Failed economic policies are walking, step by step, toward globalization
by Mike Crane

The August 2006 Trade statistics were released on October 12 and it should not be a surprise to anyone that our international trade position has continued to deteriorate.  The August 2006 Trade Deficit was $69,800,000,000.00, the worst month in the history of our country. In fact - the first eight months of 2006 show an increase in the trade deficit of $64.1 Billion over the all time worst record in 2005.

These are the governments numbers not ours! The chart below has been filled in month by month by simply copying the current trade deficit from the government's monthly press release (included at bottom with web site link).

The first eight months of 2006 show a 13.8% decline over 2005 already! The first eight months of 2006 are more than double the first eight months of 2001! They are close to double the first eight months of 2002!

Using simple projection arithmetic this points toward a 2006 Trade Deficit between $782,000,000,000.00 on the low end to $821,000,000,000.00 on the high end. At this rate the annual Trade Deficit will exceed $1,000,000,000,000.00 in 2008.

This is a track record of failure!

This is a track record of selling your grandchildren's future!

Instead of "improving" we are marching down the path of globalization faster - month by month! Have you given any thought what that means to your future, your children's future and most especially your grandchildren's future? If not I hope and pray that you will begin to.

I have and I am very concerned about the future of my 10 grandchildren!

President Bush with support from both the Republicans and Democrats is destroying Our Founding Principles as fast or faster than any President in our history. He is pushing "globalization!" He tells us this is good for us!

How in the world can it be good for us to run an ever increasing deficit that everyone knows can not continue? In the long run someone will have to pay the piper - and that someone is probably going to be your children or grandchildren!

What is Globalization?

Lets look at what his idea of globalization means to you, your children and grandchildren. The following is in approximate numbers and only looks at the impact of a true global economy between our country and India. The impact is of course greater when you factor in the entire world.

Globalization: The Politicians pitch: Free Market forces will eventually solve the problem. Rising incomes in foreign countries will stabilize the situation.

Explanation:  Using some round representative numbers (references at bottom):

US population 300 Million, Average per capita income - $33,000 per year

India population 1 Billion, average per capita income - $472.00 per year.

Equalized income between US and India - $7,978.00 per year.

What that means to you: Average American income will fall dramatically.

If we achieve globalization - if the current economic policies are maintained the American average per capita income will have to fall to $7,978.00 per year - for the per capita income in India and the US to equalize.

Effect on your grandchildren: You are condemning your future generations to live on the equivalent of roughly $8,000.00 current dollars.

Ladies & Gentlemen, this is what we are leaving our children and grandchildren if globalization continues unabated.

Except it is actually worse than the above example indicates. That example only considers the population of India, globalization carried out would include not 1 Billion people as in the example, but would include somewhere around 5 Billion.

Is this what you voted for? Well it is what you are getting and it is brought to you by both the Republican and Democratic Parties leadership!

The Trade Deficit is just one piece of a complicated picture and our elected officials depend on the picture being so complicated that the citizens of our country will not realize what globalization really means. You do not hear this from either of the major parties because they are addicted to the contributions of the proponents of globalization.

What a corporate dream, everybody working for poverty wages - except the elite few! What a dismal future for your future generations.

Warren Buffett - hardly a Southern Party member - has come to the same conclusion:

Instead of moving toward an "ownership society," Buffett suggested, with admitted hyperbole, that the economic burden ahead is more likely to result in a "sharecropper's society" dependent on foreign landlords.

Think about that as you read the rest of this article.

Lets look at the government's own chart (US Commerce Department) for recent years. This is not a chart of success - it is a chart showing the results of failed policies for the last few years. Many do not realize that citizens of my age (I am 58) grew up in a time when our county was the world's leading creditor nation. Youngsters today are growing up in a time when our country is the world's greatest debtor nation.

All of you know that debt can not increase at these rates forever!

Somebody will have to pay the price for this fiscal irresponsibility!

Will it be us, the adults whose watch this is occurring on - or will it be your  children - or will it be your grandchildren? I hope you will give that some thought, if you do - you will know what the right thing to do is.

Continued Decline

Factories, call centers, development centers, financial centers and whole industries are moving to foreign countries and will continue to do so until these failed economic policies are changed.

Empty factories and other facilities do not produce goods to be purchased or exported, even if President Bush, Congress, Republicans and Democrats tell us this is good for us, empty factories just do not produce much!

When Americans need the products and services those factories and facilities used to produce - they have to buy imports. As long as more factories move to foreign countries than move to our country, we will export less and import more! The chart on the right shows the long term trend of lost factories as a percentage of the working population in our country. These are jobs moved to foreign countries, so that we lose both the income and have to buy imports.

Meanwhile the Bush Economic Polices (and previous President Clinton's) continue their march into our country's history.

If all of our remaining facilities ran at 100% capacity this year and exported every bit of additional product - we would still have a trade deficit! But instead of polices to increase utilization and capacity of our facilities we have government polices in place which encourages their relocation to foreign countries!

Until the failed policies are changed - there is nothing to stop the downward trend!

Lets repeat that statement, it is very important:

Until the failed policies are changed - there is nothing to stop the downward trend!

The mushrooming Trade Deficit and Budget Deficits are creating over $1,000,000,000,000,000.00 - 1 Trillion Dollars of debt per year! That is over $3,300.00 of new debt for every man, woman and child in our country - per year! There are very few options on eliminating debt:

1) Repudiate it - At a national level  - would mean the US default on all securities and collapse of our economy. At the corporate level means closing the doors and layoffs and reductions in salaries and benefits for those remaining on payroll. We are seeing the corporate level effects already.

2) Devalue the dollar - The long term trend is a devaluation of the dollar. This means in effect an effective lowering of American income in relation of the rest of the world and higher import prices. The dollar is declining against major currencies. The Bush Administration is demanding that China let the dollar "decline" against their currency.

3) Inflation - Means you get less value for your dollar so it is in effect worth less. The "federal reserve" has been raising interest rates for quite some time to "combat" inflation. Higher interest rates means higher prices.

4) Raise Taxes - Tax rates are rising if you include all of the hidden and embedded fees, costs, regulations and inflation.

5) Liquidate assets - This is in effect selling American assets to foreign entities and is the major source of funding for our current debt. Should this be our national policy? The list of foreign owned - former American companies - is staggering and growing. Even government entities are now selling facilities to foreign operations, for example toll roads. Read Warren Buffett's comments above.

With the exception of national repudiation of debt, the other forces above are all in play now, and are the mechanisms that will lower American per capita income to match the rest of the world. You are seeing the small steps in the march to globalization on an ongoing month by month basis.

Step by step you are marching toward globalization. Step by step - your grandchildren's future is being sold on the auction block of special interest influence. Before "political correctness" it would have been called by its real name - "corruption" and "fiscal irresponsibly."

It is up to you - the American citizen to decide how long - you - are going to let it continue. The most recent 109th Session of Congress has passed three more Expensive Trade Agreements - CAFTA, Oman and Bahrain. Congress has passed EVERY Expensive Trade Agreement presented since NAFTA.  The Bush Administration is now pushing another Expensive Trade Agreement - with Peru (see: There they go again! Will your job go to Peru, just to bolster corporate greed?).  Many of us have voted for and supported members of Congress that turned their back on us under intense corporate lobbying. We made a mistake!

You have the power to "retire" these corporate representatives and get replacements who will represent us - not special interests. Every one of the US House of Representatives members that voted for these failed policies is up for election next year. See: Georgia Congressional delegation vote summary on trade agreements for a link to the official roll call votes for all States on these three Expensive Trade Agreements.

Are you going to send them back so that they can vote for expensive trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Thailand, Tunisia, the UAE, Kuwait, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Namibia, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Peru and Qatar and who knows where else?

They are all in process and so far the Democratic and Republicans in Congress have not rejected a single expensive trade agreement since NAFTA in 1992! Just what we need - more empty facilities; less jobs, less exports and more imports. Is this what you want for a national policy?

Perhaps we need less Republicans and Democrats, but that is up to you - the citizens. You get what you vote for and you are getting globalization whether you want it or not! You are allowing these elected officials to sell your grandchildren's future with impunity.

You are told that if you support a non Republican or Democrat that you are throwing your vote away! Now isn't that very cozy for the two parties that have implemented these failed economic policies. As long as they have a monopoly, you have less choices and they have less competition. So what you get is - globalization!

The Southern Party has released a position statement that would change the failed and misnamed "free trade" to one of FAIR Trade (See: A Southern Party of Georgia Position on solving our country’s Trade Deficit).

If you are concerned about these economic policies, at some point you need to ask yourself the question, "what am I going to do about it?" Go back and look at either the chart at the top or the Department of Commerce graph. There can be very little question what the trend is and what you can expect if something is not changed.

Are you concerned enough to consider some things that you can very easily do to begin raising awareness of the future problems? If so please consider:

1) We need your help in passing this information on to others. How many people do you know that would be concerned or interested? If everybody that reads this page - that does care - finds one new person a month, in two years we could retire every US House Representative or US Senator up for election across the country that is selling your grandchildren's future. That is a lot of results for very little effort. Last month the list receiving these updates only grew by just over 100, perhaps too many were relying on the other person to find their new person.

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2) Take a few minutes and read the Southern Party of Georgia position on FAIR Trade as opposed to our government's policy of Expensive Trade. If you do not understand the position or want to discuss contact the author of this article, mikecrane@tds.net . If you support such a policy, ask your Congress critters if they will support it. If they say no, throw the bums out of office and get someone who will.

(See: A Southern Party of Georgia Position on solving our country’s Trade Deficit).

3) Consider helping the Southern Party of Georgia in our efforts to expose the dangers of creeping globalism. We get a lot of verbal support for each segment of our platform, but get very little financial support to expand our effort or get our candidates on the ballot so that you - the citizens - will have a choice. If everybody on this list sent just $10.00 or $20.00 we could more than double or triple our effort. Actually we could produce and distribute 100,000 copies of our newspaper - A Real Choice which would help inform a couple hundred thousand citizens about these serious issues. In addition you get a subscription to "A Real Choice" - the highest volume political newspaper in Georgia.

For a sample copy just send your mailing address to secretary@spofga.org

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