The value of our nation’s imports exceeded the value of our nation’s exports by nearly $700 billion in 2008, nearly equal to our federal government’s recent economic stimulus program. Imagine the benefits this $700 billion could have provided to our nation’s economy had it been spent here as opposed to abroad. And that’s just in one year. Since 1997, our trade deficits have ballooned from $100 billion to the current $700 billion. The cumulative impact of these trade deficits has had a devastating impact on our nation’s economy and it is this dependence on foreign goods, which has been one of the major causes of our nation’s current economic crisis. It is also why many of the jobs once held by Americans have been transferred overseas and why future domestic job growth will remain stagnant as our nation attempts to recover from this crisis. Furthermore, the federal government’s economic stimulus programs are incapable of producing sustainable economic growth and will only increase our national debt, another major cause of the current economic crisis. Any job opportunities created by this stimulus program will cease when the money runs out.

Sustainable economic growth can only be achieved, if we produce more of the raw materials and manufactured goods we require to maintain our comfortable lifestyle.

If you want to really understand the relationship between America's economy, its political system and its use of military power, I suggest that every American take the time to watch the following video of a Bill Moyers interview with historian, Andrew Bacevich.

Here is the link to this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl1CXVymxfk

Now, this is a six-part video and it will take about an hour of your time, but I think it will be worth the effort.

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Money needs a place to go. With interest rates so low it's going into the stock market where speculators can trade their increasingly worthless paper money for increasingly worthless paper stock. Like any bubble the only thing keeping it inflated is the bigger fool willing to buy in.

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I'm sure all the 10.2% of our unemployed jumped for joy when they heard that.

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#4 Sam -
"How many postings will there be before somebody blames that commie Obama for this?"

I'll bite.

Last year's declines could be said to have been investors discounting for Mr Obama's socialist tendencies and their fears of a socialist takeover.

Ooops. Fears realized.

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A bubble........beware.

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#8 Pat -
"it could have been the horrible policies of the then administration coming to full fruition after 8 years"

It could have been. Or maybe not given that the markets were up over 20% over the first seven years of the previous administration. I guess you're implying that investors were being irrational for the first 94% of the previous administration.

I was always told that the markets are forward looking, ie - they are a reflection of what the "big money" thinks what will be occurring in the future, not a vote on what happened in the past. But I guess maybe you should get a job at Goldman Sachs.

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Bush took over a balanced budget. Maybe only if you include all revenues collected by social security taxes in the mix and even then it was only balanced for four years (1998 through 2001). Both prior to and since then the federal government has been run in the red, with our federal budget deficits expanding to unsustainable levels since 2002.

Massive government spending programs only offer Americans false hope. Solely designed to treat the symptoms of our current economic problems, they do not effectively address with the underlying causes of these problems. How does trillions of dollars of unsustainable government spending over an indefinite period into the future solve our nation’s economic crisis? It only increases our national debt at a time when it was our reliance on credit and debt that precipitated the problem in the first place. It’s like throwing gasoline on a fire in an effort to extinguish the flames. Does it really make any sense to substantially increase the debt that will have to be paid by future generations? The truth be told, current economic recovery efforts are just a continuation of an ongoing Ponzi scheme, which has been promoted by politicians of both political parties over the last several decades. They have told and continue to assure the citizens of this nation that we can have it all without regard to who is actually going pay for these excesses when the bills finally become due. None of our leaders have the political courage or will to do what is necessary to balance federal budget.

The real cause of America's economic crisis is our inability with live within our means. These problems are of our own making. Real solutions to the current economic crisis will require substantial changes in how America conducts it’s business at home and abroad. There are no quick, painless solutions to these problems. Substantially reducing our nation’s huge trade deficit would result in the injection of hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy, which would otherwise be diverted overseas. This can be accomplished through the domestic production of more of the goods and services we require to maintain our comfortable lifestyle, institution of measures that will reduce our consumption or by some combination thereof.

It is interesting to note that the decline of the wealth producing sectors of our economy coincides with the enactment of much of our nation’s environmental legislation, which spanned the period from 1970 through 1980. The cumulative impact of this legislation and subsequent revisions and modifications of these environmental laws have made our domestic industrial base uncompetitive on the international market. The unilateral nature of this environmental legislation resolved our environmental problems by forcing industry to close its domestic facilities and transfer its operations overseas, where less stringent environmental regulations concentrated the environmental damage in third world countries. However, in doing so, it also severely impaired the wealth producing sectors of our economy, increasing America’s dependence on foreign imports and severely impeding our ability to be more self-sufficient. This is reflected the rapid expansion of our nation’s trade deficits since the early 1980s, which have exponentially accelerated to unsustainable levels since 1997. Compliance with the Kyoto Treaty as well as other proposed legislative bills currently being considered by Congress will only further complicate our nation’s efforts to live within our means. Only through the revival of the wealth producing sectors of our economy can the healthy, stable foundation of our economic system be restored.

Over the last couple of decades, international trade treaties were designed to benefit all Americans by lowering the costs of goods to the consumer and enabling industries to benefit through the selling of their products abroad. However, these benefits were more than offset by their costs, which only encourage of many domestic industries to close their domestic facilities and relocate their operations overseas as is reflected by our nation’s increased dependence on imported goods. On closer examination, the costs that made many our domestic industries uncompetitive in the international market were actually transferred abroad in the form of lower wages, lack of employee benefits and damage to the environment resulting from lower regulatory standards of Third World countries. One potential solution to our nation’s economic problems would be a selective imposition of tariffs, designed to bring the consumer prices for goods more in line with the actual costs incurred to produce these goods. Although such an action would almost certainly result in unknown punitive actions against America’s products abroad, it would have a two-fold benefit to restoring our nation’s ability to live within its means. Increased prices would lower our consumption of cheap foreign goods, while providing an opportunity for industry to re-establish environmentally responsible facilities to produce those goods here in the United States. Its success or failure in decreasing our nation’s trade deficit and reliance on foreign goods would ultimately be determined by other nations’ dependence on America’s exported products.

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#12 -
"the markets do look forward and with the debt doubled, the housing market caving in and banks going under since 2006"

Debt doubled - the magic of compounding interest (in the wrong direction) and paying $500B/year on previous President's debts (oh and $100B/yr on war and rebuilding Defense spending to where it would have been if the previous President, before the previous one had continued to let it grow at the same rate as the rest of Government spending)

The housing market collapsing - from years of easy money and mortgages to every person who could breathe, in the name of "equality and diversity"

Banks going under since 2006 - maybe you have different data ? The FDIC website shows 3 banks in '03, 4 in '04, none in '05 or '06, 3 in '07, the fun didn't really start until summer '08. That's when the "easy money" people started defaulting on their 3yr ARM/0% interest/no income verification loans started going belly up.

"They see an opportunity to earn some money on an economy that is finally showing signs of turning around"

Apparently you don't need to read the article to draw conclusions that would bolster your support of the policies of the current administration. Investors are voting on an economic revival. From the story: "they've been focusing on the dollar when they make buy and sell decisions. Investors around the world see the dollar as weaker than other currencies, and so they're using it for what's known as "carry trade," to finance purchases of investments in other countries"

But keeping hoping for change. The administration may let you keep some...change that is.

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It's President Obamas fault the Dow jumped up so high.

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To Pat W (16)

U.S. export computer technology? Have you ever looked in the computers stores these days. It's all made in foreign countries.

Its all about our huge trade deficits. We have lower them, or our society will continue to decline and die as many other civilizations have during history's past.

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Today two stocks fell for everyone that rose, and unemployment is the highest than it's been in over 26 years. The President wants to print more money and spend. He is also going to send more to Afgan at a cost of $80 billion a year. Remember that song your children learned. This is a song that never ends, it goes on and on my friends,

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What goes up, must come down.

Except Age & lies from the PREZ.

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To Pat W (22)

Technology, hardward, what's the difference?

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That damned Obama, now my 401k is worth more every day!

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