Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
In the first quarter of 2015, in the sixth year of the historic Obama recovery, the U.S. economy grew by two-tenths of 1 percent.
And that probably sugarcoats it.
For trade deficits subtract from the growth of GDP, and the U.S. trade deficit that just came in was a monster.
As the AP’s Martin Crutsinger writes, “The U.S. trade deficit in March swelled to the highest level in more than six years, propelled by a flood of imports that may have sapped the U.S. economy of any growth in the first quarter.”
The March deficit was $51.2 billion, largest of any month since 2008. In goods alone, the trade deficit hit $64 billion.
As Crutsinger writes, a surge in imports to $239 billion in March, “reflected greater shipments of foreign-made industrial machinery, autos, mobile phones, clothing and furniture.”
What does this flood of imports of things we once made here mean for a city like, say, Baltimore? Writes columnist Allan Brownfeld:
“Baltimore was once a city where tens of thousands of blue collar employees earned a good living in industries building cars, airplanes and making steel. … In 1970, about a third of the labor force in Baltimore was employed in manufacturing. By 2000, only 7 percent of city residents had manufacturing jobs.”
Put down blue-collar Baltimore alongside Motor City, Detroit, as another fatality of free-trade fanaticism.
For as imports substitute for U.S. production and kill U.S. jobs, trade deficits reduce a nation’s GDP. And since Bill Clinton took office, the U.S. trade deficits have totaled $11.2 trillion.
An astronomical figure.
It translates not only into millions of manufacturing jobs lost and tens of thousands of factories closed, but also millions of manufacturing jobs that were never created, and tens of thousands of factories that did not open here, but did open in Mexico, China and other Asian countries.
In importing all those trillions in foreign-made goods, we exported the future of America’s young. Our political and corporate elites sold out working- and middle-class America — to enrich the monied class.
And they sure succeeded.
Yet, remarkably, Republicans who wail over Obama’s budget deficits ignore the more ruinous trade deficits that leech away the industrial base upon which America’s self-reliance and military might have always depended.
Last month, the U.S. trade deficit with the People’s Republic of China reached $31.2 billion, the largest in history between two nations.
Over 25 years, China has amassed $4 trillion in trade surpluses at our expense. And where are the Republicans?
Talking tough about building new fleets of planes and ships and carriers to defend Asia from the rising threat of China, which those same Republicans did more than anyone else to create.
Now this GOP Congress is preparing to vote for “fast track” and surrender its right to amend any Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Obama brings home.
But consider that TPP. While the propaganda is all about a deal to cover 40 percent of world trade, what are we really talking about?
First, TPP will cover 37 percent of world trade. But 80 percent of that is trade between the U.S. and nations with which we already have trade deals. As for the last 20 percent, our new partners will be New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Japan.
Query: Who benefits more if we get access to Vietnam’s market, which is 1 percent of ours, while Hanoi gets access to a U.S. market that is 100 times the size of theirs?
The core of the TPP is the deal with Japan.
But do decades of Japanese trade surpluses at our expense, achieved through the manipulation of Japan’s currency and hidden restrictions on U.S. imports, justify a Congressional surrender to Barack Obama of all rights to amend any Japan deal he produces?
Columnist Robert Samuelson writes that a TPP failure “could produce a historic watershed. … rejection could mean the end of an era. … So, when opponents criticize the Trans-Pacific Partnership, they need to answer a simple question: Compared to what?”
Valid points, and a fair question.
And yes, an era is ending, a post-Cold War era where the United States threw open her markets to nations all over the world, as they sheltered their own. The end of an era where America volunteered to defend nations and fight wars having nothing to do with her own vital interests or national security.
The bankruptcy of a U.S. trade and foreign policy, which has led to the transparent decline of the United States and the astonishing rise of China, is apparent now virtually everywhere.
And America is not immune to the rising tide of nationalism.
Though, like the alcoholic who does not realize his condition until he is lying face down in the gutter, it may be a while before we get out of the empire business and start looking out again, as our fathers did, for the American republic first. But that day is coming.
Oh Pat, such a true believer in a “return” to greatness.
I wish I shared his beliefs.
Sadly, I can’t.
I love Buchanan, but he is childless. By definition, the future belongs to the breeders. I’m inclined to think that he and his wife – especially being pro-life – should have adopted, but I, a stranger, can never really know their lives and challenges. So I won’t judge him specifically, but will say again, the future belongs to the breeders.
The era of the nation-state is near done.
Today, “trade deals” are just mechanisms to screw both sides’ populace and enrich both sides’ elites. They are thus the seeds that will enrage, and lead to collapses in trade during the next “bust” phase, as people react to BAD deals by making NO deals, and BAD trade to NO trade.
It’s predictable. The future is always a product of the past and the present. The past and present are systems of embedding “kick the little guy.” The future will thus react to this…and the little guy will kick himself.
Ok, TE, stucky, bea, here is your so called tool of the establishment. Pat has been shouting from the rooftops for decades about the poisonous effects on the country and us of mass immigration, free trade, and endless war for profit. IMHO, the establishment position is that all these things are wonderful and nessesary.
I believe that those 3 issues, immigration, offshoring and endless war, are 3 of the most important subjects to examine, and course correct on. If pat is a tool, why did MSNBC fire him? Why, as a party statesman, doesn’t he get prime speaking slots at the repug conventions? Pat’s opinions are 180° from the establishment position of both parties, best I can tell.
I ready to take my medicine here. Tell me how I’m wrong. Be specific. These are subjects I care about. So does pat. TE, you say you don’t share his views. Which ones? Why? Stop and look at what you are disagreeing with. What are you disagreeing with. Who is the tool of the establishment?
Not related to anything, but…
My wife just emailed me this song… don’t know where it came from, but it seemed fitting to the mood of this thread…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_VNkjw-_Hs
I’m not looking to start a shitstorm here. I’m asking you guys what you believe, and why. I’m asking you guys what you think the answers are. I think pat has been right for a very long time, and one of the few who never bought into the establishment position. Read death of the west. Written in 2002, it accurate ly predicts where we are today as well as anything I’ve ever read.
I read it in 2002, and it has shaped my worldview ever since. Common fucking sense. You do this, you cause that. That’s why I post here. Quinn is another pat buchanan. There aren’t many out there
@starfcker, I like Buchanan for the most part. And I agree he displays common sense on those things you point. Problem is, this government doesn’t have any common sense. Everything is upside-down.
I’m continually baffled by the laws passed and policies made that drive this country into the ground.
@Billy, as long as we’re playing tunes…hope you like this one.
2 Things that fucked Ricardo’s Theory of Comperative advantage.
1) Profits went to support more Government benefits and employees. An opportunity cost foregone in developing new things.
2) Immigration. The domestic service econmy will be what replaces manufacturing exports and those wages are bid down.
And you can add a third. As Steve Sailer said . If Spain specializes in corks and trades with Finland that specializes in computers. Findland will have high tech industries that centers around that. While Spain will be left with a bunch of Cork trees.
@ starfckr:
Here’s some common sense for you: if I decide I’d rather buy a Japanese or Korean built car than an American one, who the hell are you, or Big Brother, to tell me I can’t? If I decide I want to offer a job or rent an apartment to someone who was born in Mexico, who the hell are you to tell me I can’t? Hence, free trade and free immigration (which in a rational world would just be called “moving”).
Starfcker
Two words, CONTROLLED OPPOSITION, every establishment outlet has their CO pundit. They say all the right things that you want to hear as their job is to lull you into believing they are there to change the wrongs. Step out of the box and really look at how the system works.
Every nail in our coffin has been driven in over the past thirty years with Limbaugh, Buchanan, and the others railing for our side, when do you say to yourself it is all for show? How many decades does it take for people to catch on?
Anarcho pissant, you don’t believe in borders? That makes you stupid. I don’t have to waste my time with you, the fact you will be poor and terrified of your surroundings for the rest of your life is justice enough for me.
Bea, stay on topic. I didn’t mention limbaugh. He and buchanan are different animals. It is totally self defeating if you get so cynical that your suspicions land on people speaking truth. There was no controlled opposition to free trade or mass immigration. We never had the debate. The 92 election debates featured clinton and perot against, bush for.
TPP is not a free trade bill.It is a FU USA bill .
The Board of any for profit corporation has a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profits for its shareholders. This is a legally enforceable responsibility. Labor, just like any input, must be weighed by the board and if a comparable input can be found in, say, China then the board has NO option but to go with the least expensive input.
Now, we could legislate or regulate a different outcome but that puts even more power into the hands of government and we know how that works out. We could also put in place aggressive import taxes but that could really hurt us as we have no competing industry when it comes to consumer electronics. Of the 1.2 billion cell phones manufactured last year, zero were produced in the United States. This is true with televisions, computer monitors, computers, etc.
The entire corporate structure needs to be rethought and reformed but how can that happen now that they are so powerful?
Bush got 36 per cent of the vote, and then clinton showed his true colors and fucked us. Globalization is mess. Clinton thought he was a capo in the big picture. Looks like the PTB have decided he is too expensive, too careless, and just as disposable as any other american. I for one, am going to enjoy the show.
The utopian evil of free trade
Exclusive: Vox Day proves how ideology in its true form would mean end of America
Free-trade advocates often point to the free movement of goods, capital and labor in the domestic economy and ask why the same system cannot work internationally since it works so well within the national borders. The reason is simple: The nation cannot continue to exist if the same degree of labor movement takes place across the borders as it presently does within them. In a paper entitled “Comparing labour mobility in Europe and the U.S.: facts and pitfalls,” it was shown that in the years between 2000 and 2005, the annual interstate mobility rate in the U.S. ranged between 2.8 and 3.4 percent.
To put this into terms most people will understand, just under half of all Americans between the ages of 25 and 44, 50.5 percent, still reside in the state in which they were born. This isn’t a big deal to most Americans. After all, the move from Michigan to Florida or from Minnesota to California is generally regarded as a step up in quality of life. But that’s not likely to be true on an international level.
Because the labor cost difference between the U.S. and China is much greater than between Massachusetts and Texas, the pressure on Americans to move abroad in search of jobs would be even greater than presently exists in the domestic market. Enacting the same sort of free-trade regime on an international level as presently exists on the domestic level would require both a) a reduction in the American standard of living to one that is much closer global average, and b) the expatriation of more than 50 percent of young Americans under the age of 35.
This statistically predictable destruction of the population and dissolution of the American people in the name of increased global prosperity through free trade is not a rhetorical exaggeration. Nor is it a concept that is unknown to the champions of free trade. Consider the words of Mr. Peter Sutherland, the former director-general of the World Trade Organization:
Mr Sutherland, who is non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former chairman of oil giant BP, heads the Global Forum on Migration and Development, which brings together representatives of 160 nations to share policy ideas. He told the House of Lords committee migration was a “crucial dynamic for economic growth” in some EU nations “however difficult it may be to explain this to the citizens of those states.”
What this means is that if, despite understanding its true costs, you still favor free trade as a desirable means to increase the wealth of nations, then you should at least admit to yourself and others that you favor the total destruction of national sovereignty, the elimination of the U.S. Constitution and the end of America and other historical nations. You favor the ideology of ein Welt, ein Recht, eine Wirtschaft.
Star- With all due respect, there is really no difference in Buchanan, Hannity, Limbaugh etc etc.
Nickel, it’s a lot easier than you think. You seem like a bright guy, yet you argue that an artificial construct, a corporation, has a duty to fuck americans. Nonsense. If a corporation damages our country, it is our job to punish or destroy it. Self preservation. Don’t buy the bullshit.
starhumper -the elder Bush-whacker signed NAFTA and then his underwear stain Junior Bush signed CAFTA…..yet somehow the idiots who label themselves Republican still believe that their party is the champion of American industry and small business …what a load…the stupid it burns.
Free trade has been a disaster for America and will continue to be so, until this Nation is completely absorbed into the international network of global fascism.
If the free-traders cannot understand how one nation can grow rich at the expense of another, we need not wonder, since these same gentlemen also refuse to understand how within one country one class can enrich itself at the expense of another…. But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.
– On the Question of Free Trade, Karl Marx, 1848
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“Star- With all due respect, there is really no difference in Buchanan, Hannity, Limbaugh etc etc.”—Bea Lever
If you really believe that you are blind. Buchanan has a profound grasp of history, philosophy and bare-knuckle politics all of which are rooted in a moral code that demands justice. Hannity, Limbaugh et al are radio D J’s, partisan hacks who are rooted in partisan victory. In short they are showmen while Buchanan is a statesman.
Bea, make your case. I think you are badly mistaken. Easy to point fingers. Based on what? Just curious. Flash, elder bush did not sign NAFTA, we drummed him out of office before he could. Traitor clinton did.
free trading bed wetting turd polishers should listen to Buchanan. He understand the issue of free trade better than most any pundit commenting on the dumping of foreign good versu the loss of American wealth better than any in the business.And , it’s only going to get worse, until we the people ,become better known as we the destitute.
What free traders would like to believe and what is actually the reality of free trade are actually quite different than most have knowledge of.
We need more economic nationalists
Pat Buchanan laments, ‘Free trade makes suckers and fools out of patriots’
Published: 06/18/2012 at 8:09 PM
“The entry into force of the U.S.-Korea trade agreement on March 15, 2012, means countless new opportunities for U.S. exporters to sell more made-in-America goods, services and agricultural products to Korean customers – and to support more good jobs here at home.”
Thus did the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative rhapsodize about the potential of our new trade treaty with South Korea. And how has it worked out for Uncle Sam? Well, courtesy of Martin Crutsinger of the Associated Press, the trade figures are in for April, the first full month under the trade deal with South Korea.
And, surprise! The U.S. trade deficit with Korea tripled in one month. Imports from South Korea jumped 15 percent to $5.5 billion in April, while U.S. exports to South Korea fell 12 percent to $3.7 billion. Suddenly, the U.S. trade deficit with Seoul surged to an annual rate of $22 billion.
Shades of NAFTA. When it passed in 1993, we had a $1.6 billion trade surplus with Mexico. By 2010, our trade deficit with Mexico had reached $61.6 billion.
star humper…sorry , you’re right. it was the elder Bush’s baby , but Clinton got to claim fatherhood.In any case Ross Perot was 100% correct..
@Starfcker
Greetings,
As I sit here typing this, I’m sitting in a room full of labor attorneys from companies like Halibuton and BP as well as the chair of the National Labor Relations Board. They are currently having a discussion about Class Action Litigation. I listen to corporations and government officials talk about this kind of stuff all the time.
With that said, I can tell you that there is no grand conspiracy to destroy America. No one is sitting here saying, “lets screw the middle class.” No, what everyone does is fulfill their legal binding obligation to maximize profits. Patriotism, nationalism and civic responsibility are not written in to the legal framework of the U.S. corporate structure. It isn’t even something that can be addressed.
The nice things, though, about corporations is that you get to vote with your dollars. You can withhold your support from corporations that have labor practices that you do not like. If the public relations cost of outsourced labor exceeds the cost of local labor then the corporation will change their behavior – but only if it makes them money.
You must learn to speak the language that they understand.
Nickel, fuck that. They will never change this voluntarily. The incentives need to be removed by force of law. Only way going to happen.
@ Rise
+1 Good shit.
@ starfker
First book I read by him was “A Republic, Not an Empire”.
Dude has a command of history that are matched by few. Dude has a formidable intellect.
He should have been president.
@Starfcker
Greetings,
Then you become France. After all, only government can dictate to a corporation.
Star and Dirt
When I say there is no difference in Buchanan, Hannity, Limbaugh etc., it is in reference to the fact that they are paid mouthpieces carrying water for the establishment. I stand by MHO.
Nick, and government badly needs to start dictating to the multinationals. That’s exactly my point, and buchanans
Here’s the clincher that nobody talks about.
You can bet that in these trade deals to set up factories in foreign lands or open up markets it is.
You build your factory here and you take some of out immigrants there.
And that’s the real reason they don’t want anybody taking a close look or getting wind of verbal agreements.
In simpler terms, the establishment owns and directs both sides of the arguement just as they own both sides of the isle in CONgress.
Oh, and that’s the real reason politician talk about amnesty. We ship the immigrants back and they shut down our factories there.
Billy- If Buchanan had been elected president, we would STILL HAVE the same stinking pile of dogshit we have today…….no difference.
Nickel, fuck that. They will never change this voluntarily. The incentives need to be removed by force of law. Only way going to happen. – star
In fairness, there is the other way… the way few speak about openly these days (few, but more and more every day)…
In truth, the other way is my favorite way… but only time will tell if we get to have any fun or not.
We’ll see…
Nickel might want to pass that bit on to his room full of LAW-YUHS.
@Starfcker
I get it but how is it different than Communism? If the State dictates what you can produce (EPA, FDA, SEC) and where you MUST acquire your inputs then it sure looks like Communism to me.
What we would have would be State run industries and we know how well that works out in the end.
I do not understand why you feel so powerless about all of this. If a corporation has a labor practice that you do not like then spend your money elsewhere. I can tell you that these guys are hypersensitive to it and the day that local labor makes them so much as a penny will be the day that you’ll see the return to local labor.
Billy- If Buchanan had been elected president, we would STILL HAVE the same stinking pile of dogshit we have today…….no difference. – Bea
Beg to differ, but PBJ knew what was going on – and which way we were headed – back during the Nixon Administration.
Given half a chance, I don’t think we’d have as big a stinking pile of dogshit…
We’d have a border fence. A wall, even. Heavily patrolled. And it would have been built decades ago.
Illegals would have been repatriated quickly, if not on the spot.
Immigration policy wouldn’t resemble anything like today.
I doubt if even Gulf 1 would have been fought, much less any other pissant war we’ve been involved in.
Remove that, and there’s no reason for 9/11 to happen, which removes PA1 and NDAA and the NSA spying on us…
Just saying… PBJ saw which way shit was going down and if he would have been elected, I’m betting half the shit we crab and bitch about wouldn’t have taken place…
Okay, some of it might have taken place… and yeah, it would still be a turd. But a turd we can deal with.
What we have now is as if a planeload of dogshit crashed into a trainload of skunk vomit and rotten buzzards going the other way, then the whole thing fell into a landfill of Mexican food induced diarrhea and sank…
Nick, I don’t feel powerless. Hardly. How is corporatism different from communism? I believe in borders. I believe in national sovereignty. I don’t believe corporations are people. I don’t believe corporations have rights. I have no problem with globalization, but getting to gut america in the process is a price too high.
@Billy
I’m well aware of the other way. Just for grins, and because of the work I’m doing today, I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate.
Imagine the unbelievable mountain of paperwork a corporation would have to sift through to do something as simple as produce a pair of headphones and sell them in the USA.
If the headphones are wireless then you’ll first get to deal with the FCC. How many of these LAW-YUHS that you hold in contempt do you think it takes to jump through that first hurdle?
If your headphones have ear buds then you’ll probably have to deal with the FDA because you are sticking that item inside of your body.
At this point, the corporation has to decide where to get the labor. If it is here in the USA then you get to abide by OSHA, Obama Care and both federal and state labor laws. This can easily add 1 million pages of rules & regulations that MUST be followed.
The last thing any of these corporations is for more regulations. They are buried in it now yet people like Starfcker want even more rules and even more regulation. Do you really want the State demanding that you use labor from one place over another?
Nick, you are putting words in my mouth. The regulatory state needs to be dismantled, no question. But understand how it got so out of hand. The idea was to encourage offshoring, and provide employment for the affirmative action losers the colleges were set to pump out. Globalization is an america projectn
@starfcker: I agree with most of Pat’s views, hell I even agree with his sister on illegal immigration. Thing is, the power behind these forces is immense and I think TE’s comment is mainly along the lines of Buchanan being a pollyanna; change is NOT on it’s way and we’re done out of hope!
Personally I’d like to see:
-An end to illegal immigration with deportation of anyone illegally in the country (aren’t they a terrorist threat, if there IS a real terrorist threat)
-The U.S. pull out of all “trade” agreements including the WTO and GATT. If you want “Free Trade” with the U.S. your country must abide by the same environmental and labor laws as the U.S., otherwise we’ll slap your shit with an import tax
-An end to hydraulic fracking, period
-The U.S. pull out of our military and “contractors” from every place we’ve engaged w/o a declaration of war by CON-gree
-Sunsetting of the “patriot” act and independent 3rd party, unimpeachable verification that all NSA spying on Americans is shut down for good, with all info gathered illegally destroyed.
-Immediate release of the classified 28 pages of the 9/11 report
-An independent, bipartisan, unlimited investigation (with subpoena power, including “classified material”) of what happened leading up to and on 9/11 with an unredacted report TO THE PEOPLE!
This would be a start, I’m sure I can think of much more.
I don’t want more rules and regulations, i want far, far less. But yes, I do want the state to step in and make hiring chinese slave labor hurt your ass so bad you don’t do it. I have no problem with you manufacturing in china. But if you want to participate in the american market, you need to have the living shit tarriffed out of you on the way in.
WC, I like it
@Nickel: “The nice things, though, about corporations is that you get to vote with your dollars. You can withhold your support from corporations that have labor practices that you do not like.”
What are you saying here? That somehow the public at large can affect a corporation (how, via a product boycott?). Joe public doesn’t know squat about a corporation’s labor practices to begin with.
@Westcoaster, those are good ideas for the next form of government after the revolution.
To late now .We are doomed as a nation. I know many of you are not religious but just out of curiosity get a bible and turn to Deuteronomy 28 and read through the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience.God says you turn away from me and worship other gods this is what my wrath and curse will look like upon your body and nation ..Read them .Now think about how far America has fallen in the last 40 years.By the way Pat Buchanan is Catholic and a Christian.
Imagine the unbelievable mountain of paperwork a corporation would have to sift through to do something as simple as produce a pair of headphones and sell them in the USA.
What paperwork?
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No government bureaucracy is going to reign in the corporate criminal, because they themselves either once worked for the criminal corporatist or they plan to in the near future..or both. Government and the corporate criminal are one and the same.
The government , under the pretense of punished criminals corporate with wrist slap fines is the same fascist oligarchy that rewards those same criminals with millions of dollars of taxpayer funded subsidies.
Corporate Kleptocracy: 6,300 Examples Of America’s Malignant Malfeasance
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-06/corporate-kleptocracy-6300-examples-americas-malignant-malfeasance
As for the connection to the concentration of wealth: I see two ways in which they are related, the first one is pretty direct and that is the increasing size of the settlements. You will notice that as the settlement date gets later the average size gets much larger. Corporate profits after tax (without IVA and CCAdj) from 1st quarter to 1947 to 4th quarter 2014 went from $21,900,000,000 to $1,837,500,000,000 which is a 8290% increase, even from 1st quarter 1980 to 4th quarter 2014 went from $211,600,000,000 to $1,837,500,000,000 which is a 768% increase.
The second link is less direct. With the increases in concentration of wealth there has been a culture of idolizing wealth, one example is how prosecutors no longer find it appropriate to put banker’s and CEOs in jail. I think one side-effect of the culture changing has been an increased willingness to break the law to increase profits.
The settlements with the banks along with the ongoing investigations have shown that virtually every market is being manipulated; the stocks, metals markets, LIBOR, FOREX, everything. The companies would only break so many laws if they felt they would have a reasonable chance of getting away with it; they would also need a reason to do it, which is provided by the infinite growth model our economy is based on.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t0Tb5H7V_OkOuLM9kaiPmszXb3L5wS2g7Tc5dG7v9yM/edit?usp=sharing
Subsidy Tracker 3.0
The first national search engine for economic development subsidies and other forms of government assistance to business. Search the database here. http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/subsidy-tracker
Zero in on Megadeals here.http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/megadeals
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