- Jun 6, 2007
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On the news programs this past weekend an abundance of analysts made the same excellent point which was that if this "Occupy Wall Street" phenomena is to have real value it needs to transition or be harnessed into a political movement, a movement that brings about practical changes such as having laws passed and causing government to change its plans on expenditures. These analysts are absolutely correct leaders involved in these protests really need to organize into efforts that advance practical benefits because the worst thing that could come out of all this popular effort is for nothing tangible to come out of it because this will lead to further public cynicism and disengagement amongst the America people where this belief grows among the American people that you can't change things so why bother trying. The CEO of Starbucks on Fareed Zakaria's TV show this past Sunday touched on the crux of America's economic dilemma when he essentially said that America's economic problems are readily solvable but it will just take the political will on its politicians part to do it. The only way America will see that "will" is if Americans in very large numbers are and stay engaged politically and demand that will be there and this won't happen if cynicism in the Democratic process grows among the American people so leaders of "Occupy Wall Street" don't let your protest movement be a flop!
Here's two area where the Occupy Wall Street movement could become an effective political movement. First, be a player in getting a jobs bill passed, not President Obama's Jobs bill which has no chance of passing because its critiques have a completely legitimate position. President Obama's job bill is too expensive at $450 billion its completely irresponsible his specific plan to pay for it by increasing taxes millionaires is unjust, wealthy Americans should pay more in taxes than they have in the past but their additional tax payments should be used to solve the country's long-term structural deficit problem which is a very serious problem for the nation. Plus a lot of the spending in the bill is foolish and has been proven so by his 2009 stimulus legislation, for instance, in this Jobs bill he wants to send money to the states to hire thousands of teachers well what the hell do you think happened last time he did this when the Federal education aid stops the States lay-off a huge portion of the teachers whose salaries were paid for by the Federal aid its a huge waste of taxpayers money. The "Occupy Wall Street" movement could make a difference if they focus their attention on the Republicans in Congress on the jobs bill matter. Republican Speaker John Boehner and his top lieutenants when President Obama announced his jobs said that their was parts of the bill they could reach a deal on. The Republican leadership should be challenged on this hope they should be confronted with calls like what are you guys waiting for the 9.1 percent of unemployed Americans to move into tent cities, for the morgues in hospitals across America to be filled with people who died because they couldn't afford needed health care. As of the present, the Republican leadership in Congress has completely shirked its duty on the jobs issue for America; when the year began the economy was on the upswing GDP growth was expected to be close to three percent and the unemployment rate was on a steady decline with all the major shocks the nation's economy has incurred through the year the nation will be lucky to have a one percent GDP growth this year and the unemployment rate has stalled at 9.1% this change in America's economy demands Republicans in Congress take meaningful steps to provide jobs this change has created the need for. The Republican leadership in Congress needs to be held accountable on the jobs issue. They could help pass legislation that wouldn't be too expensive that would provide meaningful help and which could garnish bipartisan support. America's road and bridge infrastructure system is in desperate shape Congress could fund additional spending in that area; the new home construction industry is in the basement resulting in a lot of building trade workers really hurting because their out of work commentators have proposed why doesn't government fund building one-thousand building projects across the nation over the next year it could be schools, municipal administrative buildings, prisons if worse comes to worse in finding projects that can be well under way in a year build more public housing, gosh anyone that is knowledgeable about the mortgage market knows that many Americans for years to come won't be able to buy a home so there will definitely be a huge need for public housing for the foreseeable future, and; mortgage rates are at record low levels but many many Americans can't refinance their home mortgages to take advantage of the interest savings for a variety of reason Congress could pass legislation remedying this situation which would inject a lot of money into the economy through increased consumer spending power!
Another area where the "Occupy Wall Street" movement could make a difference is in working to get this bill passed in Congress that fights foreign currency manipulation, that authorizes and requires the Federal government to put tariffs on foreign imports into America from countries who manipulate their currency these tariffs will level the playing field for American manufacturers and allow them to compete. One key value of this legislation is to stop the China manufacturing beast, America's trade deficit with China is $160 billion year-to-date as of July America has lost millions of manufacturing jobs to China over the last fifteen years and this is in part because the government of China puts limits on how much its currency can raise in value with respect to the dollar which makes China products exported to America cheaper than they would be otherwise putting American manufacturers of products that compete with the China products at a competitive disadvantage. The American government has been trying through diplomacy to get the Chinese government to stop this currency manipulation for fifteen years with no success, enough is enough it is now time for the American government to do its duty and protect the American worker, the American worker has rights and it is time the violation of these rights stop, the violation brought about by their foreign competitors getting an advantage through their home country manipulating their currency. The opponents of this legislation are wrong. Their claim that this is a red herring issue that the controlled and lower value of the China yuan or rimini is not the cause of the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs is invalid they further say that the Chinese government has allowed the yuan to appreciate thirty percent with respect to the dollar since 2005 and the currency issue is not the reason for American manufacturing job losses to China; these claims are all baloney the reason why the Chinese government doesn't allow its currency to float with respect to the dollar like almost all other currencies is because it "definitely does" matter if they allowed it to float the yuan would raise in value and it would hurt China's exports. The other criticism of the opponents of this legislation is that if America passes this legislation it will start a trade war with China with China putting retaliatory tariffs to America's exports to China and doing other retaliatory things. America shouldn't let this criticism stop us from passing and putting this legislation into effect. It would be very very foolish for China to get into a trade war with America. China has too much to lose doing so, China does $360 billion dollars of trade with the U.S. per year it would be an unwise decision to put that trade in jeopardy, it would be China violating the old proverb "you don't kill the hen laying golden eggs". Furthermore, if one studies in detail China's track record in dealing with countries, businesses and individuals on economic, finance and the like matters they always do the smart thing and the smart thing is to not get in a trade war over this matter. Keep in mind that today there is tangible ill feelings toward China amongst the American people it would really be dumb for China to increase these ill feelings by instigating a trade war. To the American people, the truth of the matter is that the Chinese government and its leaders not its people are thieves, cheats and human rights abusers (the facts establish this without a doubt), interview people that have been working long-term in retail and they will tell you that there are many Americans that won't buy a product made in China no matter what the quality and what the price. China starts a trade war with the U.S. and one could see huge numbers of Americans boycotting Chinese products, Chinese officials would be prudent to read up on the American people's behavior toward the Apartheid government of South Africa and the American people boycotting of that countries goods and services during those times, they better tread carefully or they could be experiencing that type of American people's opposition firsthand!
Here's two area where the Occupy Wall Street movement could become an effective political movement. First, be a player in getting a jobs bill passed, not President Obama's Jobs bill which has no chance of passing because its critiques have a completely legitimate position. President Obama's job bill is too expensive at $450 billion its completely irresponsible his specific plan to pay for it by increasing taxes millionaires is unjust, wealthy Americans should pay more in taxes than they have in the past but their additional tax payments should be used to solve the country's long-term structural deficit problem which is a very serious problem for the nation. Plus a lot of the spending in the bill is foolish and has been proven so by his 2009 stimulus legislation, for instance, in this Jobs bill he wants to send money to the states to hire thousands of teachers well what the hell do you think happened last time he did this when the Federal education aid stops the States lay-off a huge portion of the teachers whose salaries were paid for by the Federal aid its a huge waste of taxpayers money. The "Occupy Wall Street" movement could make a difference if they focus their attention on the Republicans in Congress on the jobs bill matter. Republican Speaker John Boehner and his top lieutenants when President Obama announced his jobs said that their was parts of the bill they could reach a deal on. The Republican leadership should be challenged on this hope they should be confronted with calls like what are you guys waiting for the 9.1 percent of unemployed Americans to move into tent cities, for the morgues in hospitals across America to be filled with people who died because they couldn't afford needed health care. As of the present, the Republican leadership in Congress has completely shirked its duty on the jobs issue for America; when the year began the economy was on the upswing GDP growth was expected to be close to three percent and the unemployment rate was on a steady decline with all the major shocks the nation's economy has incurred through the year the nation will be lucky to have a one percent GDP growth this year and the unemployment rate has stalled at 9.1% this change in America's economy demands Republicans in Congress take meaningful steps to provide jobs this change has created the need for. The Republican leadership in Congress needs to be held accountable on the jobs issue. They could help pass legislation that wouldn't be too expensive that would provide meaningful help and which could garnish bipartisan support. America's road and bridge infrastructure system is in desperate shape Congress could fund additional spending in that area; the new home construction industry is in the basement resulting in a lot of building trade workers really hurting because their out of work commentators have proposed why doesn't government fund building one-thousand building projects across the nation over the next year it could be schools, municipal administrative buildings, prisons if worse comes to worse in finding projects that can be well under way in a year build more public housing, gosh anyone that is knowledgeable about the mortgage market knows that many Americans for years to come won't be able to buy a home so there will definitely be a huge need for public housing for the foreseeable future, and; mortgage rates are at record low levels but many many Americans can't refinance their home mortgages to take advantage of the interest savings for a variety of reason Congress could pass legislation remedying this situation which would inject a lot of money into the economy through increased consumer spending power!
Another area where the "Occupy Wall Street" movement could make a difference is in working to get this bill passed in Congress that fights foreign currency manipulation, that authorizes and requires the Federal government to put tariffs on foreign imports into America from countries who manipulate their currency these tariffs will level the playing field for American manufacturers and allow them to compete. One key value of this legislation is to stop the China manufacturing beast, America's trade deficit with China is $160 billion year-to-date as of July America has lost millions of manufacturing jobs to China over the last fifteen years and this is in part because the government of China puts limits on how much its currency can raise in value with respect to the dollar which makes China products exported to America cheaper than they would be otherwise putting American manufacturers of products that compete with the China products at a competitive disadvantage. The American government has been trying through diplomacy to get the Chinese government to stop this currency manipulation for fifteen years with no success, enough is enough it is now time for the American government to do its duty and protect the American worker, the American worker has rights and it is time the violation of these rights stop, the violation brought about by their foreign competitors getting an advantage through their home country manipulating their currency. The opponents of this legislation are wrong. Their claim that this is a red herring issue that the controlled and lower value of the China yuan or rimini is not the cause of the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs is invalid they further say that the Chinese government has allowed the yuan to appreciate thirty percent with respect to the dollar since 2005 and the currency issue is not the reason for American manufacturing job losses to China; these claims are all baloney the reason why the Chinese government doesn't allow its currency to float with respect to the dollar like almost all other currencies is because it "definitely does" matter if they allowed it to float the yuan would raise in value and it would hurt China's exports. The other criticism of the opponents of this legislation is that if America passes this legislation it will start a trade war with China with China putting retaliatory tariffs to America's exports to China and doing other retaliatory things. America shouldn't let this criticism stop us from passing and putting this legislation into effect. It would be very very foolish for China to get into a trade war with America. China has too much to lose doing so, China does $360 billion dollars of trade with the U.S. per year it would be an unwise decision to put that trade in jeopardy, it would be China violating the old proverb "you don't kill the hen laying golden eggs". Furthermore, if one studies in detail China's track record in dealing with countries, businesses and individuals on economic, finance and the like matters they always do the smart thing and the smart thing is to not get in a trade war over this matter. Keep in mind that today there is tangible ill feelings toward China amongst the American people it would really be dumb for China to increase these ill feelings by instigating a trade war. To the American people, the truth of the matter is that the Chinese government and its leaders not its people are thieves, cheats and human rights abusers (the facts establish this without a doubt), interview people that have been working long-term in retail and they will tell you that there are many Americans that won't buy a product made in China no matter what the quality and what the price. China starts a trade war with the U.S. and one could see huge numbers of Americans boycotting Chinese products, Chinese officials would be prudent to read up on the American people's behavior toward the Apartheid government of South Africa and the American people boycotting of that countries goods and services during those times, they better tread carefully or they could be experiencing that type of American people's opposition firsthand!
