It is becoming more apparent with each passing day that the American lifestyle as it currently exist is unsustainable. For more than three decades we have accepted the false narrative that we can live beyond our means and there will be no cost for the extravagance. Not only has our government accepted and promoted this falsehood, but we as a nation have accepted it as well. It has become so ingrained into our national psyche that anyone who dares to point out its inherent flaws is immediately ridiculed by politicians, the media, and their fellow citizens. You see rather than looking at the real culprits of our failed domestic and foreign policies we want to create these "bogeymen" who want to destroy our sacred way of life. The truth is that it is always easier to blame others for our shortsightedness and faults.

More evidence that the economy is heading into a tailspin, several suggestions for how individuals and famlies as well as businesses and the Government and Banking and Lending industry should react to the current crisis.

Reposting this link explaining the need for Import Certificates - introduced earlier by Senators Dorgan and Feingold.  We need to push for presidential candidates to have detailed opinions on solving trade debt instead of detailed opinions on health care.  Trade is much more under the control of a president than health care programs.  Obama is not running for Senate.  

Although I'm an Obama supporter, I've got to confess that I think ALL of the candidates (and many others, Democrats and Republicans alike) have missed the boat on blaming the problems of American manufacturing on NAFTA.  NAFTA isn't the problem (or at least not close to the biggest one) decimating the American manufacturing sector.  The BIG problem facing American manufacturing comes from China (and to a much lesser extent, Japan), and our candidates and media need to start focusing more strongly on it.

Why do I say that NAFTA isn't the big problem?  First, while we did indeed have trade deficits with both Mexico and Canada in 2007, they were only our third and fourth biggest trade deficits, respectively.  Here are the four nations with which we had the biggest trade deficits, and the net balance, our imports from that country, and our exports to it, for 2007 (all figures in billions of dollars):

What follows is old school.

It is a paper I wrote this past semester about electronic waste in China, exploring an important environmental issue that most people never think about because it is so far removed from their daily experience.

I say "old school" because everything that follows is referenced in academic journals that aren't distributed on the web unless you pay for them.

It is followed by policy recommendations that you can disseminate freely as you like.  All of the writing that follows is my own, and you can distribute it as you wish, provided that you credit my sources as referenced.

Join me below the fold for a discussion about e-waste.

Back in 2004, when I moved to Costa Rica, I began using the local currency, the 'Colon.' Over the years, I became accustomed to the inflation here and the corresponding fall in the value of the Colon versus the US Dollar. The Costa Rican central bank had been regulating the value of the colon versus the dollar for the past 20 years, until December of 2006, when the central bank loosened the link between the dollar and the colon. And surprisingly enough, the colon's normal fall versus the dollar began to abate. Just last week, the central bank reset it's target exchange rates. In effect, the mighty US dollar lost 4% of it's value versus the colon. Inflation here is a fact of life. The government of this (relatively affluent) third world country can't bring itself to tax it's population (especially the rich part) enough to meet expenditures, so it  simply prints money. Sound familiar?

    What has brought us to the verge of the first consumer recession in over 25 years, and a financial condition where foreigners are fleeing the US dollar, and respectable commentators, including a major financial house, are beginning to warn of a possible systemic meltdown?
    Below I have put together an easy-to-follow series of graphs to describe how we got from a booming, fiscally solvent economy that was helpful to most middle class Americans 10 years ago, to the current mess, and one final picture to sum it all up.

 The text is brief, so just follow from step to step in the graphs below.

Dennis Kucinich's approach to the economy is so practical and farsighted, I sometimes wonder why it isn't discussed more; even by Kucinich! But, I guess Iraq is always the dominating issue.

However, amazingly, this plan addresses: balancing the budget, tempering the Pentagon war machine, fair taxation reform, leveling the business sector to enable small businesses to compete, our $800 Billion trade deficit, worker's rights human rights and environmental concerns, the millions of outsourced jobs, and  rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure-while at the same time creating more national wealth with millions of jobs, promoting renewable energies and saving families money on bills! It is insanely practical and wholly part of his message of "Strength Through Peace" for America.

 What Did You Export Today?
 By David Glenn Cox

What have you exported today? What do you export? I’m so tired of hearing pundits explain that the weak dollar is good for the economy, it helps exports they answer. So what do you export? Me? I don’t export anything but I import quite a bit. Most of the gasoline I buy is imported so if the weak dollar help exports it must conversely hurt imports. The rise in crude oil prices is due just as much to the loss in value of the dollar which has lost half 50% of it’s value against the Euro as it is the demand for oil.

With hand-wringing over global warming becoming an Olympic event, we might as well do something about it.

Here's a solution -- not a new idea, but an idea whose time has come.  A side benefit is that it will solve three other big problems:

 -- U.S. dependence on foreign energy
 -- U.S. trade deficit
 -- pollution from non-renewable fuels.

Enact a phased-in federal tax shift from income to non-renewable energy.

This tax shift should be phased-in over 10 years.  How much of a tax shift?  (According to those scientists that just won the Nobel Peace Price with Al -- the IPCC).

Higher non-renewable energy prices will reduce our energy use and stimulate the U.S. alternative energy industry which will....

 Perhaps you've already heard this point before. If you haven't, here's an example:

Rather than something to worry about, the dollar's decline is "something to cheer about," says Avery Shenfeld, senior economist at CIBC World Markets.

 The idea is that a weaker dollar helps exporters, thus reducing the trade deficit and spurring employment. It's all part of the Happy Talk that dominates the financial media where nothing is without a silver-lining.

 Well, the dollar has certainly fallen a great deal since early 2002 (falling a massive 67% against the Euro). So let's look at the facts.

Here, where we blog our disappointments, with the current leadership

Here where we rail at the elected leadership, then accept the hand outs they bring home to us

Here where we absolutely scream at the top of our lungs about political corruption, then go to WalMart and buy Chinese made products.

Here when we are so frightened by the prospect of the future, and yet ignore the fact that we created our own future.

try to follow below:

    Let this graph sink in:  due to Bush's "free trade" and reckless deficit policy, one country -- China -- is financing half our deficit, and has the ability to determine whether America enjoys prosperity or suffers recession:

Excuse me, but you'd damn well better start to care about economic policy.  Details below.

I like to think that I'm a reasonably intelligent person.  But I am forced to admit that when it comes to economics, I'm as dumb as a bucket of hair.  Sure, I can do basic math.  I can even balance a checkbook (but come on, in this age of debit cards who really balances their checkbook anymore?).  But large-scale economics is like a foreign language to me.

But even if you don't understand the language spoken, you can usually tell from the tone whether what's being said is good news or bad.  And I don't like the tone of what I'm hearing.

We have all heard about our trade deficit with China. The story goes that China’s currency is undervalued, they have shockingly low wages, no health care to speak of, no pensions to pay for, no environmental regulations, and they are working themselves to death. Unfortunately, that is only half the story . . . over the fold for the more depressing part

This is the greatest blow to the neoliberal consensus I have seen in a long time.  And it's a courageous call to action from Senator Dodd.

This is an issue of safety. Parents should be confident that the toys and food that they give their children have been inspected and are safe. That's why I am calling on the President to use his authority to immediately suspend all imports of toys and food from China. It's not enough to simply talk about working for fair trade agreements. We need leadership that will act to enforce fair trade. We have the legal right and power under the WTO to keep products out of our country that threaten the health and safety of our families, and I'm going to do all I can to ensure we do so.

Massive amounts of Chinese imports are threatening public health and safety.  Many food and consumer products pose risks.  Lead in children’s toys and jewelry.  Toxins in foods for pets and humans, and in toothpaste.  Unsafe automobile tires.  Many prescription drugs made with few safeguards.  The list is endless.  The federal government is not safeguarding American citizens through thorough testing of imports.  Why?

I had posted this yesterday and decided to post again today because I felt not enough people saw this.  I consider this a big issue and a symptom of a large problem that is killing our middle and working classes.

I was walking through Manhattan Sunday on a hot summer day. It seemed everywhere you looked there was new apartment construction. All the signs told of exquisite bathrooms, extra large windows and other luxury features. I thought maybe this is the time I can finally move into the city from the suburbs. There was one major problem with my dream, I could not afford even the smallest units available.