America for sale It's not just Wall Street bailouts. Foreign ownership
of U.S. assets is accelerating - and that's a worrisome trend.
FDA never inspected China maker of Baxter's heparin U.S. regulators have
never inspected the Chinese plant that makes Baxter International's heparin,
regulators disclosed a day after Baxter halted sales of some versions after
four patients died and hundreds became ill.
Patriot Corporation of America Act The Senate's "Patriot Employers"
version would give a 1 percent tax credit on taxable income for companies
that maintain or increase their U.S. employment in relation to their
overseas workers. They must also keep their corporate headquarters in the
U.S.
Buy American to help our economy How are we going to grow our economy
when we don't buy products made or built in America?
Senator Pushes 'Buy American' Logo In Tax Rebate If you're planning on
rushing out to Best Buy or Target to stimulate the economy and blow your tax
rebate check this spring, Sen. Byron Dorgan is hoping you'll think twice.
Instead of spending the money on a TV made in Korea or clothing made in
China, the North Dakota Democrat is pushing for taxpayers to use their
rebate to buy American. In fact, Dorgan has offered an amendment to the
Senate economic stimulus bill that would require millions of rebate checks
to have the slogan "Support Our Economy - Buy American."
America for sale It's not just Wall Street bailouts. Foreign ownership
of U.S. assets is accelerating - and that's a worrisome trend.
New US Army action figures made in China The US Army is now making
action figures out of real soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Army says, "What's the big deal? 80 percent of the toys sold in the US
are made in China."
Total Recall Products recalled from Jan. 29-Feb. 5 include goods from
Korea, Mexico, and of course China.
Mattel CEO sees positive 2008, cost concerns Mattel recalled over 21
million Chinese-made toys worldwide in 2007 due to excessive levels of lead
paint and other unsafe components, stoking fears of a loss in consumer
confidence.
China's paradox; Bigger economic clout will mean it's more dependent on
Western approval There's a joke making the rounds these days that
officials sent a shipment of lead back to China. Why? Because it had too
many toys in it.
Do You
Know Where Your Car is Made? - 85 American Made Automobile Listings
These huge incentives that are offered to foreign companies are rarely
offered to our own companies here at home. Such incentives allow foreign
companies to save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in costs per
automobile..
House panel advances $128 billion tax cut for corporations, small businesses
Guess who’s going to make up for the lost revenue from this tax cut on
business? Go look in the mirror. We would be far better off raising tariffs
on imports so American businesses can compete thereby increasing revenue
flowing into government coffers.
A.T. Cross: Jobs to be transferred to China A.T. Cross executives have
said in recent months that the company plans to keep a number of corporate
functions in Rhode Island, including research and development, sales,
marking, finance and some manufacturing operations
We're working more, living less The reality of free trade.
Where Your Food Comes From Polls have shown overwhelming consumer
support for origin labeling, which is already practiced by many of America's
agricultural trading partners.
Citrus industry fears for survival Have you noticed the language in
these articles gets stronger as the situation gets more desperate? Wiping
out the Florida tomato farmers didn’t do much to lower the price of tomatoes
or ketchup, as mentioned here. Free traders are using the same worn out
argument that lower tariffs on imports mean lower prices for consumers.
Companies Crow About Keeping Jobs in
the USA
Consumers are paying attention. Web
sites such as www.HireAmerica.us
list companies that outsource and those that haven't.
Found a good "Made In America" link? Let Us Know!
Video:
The Need to Strengthen U.S. Manufacturing The
Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a non-partisan partnership of
several leading American manufacturers and their unions, advocates strong
enforcement of U.S. trade law to deal with illegal, subsidized competition
from countries such as China. Enforcemnt of existing U.S. trade law could
help to strengthen U.S. manufacturing and save American manufacturing jobs.
AAM has sponsored a campaign of national Town Hall meetings to promote this
message.
Video:
John Ratzenberger- Made
in America In this video, Mr. Ratzenberger
discusses his roots in Bridgeport, CT and his concerns about the loss of
America's manufacturing base.
Plant Closings and Job Losses:
U.S. textile plants are often located in small rural communities in the
Southeast and often represent the major source of employment and taxes for
many towns and cities. When a textile mill closes, the entire community
feels the ramifications, with local businesses, churches and government
being hurt. The industry is also a primary employer of women and
minorities.
Textile mill jobs are highly sought after in their communities, with pay
substantially higher than average wages for jobs in the service and retail
industry. Benefits are better too and include health care and pension
contributions. The average weekly salary for a textile worker is $487,
sixty percent more than the average salary of $301 for a worker in a retail
store.
The combined US textile sector – including cotton and man-made fiber
producers, textile mills, apparel plants and textile machinery producers –
is one of the largest employers in the United States. Nearly one million
workers are employed in this enormous sector. The breakdown is: textiles
416,000; apparel 285,000; cotton 230,000; man-made fiber 35,000; textile
machinery 8,000.
Up-to-date Plant
Closings - A chronological listing of U.S. textile plant closings since
1997 can be found here.
Latest Job Loss
Figures - Monthly job losses in the U.S. textile and apparel industry.
U.S. International Trade in Goods and
Services Highlights January 11, 2008
Goods and Services Deficit Increases in November 2007
The Nation's international deficit in goods and services increased to $63.1
billion in November from $57.8 billion (revised) in October, as imports
increased more than exports.
Goods and Services
Goods by Category
Services by Category
Goods by Geographic Area (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
This and more information is provided in the Bureau of the Census and Bureau of Economic Analysis press release:
U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: November 2007 .
This and more information is provided in the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis press release, U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: November 2007. For further information on goods, contact Maria Iseman, Foreign Trade Division, U.S. Census Bureau, on (301) 763-2311; on services, contact Christopher Bach, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, on (202) 606-9545.
NOTE: Total goods data are reported on a Balance of Payments basis; commodity and country detail data for goods are on a Census basis. For information on data sources and definitions, see the information section on page 26 of the FT-900 release, or at www.census.gov/ft900 or http://www.bea.gov/bea/di/home/trade.htm.
The state of jobs and wages
Lee Price and Jared Bernstein
Economy up, wages
down
The year 2005 was a solid economic year by some indicators, as the economy
expanded for the fourth consecutive year. Real hourly wages, however, fell for
most workers. Each bar in Figure A and Figure B represents the percent change in
the buying power of the wage for different groups of workers. Figure A shows the
real wage changes of low-, middle-, and high-wage workers, corresponding to
wages at the tenth, fiftieth, and ninety-fifth percentile of the wage scale.
Figure B shows the change in average real wages by education level for
high-school and college graduates (four-year degrees).
Figure A
Figure B
For low- and
middle-wage workers, as well as those with a high school degree, real wages
fell last year by 1%-2%. Those at the top of the wage scale experienced
marginal gains, and real wages were essentially unchanged for college
graduates.
The decline in
real wages for these groups of workers was the result of a variety of factors.
As shown in an earlier
analysis, nominal wage growth slowed over the past few years as the slack in
the job market ultimately slowed the momentum coming out of the full-employment
job market of the latter 1990s. Inflation was also a factor last year, as energy
costs drove prices higher (on average for the year, inflation was up 2.7% in
2004 and 3.4% in 2005). Thus, nominal wages needed to grow that much faster to
beat price growth.
Other factors
contributing to the decline in real wages are those that reduce the bargaining
leverage of many in the workforce, including: the erosion of union power, the
fall in the real value of the minimum wage, the growing imbalance in
international trade, and the offshoring of white-collar jobs. As long as these
forces are in play, the headwinds pushing against real wage gains for many in
the workforce will remain strong.
Sluggish private job
growth indicates failure of tax cuts
Changes in tax law since 2001 reduced federal government revenue by $870 billion
through September 2005. Supporters of these tax cuts have touted them as great
contributors to growth in jobs and pay. But, in reality, private-sector job
growth since 2001 has been disappointing, and a closer look at the new jobs
created shows that federal spending—not tax cuts—are responsible for the jobs
created in the past five years.
If tax cuts have
created jobs at all since 2001, it will have happened in the private sector.
Assuming that job growth in 2006 matches the Bush Administration's projections,
the economy will have added about 2.0 million jobs to the private sector from
FY2001 through FY2006. But how many of these two million jobs actually can be
attributed to tax cuts and how many to increased government
spending—particularly increased defense spending—in this period?
Based on
Defense Department estimates of the number of private-sector jobs created by
its own spending, we project that additional defense spending will account
for a 1.495 million gain in private sector jobs between FY2001 and FY2006.
Furthermore, increases in non-defense discretionary spending since
2001 will have added yet another 1.325 million jobs in the private sector,
for a total of 2.82 million jobs created by increased government spending.
Increased mandatory government spending—which is not even included in
these estimates or the accompanying chart—would account for even more job
creation. The mere fact that the projected job growth resulting from
increased defense and other government spending exceeds the actual number of
jobs projected to be added to the economy through 2006 clearly indicates
that the tax cuts hardly seem plausible as the engine of the modest job
growth in the economy since 2001.
Recent job gains lag far behind historical norms
President Bush has noted that 2 million jobs were created over the course of
2005 and that we have added 4.6 million jobs since the decline in jobs ended
in May 2003. But does that mean the labor market is getting back to normal?
Unfortunately, no. Recent job gains lag far behind historical norms. Last
year's 2 million new jobs represented a gain of 1.5%, a sluggish growth rate
by historical standards (see chart below). In fact, it is less than half of
the average growth rate of 3.5% for the same stage of previous business
cycles that lasted as long. At that pace, we would have created 4.6 million
jobs last year. If jobs had grown last year at the pace of even the slowest
of the prior cycles—2.1% in the 1980s—we would have added 2.8 million jobs.
Over the last half century, the only 12-month spans with job growth as low
as 1.5% were those that actually included recession months, occurred just
before a recession, or were during the "jobless recovery" of 1992 and early
1993.
For further analysis, consult the following EPI publications:
Why people are so
dissatisfied with today's economy (Issue Brief #219)
The wage squeeze and
higher health care costs (Issue Brief #218)
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