A Good Economy {Charley Reese}

King Features Syndicate, Inc. ^ | 09/15/2003 | Charley Reese

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

King Features Syndicate, Inc.
Charley Reese
09/15/2003

A Good Economy

The problem with many in Washington and the media is that their only definition of a "good economy" is statistical. The gross domestic product, however, does not tell us if we have a good economy. We can increase the GDP by going into ruinous debt or by crashing our cars or by buying a truckload of whiskey.

Nor does the Dow Jones industrial average or any of the other stock-market indexes tell us if we have a good economy. The stock markets are akin to gambling casinos, where paper is bought and sold. It is akin to usury, since it's an attempt to make money with money.

You define a good economy by asking the right questions. Are there jobs for everyone who wants one? Can working people afford decent housing and adequate medical care on their salaries? Is the currency maintaining its value so that people can save for their retirement? Are taxes both low and equitable? Are usurious interest rates forbidden? Is the gap between the rich and the poor shrinking instead of expanding?

Right now, regardless of what the government statistics look like, our economy is unhealthy. There are too many unemployed, too many trying to live on unlivable wages, too many regressive taxes and too many loopholes for the very rich. Housing and medical costs are skyrocketing, while wages are actually dropping. Yet the government tells us that the cost of living isn't increasing. That's actually because the government changed the definitions some years ago.

American jobs are being exported, and cheap labor in the form of illegal immigrants is being imported. If you want to create social conflict, then create a situation in which surplus people have to fight each other over the crumbs at the bottom of the economic ladder.

People are encouraged to go into debt, and indeed debt - personal, corporate and government - is at staggering levels. Remembering that debt is a claim on future income for past consumption, I don't think there is much room for genuine economic growth in the future.

If you were inclined at all toward conspiracy theories, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine some evil oligarchy deliberately wrecking America. After all, the policies that are causing the problems - the export of jobs under the guise of free trade, a deliberately devalued currency, open borders, huge government deficits, all-time record trade deficits, and encouragement of usury and consolidation of wealth in fewer hands - are deliberate. Moreover, even debate about these policies is discouraged. Recently, when Howard Dean questioned these pseudo-free-trade policies, Joe Lieberman immediately accused him of wanting to cause a depression.

The high price of gold (on this day about $400 an ounce) tells you that some rich people are worried about the future of the American economy. Gold is traditionally the survivor's investment. Unfortunately, central banks have so much of it, they can dump it on the market and crash the price if they choose to do so. But even so, when everything else crashes and fails, those with gold will have buying power.

I strongly believe George Bush's administration should be ousted in 2004 for domestic blundering, let alone foreign blundering. It wouldn't hurt to also clean out the House and the Senate.

We have to stop the export of jobs and devise a policy to bring them back. You can do that with tariffs by telling corporations that if they make their products in Mexico or China, to sell them in Mexico or China, because the products aren't coming into the United States.

We must replace "free" trade with fair trade. At present, we are allowing lousy rich corporations to pay sweatshop wages in Asia and sell their products at high American prices in the United States. The heads of these corporations are swine. They dump Americans into the unemployment lines, exploit foreign labor like a 19th-century slave owner, and then gouge American consumers, relying on advertising and celebrity endorsements to peddle their junk.

This has to stop. Any politician who claims he or she is going to do something about the loss of American jobs but defends free trade is a liar. There are two things all countries must have if they are to prosper: strong agriculture and a strong manufacturing base. Both of these pillars of prosperity are eroding to the point of collapse.
When we get to the point where we are all consumption and no production, we're dead as a nation.

© 2003 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

A HREF=http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20030915/index.php>Charley's article today

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

The gross domestic product, however, does not tell us if we have a good economy. We can increase the GDP by going into ruinous debt or by crashing our cars or by buying a truckload of whiskey.
=========================

All, Insurance payments for disastrous losses increase the "GDP". Orwellian economic policy to make a "loss" a "gain". Peace and love, George.

[veronica]

If you were inclined at all toward conspiracy theories, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine some evil oligarchy deliberately wrecking America.

And we all know Reese believes in conspiracy theories, usually involving Jews. Ergo, his swipe at Lieberman. The man just can't help himself.

[sauropod]

George, $400/oz for gold is not a "high" price. I can recall within living memory gold being more than $800/oz.

Other than that, good article.

[sauropod]

Care to back that up? "We all know"?

Examples please.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

You can do that with tariffs by telling corporations that if they make their products in Mexico or China, to sell them in Mexico or China
==================================

Guys, Contrary to the "beliefs"{?} of those who say that corporations will benefit mankind out of kindness and generosity, there are few IF ANY Henry Fords running corporations today. Corporations today are in "Partnership" with governments at ALL levels to bring the HIGHEST possible returns on investment to investors. Workers be damned! Charley's bottom lines are SPOT ON!.Peace and love, George.

[hellinahandcart]

When I was in college, gold was about $900 an ounce.

And that was back when $900 would have paid my apartment rent for an entire semester.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

"And we all know Reese believes in conspiracy theories"

V, You are VERY wrong there. Charley is clueless when it comes to such things. As are most of the talking heads. Or, they are ALL lying through their collective teeth. All of the seemingly coordinated happenings are coincidental "mistakes". Coordinated stupidity abounds at such high levels of ALL the governments, dontcha know? Peace and love, George.

[harpseal]

Ping

On or off let me know.

[harpseal]

One more time the solution.

Acknowledgement RDB3 who helped hammer out this plan.

In no particular order of importance.

1. Get rid of government subsidies for offshore investment of US companies. OPIC is the first such program which should go but support of World Bank programs that subsidize the outflow of Capital would be another.

2. Use tariffs on those nations which are engaged in unfair trade practices such as currency manipulation (China and India for example), those nations which refuse to open their markets to US products (China for example with its 50% tariffs on US consumer goods and non tariff barriers), those nations that subsidize competition to American Industry (airbus for example) and those nations which have slave conditions for their workers.

3. Use tariffs and other means to prevent the relocation of jobs offshore that are essential to the national defense. If necessary take control of the company seeking to export vital technology or industry by means of eminent domain (No I do not like this last option and I will only defend its use as an absolute last resort like say in the case of rare earth magnets essential to smart bomb technology). Provide a hardened, widely distributed infrastructure to supply all that is needed for our military units and civil defense that can be continued to be deployed in the event of any military attack.

4. An immediate end to guest worker programs. If people wish to come to the USA to work and make a life let them immigrate according to the rules.

5 Provide economic development zones where the corporate income tax is zero for operations within these zones. In order to operate in this zone a company must agree to only purchase American components if available and employ only American citizens or legal immigrants in these operations. These economic development zones shall be eventually be expanded to include every bit of every state once the benefits are shown I would like them to be totally implemented immediately but I realize that may be overreaching. It must be stated for clarification that simply being in the geographic area of the zones does will not subject any company to any new mandatory regulation. Everything is voluntary for getting the exclusion from corporate taxation. The profit attributable to direct imports is subject to the same rules that exist everywhere else in this nation for corporate taxation. Only free from such taxation is the profit attributable to American content and any American improvement. In short no new mandatory regulation will be a part of this. It is my opinion that there will not be a lack of companies seeking this tax relief. And no the regulation implied is absolutely minimal in order to get this through.

6. Scale back unnecessary regulation including the tort system. Institute a cap on punitive damages, limits on class action suits, and limits on liability to the actual percentage of liability with no plaintiff able to collect if said plaintiff was involved in the commission of a felony at the time of the alleged tort or was more than 49% negligent in the alleged tort. Note that the loser in a frivolous lawsuit shall pay the attorney fees of the winner. There are many other regulatory structures that also need to be included that need to be included such as repealing the Family leave mandate, getting rid of OSHA etc.

7. Increase the domestic content in purchases by the Department of defense and give absolute preference in non-domestic content to proven allies of the USA over say the French or Germans. The only reason any content for DOD purchase may come from non US allies is that content is not available elsewhere and is essential.

8. Do not allow expense involved in moving operations overseas to be included in business expenses under the IRS code.

9. Prosecute for perjury anyone who has made a false statement in order to employ an H1B or L1 visa worker. I will be lenient on the actual perjurer if he/she was ordered to make this false statement and he/she provides testimony to aid in the conviction of the person ordering the perjury. Just because a person is a CEO does not give them a pass on criminal behavior.

10. Prosecute anyone who orders the transfer of vital defense technology or funds a R&D project that could be of use to our military overseas except to strong allies of the USA. Make the necessary enhancements to our espionage laws so that continued support or funding of any R&D in a nation whose government has threatened the USA is guilty of espionage. The UK and Australia come to mind as meeting these criteria for being eligible for transfer of technology first. There will be other nations and a gradation of what can be transferred to which specific nation. Under no circumstances may technology be transferred to any nation whose government has threatened the USA within five years without a complete change of government or specific exemption from Congress and the administration.

11. Deport all illegal aliens immediately and take measures that prevent the entry of any more illegal aliens. Fine all companies knowingly employing illegal aliens Criminal sanctions should be imposed on anyone helping an illegal alien stay in the USA in violation of our laws.

12. Decrease the punishing levels of taxation on companies and eliminate the double taxation on corporate dividends. See effects of item 5 for how minimal this will be if item 5 covers the entire USA. Eliminate all IRS provisions that inhibit free use of independent contractors by businesses for example section 1706.

13. Eliminate the minimum wage so that the worker can be paid based on productivity. Overtime compensation will remain the same but instead of 150% of the "wage" the worker would receive 150% of the production pay. If one through 13 are enacted # 14 becomes an irrelevancy as no one will be working for that low a wage.

Now since I started posting this plan another idea has come up that in my opinion is a very good policy that stands on its own. Now I give credit to Jim Gibson and Freeper Ed_in_NJ for coming up with the idea, separately to the best of my knowledge. However I can be corrected on that. The tariff phrasing is from Jim Gibson.

“I suggest that the US Customs Department charge a $1,000-per-container inspection fee on every container entering the United States. This fee would be used to completely fund the cost of inspections. If we assumed that a four-man team could fully inspect two containers a day or about 500 per year, it would require 48,000 inspectors. Allowing for at least 2,000 support personnel, we would need at least 50,000 workers. Because these workers would require high intelligence and skill levels they should earn at least $30 per hour. At 40-hour weeks plus benefits, I estimate the cost per worker to be over $75,000 per year, all paid by the foreign manufacturers. Even so, this would still leave over $2.25 billion to cover all other costs. Any revenue not used would be used to compensate American workers displaced by foreign imports. “

I urge and encourage everyone who agrees with this plan and or the terror tariff idea to communicate this to every politician you can think of.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

"George, $400/oz for gold is not a "high" price."

Guys, It depends on when one bought it. I wish I had been knowledgable when the government held the price at $35.00 dollars an ounce. {'50s and '60s} Today, at $376.00 it's about $125.00 dollars above a few months ago. Peace and love, George.

[sauropod]

I never knew gold went below $300. I never heard that. I would have bought some ;-).

[meenie]

Reese gives a good article in the average American's view of the economy. It doesn't match the interpretation of our economists in the government sector but is more realistic.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

H, I've been paying attention to your soluions. I think{?} they might work if government can be constrained from "fine-tuning" them. Peace and love, George.

[RipSawyer]

Without going into all the rest of it, I will say that his description of the current economy is dead on the money. I remember prices in the fifties and sixties and the loss of buying power since then is far worse than anyone in government is prepared to admit. Young people now think that because they have computers and color TV sets and such at dirt cheap prices that they are better off than their grandparents but in terms of the things that really matter a young person now needs a Master's degree to equal the buying power of a high school graduate forty years ago and I see no evidence of any improvement coming soon.

[Mr. Bird]

You define a good economy by asking the right questions. Are there jobs for everyone who wants one? Can working people afford decent housing and adequate medical care on their salaries? Is the currency maintaining its value so that people can save for their retirement? Are taxes both low and equitable? Are usurious interest rates forbidden? Is the gap between the rich and the poor shrinking instead of expanding?

Just a couple of comments on these. If we're discussing the economy in aggregate, unemployment figures are still historically low. That fact doesn't help those looking, but it's a fact nonetheless. I've seen lots of claims here of "under"employment, but you can't state unequivocally that previous eras did not have the same problem.

Housing costs don't seem to be dampening the drive to ownership, if the past two years of new home purchases are any indication. As for the debt incurred, we've been living with 30 years mortgages for decades now. We can argue over whether there's a bubble, but I think the increase in ownership (and a parallel rise in value) are good for the country generally.

Currency maintaining its value? It appears so.

Usurious interest rates? Well, we have capped interest rates on consumer credit in the 22% range, but the only people suffering with those are those who could never get credit before. It's worth noting that individual choices often lead to that.

Finally, the gap between the rich and poor. There is absolutely no reason to think that if this gap increases it is a sign of a poor economy. The only thing that matters is the level of the poor, not its comparative value to the "rich". The impoverished American is still wealthier than an overwhelming majority of the world's population. It is a credit to us that we can still consider those with a roof over their heads, three meals a day, cable television, A/C, and other modern comforts "poor".

Yes, there are significant differences in standards of living (two wage earners, etc.), but I think the economy is "okay". I don't agree with all of the doom and gloom assessments.

I know these topics get heated, so I'm donning a flame suit now.

[ARCADIA]

Corporations today are in "Partnership" with governments at ALL levels to bring the HIGHEST possible returns on investment to investors.

I respectfully disagree. The difference between Henry Ford and generation and the current batch is that Ford was out to make a profitable product while today's CEOs are out to make a killing on the stock market. You don't need customers, employees, or products to make money on the street; you just need a well known brand name and a spin machine.

This article is right on money.

[Mr. Bird]

The difference between Henry Ford and generation and the current batch is that Ford was out to make a profitable product while today's CEOs are out to make a killing on the stock market

Do you think the move to lower tax rates on dividend income will have a positive effect? I think what we had for the past 15 years was CEO behavior spurred by shareholders' demands: make my share price go higher, anyway anyhow. They tied CEO comp to share price increase, and the CEO duly complied. What is necessary is a shift in motivation, and I think the dividend tax move was a good start.

[ARCADIA]

If we're discussing the economy in aggregate, unemployment figures are still historically low.

The figures may be historically low, but the reality is approaching what we had during the Great Depression. I know, don't tell me: people are simply choosing to leave six figure incomes in the corporate world to stay at home with the kids, walk their dogs, and to launch their own lucrative lawn care businesses. Where else can they can invest 60-70 hours a week to pull in 25 grand a year while they worry about their health care costs and retirement? We are becoming a nation of entrepreneurs (BS Barf). The problem with hiding behind statistical manipulations is that ultimately the shock to the system is that much greater.

[RockyMtnMan]

Is it low or did they just increase the total they used to divide with? Did they count illegals as part of the employment numbers? Numbers can say whatever you want them to say when you decide what they should say, having been a business analyst I know this quite well.

[Mr. Bird]

The figures may be historically low, but the reality is approaching what we had during the Great Depression

How can you possibly state that? One in five people was out of work during the Depression. If we're in a Depression-era economy, what would you call the '70's? 1991-92? If you can show me legitimate comparisons to the current economy and the Depression, please do so.