Ben Bernanke - The Economy

January 8, 2011

I saw Ben Bernanke on CSPAN for maybe 20 minutes last night. Intelligent man, intelligent senators questioning him. Lot's to be concerned about, mortgages, bankrupt state governments, currency issues etc. A lot of it is over my head.

Talk about American Manufacturing and getting these foreign countries to open up their markets to our products. I guess I need to get on the internet and find out what we make these days. It seems like everything is made in China or somewhere in Asia. That's why we have Walmarts and Targets so we can get the best of cheap labor and then cheap products for us. Then we wonder why so many Americans are out of work. But we all flock to these cheap superstores, where we get our China fix. One senator said he thought we were still the greatest manufacturing country in the world. Senator's should know this stuff.

There was a day that the American Economy was an engine unto itself, sure there were exports and imports, but within the borders of this nation an engine was fueling itself. That's history but I wonder if it's a history we should look at and wonder why not? Sometimes you make mistakes and you grow and learn. I am not an expert in much of anything, I just am not feeling very good about the place we have grown to be. I think domestic manufacture should be part of the fabric of society, all societies. I think rather than wasting energy trying to 'open up markets' abroad we should be living with our market. Every nation on the Earth might gain strength by having as strong a domestic manufacturing base as possible. That runs counter to the American vision where we have seen all the developing countries of the world as new markets for our products... McDonald's, Coca Cola all of our corporate glory through the years. Now for me to use the word Greed, I am sure that must be just an emotional inflammatory word that has no basis in the truth. Somewhere our captain's of industry have gotten blinded by something and our politicians, excuse me, our elected Representatives believe them that enhancing their wealth machines benefits Americans.

Like Population and many other aspects of Civilization's journey much of it is simply evolution that is beyond human control. However I think this 'helpless' resigned state in the face of destructive forces... Greed, benefits no one and in fact perpetuates a spiraling state where the loss of individual freedoms and dignity will continue until we decide that yes we can fulfill our Country's founders mandate and vision. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness plus a desire for all the nations of the world to share that same high standard without fear of foreign armies ours included.