Comments on: The Dreaded Double Dip

By: AnnaKSimon

AnnaKSimon — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:17:33 +0000

Based in what was formerly a sprawling brewery, the switzerland clothing building is divided into six gallery spaces in spacious white halls. If you have art fans on your Switzerland camping holiday, this is well worth a visit.

By: DLS

DLS — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:19:10 +0000

It's not surprising that the current slump hasn't ended yet, or that it may in fact be deepening.

By: Father_Time

Father_Time — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:51:36 +0000

Look on the bright side. We can all still load up the SUV and go to California to pick fruit, live in migrant worker camps, and, dance to fiddle music at Sunday-go-to-meet'n cornbread pot lucks!

By: mikkel

mikkel — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:24:17 +0000

Huh I guess we were just recently passed. I don't know though, I mean all the commodities boomed because people were using them to make stuff for us. The demand for consumer goods in other countries (other than ridiculously cheap things) just isn't that high.

By: Don Quijote

Don Quijote — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:23:50 +0000

. The US is still the #1 manufacturer/exporter in the world.

Both Germany & China are bigger exporters than the US, and neither of them are big exporters of commodities.

Top Exporting Countries

Export Boom Helps Farms, but Not American Factories

Exports are the bright spot this year in an otherwise bleak economy. But the world is not suddenly snapping up made-in-America goods like aircraft, machinery and staplers. The great attraction is decidedly low-luster commodities like corn, wheat, ore and scrap metal.

This helps explain why manufacturing jobs are continuing to disappear by the tens of thousands and factories are closing even during a miniboom in exports. While the surge in commodities is a welcome relief, it is an unreliable prop for an industrial power.
...
All exports of goods and services in the first half of the year rose at a $52 billion annual rate, adjusted for inflation, up 7.1 percent. Commodities accounted for 41 percent of the increase and manufactured products contributed just 12 percent, the bureau reported.
...
But the manufacturers themselves acknowledge that they gradually undercut their ability to export as they moved more and more production to factories overseas. Bringing that production back to this country, so that it could be exported, would dismantle global networks constructed relentlessly over the last 25 years.

ROTFLMAO...
We can't export manufactured goods, because we have exported our manufacturing base.

By: StockBoySF

StockBoySF — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:16:43 +0000

It's the fault of “W”!

By: mikkel

mikkel — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:02:59 +0000

“As far as I know, we are not the leading manufacturer of anything”

That's actually not true. The US is still the #1 manufacturer/exporter in the world. Now several people have pointed this out as a rebuttal of the “US doesn't make anything” mantra, but my counterargument is that the vast bulk of things that we export are either agricultural/oil exploration equipment/advanced manufacturing technologies; mostly in the latter two. I summarize this as “the US is the #1 exporter in the world by exporting equipment to other countries so they can make consumer goods that they sell back to the US…the #1 consumer by far.”

The massive trade specialization is what has contributed to our problems (since the industries that make the exports don't need to hire as many people as they are so specific) but more importantly, it also explains the massive collapse in trade.

By: GreenDreams

GreenDreams — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:16:55 +0000

I have no confidence in a jobless “recovery” based on confidence in the market. There is a tipping point in which our Regeanesque “borrow and spend” 30 year binge of deficits, driven by BOTH parties, kills our prosperity. I've been Chicken Little for years, lamenting the fact that interest on the debt is now our 3rd biggest budget item. Plus the “free market” and “globalization” mantras have destroyed our manufacturing in nearly every sector; clothing, shoes, cars, electronics, furniture, computers, everything. As far as I know, we are not the leading manufacturer of anything. Any business we're still in exists solely because of the dreaded “protectionism”, such as steel.

The Milton Friedmanite, Reaganomics, Thatcherism mantra of “privatize, deregulate, cut social spending” has failed. It's over.