[Sixstrings]

The Off-Shored Economy

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

President Obama and economists provide platitudes about recovery. But how does an economy recover when its economic leaders have spent more than a decade moving high productivity, high value-added middle class jobs offshore along with the Gross Domestic Product associated with them?

Some very discouraging reports have been issued this month from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There have been record declines in both jobs and hours worked. At the end of last year, the U.S. economy had fewer jobs than at the end of 1997, 12 years ago. Hours worked at the end of last year were less than at the end of 1995, 14 years ago.

The average work week is falling and currently stands at 33.1 hours for non-supervisory workers.

In a major problem for economic theory, labor productivity or output per man hour and labor compensation have diverged markedly over the last decade. Wages are not rising with productivity.

The financial economy which was to replace the industrial economy is nowhere in sight. The U.S. has only 5 banks in the world’s top 50 by size of assets. The largest U.S. bank, JPMorgan Chase ranks seventh. Germany has 7 banks in the top 50, and the United Kingdom and France each have 6. Japan and China each have 5 banks in the top 50, and together the small countries of Switzerland and the Netherlands have six with combined assets $1.185 trillion more than the 5 largest U.S. banks.

The American economic and political leadership has used its power to serve its own interests at the expense of the American people and their economic prospects. By enriching themselves in the short-run, they have driven the U.S. economy into the ground. The U.S. is on a path to becoming a Third World economy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03172010.html

I wonder where this all ends, will Americans just wander obediently into a third world lifestyle? And what kind of third world living would that be, with all our facebooks, ipads, 3d movies and 3d teevee (coming soon to a Best Buy near you)? Will we slap GPS turn-by-turn gizmos on our bicycles? I guess what we're headed for is a Bladerunner-esque techno poverty.

[Plantagenet]

Why worry?

We'll just have our Congress "deem" that they've already passed the needed laws to fix everything.

[Prince]

Good article. We're about to legalize 20 million spics, so I can't see how the employment situation is going to get sustainably better anytime soon. We might see a slight drop in unemployment, but I suspect that will be short-lived. This country is truly f'd.

[mattduke]

The government has more than doubled since then.

[PrestonSturges]

The government has more than doubled since then.

?

[Tyler_JC]

Preston,

He meant that in nominal terms, government spending has doubled since 1997.

The figure is actually more than a doubling, 130% between 1997 and 2010 if you don't adjust for inflation.

After inflation it's a 74% increase. Still pretty remarkable considering population barely increased by 15% in that period.

Where did all the money go?

[Novus]

Where did all the money go?

Wars and economic bailouts AIG and GM etc plus interest on existing debt. Soon interest payments will be largest part of the government budget surpassing even military and social security. All of it by design to make the rich even richer especially bankers.

[PrestonSturges]

Preston,
Where did all the money go?

Yep, Iraq and Afghanistan.

These wars have lasted longer than WW2 and cost more than WW2.

[rangerone314]

I thought that was a pretty good article. One of the 10 best I've read in the past several years.

We are truly fracked.

[MarkJ]

Many jobs that were formerly long-term, full-time, year-round jobs are now filled by part-time, temporary, temp-service, on-call or seasonal workers in addition to underground economy workers.

Hours worked in many industries are way down since worker productivity is enhanced by automation, robotics, computerization, communications, specialized tools, specialized equipment etc.

Some businesses have a much more productive workforce due to tougher education/experience/skill/knowledge requirements as well as pre-employment drug testing, background checks, aptitude testing, physical assessments, engineered labor standards, performance incentives etc.

During tight job markets, the unproductive workers are the first to be laid off, first to be terminated and last to be hired, plus employed workers tend to work harder, slack off less, make fewer mistakes, take fewer breaks etc, thus making for a much more productive workforce.

[yesec9]

Theoretically, if energy becomes scarce, human labor in America will needed. Thus, (theoretically), unemployment should no longer be a problem. Underemployment (working at a skill level below your potential) will be rampant though and will be understated at orders of magnitude greater than it is today. Contract labor (and more of the equivalent of debt slavery) is going to expand, worsened by PO. Unemployment today depends on machines doing the work for us, and machines (heavy trucks and ships) shipping the goods from third world countries.

[Sixstrings]

I thought that was a pretty good article. One of the 10 best I've read in the past several years.

We are truly fracked.

This one was pretty short, but he's written some good ones. You can follow that link if you like and have a look at his columns. I posted an excellent one from him a number of months ago, but I've posted so much on this forum I can't seem to locate it.

Anyway, I give a lot of weight to what he has to say, since he's a former Treasury undersecretary and wsj editor. When someone from inside the establishment starts talking this way, then you take notice.

[pablonite]

The financial economy which was to replace the industrial economy is nowhere in sight. The U.S. has only 5 banks in the world’s top 50 by size of assets. The largest U.S. bank, JPMorgan Chase ranks seventh. Germany has 7 banks in the top 50, and the United Kingdom and France each have 6. Japan and China each have 5 banks in the top 50, and together the small countries of Switzerland and the Netherlands have six with combined assets $1.185 trillion more than the 5 largest U.S. banks.

Well according to who anyway and what does it really matter? We are talking about international bankers here, not Americans in the classic sense.

Where did all the money go?

Wrong question. Where did all the money come from is more to the point.

Complaining about the war is valiant but it misses the point of why you might be there to begin with.

It's just too easy for these media, military, shadow government entities to fabricate believable realities. I would say the level of which we see today would be impossible without television.

And 20 million "spics" rubber stamped? Would that be Mexicans? Yes, that is many people, keep it up and you can replace an entire population rather easily this way. it is a form of ethnic cleansing. America as we knew it and portrayed in the educational systems history books is long but a memory but serves as a useful illusion.

Good article but counter-punch is what would be considered a left gatekeeper arm of a rather large media complex - check the ownership. As for Paul Craig Roberts, well he is quite a maverick in the classic sense of the word.

[pablonite]

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
The Age of Irrationality
The 9/11 Conspiracists and the Decline of the Anmerican Left
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11282006.html

You see, Alexander is one of those special people like Noam Chomsky who gets lots of mainstream media coverage with certain things like anti-war tirades but fails to question the reasons for even going to war with that same zeal.

I like counter-punch but he keeps the sidelines clear and will attack violently anyone who steps out of bounds...

One trips over a fundamental idiocy of the 9/11 conspiracists in the first paragraph of the opening page of the book by one of their high priests, David Ray Griffin, The New Pearl Harbor.

Sorry but implying this man is an idiot raises at least one of my eyebrows!

[Keith_McClary]

Anyway, I give a lot of weight to what he has to say, since he's a former Treasury undersecretary and wsj editor. When someone from inside the establishment starts talking this way, then you take notice.

Paul Craig Roberts is an unrepentant Reaganite who does not think that Reagan was responsible for deregulation and other rightist economic policies leading to the present f*****. I wish he would write an article explaining this.