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URGENT! Tell the Senate: New patent bill is a bad idea. Read Our Analysis to find out why.

Our Charting the Economy slide show walks you through the most important trends shaping the U.S. economy today.

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Washington Post Reporter Ignores Trade Policy Negatives in U.S. Wage Decline

by Alan Tonelson, Thursday, May 08, 2008

It was left on the cutting-room floor – no doubt by some bored junior night editor How else to explain charitably the Washington Post article last week on the strike at Detroit’s American Axle and Manufacturing company? Inexplicably, the article ignored the outsourcing-focused trade agreements that are destroying the U.S. auto parts industry as a source of living-wage jobs?

The piece focused on American Axle owner Richard Dauch’s losing battle to keep high-wage manufacturing in the United States. It made clear that lower-cost foreign competition was a big problem – along with the current consumer flight from SUVs and light trucks. Another increasing problem for the remaining domestic American firms is lower cost competition – not from foreigners but from their fellow domestic companies, like Delphi, in bankruptcy protection, which in effect allows special cost-savings and thus a form of ‘domestic dumping.” Finally, there is still other lower-cost “domestic” competition from new, retiree-free foreign-owned transplant operations that receive huge state and local tax breaks, as well as enjoy the freedom to locate in union-free regions and hire young workers with lower health care expenses. Read Full Article...

Follies Archive...

News Archive...

America’s Debt Bubble and Trade Deficit Grew Hand-in-Hand

by Alan Tonelson, Thursday, May 08, 2008

U.S. ECONOMIC TRENDS

Change in U.S. merchandise trade deficit as share of U.S. economy, 1992-2006*: +327%

Change in net U.S. mortgage equity extraction as share of U.S. economy, 1992-2006*: + 386%

*last full year before housing bubble collapsed

Factlines Archive...

Key Trade Deficit Data Due from Commerce Department Friday More bad news is likely on the trade front on Friday, when the March trade data are released by the U.S. Commerce Department. Whatever the exact figures, the deficit is likely to exceed 5 percent of GDP, adding further to the mountain of foreign debt and displacing more Americna jobs.
	Thursday, May 08, 2008
Trade and the White House Race (Part One): Hillary the Trade Warrior? Has Hillary emerged as the champion of American manufacturers and their employees -- or is her rhetoric merely campaign bluster designed to win indusrial states away from her rival? So far she's taken halting steps in the right direction, but American voters need to hear her set out a much more solid and comprehensive program.
Alan Tonelson	Friday, May 02, 2008
McCain Confirms GOP Short on Ideas -- but so are the Democrats Winning elections with catchy slogans is part of the U.S. political process. But that's where it stops. A president can't govern with slogans - although he might try. All three top candidates have demonstrated no grasp whatsoever of the dimensions of the economic crisis facing this country, a crisis that the winner will have to grappple with on day one of his or her presidency. Forget about experience when the red phone in the White House rings at 3:00 AM. The real challenge comes when the mailman arrives with the nation's bills in mid-morning.
	Sunday, April 20, 2008
Congress Sidetracked on Patent "Reform" and Colombia FTA while Recession Accelerates With the U.S. economy rapidly slowing and the Fed printing money to bail out unscrupulous Wall Street investment bankers, Congress has much more urgent considerations than an innovation-killing, market-roiling patent bill and a job and factory outsourcing trade agreement with Colombia. Yoo-hoo, anybody at home on Capitol Hill?
Alan Tonelson	Thursday, March 27, 2008
Opinion Archive...

The USBIC Manufacturing Trade Index tallies the monthly trade balance for 50 core American industries, presents a monthly total for all 50 sectors combined, and spotlights the “best” and “worst” performers.

View the Latest Manufacturing Trade Index (May 2007)

This series of innovative, easy-to-read graphs and tables will walk you through the most important trends shaping the economy today, with a special focus on the vital manufacturing sector.

Click to view our "Charting the Economy" slide show

End of the Line : The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation Barry C. Lynn
The Race to the Bottom Alan Tonelson Looking for ammunition showing why current globalization policies are undermining the U.S. economy? Look no further than Alan Tonelson’s The Race to the Bottom. A consultant for CNN anchorman Lou Dobbs, Tonelson has been called “probably the most significant economist spreading the nationalist gospel” by The New Republic and has been named one of “Washington’s Top China-Watchers” for 2004 by The International Economy magazine.
Importing Revolution William R. Hawkins William Hawkins, a Senior Research Fellow specializing in national defense issues for the U.S. Business & Industry Council (USBIC) reveals how the proponents of an open borders agenda have imperiled U.S. economic and political security. His book details how a "cheap labor" corporate lobby has manipulated public opinion on immigration, leading to flawed INS policy and an ever-increasing illegal alien problem.
The Open Borders Lobby and the Nation's Security after 9/11 William R. Hawkins Unchecked illegal immigration and a radical open borders agenda are threatening the economic security of the United States. Veteran researcher William Hawkins explores the dangers faced by the U.S. in the 21st Century as it confronts terrorism, unprotected borders, massive ilegal immigration, and a radical "open borders" lobby.