Posted on 12/02/2007 4:53:00 AM PST by Zakeet
Did you have a number of truly American made products you wish to share?
Do you by tv's every month? How about radios and computers? There should be a separate index for durable goods (such as they are from China) and consumables. Why have one index?
I was in the US Navy during most of that period. In 1993 I left the Navy (remember the Peace Dividend?) and moved into manufacturing. I have weathered two "downturns" since, and you are right, a lot of those companies and jobs are gone particularly in the north-east.
However, in the last 6 years manufacturing output and revenues have grown steadily and the $/euro rate over the last 3 years has accelerated the trend.
Personally, I think the current rate is unsustainable, I think it looks like a speculative bubble that will soon burst. I don't think we'll see 1:1 in the near future, but 1.5:1 won't last.
You'd lose that bet.
There’s a reason I said the 1960’s. 1973 is a couple of years after the Bretton Woods collapse and eight years after inflation started taking off, which had a big impact on the value of the dollar.
Note: The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here, reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. Further background on the Alternate CPI and Ongoing M3 series is available in the Archives in the August 2006 SGS newsletter.
If the decline of the dollar is a positive thing, as you say, then logically we should hope for a perpetual decline?
In analyzing Boeing's decisions in where to make the components of the A/C. It appears that their intent was to maximize worldwide government subsidies and maintain sales in merchantilist Asian nations.
If the decline of the dollar is a positive thing, as you say, then logically we should hope for a perpetual decline?
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These sophomores don’t understand that the US will still maintain a massive trade deficit even with a weak dollar.
Also, many foreign countries will raise their tariffs against the US to mitigate the weak dollar effect. I bet China will to.
The free-traders infecting the Republican party will do nothing about it, and will say, “we will do nothing about it.”
Hillary will play the protectionist card and get many votes.
Thank you for the clarification
No, protectionist barriers will continue to be thrown up. The key is to not have all of your economic eggs in one basket, don't rely on a small customer or market base. (When it comes to sales & marketing, diversity really is a strength.)
Some countries will erect barriers and tariffs, but in the long run they only serve to protect inferior products and inferior manufacturing practices from the forces of the free market, which does more damage to their local economy then it does to ours. It's not like we are the Chinese, using slave labor to undercut prices in the local markets. US manufacturers aren't selling on price, we're selling superior products who's prices have come down to a level near those of the locally manufactured goods because of the weak dollar.
Brazil is a good example of this, they have high tariffs that protect local companies with inferior products and practices. The Brazilian customers are the one's really suffering for it, however, it's torques me off that our government doesn't use a "mirror" tariff system.
In most of Europe our products are cheaper then the local products, I expect the Europeans will not install tariffs, they will take action to bring the $/euro rate back in-line.
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/manufacturing/iuc/upload/revitalizing05.pdf
I can’t find these facts in non-pdf format....but I know from personal experience and the evidence presented at the above link that US Manufacturing has declined significanltly in the last 30 years, along with a decline in
wages and benefits.
You can tout examples all day of increased manufacturing and current busy businesses....but in the big picture....the facts do not support a healthy economy.
as illustrated here:
Both of these articles discuss the fact that there are as many Americans empoloyed today in manufacuring as there were in 1950.
What percentage of employment does manufacturing represent today?
I’m sorry, but I don’t buy any pollyanna discussions about the economy booming as a result of a falling dollar.
Oil prices and import prices of hard and soft goods, bode ill for the American Consumer....at best we are seeing the beginning of stagflation that we already experienced with Carter....except this time, substantually more labor is being performed off shore.
The substantial increase in service employment means a decrease in percapita income...there is and can be no escaping that.
We have painted ourselves into a corner with NAFTA and CAFTA....and we are and will suffer the consequences.
6 Months from now when the government can no longer hide the facts....it will be admitted that this recession started in October of this year.
Who makes more money on a PC, the computer assembler or the chip makers? Supplying cheap labor is not the fastest way to grow ones wealth. Even if the Intel's and NVidia's don't make chips here in the US, it is our corporations who make the real profits.
http://hpj.com/archives/2004/aug04/aug23/Japantoraisetariffsonporkim.CFM
Japan to raise tariffs on pork imports
TOKYO (AP)—Japan will hike tariffs on pork products to curb a sharp increase in imports and protect domestic producers, the government said July 29.
Tariff increases averaging 25 percent will be imposed over the eight-month period beginning Aug. 1 through March 31 next year, Agriculture Ministry official Yuichiro Watanabe said.
The hike was a result of a sharp rise in imports from major exporters including the United States, Canada and the European Union, during the April-June quarter, Watanabe said.
The increase is the fourth since 2001, he said.
The step is allowed under WTO rules that say Japan can impose emergency tariffs when quarterly imports exceed 19 percent or more of the average amount imported for the same period during the previous three years...
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under WTO rules, what?
American pork must be more efficient cause of free-trade. Our pigs are bodybuilders cause of free-trade. Actually fat is good. Our pigs are orka fat cause of free-trade. Our pigs are the size of cows cause of free-trade. Our pigs are genetically superior to Japanese pigs cause of free-trade. Actually its not free-trade it is unilateral suicide.
How does this stuff work at the WTO? Japan raises tariffs on pork so the US gets 10 dollars in monopoly money to raise tariffs somewhere else, or does someone just flip a coin.
Not yet. The dollar, as the article ststes is not even close to it’s historical lows either in relative value or as a % of total currency reserves around the world.
Who makes more money on a PC, the computer assembler or the chip makers? Supplying cheap labor is not the fastest way to grow ones wealth. Even if the Intel’s and NVidia’s don’t make chips here in the US, it is our corporations who make the real profits.
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We can run our computers on 8086 processors manufactured in China, built with old Intel equipment sold to the Chinese military.
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