Does anyone know anything more about the author of this article, Thomas Heffner?
Economy In Crisis, INC (EconomyInCrisis.org) is a non-profit corporation dedicated to educating legislators and the American public on the destruction of our country’s industrial base, the impact this has on national and economic security, and how it effects our standard of living. We publish critical but overlooked facts and figures, keeping our readers up-to-date with daily articles regarding the U.S. economy.
We compare what led to American industrial and economic world leadership with current policies and the present crippling of our industries. We then objectively extrapolate the near-term outlook and risks for our country, businesses and individuals. When possible we offer solutions to our weakening economic condition.
Out of concern for America’s deteriorating economic condition, those responsible for EconomyInCrisis.org donate their expertise and time. Economy In Crisis does not support any political organization or corporate interest.
Primary Concerns
Our primary concerns are in regards to the imminent consequences of our involvement in the WTO, NAFTA, NAU and the effects of European VAT Taxes. These issues, sometimes referred to as “free trade” in the popular press, are currently destroying the U.S. economy, yet very little is presently being written about them. We have become one of the leading sources of information on these and other topics affecting the American economy.
These issues also include:
• U.S. overdependence on imports
• Wholesale sellout of core strategic US assets to foreign acquirers
• U.S. inability to manufacture competitively
• Foreign control of vital US industries
• Dependence on credit and false wealth to maintain our current standards of living
• U.S. trade policies and other legislation contributing to these trends
Other U.S. Economic Issues
• Foreign financing of vast majority of government debt
• Outsourcing manufacturing, research, and design
• Transition to services-oriented economy
• Declining scientific, engineering, and technological prowess
• Wealth shift into less productive assets
• Record levels of personal, government, and trade deficits
• Misleading commonly used economic statistics
this is from the site’s “solutions” button linked page (it is not my opinion because I don’t know enough about it to have an opinion):
The United States is facing economic disaster on a scale few nations have ever experienced. Most people are unaware of the easily observable signs of this emerging crisis. While we persist in our superpower mentality, we have quietly become a second-class country in many respects.
We no longer manufacture what we need to sustain ourselves, we import much more than we export, and we are selling off our assets and taking on massive debts to sustain a standard of living we can no longer afford. Not only is this not the way America became a superpower but it is a sure way to lose this status.
We are failing even to acknowledge predatory foreign trade practices undermining US industry. Instead we encourage US manufacturers to design, engineer, and produce in third world markets like Mexico and China.
Reversing the Trend: Some Suggestions for Action
Access to our markets must be conditioned on a strategic analysis of our own national needs first and foremost. As things stand, we have handed our sovereign rights to our domestic markets to international bodies like the World Trade Organization and are committed to disastrous “one-way free trade” agreements such as NAFTA, CAFTA and KORUS. We are in a dramatically different position from emerging low-wage markets. They have everything to gain, and we have everything to lose. Our policies should carefully protect our wealth and resources rather than simply provide the lowest consumer cost regardless of the impact on our industries and our workers.
Promoting open markets and economic growth abroad will not alone rebalance America’s trade accounts and domestic industrial collapse. Our industries have been so disarmed and dismantled that we now lack the knowledge, capacity, and investment capital to facilitate self-sustaining production. Dramatic new direction is required.
Key Solutions
Drastic action is needed to restore our economic and financial independence and we must begin immediately to rebuild our industries. It is essential that our government should ensure that it is once again profitable to produce most goods and services in American factories employing American workers.
We must establish policies that prevent other countries from doing to us what they would never let us do to them. Specifically,
We must halt the sale of key assets to foreign entities.
We must also close opportunities for foreign corporations to compete unfairly against our home industries.
We should move immediately to curb our out-of-control spending on unnecessary programs and initiatives that are being financed by foreign debt.
We should look to the way other first world nations have established industrial superiority over us and try to copy their best policies.
We should not allow individuals and companies to profit by selling out the United States.
No plan to revive our economic and industrial self-sufficiency will be pain-free. Because our industrial decline has already gone so far – it has been proceeding rapidly for more than 30 years already – restoring our industry to world-leading standards of competitiveness will require serious restrictions on trade and investment flows. Despite indisputable evidence that current policies have proved grossly inadequate or even counterproductive in the past, our leaders remain committed to a business-as-usual strategy that is doomed to failure.
The stimulation for new policies must come directly from the broad American public. Voters must use all reasonable methods to pressure elected officials. Without direct and immediate action, there will soon be little left to save.
Defense
Our industries, assets, resources, and companies need to be protected from foreign countries and corporations seeking to gain control of key industrial processes and technologies. This would include preventing the sale of strategic US domestic companies to foreign companies and eliminating offshore outsourcing except in extreme circumstances.
Fair Trade
Our trade treaties should protect our country from predatory foreign countries and companies seeking to weaken or destroy American industry. To that end, tariffs should be erected where needed and where practical. Experience has shown that it is futile to expect other countries to adopt our policies on, for instance, fair and free competition.
What we can do is control the impact of their policies on our economy. The most obvious tool we have is tariffs on their exports. No doubt our tariffs would set off retaliation abroad. We would also have to accept that demand for US debt would decrease. But in the long run, these negatives would be much more than offset by positive effects as American entrepreneurs and industrial executives enjoyed a massive incentive to renew our industrial base.
Domestic Industry Competitiveness
In addition to establishing protection for our industry and country, we should properly align our companies with the national interest by changing the incentive system within which they operate. The tax structure should be changed to encourage industrial revival, particularly in industries which have been hit worst by unfair foreign competition. One simple but highly effective measure would be to shorten the depreciation schedules on capital investment and research spending. Meanwhile capital gains taxes should be increased to discourage short-term thinking and reduce the incentive for entrepreneurs to cash out.