Looking for a way to choke on your breakfast? Open any paper and take a peek at the Business section, which is full of sound and fury, signifying much. Especially when it comes to the imminent contraction of the American economy, which is reeling from the Republicans' suicidal "Don't Tax Just Spend (On Our Friends)" philosophy. Sure, Halliburton, Exxon, Shaw, Bechtel, AT&T and other Bush administration stooges are making out like kings in this chaotic geopolitical landscape, but the rest of us are coming up paupers. And it's only going to get worse.
According to Tom Petruno's measured if sobering article today, the weakening American economy is causing U.S.-based investors to pour their money into foreign markets, many of which are significantly expanding. The kicker? All that money being outsourced, if you will, to the rest of the world is going to kick us in the ass here at home. And that's before we even get to the military and economic campaigns in Iraq, which are projected to cost us over $300 billion by the end of this month. And as much as Fox News or Tony Snow (he represents the government now, you dig?) tries to spin those numbers, the point is pretty obvious: We're loading up buckets of bills and sending them overseas. For what? No one can still say.
First, it was to prevent Saddam from getting nukes. Not the kind of heinous chemical weapons that we wanted to sell him in the 80s, but something probably a bit more powerful. That phantom turned into the Bush-Cheney plan to democratize the Middle East. Yeah. Sure. Next up? Keeping America safe at home? Because years, corpses and billions later, we haven't been able to keep anyone else safe in the world, whether that's Baghdad, Afhganistan, Lebanon, or anywhere else. I smell a bad plan getting worse.
Meanwhile, our economy is taking an IED to the groin. The housing sector gold rush, which we leaned heavily upon to weather the post-9/11 storm, is starting to tank, and not just in my home state of Cali but across the entire nation. Stocks? If they reside outside of the United States, they're kicking ass. If they reside within....well, you decide. Here's Petruno:
"Despite the volatility associated with foreign-stock investing, a significant bet on overseas markets offers the best way to participate in strong economic growth outside the U.S....Some of that growth...may come directly at the expense of the U.S. economy and U.S. stocks, as foreign competitors gain more power and stature."
Ah, I feel better already. The article's overall premise, that the unhindered decline of the American dollar is translating into paydays for the rest of the "global economy," has yet to be defied by anyone with half a brain. (I'm not counting Tom Friedman, who has less than a third.) What the article fails to spotlight, however, is the Bush administration's hand in accelerating that decline. Whether it is Condi Rice exposing the administration's economic philosophy while explaining that the carnage in Lebanon presented "opportunity," the overall rise of disaster capitalism, or the mammoth new American embassy in Iraq, the Republican power grab in the Middle East is coming at the expense of their own economy at home. And they don't care.
Why? They're all rich capitalists with ties to global markets. They think and act globally, and suck us dry locally. In Friedman's half-baked "World is Flat" scenario, the global economy, and the multinationals that power it (and by that, I'm including governments and their stacks of taxpayer cash), have no care for nations, states or native populace: All that matters is the profit margin. And don't be mistaken on this: The profit margin for Bush and Cheney's pals is higher than the piles of bodies it took to build it up.
Think about that next time you gas up that SUV. Or vote Republican. Or Democrat, for that matter. The lesson being that votes, yes, are powerful, but they're nothing without due diligence. And lately, we've been sleeping with the enemy. The one we voted for. Time to wake up before it's too late.