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Strategies & Market Trends : Commodities - The Coming Bull Market -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ahda who wrote (1194)	3/28/2002 9:05:38 AM
From: craig crawford	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1643

>> In my opinion the American dollar is too high priced to be competitive in price with products produced in foreign markets who have a lower labor unit cost. << absolutely. foreign countries often devalue their currency in an effort to make their exports more competitive. this is a protectionist measure, but nobody ever complains when other countries engage in protectionist measures against the united states. (except maybe our treasury secretary, who i seem to recall recently calling the japanese protectionist for devaluing the yen). it's always the big bad americans who are starting trade wars by becoming protectionist. this is the same crap we heard regarding the great depression. america caused a global depression of trade by putting up trade barriers and the rest of the world retaliated. never mind the fact that war-torn countries in europe moved away from the gold standard first and massively devalued their currencies in an effort to export and inflate their way out of war debts. it was all america's fault for the protectionist smoot-hawley tariffs that came later. apparently american consumers had an obligation to provide europe with a job, just like american consumers today have an obligation to give the rest of the world a job. >> I do not believe you can compare the history of the British Empire or any other Empire to this time frame we live in. Our time frame includes Instant Communication which allows easy access to information. << i will admit that no two circumstances are equally alike, but there are similarities to be found in the downfall of many of the great empires. whether it was the industrial revolution with the british, or the information revolution with americans, whenever a culture becomes decadent and self-indulgent, ruin will surely follow. all this focus on the consumer is a perfect example of that. we've got to keep prices low for the consumer so he will keep spending. two thirds of the economy is spending, and without the consumer continuing his materialistic ways, the economy will sink. got to keep those consumer confidence numbers up. well let me tell you something. a consumer oriented society is a decadent society that has turned away from being a productive society. a society that understands hardship and sacrifice such as "the greatest generation", which endured the great depression and world war two, is not decadent, and understands the meaning of faith, family, and country as a measure of success rather than the latest gizmo that catches their eye. the japanese became selfish, materialistic, and decadent back in the eighties, ignoring things like family for careers, and look at where that has gotten them. america is taking the exact same path. we don't derive pleasure anymore from allegiance to God, country, and family, but we pledge allegiance to exploitative global free trade schemes that mean cheap consumer items for us to worship. perhaps free trade is not the root cause of the decadence i'm speaking of, but it surely looks like a symptom that can be treated. >> This accidently gave others the knowledge that would equip them with the necessary tools that lead to revolt. << how long do you think it will take before the exploited people of the third world revolt after seeing the decadence of the west pumped into their countries via cnn? especially after they figure out that our decadence is financed by their own slave labor? to the enrichment of their despotic leaders? perhaps the revolt against the west has already begun with the terrorists over in the arab world, who despise us to the core. in 1949 the top one percent in this country held 21% of the wealth. free trade took hold in this country after world war two with the signing of the GATT treaty, income taxes took their place, and today the top one percent in this country holds 40% of the wealth. rampant protectionism (a form of socialism) isn't the answer, but neither is rampant free trade, which simply results in the frequent socialist demands for transfer payments we see today.