The Global Economy First
John McCain’s acceptance speech was a vivid (well, maybe soporific) reminder that the problem with the GOP ticket is at the top, not the bottom. Depsite McCain’s adopting the slogan “Country First” for his campaign, the economic portion of his speech could have been titled “Globalism First.” McCain repeatedly told us that the demands of the “global economy” needed to be met, come what may. What that means, in concrete terms, is more shuttered factories and stagnating wages, as American companies continue to offshore their operations to take advantage of lower costs overseas, secure in the knowledge that they can bring the services they’ve outsourced, or the goods they’ve made, back into the United States, without paying any sort of tariff. I recently was browsing through a trucking industry publication, which featured an editorial admonishing American trucking companies that not enough of them have taken advantage of the opportunity to outsource accounting jobs and the like to India, and reporting that the fall of the dollar has made manufacturing in Mexico (for exporting goods into the United States) a more attractive option. But not to worry, McCain tells us those accountants and factory workers losing out to India and Mexico can always go to the local community college and learn to do, well, something, at taxpayer expense. Why the GOP wishes to subsidize the professoriat and continue to send overseas jobs that have actually supported Americans and sustained American communities is not an easy question to answer, and McCain would be well advised to let Sarah Palin do the talking when he brings his “Global Economy First” message to my home state of Ohio and other areas that used to be called the industrial Midwest.
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.... well.... i’ve been brought back after simmering in that pot of crud amnesty issued last night.... apologies, all....
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He said he wants works for jobs that can’t be outsourced. I assume he means flipping burgers, truck driving, lawyers, lobbyist, construction workers, farmers, conscript, prison guard, and defense contractor.
As long as the Fed prints money the economy will keep booming the way it is now. Let the good times roll. We pretend to work and the Union of Soviet States pretends to pay us.
Dmitry Orlov went through the collapse of the Russian Soviet Empire and his assessment as to our ability to cope is sobering.
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/23259
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The effulgent irony of a Republican Convention with a sprightly theme of “Country First” is but one of the many humorous glories that defy one’s imagination while surveying the self-inflicted wrist slashing of a people gone borderline mad.
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The “Country First” signs reminded me of Patrick Henry’s counsel that liberty, not union, must be our first priority. The U.S.A. was created as a means, not as an end in itself. It’s understandable that federal politicians would want us to think that the central government was the highest good, but the rest of us shouldn’t make that mistake.
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We are all Georgians now.
Huh? I thought we were all Israelis.
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@MN, I too can’t keep up with what nationality I’m supposed to be today. I guess that’s globalism.
@Durant, while its technically true that the gov’t prints money, they do not create it, as your statement might imply. The gov’t prints the money in behalf of the banks, and if you look on the dollar bill, you will see the stamp of a private bank (one of the 12 privately-owned federal reserve banks). Before 1913, the name of the actual bank would be printed there (actually in the center, where the dead president is now) in prominent letters. The banks wanted you to know whose money it was that you were spending.
Money is created by fractional reserve banking, and not by the federal gov’t. The treasury does print the currency (which is a small fraction of the money) and sells it to the banks at 4 cents/bill.
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So is the money the Fed is using to bail out Fannie and Freddie going to be real money, say, as borrowed from the Chinese who have a lot of stock in these institutions and won’t take kindly to default, or does it come from massive vaults in the basement of the federal reserve banks? Money that I thought came in pallets from the printings presses at the Treasury building.
Were the pallets of $100 bills flown into Baghdad to be pocketed by government thieves, our and theirs, real money or rust a run from the printing presses?
Inflation is low according to the government who have been removing items from consideration to cook the books for decades. People trying to buy gas, bread, and milk are a bit confused at how this economics stuff works but are sensing a slight difference in reality.
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Why the GOP wishes to subsidize the professoriat and continue to send overseas jobs that have actually supported Americans and sustained American communities is not an easy question to answer,
Yes, it is easy to answer. The GOP, and the Dems, answer to the corporate executives who have made trillions by sending our jobs overseas. The rest of us exist only to vote for which group of thugs will have access to our wallets. The policy itself won’t change, whatever happens.
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Dmitry Orlov went through the collapse of the Russian Soviet Empire and his assessment as to our ability to cope is sobering.
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/23259
It’s an interesting article Durant, but I think Oslov’s assessment that the USSR was better prepared for a collapse than the US due to energy being government owned rather than privatized, is off. Having energy in private hands means that the US economy would face a lesser shock when government run programs begin to fail and the federal government begins selling all of its assets off at bargain prices.
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Would a fair translation of McCain’s slogan be, Heimat Uber Alles? Just wondering.
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Michael N.,
The Georgians are now Israelis therefore we can be Georgians which, by extension, means that we’d remain Israelis:
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=68383§ionid=351020101
http://www.payvand.com/news/08/sep/1042.html
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