The Grand Charade

When President Obama says: "I am concerned about the fact that the recovery that we're on is not producing jobs as quickly as I want it to happen," the people feel there is no recovery. And when Mark Zandi says on ABC: "We've dug ourselves into a big hole, and it's going to take a long time to dig ourselves out," the people feel that we're still digging. The people are right. It's not an economic cycle; it's a trade war. Globalization is nothing more than a trade war, and Washington is refusing to fight. The President and Congress refuse to fight because their biggest contributor, Corporate America, is making out like gangbusters with off-shoring profits and no concerns of labor, health, safety, environment and legacy. Wall Street and the big banks want to keep these off-shore profits flowing so the business and financial elite, together with their economists, act as if anything is done to compete in this war, it will start a trade war. The President and Congress don't want to do anything to turn off their contributors, so they join in the charade.

The President and Congress encourage the off-shoring of our economy with a tax benefit. Corporate taxes are exempted on off-shore profits unless repatriated, so the incentive is to reinvest for more off-shoring. If Boeing off-shores its production to Japan or China, the government gives Boeing a tax exemption. But if Boeing locates production in South Carolina, the government sues Boeing. President Obama appoints the champion of off-shoring the economy, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, to create jobs in the United States. GE has already off-shored a majority of its production and jobs, and, shortly after his appointment, Immelt off-shored a $550 million research center to Brazil.

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