Saul Landau

Saul Landau is al jaren 1 van de helderste commentatoren die ik ken. In Znet schrijft hij: 'The Country's Going to Hell at Home and Abroad. "If the country's on the road to Hell, just claim that it's Heaven." I don't meet many Republicans, but those few I do talk to agree that the world and the country are going to hell. That oft spouted cliché - has taken on new meaning given recent and very dire environmental news. The worsening of global warming may have brought about natural catastrophes - hurricanes. The almost comical incompetence by Bush's imperial managers compounded the disasters experienced by poor people. Yet, Bush's panorama in his State of the Union address and subsequent speeches reflected only optimism. Bush's rosy picture contradicts certain economic facts. He attributed to tax cuts and free trade policies the news that "The Dow Jones rose above 11,000 in February on the basis of good economic news." An NPR reporter explained that "mild January weather spurred home starts." I don't know what "above 11,000" means, but why didn’t the Dow react to the nearly $730 billion US trade deficit? This all-time record was dwarfed, however, by the $8.2 trillion national debt. The supposedly conservative Republicans spend like addicts hooked on wasting the public's money. Nothing succeeds like failure, I suppose. Outgoing Fed chairman, Alan "The Enigmatic" Greenspan, in various farewell speeches lauded free-trade as a solid basis for the economy. Did Greenspan mean the Chinese economy? In 2005, the US reported a $200+ billion trade deficit with China, an amount that grows every year. In addition, the United States ran record deficits with Japan, Europe and Canada; the US even ended 2005 minus $50 billion with Mexico. Bush (41), Clinton and Bush (43) promised that NAFTA would buoy the US trade balance. It would also help create enough jobs in Mexico to cut back illegal border crossings. Promise 'em anything! Despite the maquila jobs created by NAFTA, Mexicans have not significantly raised their standard of living. Some 60 million of the 100 million people there live under the poverty line. After Congress approved the trade treaty in 1993, US companies raced faster than ever to Mexico to take advantage of low wage labor, the absence of environmental and work place regulation, and no taxes. Clinton was right about increasing US jobs, however. The $35 an hour skilled auto worker lost his job to a Mexican who made one tenth the amount. After losing his job, the auto worker might have begun bagging groceries in Safeway for $12 an hour; so did his wife, who used to stay home with the kids. Compare their combined $24 an hour with his previous $35. But thanks to NAFTA, the family had two jobs instead of one. And, a third job arose from this new economic agreement: the couple hired a baby sitter for $7 an hour.' Lees verder: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=10&ItemID=9878 Of: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031006F.shtml Zie ook: http://saullandau.com/