Hope & Change With New Congress

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by kabel

Ha! Had not made this correlation, no matter what side you lean towards, the last 4 years have indeed been like a ridiculous "reality show"

it is truely amazing how few people realize that the govt has neither the pockets nor the man power to move that unemployment needle from 10% to 5%. That is entirely up to consumer's choices. If they buy from companies that have an interest in taking on more U.S. workers then we will see big movement on jobs.
If we continue to buy from companies that are morely likely to take rising revenues and simply send jobs off-shore, then we get what we have today. Compounding matters is that companies that export jobs to lands where labor equals 1/10 of U.S. wages (not including benefits of course...) are obviously more attractive to Wall Street. We argue about which way the govt should or should not spend a trillion dollars to stimulate job creation while sending 12x's that amount to companies that export jobs, both blue collar (China) and white collar (India).

What Congress could do is simply start a campaign to encourage consumers to buy from companies A thru Z which have pledged increasing jobs X% in 2011.
A yearly pledge of sorts. Surely they will want something in return but at least we are informing the consumer about which companies have a long term plan that involves American workers. Andy Grove who built Intel was recently complaining about this in the tech sector recently in a Wall Street Journal Opinion piece: "every tech firm wants to send every job possible to China as part of a 'China Plan'...but where's the USA Plan?".

[Brucelee]

Consumers will not spend money that they don't have or believe will not be there in the future (on average).

What the Feds CAN do is figure out how to stablize things, take less money from taxpayers, and stop passing laws that create massive uncertainty.

That would be a start.

Good luck with that!

[extanker]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

it is truely amazing how few people realize that the govt has neither the pockets nor the man power to move that unemployment needle from 10% to 5%. That is entirely up to consumer's choices. If they buy from companies that have an interest in taking on more U.S. workers then we will see big movement on jobs.
If we continue to buy from companies that are morely likely to take rising revenues and simply send jobs off-shore, then we get what we have today. Compounding matters is that companies that export jobs to lands where labor equals 1/10 of U.S. wages (not including benefits of course...) are obviously more attractive to Wall Street. We argue about which way the govt should or should not spend a trillion dollars to stimulate job creation while sending 12x's that amount to companies that export jobs, both blue collar (China) and white collar (India).

What Congress could do is simply start a campaign to encourage consumers to buy from companies A thru Z which have pledged increasing jobs X% in 2011.
A yearly pledge of sorts. Surely they will want something in return but at least we are informing the consumer about which companies have a long term plan that involves American workers. Andy Grove who built Intel was recently complaining about this in the tech sector recently in a Wall Street Journal Opinion piece: "every tech firm wants to send every job possible to China as part of a 'China Plan'...but where's the USA Plan?".

buy american.....wait...isnt this an import forum ?

[Brucelee]

We should have annexed Germany when we had the chance!

The last time I bought a washing machine, I tried to buy "American."

Good luck on that score.

[extanker]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

We should have annexed Germany when we had the chance!

The last time I bought a washing machine, I tried to buy "American."

Good luck on that score.

i think we can/do tell 75 % of the world what to do ...the other 25 % we have to talk/force them into it....alot dont like us but tough muffins....give us a hard time and we will burn your huts down...i like that

[brp987]

Originally Posted by extanker

i think we can/do tell 75 % of the world what to do ...the other 25 % we have to talk/force them into it....alot dont like us but tough muffins....give us a hard time and we will burn your huts down...i like that

Problem is, the credit card we use for hut burning implements is in danger of being refused. Peter Schiffs theory on QE2 is that Fed would like to maintain the appearance of normalcy and avoid the panic that would result if the Treasury had an auction and no buyers showed up. It is widely acknowledged that QE can't lower interest rates much from where they are. So why do it? Because rates might spike dramatically if the Treasury's big auction party was greeted with crickets. Not to mention all the fun that would ensue given we have an adjustable rate mortgage on our national debt invested in short term bonds.

Zerohedge had a much more negative take on this QE stuff but I'm not familiar with them enough to know if they are credible. Schiff is the gold standard in my book, so to speak. GLD =

[extanker]

Originally Posted by brp987

Problem is, the credit card we use for hut burning implements is in danger of being refused. Peter Schiffs theory on QE2 is that Fed would like to maintain the appearance of normalcy and avoid the panic that would result if the Treasury had an auction and no buyers showed up. It is widely acknowledged that QE can't lower interest rates much from where they are. So why do it? Because rates might spike dramatically if the Treasury's big auction party was greeted with crickets. Not to mention all the fun that would ensue given we have an adjustable rate mortgage on our national debt invested in short term bonds.

Zerohedge had a much more negative take on this QE stuff but I'm not familiar with them enough to know if they are credible. Schiff is the gold standard in my book, so to speak. GLD =

tell pete schiff the US issues the credit cards and uses them...no one can afford not to accept them...still dont believe...well then the president can make one phone call to the mint ....print mees sum of dat green stuf hommie

[Perfectlap]

well that was quick...The Republicans shot up jobs by 151,000!
Since December 2009 jobs have risen by 875,000.


check out the trend chart. that dotted line excludes all those temp census workers

[brp987]

Originally Posted by extanker

tell pete schiff the US issues the credit cards and uses them...no one can afford not to accept them...still dont believe...well then the president can make one phone call to the mint ....print mees sum of dat green stuf hommie

Printing the green stuff - easy. Printing value to go along with it? Haven't figured that one out yet. The dollar is down, and commodities are up, lately. More than enough to wipe out recent stock market gains. The "whiff of inflation" mentioned earlier is poised to be a gale wind in the coming months.

[Iflylow]

As I read all the other posts, and thought about buying American, I realized that without a lot of independent research, there is no way I can determine what companies are american. How hard would it be to set a standard regarding american parts, manufacture, employment, and post them on a high-profile website?

Many would still choose the cheaper imported goods, but the ones who care would spend the extra to buy american.

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

What Congress could do is simply start a campaign to encourage consumers to buy from companies A thru Z which have pledged increasing jobs X% in 2011.
A yearly pledge of sorts. Surely they will want something in return but at least we are informing the consumer about which companies have a long term plan that involves American workers. Andy Grove who built Intel was recently complaining about this in the tech sector recently in a Wall Street Journal Opinion piece: "every tech firm wants to send every job possible to China as part of a 'China Plan'...but where's the USA Plan?".

[jcb986]

Well, the way I see our industry is simple. Compare our industry as a mighty whale cruising along as it did many years ago supplying jobs and wealth. Now comes along unions, local, county, states and Federal governments as suckers and attach themselves and start draining the whale. Slowing it down and making it sick. There are just to many suckers attached anymore for the whale to get back to health and that is why our manufacturing industry is in trouble. To get back to health we need to revamp the whole system...patching as we have is like a dike with many plugs, all of them seeping through their or around their plugs. One day, well......

[Perfectlap]

^Our industry has seen their U.S. workers increase their productivity 2% a year every year for the last decade, while their company's share prices soared to DOW 14,000 (highest ever), revenues were up accross the Fortune 500 board and not until the markets crashed in 2008 did profits plummett. This meant that union participation fell by almost 2/3's (as did benefits and 401K matches) from the 90's, in other words these corporations had FIXED labor costs for perhaps the longest period on record. So much for the unions getting in the way. Despite these fixed, low wages for Americans they still sent jobs to Asia and India by the fistfull. How else does China go from $1 trillion to $6 trillion in a decade? It took the U.S. from the Civil War to World War I to get even half that much growth.
In the run up to these 'good times' for big business worker wages fell, job growth faded to nothing and household net worth went into the negative. Even now during the weak recovery the stock market is back to its pre-bubble normal, particularly the NASDAQ which has seen tech stocks have their best days in nearly two years, Fortune 500 profits are up again and Wall Street is planning its biggest bonus season on record after holding back for PR reasons last year.

That's a long way of saying that unions or no unions, U.S. corporations didn't skip a beat in the 20 years. It's the U.S. worker that has taken it on the chin. But Wall Street likes companies that hire Chinese workers at 1/10 the cost of $14 an hour U.S. factory worker. By the way $14 an hour doesn't even get you to the U.S. Median income.

[jcb986]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

^Our industry has seen their U.S. workers increase their productivity 2% a year every year for the last decade, while their company's share prices soared to DOW 14,000 (highest ever), revenues were up accross the Fortune 500 board and not until the markets crashed in 2008 did profits plummett. This meant that union participation fell by almost 2/3's (as did benefits and 401K matches) from the 90's, in other words these corporations had FIXED labor costs for perhaps the longest period on record. So much for the unions getting in the way. Despite these fixed, low wages for Americans they still sent jobs to Asia and India by the fistfull. How else does China go from $1 trillion to $6 trillion in a decade? It took the U.S. from the Civil War to World War I to get even half that much growth.
In the run up to these 'good times' for big business worker wages fell, job growth faded to nothing and household net worth went into the negative. Even now during the weak recovery the stock market is back to its pre-bubble normal, particularly the NASDAQ which has seen tech stocks have their best days in nearly two years, Fortune 500 profits are up again and Wall Street is planning its biggest bonus season on record after holding back for PR reasons last year.

That's a long way of saying that unions or no unions, U.S. corporations didn't skip a beat in the 20 years. It's the U.S. worker that has taken it on the chin. But Wall Street likes companies that hire Chinese workers at 1/10 the cost of $14 an hour U.S. factory worker. By the way $14 an hour doesn't even get you to the U.S. Median income.

I agree to some extent, but the high cost of doing business has underlying problem do the regulations. I remember Stanley Tools starting to outsource some and maybe all to China so it could sell it's product competitively. Now $16 bucks an hour is a minimum requirement for an worker to make if he is getting normal benefits. Now at that rate can we compete with China. ???????

[Perfectlap]

^Not for low cost goods mass production.

Perhaps if like the Germans, we only concentrated on the very high end of manufacturing we might of had a shot at holding onto 5% unemployment.
But that German model requires a very different level of investment in education. They also have a mixture of public and private options when it comes to healthcare, a big advantage that allows more money to be poured into the quality of the product. German factories pay their workers well north of $14 an hour but guess what? Their employers aren't completely footing the bill for their healthacare. Now they're one of the few surpluss nations in trade. Turns out a highly skilled, highly educated and healthy workforce can deal with $2 an hour Chinese labor pretty well since they are selling to two completely different customers. You'll never beat the Chinese selling $4 ipods (that retail for $300), $5 hammers and $10 sneakers.

p.s.
I see you guys voted out Rep. Alan Grayson in Orlando. While being perhaps the biggest jerk in the House he's also BY FAR the smartest elected official in the state of Florida. A Bronx public school kid who graduated Phi Beta Kappa with three Harvard degrees, including clerking for the D.C. court of appeals no less and became a self-made millionaire 30 times over who moved for an first ever audit of the Fed. And in his place is an incoming 30 year career politician churned out by the state political machine?

Here's a great clip of Grayson calling out Bernanke on his bull****************.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NYBTkE1yQ&feature=youtu.be

[tonycarreon]

i am not ashamed to say that i will miss alan grayson. but then again, i'm a progressive.

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

^Not for low cost goods mass production.

Perhaps if like the Germans, we only concentrated on the very high end of manufacturing we might of had a shot at holding onto 5% unemployment.
But that German model requires a very different level of investment in education. They also have a mixture of public and private options when it comes to healthcare, a big advantage that allows more money to be poured into the quality of the product. German factories pay their workers well north of $14 an hour but guess what? Their employers aren't completely footing the bill for their healthacare. Now they're one of the few surpluss nations in trade. Turns out a highly skilled, highly educated and healthy workforce can deal with $2 an hour Chinese labor pretty well since they are selling to two completely different customers. You'll never beat the Chinese selling $4 ipods (that retail for $300), $5 hammers and $10 sneakers.

p.s.
I see you guys voted out Rep. Alan Grayson in Orlando. While being perhaps the biggest jerk in the House he's also BY FAR the smartest elected official in the state of Florida. A Bronx public school kid who graduated Phi Beta Kappa with three Harvard degrees, including clerking for the D.C. court of appeals no less and became a self-made millionaire 30 times over who moved for an first ever audit of the Fed. And in his place is an incoming 30 year career politician churned out by the state political machine?

Here's a great clip of Grayson calling out Bernanke on his bull****************.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NYBTkE1yQ&feature=youtu.be

Indeed, having three Harvard degrees means that you are smart!


When GWB was in the WH, apparently that MBA from Harvard meant nothing.