are placed in new factories where there will be better stability in the future – China. Those “lost jobs” are not coming back because like buggy whips, we don’t use them anymore.

A reader named Dave believes that “free trade” is precisely what we need to revitalize manufacturing in America again….

Free trade is EXACTLY what’s needed if we ever hope to get manufacturing back in North America.

In the face of such overwhelming logic how can I continue to maintain that the current state of global trade is deeply flawed and deeply broken?

Well, I have a challenge for advocates of current U.S. trade policies.

I challenge you to answer the following 10 questions about our globalized economy.  Please answer these questions and tell me why I am wrong….  

#1 How can trade be considered “fair” when other major exporting nations openly manipulate their currencies, provide massive subsidies for their national industries and erect massive tariffs against many U.S. goods while we allow them to wipe out many of our domestic industries by flooding our shores with endless amounts of cheap products?

#2 How is it possible that it is good for American workers to be merged into a global labor pool where they must compete for jobs with workers on the other side of the globe that make less than ten percent of what an average American worker makes?

#3 As millions of manufacturing jobs continue to flow to where “labor is cheaper”, can you please explain how in the world we are going to provide nearly enough jobs for blue collar American workers?

#4 If there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone, then millions upon millions of Americans will not be able to take care of themselves.  We simply are not going to let them starve to death in the streets.  Already, over 41 million Americans are on food stamps.  One way or another we are going to pay to take care of American workers.  Either we are going to give them jobs or we are going to give them welfare.  Are you willing to have your taxes raised substantially to pay for all of the welfare cases that “free trade” is creating?

#5 As U.S. workers are merged into the new global labor pool, can you please explain how wages will not be forced down and the standard of living for average, hard-working Americans will not diminish substantially?

#6 How can any conservative ever justify trading with a nation (China) that has a “one-child policy” and that has mobile abortion vans driving around the country to enforce this mandate?

#7 How can any liberal ever justify trading with a nation (China) that is rapidly becoming an environmental wasteland and where millions of people work in horrific conditions for what is essentially slave labor pay?

#8 The House National Security Oversight Subcommittee recently heard stunning testimony from a number of experts that told them that the rapid decline of manufacturing in the United States has resulted in America losing its edge in numerous industries that are absolutely vital to national security.  How is it possible that putting our national security in such peril is a “good thing”?

#9 The United States spends 40 to 50 billion more on goods and services from the rest of the world each month than they spend on goods and services from us.  That means that the United States is becoming 40 to 50 billion dollars poorer each and every month.  How is that good for the U.S. economy?

#10 Over the past few decades, the communist Chinese have been able to accumulate approximately $2.5 trillion in foreign currency reserves, and the U.S. government now owes them close to 900 billion dollars.  We constantly have to send top government officials over there to beg them to continue to lend us money.  This would have never happened without the insane trade policies of the last several decades.  So how in the world can advocates of current U.S. trade policies ever justify this?

The Number One U.S. Export To China: Waste Paper And Scrap Metal

Historians tell us that by the very end of the Roman Empire, goods were pouring into Rome from all over the known world, but about the only thing being sent out of Rome was human waste and garbage.  America has not yet reached that point, but we are certainly well on our way.  In 2010, the number one U.S. export to China is “scrap and trash”.  Yes, you read the correctly.  The number one thing that China buys from us is our garbage.  According to author Clyde Prestowitz, China’s number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment (nearly $50 billion) while our number one export to them is waste paper and scrap metal (approximately $8 billion).  When it comes to world trade, China is literally wiping the floor with the United States.  In August, the U.S. trade deficit with China set a new one month record of $28 billion dollars.  Our insane trade policies are making China (along with several of our other “trade partners”) incredibly wealthy, and the U.S. government ends up begging China to lend that money back to us to fund the exploding U.S. national debt.  That just isn’t stupidity – that is insanity.

The truth is that our “twin deficits” are literally bankrupting this nation.  We are completely and totally destroying the economic future of our children and grandchildren.

But hey, the Vikings beat the Cowboys, Dancing With The Stars is heating up and we all have a bunch of DVDs to get caught up on so why worry ourselves, right?

Unfortunately, the reality is that we can’t afford to be “comfortably numb” any longer if we hope to have any kind of a future.

It is time to wake up people.

Sadly, a significant percentage of young Americans these days can’t even tell you what a “trade deficit” is. 

If you don’t believe this, just try a little experiment some time.  Just go up to a few young Americans on the street and ask them to define “trade deficit” for you.

But fortunately, the vast majority of the readers of this column are quite informed.  Unfortunately, I still don’t believe that most of you really understand how incredibly dangerous the trade deficit is.

So just how dangerous is the trade deficit?  Well, world famous investor Warren Buffett once put it this way….

“The U.S trade deficit is a bigger threat to the domestic economy than either the federal budget deficit or consumer debt and could lead to political turmoil… Right now, the rest of the world owns $3 trillion more of us than we own of them.”

Between 2000 and 2009, America’s trade deficit with China skyrocketed nearly 300 percent.  Wealth, factories and jobs are leaving the United States at an astounding pace.  The danger that this represents to our economy is so vast that it is hard to even describe.

If you ever find yourself in a debate with proponents of “free trade”, you can almost always get them to eventually admit that “free trade” will raise the standard of living for workers in countries like China while significantly lowering the standard of living for U.S. workers, but that this must be done for the good of the emerging “global economy”.

Of course U.S politicians never really mention this nasty little fact when they give speeches about how wonderful our trade policies are.  They never really get around to mentioning that “free trade” is one of the key foundations of “globalism” and that we are being merged into a one world economy.

Today, American workers do not just compete with other American workers.  Instead, U.S. workers now find themselves in direct competition for jobs with workers in China that makes less than a tenth of what an American worker would make.  In China, a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour.  Apple iPhones are manufactured in China by workers making about 293 dollars a month (and that was after a big raise).

So exactly how long do you think you and your family would be able to survive on 293 dollars a month?

But unfortunately, millions more Americans will lose their jobs and millions more Americans will be forced to take a cut in pay in order to compete in the new global economy.

According to a disturbing new study by the Economic Policy Institute, if the trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.

The sad truth is that it is NOT a good time to be a blue collar worker in America.  If your job does not get offshored or outsourced, then it is likely to be made obsolete by computers and automation. 

The need for manual labor is rapidly declining in today’s world.  For example, there is a Japanese firm called Fanuc, Ltd. that actually has industrial robots manufacturing other industrial robots in a “lights out” factory.

How bizarre is that?

But things wouldn’t be quite as bad for U.S. workers if China was not cheating so badly.  The truth is that they just do not play the game fairly.

For instance, it is estimated that the Chinese government is keeping China’s currency valued about 40 percent lower than it should be.  This is essentially a de facto subsidy to China’s exporters.

There has been a little bit of rumbling in the Obama administration about this in recent weeks, but it is quite unlikely that they will push China too far on this issue.  After all, the Obama administration desperately needs China to keep loaning us massive quantities of money so that we can keep funding our runaway debt.

If you sit back and objectively analyze the facts, it quickly becomes undeniable that China is beating the living crap out of us economically.  In fact, one prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040 if current trends continue.

This all could have been turned around a decade or two ago, but now China has us by the throat.  At any time, China could decide to start selling off massive quantities of U.S. Treasuries.  At any time, China could decide to cut off our supply of rare earth elements (of which they have a virtual monopoly).   

China is now even the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.  How smart were we to allow that to happen?

It is a direct threat to national security for China to have so much leverage over us.  But you rarely hear anyone talking about this.

The truth is that trade with China is not a left/right issue.  As I have written about previously, it is impossible for any self-respecting conservative to justify our trade policies with China and it is impossible for any self-respecting liberal to justify our trade policies with China.

Yet very few current members of the U.S. Congress ever discuss the possibility of sweeping changes to our trade policies.

So we will continue to lose thousands of factories, we will continue to lose millions of jobs and we will continue to see the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the world accelerate.

So do any of you think that I am wrong about this?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below….

It Is A Race To The Bottom For Global Currencies And The Winner Will Be Gold

In 2010, any nation that has a weak currency has a very significant competitive advantage in global trade.  A weak currency means that the products and services produced by that nation will be less expensive for other nations.  Therefore other nations will buy more of those products and services.  When exports go up, employment goes up and more wealth flows into the country.  Alternatively, when the value of a national currency declines, exports do down, unemployment increases and less wealth flows into the country.  Therefore, dozens of exporting nations around the globe have become increasingly determined to keep their national currencies very weak in an attempt to maintain a competitive advantage in the global marketplace.  Essentially what we have is a race to the bottom among global currencies.  Whenever any nation wants to gain a little bit more of an edge in global trade they push the value of their currency down just a little bit more.  So who is the winner in all of this?  Well, that is easy.  Gold, silver and other precious metals will continue to be the winners as fiat currencies all over the globe continue to decline in value. 

Quite a few nations have been openly manipulating their national currencies for many years, but now currency issues are starting to make front page news.  Things are starting to get quite tense out there.  Major importing nations are starting to resent the fact that they have been burned by all of this currency manipulation and major exporting nations are absolutely determined not to lose the economic gains that they have achieved as a result of their currency manipulation.   

In recent months, nation after nation has been taking steps to weaken their national currencies.  Every time another currency gets devalued the hostility in the global marketplace just seems to grow.  In fact, Brazil’s finance minister recently was very honest about the fact that the nations of the world are now engaged in a very open “international currency war”….

“We’re in the midst of an international currency war, a general weakening of currency.”

So where does all of this end?

Well, to some the answer is to adopt a global currency.  But let us hope that never, ever happens because it would be the end of economic sovereignty for every nation on the face of the earth.

To others, the answer is for the nations that are being taken advantage of to stand up and to declare that they are not going to take it anymore.

Perhaps the most glaring example of one nation taking example of another is what China is doing to the United States.

In my recent article entitled “Currency War” I described the effect that currency manipulation by the Chinese government is having on trade between the U.S. and China….

For years, China has kept the value of their currency artificially low.  Even though China has made a few small moves toward a more free-floating currency policy, at this point China’s currency is still pretty much pegged to the U.S. dollar.  It is estimated that the Chinese government is keeping China’s currency at a value about 40 percent lower than what it should be.  This is essentially a de facto subsidy to China’s exporters.

By keeping their currency essentially pegged to the U.S. dollar at such a low value, China is able to flood the U.S. market with incredibly cheap goods and services.  But this has created an absolutely massive trade imbalance.  Today, the United States spends $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1.00 that the Chinese spend on American goods.  Jobs and wealth are flowing out of the United States and into China at a pace that is almost unimaginable.

The Chinese know that if they let the value of their currency rise substantially it would have a devastating impact on their economy.  Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was recently quoted in The Telegraph as saying the following about what would happen if the value of Chinese currency was to rise substantially….

“I can’t imagine how many Chinese factories will go bankrupt, how many Chinese workers will lose their jobs.”

So instead American factories get to go bankrupt and millions of American workers get to lose their jobs.

Is that fair?

Meanwhile, other nations around the world are busy debasing their currencies.  For example, Japan recently made a 12 billion dollar move in world currency markets to debase the value of the yen.

Earlier this year, the Swiss National Bank experienced losses equivalent to about 15 billion dollars trying to stop the rapid rise of the Swiss franc.

It truly is a race to the bottom.

So who benefits?

Gold, silver and other precious metals of course.

Gold recently topped $1,300 an ounce. 

Silver has been absolutely soaring.

Exporting nations such as China and India have been gobbling up gold and other precious metals every time there is a little bit of a dip.  They are tired of piling up endless amounts of U.S. dollars and they are seeking to diversify into something more solid.

The trend toward gold and precious metals is so hot that one German firm that installs gold vending machines now has plans to introduce them into the United States later this year.

It seems like everyone wants gold right now.

Not that gold is any more valuable than it ever has been.

It is just that it is not going down in value like all of the fiat paper currencies around the world are.

This is not a good time to have faith in paper currencies – particularly the U.S. dollar.

Already the dollar has been slipping substantially and the Federal Reserve has not really even cranked up the next round of quantitative easing yet.

One of the easiest things to do when there are economic problems in a nation is to pump more paper money into the economy.  More paper money gives people something to spend, it spurs economic activity, it helps exports (as described above), and it helps put people back to work. 

Of course it also destroys the value of the currency, but we will get to that in a minute.

With millions upon millions of Americans out of work, and with millions of homes being foreclosed, and with poverty statistics soaring into uncharted territory, it is very tempting for our politicians in Washington to borrow even more paper money and to pump it into the economy in an attempt to get things going again.  But right now an election is coming up and the Tea Party has raised such a ruckus about government debt that there isn’t much appetite for more “stimulus packages” right now.

Of course the truth is that “stimulus packages” never solve any of our long-term problems anyway.  The reality is that they just give our economy a short-term “high” and make our long-term debt problems even worse.

Not that the U.S. government is not quietly up to some monkey business.  On Friday, federal regulators announced a 30 billion dollar bailout of the nation’s wholesale credit union system.

Another bailout?

Just what we need, eh?

But in general, the U.S. government is not doing a whole lot more reckless spending right now.

However, the Federal Reserve can inject more paper money into the economy without the help of Congress.  Under the guise of “quantitative easing”, the Federal Reserve makes up money out of thin air and pumps it into the economy by buying up U.S. Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities or anything else that they feel like buying.

So is this going to happen again any time soon?

There are all kinds of whispers on Wall Street that this is exactly what the Fed is going to do and that it is going to be massive.

And quantitative easing would probably stimulate the U.S. economy in the short-term.

However, it would also seriously damage the value of the U.S. dollar.

You see, the truth is that when more dollars are introduced into the system, the value of each existing dollar goes down.

It is called inflation, and it is a hidden tax on all of us. 

Think of it this way.  If you put five dollars away today and you anticipate that you will be able to buy two loaves of bread with it three years from now, you will be greatly disappointed if when that day arrives a loaf of bread now costs five dollars and you can only purchase one loaf.

When the purchasing power of the dollar declines, it is a tax on every single dollar in every single wallet and bank account in the United States.

Since 1913, the U.S. dollar has lost over 96 percent of its value.  Unfortunately, as ever increasing mountains of paper money continue to be required to keep our financial system solvent, the rate of decline of the value of the dollar is only going to increase in the years ahead.

So when you are watching the news and you hear that the Federal Reserve has announced some more “quantitative easing”, you might want to watch your wallet because you are about to be taxed.  Your dollars will still be there – they just won’t go as far as they used to.

But in the twisted global economic system that our politicians have created, if the U.S. does not devalue the dollar we will lose factories, jobs and wealth at an even faster pace. 

How sick is that?

So do not put your trust in the U.S. dollar.  In the end, it will fail.

So what do all of you think?  Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion (sane of otherwise) below….

19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind

The United States is rapidly becoming the very first “post-industrial” nation on the globe.  All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing.  It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution.  It was America that showed the world how to mass produce everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes.  It was the great American manufacturing base that crushed Germany and Japan in World War II.  But now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America.  Tens of thousands of factories have left the United States in the past decade alone.  Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in the same time period.  The United States has become a nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little.  Do you know what our biggest export is today?  Waste paper.  Yes, trash is the number one thing that we ship out to the rest of the world as we voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the world wants to sell to us.  The United States has become bloated and spoiled and our economy is now  just a shadow of what it once was.  Once upon a time America could literally outproduce the rest of the world combined.  Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than anyone else in the world.  If the deindustrialization of America continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we going to be leaving to our children?

Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things.  So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue to consider itself to be a great nation?  We have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere close to sustainable.  Every single month America does into more debt and every single month America gets poorer.

So what happens when the debt bubble pops?

The deindustrialization of the United States should be a top concern for every man, woman and child in the country.  But sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them.

For people like that, take this article and print it out and hand it to them.  Perhaps what they will read below will shock them badly enough to awaken them from their slumber.    

The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind….

#1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. 

#2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.

#3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in November.  Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.

#4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold worldwide.  So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States?  Zero.

#5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.

#6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.

#7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.

#8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.

#9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output.  In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.

#10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford’s new “global” manufacturing strategy.

#11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing.  The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.

#13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use.  Today it ranks 15th.

#15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products.  Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide.

#17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.

#18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

#19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.

So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before we do something about it?

How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands?

How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy?

How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide?

The deindustrialization of America is a national crisis.  It needs to be treated like one.

If you disagree with this article, I have a direct challenge for you.  If anyone can explain how a deindustrialized America has any kind of viable economic future, please do so below in the comments section.

America is in deep, deep trouble folks.  It is time to wake up.

Currency War

Are you ready for a currency war?  Well, buckle up, because things are about to get interesting.  This week Japan fired what is perhaps the opening salvo in a new round of currency wars by publicly intervening in the foreign exchange market for the first time since 2004.  Japan’s bold 12 billion dollar move to push down the value of the yen made headlines all over the world.  Japan’s economy is highly dependent on exports and the Japanese government was becoming increasingly alarmed by the recent surge in the value of the yen.  A stronger yen makes Japanese exports more expensive for other nations and thus would harm Japanese industry.  But Japan is not the only nation that is ready to go to battle over currency rates.  The governments of the U.S. and China continue to exchange increasingly heated rhetoric regarding currency policy.  In Europe, there is growing sentiment that the euro needs to be devalued in order to help European exports become more competitive.  In addition, exporters all over the world are already loudly complaining about the possibility that the Federal Reserve is about to unleash another round of quantitative easing.  Virtually all major exporting nations want the value of the U.S. dollar to remain high so that they can keep flooding us with lots of cheap goods.  The sad reality is that our current system of globalized trade rewards exporting nations that have weak currencies, and many nations have now shown that they are willing to take the gloves off to make certain that their national currencies do not appreciate in value by too much.

Some nations have been involved in open currency manipulation for some time now.  For example, Singapore is well known for intervening in the foreign exchange market in order to benefit exporters.  Also, the Swiss National Bank experienced losses equivalent to about 15 billion dollars trying to stop the rapid rise of the Swiss franc earlier this year.

But as we race toward the end of 2010, currency manipulation is becoming a major issue on the world stage.

Rumors that the Federal Reserve is considering a substantial new round of quantitative easing is already causing many major exporting nations around the world to howl in outrage. 

Why?

Well, quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve could put substantial downward pressure on the value of the dollar and that would make exports significantly more expensive in the United States.  The reality is that even a relatively small change in the value of the U.S. dollar can have a major impact on exporters.

But what could really set off a massive currency war is the ongoing dispute between the U.S. and China.

For years, China has kept the value of their currency artificially low.  Even though China has made a few small moves toward a more free-floating currency policy, at this point China’s currency is still pretty much pegged to the U.S. dollar.  It is estimated that the Chinese government is keeping China’s currency at a value about 40 percent lower than what it should be.  This is essentially a de facto subsidy to China’s exporters.

This has enabled China to flood the United States with cheap goods and it is killing entire industries in the United States.  Americans have loved rushing out to Wal-Mart to get super low prices on all kinds of stuff, but in the process we have slowly but surely been shipping our manufacturing base and our standard of living over to China.

In recent years both the Bush administration and the Obama administration have been whining about this currency manipulation by China, but both administrations have stopped short of taking any real action.

But are there now signs that the Obama administration is going to get serious and start a currency war? 

Well, last week Barack Obama did send the head of his national council of economic advisers, Larry Summers, to Beijing to discuss currency issues.

But what can we do other than whine at this point?

Are we willing to start a trade war?

Considering the fact that China holds nearly a trillion dollars worth of U.S. Treasuries, that probably would not go so well for us.

Even though China’s currency manipulation is absolutely raping the U.S. economy, China has so much leverage over us at this point that it isn’t even funny.

For example, China has almost a complete and total monopoly on rare earth elements.  If China totally cut off the supply of rare earth elements, we would have no hybrid car batteries, flat screen televisions, cell phones or iPods.  Not only that, but rare earth elements are used by the U.S. military in radar systems, missile-guidance systems, satellites and aircraft electronics.

But something has to be done.  Essentially we are caught between a rock and a hard place.

Today, the United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States. 

Last month, the monthly trade deficit with China was approximately 26 billion dollars.  For the year, the trade deficit with China will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 billion dollars or so.  The transfer of wealth to China that represents is absolutely mind blowing.

The U.S. economy is getting poorer and the Chinese economy is getting richer each and every month.

We are in decline and China is on the rise.  In fact, one prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

This would not have ever happened if we had not put up with China’s open and blatant currency manipulation all this time.

But now they have us over a barrel and standing up to China would be incredibly painful for the U.S. economy in the short-term.

So will we actually see a currency war break out soon?

Well, it seems almost a certainly that countries throughout the world will continue to manipulate their currencies in order to gain a competitive advantage, but if you are waiting for the Obama administration to truly stand up to China you are probably going to be waiting for a very, very long time.

Globalism Destroys America: 10 Reasons Why The World Trade Organization Is Bad For The United States Economy

In 2010, education has been so “dumbed down” in America that most Americans don’t even know what the WTO is, and even fewer understand why the WTO is important. The truth is that the World Trade Organization is essentially a global government for world trade.  It is a “contract” that severely restricts the ability of member nations to direct their own economies and set their own trade policies.  The United Nations is perhaps the only international organization that has more power than the WTO.  It was created on January 1st, 1995 as a replacement for GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade).  Today, 153 nations representing more than 97% of total world trade are members of the WTO.  It has been largely responsible for the explosion in world trade that we have witnessed over the past several decades.  In fact, world trade is now over 15 times larger than it was 50 years ago.  But is this a good thing? 

No, it is not.

The following are 10 reasons why the World Trade Organization is bad for America…..

1 – The WTO is not accountable to the American people or to any other voters around the globe.  It is a sprawling bureaucracy that wields an almost unbelievable amount of power that is completely unchecked by democratic processes.  The American people could try to elect a large number of politicians who are in favor of pulling the United States out of the WTO, but considering the fact that both major political parties are very much pro-WTO at this point, that is simply not going to happen. 

2 – The WTO acts as the legislature, the executive and the judiciary in matters of world trade.  The WTO has the authority to impose punishments on member nations, and it has not been shy about exercising this authority.  In essence, the WTO is the judge, the jury and the executioner and if anyone does not like this it is too bad for them.

3 – Many of the WTO regulations were authored word for word by the big global predator corporations that now dominate the world economy.  It is an open secret that the WTO is dominated by international bankers, large international corporations and the most developed nations.  Whenever new negotiations are conducted, it almost always seems as though it is the “sharks” that end up winning in the end.

4 – Any nation that attempts to protect itself against the negative effects of globalism and free trade is quickly reprimanded by the WTO.  In essence, the WTO is the enforcement arm for the powerful interests who are determined to merge us all into a one world economy.

5 – The WTO allows countries to sue each other.  This has been primarily used by the wealthy countries to push around the smaller, less developed nations.

6 – The WTO allows global corporations to sue countries.  Forget about sovereign immunity in matters governed by the WTO.  Under the WTO, the monolithic corporations who benefit the most from free trade can easily push around the smallest and least developed nations.

7 – The WTO is widening the gap between rich and poor.  Under the globalized system of free trade we are all living under, all wealth is slowly but surely being transferred into the hands of the very wealthy while the rest of us are left standing around trying to figure out how the game was rigged.

8 – The WTO forces the United States to open its doors to unsafe products.  For example, the United States had been very concerned about the safety of Chinese poultry products.  But the WTO ruled in China’s favor and now the U.S. must allow China to import massive amounts of unsanitary chicken.

9 – Under the WTO, labor has become a global commodity.  Now American workers have been put in direct competition with the cheapest labor in the world.  Millions of American workers have lost their jobs and factories are closing across the United States at a staggering pace.

10 – The American people are deeply upset about the state of the economy, but they don’t even understand what is going on.  According to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, 81% of Americans rate the U.S. economy as “poor”.  Americans continue to get angrier and angrier about the economy and they want someone to “fix” it.  But what they don’t understand is that under the new global system that we are being merged into, it is intended that the standard of living for the poorer nations will go up while our standard of living goes down.  In the end, there is supposed to be “equality” all over the world.

But what kind of equality will that be?

If current trends hold up, the top 1% of all income earners will become fabulously wealthy, while the remainder of us will work our lives away for their giant global corporations for near slave labor wages.

A reader of my column named Joe recently left a comment that does a good job of summarizing the kind of world that we are heading into….

I still remember the 60 Minutes program that showed an old company in Massachusetts that made winter jackets and pants. The old timer who owned the company was a wonderful character. He worked hard all his life, made excellent clothes, and treated all his employee’s like his family. Dan Rather followed him throughout the mill as he interacted with each employee, the old man knew every job because he probably had to do them all at one time. This man had integrity, a hard work ethic, honesty, and every other leadership quality. His employees loved him and respected him.

Fast forward to today and we have companies like Nike and Gap who entrap their young girl employees with a scam ad in a newspaper about a job. Then they are caged into a factory with barbed wire and security guards and have to work for .35 cents per hour. The girls have to pay “rent” for a bunk bed and a little food, a debt they can never repay for their freedom. And we buy their clothes at Wal-Mart.

Where did we go off the tracks? How did we go so wrong?

The truth is that the giant global predator corporations are going to continue to use the WTO (and other globalist organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank) to rig the game in their favor and to push us all into one global market and into one global labor pool. 

The WTO is not good for the U.S. economy and it never will be.

But the vast majority of our politicians are 100 percent behind this system which is designed to deindustrialize the United States, ship our jobs overseas and substantially lower our standard of living.

Will the American people wake up and realize what is going on?

No, “Dancing with the Stars” has just announced their new cast, American Idol is looking for some new judges and football season is starting, so the American people are going to have their hands full for a while.

10 Reasons Why Conservatives Should Be Against Unfair Trade With China And 10 Reasons Why Liberals Should Be Against Unfair Trade With China

There are very few things that the top politicians in both political parties agree on these days, but one of the things that that they do agree on is that free trade with China is a good thing.  George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have all fully supported our trade relationship with China.  In this day and age, virtually anyone who even dares to question how fair our “free trade” is with China is immediately labeled as a “protectionist” and is dismissed as a loon.  But when you sit down and really analyze it, there are a whole lot of very good reasons why both conservatives and liberals should be fundamentally against our unfair trade relationship with China.  But you won’t hear these reasons being talked about on CNN, MSNBC or Fox News.  You won’t hear many members of Congress get up and give speeches about how trade with China is bleeding our economy dry.  Both major political parties have completely and totally bought into “the benefits” of globalism and free trade and there isn’t even much of a national debate about our trade policies anymore.

But there should be a national debate.  Unfortunately, most conservatives are just going to accept whatever their leaders tell them to believe.  Conservatives have been convinced that to be against unfair trade is to be “anti-business” and no conservative ever wants to be anti-business.

Similarly, most liberals blindly follow whatever Obama, Pelosi and Reid tell them to believe.  Millions of hard working Democrat voters have lost their jobs due to our nightmarish trade relationship with China, but they are still convinced that Obama is their savior and that they must not ever say anything that he does is wrong.

Well, I have a message to members of both political parties….

WAKE UP!  YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO!  

If you are truly a conservative, there is no way that you should ever support our trade relationship with China.

If you are truly a liberal, there is no way that you should ever support our trade relationship with China.  

Globalism has allowed the big global corporations that dominate our economy to make huge amounts of money, but it has also forced American workers into one gigantic global labor pool. 

Are you willing to work 12 hours a day for less than $2.00 an hour in sweatshop conditions?  

Well, that is your new competition.

The top 1 percent of all Americans is using globalism to make huge profits, but the standard of living for the rest of us is slowly but surely being forced down toward the rest of the world.

Is that what you really want?

If after reading the reasons below you can still consider yourself a good “conservative” or a good “liberal” and still support our current trade relationship with China please leave a comment to this article.  I would love to hear your reasoning.  

10 Reasons Why Conservatives Should Be Against Unfair Trade With China

1 – Conservatives are supposed to be all about creating jobs.  But millions upon millions of good paying middle class jobs have been shipped off to China and they are never coming back.

2 – Once upon a time, conservatives were opposed to communism.  But our trade relationship with China has enabled the largest communist economy in the world to go from third world status to superpower status.  China is now the second largest economy in the world, and that would have never happened without our cooperation.

3 – Conservatives are supposed to be concerned about national security.  But thanks to the massive amount of money they have made from us, the Chinese have been able to dramatically upgrade and modernize their military.  At the top levels of the Chinese government, most officials still believe in the ultimate worldwide triumph of communism, and now thanks to us they have a world class military with which to advance that agenda.

4 – China has a very strict one-child policy which should be absolutely abhorrent to any true conservative.  

5 – China uses mobile abortion vans to help enforce the one-child policy.  How any social conservative can justify trade with China after learning this is a total mystery. 

6 – If Republicans actually started fighting to protect American jobs from going overseas they could win the “angry working class vote” and take both houses of Congress and the White House in 2012.

7 – Conservatives don’t like when other countries try to take advantage of the American people.  Yet China is taking advantage of the American people by keeping their currency artificially low and most conservatives are strangely quiet about this.  This currency manipulation has put large numbers of U.S. small businesses at a huge competitive disadvantage and has forced many of them to shut down.  Essentially, this currency manipulation has enabled China to get us down on the mat and continually beat the stuffing out of us.  Meanwhile, our politicians stand by and do nothing.     

8 – Our trade deficit with China has enabled them to accumulate about a trillion dollars of our debt.  This gives them tremendous leverage over us and is a very serious threat to our economy and to our national security.

9 – Conservatives are traditionally very protective of national sovereignty and state sovereignty.  But a global economy governed by the G20, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank is a giant step toward world government and a giant step away from national sovereignty and state sovereignty.

10 – The giant trade deficit that the United States runs is making us poorer as a nation each and every month.  Each year, somewhere around half a trillion dollars of our national wealth gets transferred out of the United States.  Much of that gets transferred to China.  The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.  The transfer of wealth that this represents is absolutely mind blowing.  China is literally bleeding us dry.

10 Reasons Why Liberals Should Be Against Unfair Trade With China

1 – Liberals are supposed to defend unions, yet our trade relationship with China has done more to hurt unions than anything else and most liberal politicians don’t seem to care.  Globalism has put the average American worker in direct competition with the cheapest labor in the world.  Unemployment is going to continue to increase unless something is done to stop the offshoring and outsourcing of our jobs.

2 – Liberals are supposed to care about the environment.  But our trade relationship with China means that thousands of factories and businesses leave our shores and end up in China where the environmental regulations are not nearly as strict.  In fact, China has become a complete and total environmental nightmare at this point.  If liberals truly cared about the environment they would want to keep factories and businesses here.

3 – Our trade relationship with China (and with the rest of the world) has caused the income inequality gap in America to explode.  The top 1% of all Americans have done very well in this environment while the rest of us suffer.  For much more on this phenomenon, please see my recent article entitled “Winners And Losers“.

4 – Dangerous products from China are pouring into the United States. Liberals should be horrified that so many of our products are now made outside the United States far from the watchful eyes of our regulatory agencies.  Over the past couple of years, there has been headline after headline about dangerous products made in China.  The following is just one example of this: 10 Babies Die Mysteriously At Fort Bragg: Toxic Drywall From China Used In Base Homes The Culprit?

5 – In a global economy, every piece of legislation that Democrats intend to help American workers with ends up backfiring.  For example, a rise in the minimum wage or a law increasing worker benefits causes American workers to become even more expensive and gives corporations even more incentive to move jobs overseas.

6 – “Free Trade” has been the most destructive in the inner cities where Democrats have traditionally gotten a tremendous amount of support.  Shiny new factories are going up all over China while at the same time formerly great manufacturing cities such as Detroit have degenerated into rotting war zones.  This is not good for liberals.

7 – Democrats won’t get elected if there are no jobs.  Each month, more jobs leave the United States for China and the growing number of long-term unemployed workers in the U.S. is not going to be inclined to keep the same politicians in office if this continues.  If liberal politicians value their jobs they should start protecting the jobs of average Americans.

8 – Free trade with China threatens to ruin our social safety net.  It is a good thing to help those in need, but there comes a point where too many people jump on to the net and it breaks down.  Already, one out of every six Americans is enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program.  Over 40 million Americans are on food stamps.  These are not good numbers for liberals.

9 – True liberals should be absolutely horrified by the exploitation of labor in China.  In China, millions of people work in horrific conditions for what is essentially slave labor pay.  The fact that big global corporations are getting rich from this should make the stomach of every liberal turn.   

10 – The giant trade deficit that the United States runs is making us poorer as a nation each and every month.  Each year, somewhere around half a trillion dollars of our national wealth gets transferred out of the United States.  Much of that gets transferred to China.  The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.  The transfer of wealth that this represents is absolutely mind blowing.  China is literally bleeding us dry.

Liberals and conservatives should both be able to agree that it is not a good thing for millions of American jobs to leave the United States and go to China.

Liberals and conservatives should both be able to agree that it is not a good thing that billions of dollars in wealth gets transferred from the United States to China every single month.

But will our leaders wake up and start pursuing a more logical approach to China?

Don’t count on it.

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