Where have all the Flowers gone?

Trade Deficit Reaches All-Time High in February
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: April 12, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Economy.html?


Falling Fortunes of Wage Earners
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE Published: April 12, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/12/business/12wages.html

The two Articles interconnect, though Most may not recognize the Trade Deficit as the primary cause of the declining Real Wages discussed in the second article.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that the February imbalance was up 4.3 percent from a $58.5 billion trade gap in January as a small $50 million rise in U.S. exports of goods and services was swamped by a $2.58 billion increase in imports.

For the first two months of this year, the trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $717.2 billion, a full $100 billion above the record imbalance of $617.1 billion set for all of 2004.
Imports of goods and services rose by 1.6 percent to an all-time high of $161.5 billion.

Exports were up by $50 million to a record $100.48 billion in February, reflecting increases in shipments of drilling and oilfield equipment, civilian aircraft and pharmaceutical products. These gains offset declines in sales of U.S.-made cars and auto parts and food.

The above Quotes tell Us that American Consumers are replacing standardized, non-technological American-produced Products with foreign-produced Goods. Why? Because American engineering expertise will not review and revamp the technological construct of standardized Products. This review and reconstruction does not provide the high Profits and Production gains of cutting-edge technology. They miss the Boat! The mass Consumption of the standardized Products produce actual higher Profits over the long-run, and American production could easily undersell foreign production--it saddled with Transportation and Distribution Costs from which American production can escape.

The problem is not with the jobs themselves. Most economists dismiss as overblown the widespread fear that the number of jobs will shrink in the United States because of foreign competition from China, India and other developing nations. But at the same time many of these economists argue that the increasing exposure of the American economy to globalization, along with other forces - including soaring health insurance costs that leave less money for raises - is putting pressure on wages that could leave millions of workers worse off.

This Quote from the second article outline where Economists miss the Boat! The number of Jobs will shrink in the U.S. because of foreign competition, unless American engineering expertise reinvents American production methods--including sectors of standardized nontech Goods production. Economists ignore the primary suppression of American Wages, which remains escalating Resource Costs due to massively-expanded foreign production; it expanded to produce for the American market. American Consumers are paying foreign Workers to take away their Jobs, when they purchase foreign Goods. This does not call for Protectionist measures, but redirection of American technology. The transformation of the Trade Deficit into Trade Surplus would bring vast Profit return to this redirection.

many economists, liberal and conservative, are perplexed by two unusual trends. Wage growth has trailed far behind productivity growth over the last four years, and the share of national income going to employee compensation is low by historic standards.

Why? Because American production is producing Toys for the World, instead of Necessities for Americans. lgl