Despair grips the nation, as nearly 15 million are counted as joblessand many more languish in part-time employment.
Free trade with China, flawed energy policies and pandering to Wall Street are destroying American prosperity.
China and Oil
Retail salesare up and businesses are replacing trucks, computers and critical equipment but too much is spent on imports.
In the second quarter, imports grew so much more rapidly than exports that the trade gap subtracted 3.5 percent from the demand for U.S. made goods and services. But for the trade deficit, GDP would have been up 5.2 percent instead of a paltry 1.7 percent. At the former pace, unemployment would fall to 5 percent by 2014.
Oil and China account for nearly the entire trade deficit, and without dramatic changes in policy, unemployment will stay near or above 10 percent indefinitely.
President Obama’s efforts to halt offshore drilling and otherwise curtail conventional energy supplies—premised on false assumptions about the immediate potential of electric cars and alternative energy sources—are making United States even more dependent on imported oil and more indebted to China and other overseas investors.
Detroit could build many more attractive and efficient gasoline-powered vehicles now, and a national policy to accelerate fleet replacement would reduce imports, spur growth and create jobs much more rapidly than investments in battery and electric technologies.