noMinnows

Points to Ponder

2010-09-12T08:42:00.000-07:00

Thomas L. Friedman, "China and India have been catching up to America not only via cheap labor and currencies. They are catching us because they now have free markets like we do, education like we do, access to capital and technology like we do, but, most importantly, values like our Greatest Generation had. That is, a willingness to postpone gratification, invest for the future, work harder than the next guy and hold their kids to the highest expectations. In a flat world where everyone has access to everything, values matter more than ever. Right now the Hindus and Confucians have more Protestant ethics than we do, and as long as that is the case we’ll be No. 11"

Martin Peretz, "Why do not Muslims raise their voices against these at once planned and random killings all over the Islamic world?" This world went into hysteria some months ago when the Mossad took out the Hamas head of its own Murder Inc. But, frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse"

Steven R. Pearlstein - Since 2007, the manufacturing and construction sectors have each lost 2 million jobs, with finance, hospitality and retailing accounting for 2 million more .. For the past two decades we have allowed our industrial and technological base to deteriorate as talent and capital were grossly misallocated toward other sectors of the economy, even as other countries were able to attract the investment, the technology and the know-how to serve the U.S. and global markets

“Our community focused on education, not politics,” said R. Chandramogan, a Nadar entrepreneur who built India’s largest privately owned dairy company from scratch. “We knew that with education, we could accomplish anything.” Southern India has rocketed far ahead of much of the rest of the country on virtually every score — people here earn more money, are better educated, live longer lives and have fewer children

Go Ohio!

2010-09-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland of Democratic Party, banned outsourcing, arguing that this undermines economic development and has unacceptable business consequences for his state. "Outsourcing jobs does not reflect Ohio values," he said.

Indian IT companies, which derive almost 60% of their export revenues from the USA immediately cried, "foul". The Infosys Chief called the Ohio stance "protectionist".

Like US owes them 60% of their revenue! At the cost of our jobs! Why should we not protect our work-force? Why should we send monies abroad instead of keeping them within our own country?

Why should America support globalization is the question? They need us, we don't. They do the work for us which we taught them to do with the software we design and make, so go Ohio, and hope other States follow, soon.

Foxconn: America's High-tech Manufacturing Nemesis

2010-09-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

A very large percentage of Americans have not heard of Foxconn, yet it plays a big role in how we talk, play, create, transmit and store data - basically about as integrally tied into our lives as bottled water, except people who make bottled water in America earn more than the average $176 per month Foxconn pays it's employees.

Apple, IBM, Cisco, HP, Dell have their products manufactured by Foxconn, and the rationale is that it makes PCs, Routers, Phones affordable for American consumers. Cheap products can't compensate for the emotional and economic cost of lost jobs - should we have better paying jobs and a well off country or be on the verge of insolvency nation full of cheap imported stuff?

Here's the Foxconn story - a chapter in the saga of Americans making Americans redundant: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_38/b4195058423479.htmjobs

Barak Obama's Labor-day speech

2010-09-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

Obama's speech

"I don’t want to see solar panels and wind turbines and electric cars made in China. I want them made right here in the United States of America. I don’t want to buy stuff from someplace else. I want to grow our exports so that we’re selling to someplace else — products that say “Made in the U.S.A.”

Amen! Hope he means it and pray that he can deliver it.

Land of Opportunity turning barren

2010-09-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

Rex Nutting says in Marketwatch, "With millions of people twiddling their thumbs waiting for a job, the Land of Opportunity is in danger of becoming barren. Nearly three years into our economic wilderness, we still can't seem to find our way out. Fifteen million Americans are looking for work, and most of them know the job they once had is gone for good. Millions more are working, but need something better than part-time hours or a dead-end job .... "

But Rex pointedly misses or declines to mention the direct corelation between our trade deficit (and the resultant job exports), and American unemployement rate (and the consequent decline in the quality of life of lower middle class Americans which is also in direct proportion to the rise of the new lower middle class in India and China).

Unless we sell more than we buy we will be broke - so its time we go back to school for Adam Smith and Economics 101 because we've obviously forgotten the basics.

A case for stimulus

2010-08-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

"OUR national debate about fiscal policy has become skewed, with far too much focus on the deficit and far too little on unemployment" - Laura Tyson

Ms. Tyson's essay merits attention but doesn't address the American need fully. China and India are rich because they export product and import opportunity. We need to copy that economic model because ours is not working.

The Onion says

2010-08-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

Still not even a twinkling of light at the end of the tunnel for the unemployed and under-employed Americans and for the general prospects of American economy. But rather than citing more morose facts, here's the Onion on our state of economic affairs:

Treasury Department Issues Emergency Recall Of All U.S. Dollars

Stocks drop after sharp fall in July home sales

2010-08-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

"Without a boost in job creation, (buyers) just won't have the confidence to step in and buy a new home," David Katz, principal at Weiser Capital Management said.

The same old bad news requiring simple solutions: more jobs in America which means more manufacturing in America, less outsourcing and offshoring and higher levies on imports with a reminder that roaring Indian and Chinese economies are manufacturing based.

More on "the mosque"

2010-08-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Karen Hughes in making one of the most reasonable cases for not building the mosque at Ground-Zero says, "Putting the mosque at a different site would demonstrate the uncommon courtesy sometimes required for us to get along in our free and diverse society". She is right. With almost 70% of America hurt at the thought, shifting the mosque would make the Imam and the Muslims look like considerate, sensitive, mainstream Americans.

And Richard Bernstein says, "There is no significant Muslim population in lower Manhattan, much less one that requires a $100 million community center. Therefore, it stands to reason that the proposed center’s proximity to Ground Zero, where Muslims killed nearly 3,000 people, is the primary impetus for its construction ... So what’s the real issue? ... The Islamization of America. The demand for a mosque at Ground Zero is just one of many tests to see how far America will go to accommodate Muslims. As revealed during the Holy Land Foundation trial in 2008, Muslims have a “100-year plan” to gradually destroy us from within ... Moreover, this plan will be implemented incrementally, so Americans will be largely unaware of what’s occurring until it is too late. Such implementation has already begun. Airports in Kansas City, Phoenix, and Indianapolis have already installed foot baths for Muslims. Huge mosques and Islamist schools (madrassas) have been built all over the country. Their goal? To bring Sharia Law--a seventh-century political and legal system that discriminates against non-Muslims, homosexuals and women--to America. Think it can’t happen here? Think again. In 2008, England declared that Sharia law can be enforced in Muslim communities. In Canada and Europe, Sharia family tribunals are already functioning on a limited scale" How do we know that Mr. Bernstein is not right and how do we know that those refuting his facts are not Islamization of America cadres - willing or unknowingly that?

Either way in a democracy majority should prevail and with almost 70% public opinion against it the mosque would be a travesty of the democratic process and irrespective of the liberal rhetoric justifying it a defeat for the American majority.

Layoffs are back

2010-08-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

"Layoffs are back, and that's bad news for the fragile economic recovery. Without more jobs, consumers will not feel secure enough to spend much money, further slowing the economy. The grim outlook has economists lowering their estimates for growth in the second half of the year"

So the bad news continues without any change in anything except the continuing misery for those Americans affected by globalization.

American Apocalypse

2010-08-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's Director of the Office of Management and Budget, equates GOP's economic policies with the "American Apocalypse"

He is equally critical of Democrats' large government and spending process.

Andy Grove has expressed a similar sentiment, as has Robert Reich.

Protecting our own interest is not any more protectionist than protecting our borders. Protecting American economy therefore Americans is a matter of national self interest and needs bipartisan committment to boost local manufacturing and job creation. If that means taxing imports and job exports then that needs to be done strongly like our response to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Happy Independence Day India

2010-08-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

Wishing India the best with wishes that it finds its idealist roots again, those of Gandhi and Nehru, of bringing progress to villages and not villagers into urban slums, of tolerance not destroying temples and mosques.

On the midnight of August 14, 1947 Nehru said:

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance"Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru

That India of freedom, aspirations, ideals Rabindranath Tagore best describes in India’s National Anthem:

Not enough - but a start

2010-08-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

2 good pieces of news:

lowering the tariff on raw materials for US manufacturers (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/12/c_13440711.htm)
higher visa fees for Indian firms who fly in low paid workers rather than hire Americans(http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2010/08/indian_government_calls_h1b_vi.html)

If its Made in India or China it needs to be taxed so its competitive with Made in EU/ Japan/ Taiwan to make it a level playing field.

China beats us - again

2010-08-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/27/technology/china_clean_energy.fortune/index.htm

I quit - being optimistic about America. First we said (lied) that we will only export low skill manufacturing jobs (which destroyed our factories and families dependent on those factories).

Then we sent away call center, research, analysis, processing, programming jobs with a promise that that won't hurt us a bit as we'll be doing other high paying jobs - which was a lie as not even .1% have been able to transition from a CSR to a high paid project manager or something/ anything high paying.

And now CNN reports that China has left US behind in developing and deploying clean, green technology. So from toys to turbines we lag and we still don't realize we have a problem?

The problem is Wall Street, its White House and they are a problem because you all/ we all don't do a fuck about it - don't vote for those who support globalization and refuse to do business with firms that outsource processes and export jobs - or be pulverized by Asia. Your choice.

On Immigration

2010-08-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

Some say that immigrants take away jobs from Americans.

How many American nurses and computer programmers are out of work because of cheaper immigrant labor, and how many American doctors are unemployed because of Indian doctors? And how many American gardeners and laborers are jobless because of Mexicans or Vietnamese?

In most cases the answer is negligible.

Is it better to have immigrants here doing jobs in America, paying taxes, shopping at American stores, building American economy or we should export jobs to keep out immigrants? Is that not like cutting our nose to spite our face?

We have failed to create high demand jobs. Other countries have created affordable career education directly linked to international industry demand patterns, therefore foreign nurses, doctors and computer programmers in America - and that's why more job exports because now the same trained work force is available in cheaper currencies in their native countries.

The answer is not fighting immigration. It is creating a competitive work force right here in America by making education affordable. If the States dealing with millions of unemployment claims got proactive about educating the unemployed ONLY in in-demand careers situation would improve but they are not, that is why we are not seeing a reduction in the unemployed ranks. Which State is going gung-ho on programming, nursing, project management, SAP, Oracle training? None, and those training courses are priced out of reach of most, but in India they are not, so we are pricing education out of reach of most Americans, and blaming Immigrants on our woes. Silly, isn't it?

As far as undocumented workers are concerned they are an easy target. If they went away would Americans take up $7 jobs, or want more because they are worth more? Not taking a cheap job and not being able to get a higher paying one is our problem, and no Immigration bill will fix it. Affordable education, taxes on imports and companies exporting jobs will fix it.

Imam isn't the issue, its the Mosque location

2010-08-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Here we go again - the same media that promised us wonderland of prosperity in the name of globalization and which still doesn't see the light despite the dimmed lights in 14 million households of the unemployed is now touting the "need" for the mosque at Ground-Zero, because the Imam and his wife proposing it are moderate Muslims.

But its not about the Imam, or his credentials. It's great that he is a "modernist and a moderate" and terrific that he contributes to the Washington Post blog. Muslims need a leader like him to redeem their reputation and clarify their stand as a people on violence, fundamentalism, rights of Jews and Hindus etc., but that does not give him the right to build a mosque at a site where the Muslims attacked America. That is not healing, it is trivializing an act of war by a terrorist organization against a sovereign nation. It is like Japan building a Pagoda at Pearl Harbor, or Germans building a Church at Auschwitz to say sorry.

To heal, to send a message of peace the Imam and his backers should issue a solid denunciation of Hezbollah, Al-Qiada, L.E.T and other Islamist terrorist organization and build a mosque at a site which is pleasing to all, hurtful to none.

But till exporters of jobs and builders of Mosques at ground-zero have American media supporting them America will always struggle for its security and safety as what do we do when the Trojan-horse is built by us to be used against us.

On Wisdom

2010-08-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest" - Confucius

"It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things" - Henry David Thoreau

"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom" - Bertrand Russell

"Wisdom outweighs any wealth" - Sophocles

"Patience is the companion of wisdom" - Saint Augustine

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer" - Albert Einstein

Universally and across ages; patience, perseverance, discretion, courage; are held as building blocks and evidence of wisdom. The road map is obvious and obviously tough to follow going by the evidence of strife in life in general. So to get ahead a door needs to open to let out the self, and let sense in - the self that gets in the way of you and you, you and them.

Wikileaks

2010-07-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

Right to know is as important as the right to protect information since everything is not for everyone to know; and to let Wikileaks - a private organization, decide between universal and classified may be risky as we really don't know what does Wikileaks stand for - unless we blindly believe their stated purpose?

Is Wikileaks for the good of people or good for the enemies of governments?

Can Wikileaks help affect legislature that will help economies, create jobs, reduce crime and contain Muslim terrorism or is it just a sensational group parleying the reach of the Internet? Until that's determined we need to tread carefully on what we read and who we believe since we cannot stop what shows up online.

Books following Music

2010-07-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

Amazon reported that last holiday season it sold more electronic books than traditional printed hardcovers.

Content creators are kings (finally and rightfully); and processors like printers, and middlemen like publishers, are a dying breed like old record and newspaper companies.

Music, News, Books are and will get more and more electronic and more and more disposable meaning great things for companies selling them as it reduces receiving, warehousing, shipping, returns, damage expenses which translate into lower real estate, payroll and logistics costs, and NO RETURNS add significantly to top and bottom line.

In this age of the CONTENT CREATOR what will happen to printers? They will go the way of video stores - out of business. Though thus far my experience of getting news online lacks the intimacy of reading the Sunday paper slowly savoring the story - browsing news online is like a quickie - hard, fast and laced with dissatisfaction.

On Anger

2010-07-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

"Anger is a short madness" - Horace

"If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size" - Sydney J. Harris

"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame" - Benjamin Franklin

"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret" - Ambrose Bierce

"Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools" - Albert Enstein

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured" - Mark Twain

"Fair peace becomes men; ferocious anger belongs to beasts" - Ovid

"How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it" - Marcus Aurelius

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned" - Buddha

Need any more convincing that anger kills the angry? It's not that its new news, its our recurringly amazing propensity to ignore it that makes us perfectly and hurtfully foolish.

America read this

2010-07-26T22:56:00.000-07:00

If you must read 1 story, and subscribe to 1 blog then this is the one:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-american-people-dont-need-more-handouts-what-they-need-are-good-jobs/comment-page-1#comment-7746

It may sound obsessive, but with 10 million Americans out of work, a huge trade imbalance that no one is addressing, and no clear solution in sight to stem job erosion its time to get obsessive, so get obsessed about saving our country by fighting to save our jobs.

Mosque at Ground Zero

2010-07-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

Some in the name of economic opportunity sold us like in our jobs and our future to China and India and now the same type in the name of freedom and America support a mosque on the site where America was attacked by savage, dogmatic, fanatic, murderous Muslims killing 1000s of innocent.

It's time we fought these people, unless the fight has gone out of us, and we've become lilly-livered pansies used to mutely being raped. That they even dare suggest a mosque shows their disregard and disrespect for American sentiment. They bombed us, hit our ship, blew up our embassies, did 9/11, tried to bomb Time Square again and now want to build a mosque? It's like a rapist flashing his victim.

Militant Muslims and supporters of their Mosque at Ground Zero need a solid kick in the ass, and be put where they belong - in jail, or on a ship to Pakistan where they can blow each other to bits - these hate mongering, freedom suppressing animals and their American supporters.

No mosque on ground zero is my motto my mantra.

The Year of Spain

2010-07-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

Rafael Nadal started it!

Wimbledon, FIFA World Cup, and now Alberto Contador wins Tour de France.

Congratulations Spain - small country of mighty vital people and spirit. Live long and win more.

More on Peace

2010-07-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

"Peace begins with a smile" - Mother Teresa

"Peace is liberty in tranquillity" - Cicero

"A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser" - Shakespeare

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it" - Thomas Jefferson

"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned" - Dag Hammarskjold

Peace with its connotations of smiles, tranquility, friendship is worth a fight, a worthy pursuit, but not at the cost of dignity and country, so peace to all except those waging an economic war on America with weapons of globalization - those must perish so lasting peace may return to these Great United States of America.

And those opposed to this need a reminder that Mahatma Gandhi beat the British by leading Indians to boycotting Made in UK. He peacefully defeated India's colonizers, we can too - by doing the same, boycotting foreign made goods and companies that send jobs abroad.

Why do we not do what we must??

2010-07-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

So Obama is extending unemployment benefits. Great - really for those who need it it's a must have as no one sits on their ass doing nothing thriving on unemployment benefits, you can't thrive on pittance, though pittance puts some of the food on the table - I know it from experience, so thanks Mr. President, but this isn't enough, nor is the Wall Street fix bill, what's needed is JOBS, so why do we as a people not boot out, boycott those who are the reason for our misery, those who export jobs and import goods which shut down American factories?

In its boom time in 50s-60s America was an industrial nation producing most of what it consumed and Americans were able to afford to buy Made in America because they earned wages according our standard of living. Now the greedy have shifted jobs abroad so they do not have to pay good wages and benefits to Americans and to do business with such people who rob us of our jobs is plain stupid.

Ask those campaigning for November elctions why are they silent on job exports (have they been bought by the enemies of the American people - the very rich powerful people and corporations); vote out anybody who supports globalization and job exports, stop doing business with banks and other businesses which have shifted call-centers (we can answer our own phones in this country) abroad, cut your Made in Abroad by 30% and designate 1 day every week to buy ONLY MADE IN AMERICA.

It makes total sense, so why do we not do what we must?