Every time I read something about the proposed international trade deal between Canada and EU, I become more frightened.
What is the object of this deal? Destruction of Canada? Is this what Prime Minister Harper is all about? Has he been put in place to destroy Canada?
I don't know how anyone could even THINK of getting into this deal.
Below is information provided by Ms Elizabeth May, MP.
"We are strongly opposed to (the proposed CETA (EU) trade deal) or any trade deal with Europe that would weaken our health care system or any other aspect of Canadian sovereignty. The CETA agreement aims to eliminate the abilty of local and provincial governments to award contracts to Canadian companies - a preferential practice that creates domestic jobs and encourages local economic growth. Allowing European companies to bid on government contracts will negatively impact Canadian communities and employment. Additionally, the agreement contains an investor state dispute mechanism, which would provide foreign corporations with new legal avenues to challenge, in particular, environmental regulations, and claim monetary damages from the Government of Canada. Municipalities or provinces wishing to institute environmental regulations on industries, such as the tar sands, could be challenged by this mechanism."
Ed Farkas comment
Please note: I am not affiliated with any political party. I will publish information from any party, if that information is helpful to the interests of ordinary Canadians.
"Ordinary Canadians" make up about 98.5% of the population of Canada. The other 1.5% of the population makes all the decisions, such as getting into insane trade deals which work against the interests of all Canadians.
I say "all Canadians" above for the following reason. Consider wealthy people with substantial indpendent income from investments and inheritances, living in beautiful residential areas. How does it help these people if the economy is driven down and down, and more and more industries and jobs are destroyed? So even wealthy people should be against these insane trade deals that Prime Minister Harper constantly pursues.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
A fair proposal
We are in a free-fall situation in terms of employment and the economy.
According to recent news reports, Heroux Devtek is completing a Mexican manufacturing facility. And, Bombardier has announced a new $200 million manufacturing facility in Morocco.
Bombardier Aerospace Pres. Guy Hachey used doublespeak when he said "our North American workforce has nothing to fear from the latest move".
A financial analyst was a bit more forthright when he said "(Bombardier) are not going to move aircraft assembly to Morocco. That's not happening anytime soon, and it's not happening in Mexico anytime soon".
"Anytime soon" is supposed to be encouraging to Canadian workers?
Heroux Devtek is setting up in Queretaro, Mexico, to manufacture aerostructures and landing gear systems. Queretaro has developed "an aerospace cluster of more than 50 companies, including Bombardier and General Electric". In Queretaro also the government has created "National Aerospace University, the first Mexican R & D centre in the aerospace sector".
What is the Canadian government doing about the kinds of things that are happening as described above?
Nothing!
Prime Minister Harper is more concerned with destroying the long gun registsry, with the same viciousness applied by his Conservative predecessor Diefenbaker to the Avro Arrow aerospace program. Harper also loves to strut on the world stage. He is working on trade deals with EU and China to bring even more devastation to the Canadian jobs picture.
We need wartime-type emergency measures to begin to save the Canadian economy and Canadian jobs.
Here is a fair proposal:
All stores, such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, wholesale plumbing stores, etc., to be REQUIRED to carry and display Canadian-made goods alongside China goods.
Once this measure is put in place, with a timeline of one year, Canadian manufacturers will come forward with proposals for hundreds and later thousands of consumer, commercial, and industrial items.
Start with low-tech consumer items and as capabilities increase go on to more complex items.
If we need to abrogate and defy World Trade Organization rules and procedures, so be it. World trade and globalization are destroying Canada. Our manufactured goods trade deficit in 2010 was $80 billion, nearly triple the value in 2006 when Harper became Prime Minister.
How bad do things have to get before all Canadians are in the streets, not only the Occupy people?
According to recent news reports, Heroux Devtek is completing a Mexican manufacturing facility. And, Bombardier has announced a new $200 million manufacturing facility in Morocco.
Bombardier Aerospace Pres. Guy Hachey used doublespeak when he said "our North American workforce has nothing to fear from the latest move".
A financial analyst was a bit more forthright when he said "(Bombardier) are not going to move aircraft assembly to Morocco. That's not happening anytime soon, and it's not happening in Mexico anytime soon".
"Anytime soon" is supposed to be encouraging to Canadian workers?
Heroux Devtek is setting up in Queretaro, Mexico, to manufacture aerostructures and landing gear systems. Queretaro has developed "an aerospace cluster of more than 50 companies, including Bombardier and General Electric". In Queretaro also the government has created "National Aerospace University, the first Mexican R & D centre in the aerospace sector".
What is the Canadian government doing about the kinds of things that are happening as described above?
Nothing!
Prime Minister Harper is more concerned with destroying the long gun registsry, with the same viciousness applied by his Conservative predecessor Diefenbaker to the Avro Arrow aerospace program. Harper also loves to strut on the world stage. He is working on trade deals with EU and China to bring even more devastation to the Canadian jobs picture.
We need wartime-type emergency measures to begin to save the Canadian economy and Canadian jobs.
Here is a fair proposal:
All stores, such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, wholesale plumbing stores, etc., to be REQUIRED to carry and display Canadian-made goods alongside China goods.
Once this measure is put in place, with a timeline of one year, Canadian manufacturers will come forward with proposals for hundreds and later thousands of consumer, commercial, and industrial items.
Start with low-tech consumer items and as capabilities increase go on to more complex items.
If we need to abrogate and defy World Trade Organization rules and procedures, so be it. World trade and globalization are destroying Canada. Our manufactured goods trade deficit in 2010 was $80 billion, nearly triple the value in 2006 when Harper became Prime Minister.
How bad do things have to get before all Canadians are in the streets, not only the Occupy people?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Message to Parliament
A one-page letter was put into the mail in Toronto on November 8, 2011, for each Member of Parliament (House of Commons). That is a total of 307 letters.
Here is the text of the letter:
Here is the text of the letter:
November 7, 2011
(space for name of M.P.)
I recently found something very disturbing on the Industry Canada website. During the time that Mr. Harper has been Prime Minister, 2006 to the present, our trade deficit in manufactured goods with all foreign countries has nearly tripled.
According to Industry Canada, our trade deficit was $80 billion in 2010. This amount represents over $2300 for each Canadian man, woman, and child; real wealth going out of our pockets and out of our country, never to be seen again. The result is impoverishment of our country.
It defies logic to pay a net $80 billion to foreign countries to do our manufacturing for us, while our own Canadian workers stand in line at unemployment and welfare offices.
$80 billion represents nearly one million Canadians who could be working in manufacturing but are not. Imagine the beneficial effects of nearly an additional million Canadians working, rather than being unemployed.
I believe one reason for the great increase in our trade deficit is that trade deals signed in the past five years have not led to the anticipated increases in exports. But regardless of the cause(s), the near tripling of our trade deficit shows that Mr. Harper has taken Canada in exactly the wrong direction.
Now Mr. Harper is seeking new trade arrangements with EU and China. Whenever a country with relatively small population, Canada, enters into a trade arrangement with a large entity, EU or China, the country with smaller population suffers further job loss and further economic devastation.
EU has a population of nearly 500 million, 14 times the Canadian population. The EU economy is large and varied. EU is not going to buy manufactured goods from us. Instead, we will be Europe’s new colonial empire, to be exploited at will for EU’s own profit and benefit.
China has announced a multi-decade program of becoming completely self-sufficient in all manufactured goods up to and including airliners and railroad systems. They will be buying less from Canada and other western countries, not more.
It is absolutely vital that Mr. Harper stops searching for new trade deals, and especially that he cancels work on the EU deal and further China deals. Instead, we should be working to increase domestic manufacturing, and reduce imports.
Sincerely,
(space for signature)
According to Industry Canada, our trade deficit was $80 billion in 2010. This amount represents over $2300 for each Canadian man, woman, and child; real wealth going out of our pockets and out of our country, never to be seen again. The result is impoverishment of our country.
It defies logic to pay a net $80 billion to foreign countries to do our manufacturing for us, while our own Canadian workers stand in line at unemployment and welfare offices.
$80 billion represents nearly one million Canadians who could be working in manufacturing but are not. Imagine the beneficial effects of nearly an additional million Canadians working, rather than being unemployed.
I believe one reason for the great increase in our trade deficit is that trade deals signed in the past five years have not led to the anticipated increases in exports. But regardless of the cause(s), the near tripling of our trade deficit shows that Mr. Harper has taken Canada in exactly the wrong direction.
Now Mr. Harper is seeking new trade arrangements with EU and China. Whenever a country with relatively small population, Canada, enters into a trade arrangement with a large entity, EU or China, the country with smaller population suffers further job loss and further economic devastation.
EU has a population of nearly 500 million, 14 times the Canadian population. The EU economy is large and varied. EU is not going to buy manufactured goods from us. Instead, we will be Europe’s new colonial empire, to be exploited at will for EU’s own profit and benefit.
China has announced a multi-decade program of becoming completely self-sufficient in all manufactured goods up to and including airliners and railroad systems. They will be buying less from Canada and other western countries, not more.
It is absolutely vital that Mr. Harper stops searching for new trade deals, and especially that he cancels work on the EU deal and further China deals. Instead, we should be working to increase domestic manufacturing, and reduce imports.
Sincerely,
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Promise to fall no further behind?
Let's return to the quote presented in my previous post.
Macleans's Magazine, August 8, 2011, page 13, Columnist Paul Wells:
"When (China's) President Hu Jintao was in Ottawa last June, he announced Canada and China had set a goal of doubling bilateral trade volume to $60 billion in five years, by 2015. But here's the thing. China's trade with the rest of the world more than doubles every five years. Its trade with the U.S. has more than doubled in recent five-year periods....Harper's (prediction) amounts to a promise to fall no further behind."
United States Canada
Canada China
United States China
We are going in absolutely the wrong direction. It is wrong to say "this is the way of the world today and we have to accept it". We can't accept a growing hemorrhage of real wealth out of our country. We can't accept a hemorrhage of jobs, with the result that our people of all ages can't find employment.
Fortunately our negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with China only increased by 27% over the last five years. Maybe this is what Columnist Wells and Prime Minister Harper refer to as "falling behind". I refer to it as the first bit of good news I've heard today!
Macleans's Magazine, August 8, 2011, page 13, Columnist Paul Wells:
"When (China's) President Hu Jintao was in Ottawa last June, he announced Canada and China had set a goal of doubling bilateral trade volume to $60 billion in five years, by 2015. But here's the thing. China's trade with the rest of the world more than doubles every five years. Its trade with the U.S. has more than doubled in recent five-year periods....Harper's (prediction) amounts to a promise to fall no further behind."
I really cannot find words to describe the sheer nonsense and ignorance of this passage written by Columnist Wells.
Did Wells write this passage himself or was he given the wording by the Prime Minister's office? Or was he given the wording or general direction by the owners of Maclean's Magazine?
"China's trade with the rest of the world more than doubles every five years". Is this supposed to be a good thing?
When China's trade doubles, there is more destruction of the manufacturing sector of every western country including Canada. More jobs destroyed. More simplification of the economies of the western countries, making it impossible for young adults to find employment. Making it impossible for young adults to look forward to a normal life of employment, earning money, saving, marriage, family, buying a house or apartment. Making it impossible for people of all ages to find employment and have a life of dignity and usefulness in society.
In the famous book "Festival at Farbridge" by J. B. Priestley, it is England 30 years after the end of World War I. A man who was in the worst of the fighting in World War I, but somehow survived, is sent to visit a certain house and knocks on the door. The door opens and the man asks to see the master of the house. He is ushered in and is amazed and stupefied to see who it is. He has stumbled upon the now-retired general who commanded his division in the War. The man remembers the general's statement when he was first put in charge of the division and made his first inspection. The general said "This division can't be very effective. It hasn't taken enough casualties."
Is this what Wells means when he refers to a "Promise to fall no further behind."?
Does he mean that we have not yet had enough destruction of our manufacturing sector?
Does Wells think that "trade" with China is some great thing and countries should rush onto the bandwagon to get some of the benefits for themselves?
I think the basic problem is that columnists and politicians do not understand negative numbers.
Everyone is familiar with a temperature of - 5 degrees Centigrade. A cold winter day, but not necessarily a disaster as long as there is no wind. If later in the day, or overnight, the temperature is - 10 degrees Centigrade, is this better? Is it more comfortable? Obviously not.
Every country that is in a "trade" relationship with China is in negative territory. Example: Country X's balance of trade in manufactured goods with China is a NEGATIVE number, say - $30 billion dollars per year. Note the minus sign. It is highly significant. Five years later, Country X's balance of trade in manufactured goods with China is - $60 billion dollars per year. Is this better?
Same answer as for the outdoor weather example! A resounding NO!
A negative balance of trade of $60 billion per year is much WORSE than a negative balance of $30 billion per year.
It means double the hemorrhage of Country X's real physical money out of the country, never to be seen again. It means double the loss of manufacturing employment at home in Country X. It means double the unemployment insurance benefits, double the welfare payments, double the social costs, double the despair of the people of Country X.
It is obvious that Columnist Wells, and quite possibly Prime Minister Harper and his officials, understand nothing of this.
Chinese officials must be laughing their heads off at how easily Canadian officials are fooled and blinded concerning the reality of “trade” with China, and the real intentions of China.
Did Wells write this passage himself or was he given the wording by the Prime Minister's office? Or was he given the wording or general direction by the owners of Maclean's Magazine?
"China's trade with the rest of the world more than doubles every five years". Is this supposed to be a good thing?
When China's trade doubles, there is more destruction of the manufacturing sector of every western country including Canada. More jobs destroyed. More simplification of the economies of the western countries, making it impossible for young adults to find employment. Making it impossible for young adults to look forward to a normal life of employment, earning money, saving, marriage, family, buying a house or apartment. Making it impossible for people of all ages to find employment and have a life of dignity and usefulness in society.
In the famous book "Festival at Farbridge" by J. B. Priestley, it is England 30 years after the end of World War I. A man who was in the worst of the fighting in World War I, but somehow survived, is sent to visit a certain house and knocks on the door. The door opens and the man asks to see the master of the house. He is ushered in and is amazed and stupefied to see who it is. He has stumbled upon the now-retired general who commanded his division in the War. The man remembers the general's statement when he was first put in charge of the division and made his first inspection. The general said "This division can't be very effective. It hasn't taken enough casualties."
Is this what Wells means when he refers to a "Promise to fall no further behind."?
Does he mean that we have not yet had enough destruction of our manufacturing sector?
Does Wells think that "trade" with China is some great thing and countries should rush onto the bandwagon to get some of the benefits for themselves?
I think the basic problem is that columnists and politicians do not understand negative numbers.
Everyone is familiar with a temperature of - 5 degrees Centigrade. A cold winter day, but not necessarily a disaster as long as there is no wind. If later in the day, or overnight, the temperature is - 10 degrees Centigrade, is this better? Is it more comfortable? Obviously not.
Every country that is in a "trade" relationship with China is in negative territory. Example: Country X's balance of trade in manufactured goods with China is a NEGATIVE number, say - $30 billion dollars per year. Note the minus sign. It is highly significant. Five years later, Country X's balance of trade in manufactured goods with China is - $60 billion dollars per year. Is this better?
Same answer as for the outdoor weather example! A resounding NO!
A negative balance of trade of $60 billion per year is much WORSE than a negative balance of $30 billion per year.
It means double the hemorrhage of Country X's real physical money out of the country, never to be seen again. It means double the loss of manufacturing employment at home in Country X. It means double the unemployment insurance benefits, double the welfare payments, double the social costs, double the despair of the people of Country X.
It is obvious that Columnist Wells, and quite possibly Prime Minister Harper and his officials, understand nothing of this.
Chinese officials must be laughing their heads off at how easily Canadian officials are fooled and blinded concerning the reality of “trade” with China, and the real intentions of China.
To see whether we have already taken enough casualties, or to see if we are "falling behind" in taking casualties, let’s look at some Canadian data and compare with data from our good near neighbour, the USA! (Data are from official sources and are for 2010.)
Canada. Negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries includingUnited States
Canada. Negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries including
$80.79 billion. Population of Canada
Negative balance of trade per person $2352
$634.6 billion. Population of United States
Negative balance of trade per person $2032
We can see that Canada is importing manufactured goods at a proportionally higher rate than the United States
The situation is even worse than appears from these numbers, because theU.S. U.S.
The situation is even worse than appears from these numbers, because the
Now let’s look at trade with China
$36.13 billion.
Negative balance of trade per person $1052
$273.1 billion.
Negative balance of trade per person $875
This comparison shows even more strongly that Canada has not fallen behind in taking casualties. We are worse off than the United States , in this case specifically with respect to China China
Now consider Canadian trade in manufactured goods with the United States United States
I hope no one in Ottawa or at Maclean’s Magazine thinks that we should go into more “trade” with China because our trade with the United States
Only people who don't understand negative numbers look for more "trade" with China.
I use quotation marks because trade is not the correct word. Any relationship between Country X and China means devastation and destruction for Country X. The relationship is pathological, exploitive. The innocent word "trade" does not include these phenomena.
If we can’t keep up our positive balance of trade in manufactured goods with the United States, because our dollar is high or for any other reason, we should at least work very hard to ensure that our negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries does not become larger, i.e., does not become a larger negative number.
Only people who don't understand negative numbers look for more "trade" with China.
I use quotation marks because trade is not the correct word. Any relationship between Country X and China means devastation and destruction for Country X. The relationship is pathological, exploitive. The innocent word "trade" does not include these phenomena.
If we can’t keep up our positive balance of trade in manufactured goods with the United States, because our dollar is high or for any other reason, we should at least work very hard to ensure that our negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries does not become larger, i.e., does not become a larger negative number.
We must reduce imports and increase domestic manufacturing. Our negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries ALMOST TRIPLED in the last five years:
Year 2006 $27.89 billion
Year 2006 $27.89 billion
Year 2007 $32.59 billion
Year 2008 $58.99 billion
Year 2009 $75.54 billion
Year 2010 $80.79 billion
We are going in absolutely the wrong direction. It is wrong to say "this is the way of the world today and we have to accept it". We can't accept a growing hemorrhage of real wealth out of our country. We can't accept a hemorrhage of jobs, with the result that our people of all ages can't find employment.
Fortunately our negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with China only increased by 27% over the last five years. Maybe this is what Columnist Wells and Prime Minister Harper refer to as "falling behind". I refer to it as the first bit of good news I've heard today!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Ignorant of the simplest facts!
In Macleans's Magazine, August 8, 2011, page 13, Columnist Paul Wells states:
"When (China's) President Hu Jintao was in Ottawa last June, he announced Canada and China had set a goal of doubling bilateral trade volume to $60 billion in five years, by 2015. But here's the thing. China's trade with the rest of the world more than doubles every five years. Its trade with the U.S. has more than doubled in recent five-year periods....Harper's (prediction) amounts to a promise to fall no further behind."
These statements are absolutely unbelievable. Does Paul Wells not understand how pernicious and damaging these statements are? How they put an upbeat face on a disastrous situation?. Does he not understand the disservice he is doing to the Canadian people?
Let's get some background.
Balance of Trade in manufactured goods between Country X and all other countries in the world is expressed by professionals in the following way:
Balance of Trade = Exports minus Imports
If Country X exports $100 billion worth of manufactured goods per year, and imports $50 billion worth of manufactured goods, then the Balance of Trade in Manufactured Goods of Country X is a POSITIVE $50 billion per year.
This situation is good for Country X. The people of Country X have manufacturing employment, and the country benefits from the value-added effect of manufacturing.
But suppose the situation reverses itself due to unwise policies followed by the Country X government, and the situation becomes:
Exports $50 billion per year
Imports $100 billion per year
Balance of trade = exports minus imports = $50 billion minus $100 billion
= minus $50 billion per year
In other words, now Country X has a NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries of $50 billion per year.
First of all, everyone has to understand that the $50 billion amount is real physical wealth leaving Country X every year. In time the impoverishing effect of this hemorrhage of wealth will become apparent.
Any intelligent person can see from the above discussion that in relation to trade in manufactured goods we have to know in which direction the goods are going.
We look at
Exports minus Imports
Call to mind your school arithmetic and even algebra if you wish. There is a great difference between a positive number and a negative number.
The little bit of arithmetic shown above tells us the NET result of our export/import activity.
If the NET result is POSITIVE, then Country X is in good shape.
If the NET result is NEGATIVE, then Country X is in bad shape, with real wealth hemorrhaging out of the country to pay other countries to do manufacturing for Country X. At the same time, there are many unemployed workers in Country X who could be doing that manufacturing, rather than standing in line at unemployment offices and requiring unemployment insurance and welfare payments from the government.
Simply mentioning a "trade volume" is absolutely meaningless. We have to know the NET result of "Exports minus Imports" to know if we are heading in the right direction.
I suspect that "bilateral trade volume" is calculated in a way that breaks every rule of logic, arithmetic and algebra.
There is some export of manufactured goods from Canada to China. The value of the goods is a positive number from the standpoint of the ordinary working men and women of Canada.
There is a huge import of goods from China to Canada. Our stores are filled 90% with goods made in China. Again from the standpoint of ordinary Canadians, the value of the goods is a disastrous negative number.
Prime Minister Harper is an economist and therefore should know the difference between a positive number and a negative number. Yet what he is doing is stripping the plus sign or the minus sign as the case may be from the export and import amounts. The result in arithmetic and algebra is the "magnitude" of the number. Then Harper and all the bureaucrats and columnists simply add the two magnitudes to get a very attractive number which they try to sell to the populace.
China has announced a policy of becoming self-sufficient in all common manufactured goods by 2020, and extending the policy to include airliners, communications systems, and railroad systems by 2050.
I guarantee that any increase in "bilateral trade volume" is accomplished by an INCREASE IN IMPORTS FROM CHINA, while exports to China at best remain level.
Hilary Clinton gave a speech in January 2011. She also talked glowingly about trade with China. She also totally disregarded plus and minus signs and simply added magnitudes. She doesn't seem to know or care that America's negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries is over $500 billion dollars per year, somewhat over half of that being due to "trade" with China.
Unfortunately, Canada's negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries is proportionally even worse, at $89 billion dollars per year.
Hilary Clinton is effectively a lobbyist for China and as such is in conflict of interest with her other job, Secretary of State.
Is Stephen Harper also a cheerleader for China, putting a happy face on Canada's decimated manufacturing sector and disastrous unemployment situation?
"When (China's) President Hu Jintao was in Ottawa last June, he announced Canada and China had set a goal of doubling bilateral trade volume to $60 billion in five years, by 2015. But here's the thing. China's trade with the rest of the world more than doubles every five years. Its trade with the U.S. has more than doubled in recent five-year periods....Harper's (prediction) amounts to a promise to fall no further behind."
These statements are absolutely unbelievable. Does Paul Wells not understand how pernicious and damaging these statements are? How they put an upbeat face on a disastrous situation?. Does he not understand the disservice he is doing to the Canadian people?
Let's get some background.
Balance of Trade in manufactured goods between Country X and all other countries in the world is expressed by professionals in the following way:
Balance of Trade = Exports minus Imports
If Country X exports $100 billion worth of manufactured goods per year, and imports $50 billion worth of manufactured goods, then the Balance of Trade in Manufactured Goods of Country X is a POSITIVE $50 billion per year.
This situation is good for Country X. The people of Country X have manufacturing employment, and the country benefits from the value-added effect of manufacturing.
But suppose the situation reverses itself due to unwise policies followed by the Country X government, and the situation becomes:
Exports $50 billion per year
Imports $100 billion per year
Balance of trade = exports minus imports = $50 billion minus $100 billion
= minus $50 billion per year
In other words, now Country X has a NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries of $50 billion per year.
First of all, everyone has to understand that the $50 billion amount is real physical wealth leaving Country X every year. In time the impoverishing effect of this hemorrhage of wealth will become apparent.
Any intelligent person can see from the above discussion that in relation to trade in manufactured goods we have to know in which direction the goods are going.
We look at
Exports minus Imports
Call to mind your school arithmetic and even algebra if you wish. There is a great difference between a positive number and a negative number.
The little bit of arithmetic shown above tells us the NET result of our export/import activity.
If the NET result is POSITIVE, then Country X is in good shape.
If the NET result is NEGATIVE, then Country X is in bad shape, with real wealth hemorrhaging out of the country to pay other countries to do manufacturing for Country X. At the same time, there are many unemployed workers in Country X who could be doing that manufacturing, rather than standing in line at unemployment offices and requiring unemployment insurance and welfare payments from the government.
Simply mentioning a "trade volume" is absolutely meaningless. We have to know the NET result of "Exports minus Imports" to know if we are heading in the right direction.
I suspect that "bilateral trade volume" is calculated in a way that breaks every rule of logic, arithmetic and algebra.
There is some export of manufactured goods from Canada to China. The value of the goods is a positive number from the standpoint of the ordinary working men and women of Canada.
There is a huge import of goods from China to Canada. Our stores are filled 90% with goods made in China. Again from the standpoint of ordinary Canadians, the value of the goods is a disastrous negative number.
Prime Minister Harper is an economist and therefore should know the difference between a positive number and a negative number. Yet what he is doing is stripping the plus sign or the minus sign as the case may be from the export and import amounts. The result in arithmetic and algebra is the "magnitude" of the number. Then Harper and all the bureaucrats and columnists simply add the two magnitudes to get a very attractive number which they try to sell to the populace.
China has announced a policy of becoming self-sufficient in all common manufactured goods by 2020, and extending the policy to include airliners, communications systems, and railroad systems by 2050.
I guarantee that any increase in "bilateral trade volume" is accomplished by an INCREASE IN IMPORTS FROM CHINA, while exports to China at best remain level.
Hilary Clinton gave a speech in January 2011. She also talked glowingly about trade with China. She also totally disregarded plus and minus signs and simply added magnitudes. She doesn't seem to know or care that America's negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries is over $500 billion dollars per year, somewhat over half of that being due to "trade" with China.
Unfortunately, Canada's negative balance of trade in manufactured goods with all foreign countries is proportionally even worse, at $89 billion dollars per year.
Hilary Clinton is effectively a lobbyist for China and as such is in conflict of interest with her other job, Secretary of State.
Is Stephen Harper also a cheerleader for China, putting a happy face on Canada's decimated manufacturing sector and disastrous unemployment situation?
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Amazing!
I had a letter to the editor published in Maclean 's Magazine, August 22, 2011, issue. In this letter they let me say:
"Millions of Canadian manufacturing jobs have been transferred to China and other foreign countries. There is only one way to improve the economy of Canada, and that is to get the manufacturing jobs back..."
It is amazing that they let me say these things because there is a strong censorship in the United States, spilling over into Canada.
In the United States, the effect of the censorship is that the media will not publish anything that includes the above two statements, and politicians do not make these statements.
(There are a few U.S. politicians who do make these statements, but they are in minority and have great difficulty making their point with their colleagues.)
The measure of the manufacturing status of any country is the balance of trade calculated as follows:
value of exported manufactured goods MINUS value of imported manufactured goods
If a country imports more than it exports, the balance of trade is NEGATIVE.
In the United States, the NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods, with all foreign countries, is over 500 billion dollars per year. This is real physical money pouring out of the country, greatly impoverishing the country.
Mention of the negative balance of trade is another issue not allowed, under the censorship.
In Canada, the latest information I have found is that the NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods is 89 billion dollars per year. I am open to any further information on our balance of trade. If I receive or obtain better information I will be happy to revise my statement.
You can see that proportionally the Canadian NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods is GREATER than in the United States.
In an overall sense we are saved in that we have oil to export, while the United States imports oil. And, our oil industry including the oil sands creates a lot of employment.
But the "overall" situation does not trickle down well. For Canadian students graduating from high school, college, or university, and for Canadians generally of all ages, it is very difficult to find employment. We are missing great chunks from our manufacturing sector. It is the manufacturing sector with all its complexities that provides little nooks and crannies where people can find work. There is work for assembly line people, engineers, designers, machinery maintenance, purchasing agents, financial personnel, sales, liaison with distributors, and so on.
Canada also benefits from having materials and resources (commodities) other than oil to export. Superficially, sales of these commodities make the national balance sheet look good.
The great concern however is that there is no forward planning to see how much of these commodities we will need here in Canada in the future. We are selling commodities today at giveaway prices, whereas in twenty years we could be short of these commodities, and the value could be 10 to 20 times higher.
In the past in Canada there have been regulations that unprocessed logs could not be exported. The object was to create employment in Canada and I assume to reduce the wholesale denuding of the country. However, if I am not mistaken, for some incomprehensible reason these regulations have been removed and large volumes of raw logs are being exported.
Take another example: coal. Maybe it is OK to sell coal to China. But for heaven's sake don't destroy the Canadian landscape to find coal to sell to China, again at giveaway prices. Also, don't sell ownership in the company, land or processing facilities to China. Sell the company, the land or the processing facilities and you are on a downhill slope to national economic suicide. This statement applies to all other bulk commodities such as potash, salt, and metallic ore.
But now let's go back to the censorship issue. Who are the people imposing censorship in the United States? I believe the most likely suspect is the China Lobby. China doesn't want questions raised concerning the wisdom of United States or other western country pouring out its life blood to China, enriching China beyond imagination. China does not want talk about "getting our manufacturing jobs back from overseas".
Because people are not allowed to talk about the real causes and real solutions for the economic problems, writers and analysts who are prepared to sell themselves for money are inventing what I call fantasy explanations of why we have these problems.
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times says that the problem is that "the boomers have eaten through the abundance". This fantasy explanation is absolutely outrageous in several ways. First of all, it blames the ordinary citizen for the problem, rather than government and business "leaders" who actually created the problem. It is a "blame the victim" theory.
The boomers are the people of retiring age around the present time. Friedman says that these people lived extravagantly over the 40 to 50 years of their working careers, and this is why there is now so much government debt and so much unemployment. On its face this theory is ridiculous.
But add in the fact that Friedman conveniently forgets that the 50-year period 1961 to 2011 is exactly the period in which transfer of manufacturing employment to overseas locations began, and continued at higher and higher levels for 50 years. Doesn't it seem likely that tremendous loss of manufacturing employment, rather than normal behaviour of ordinary people, is the cause of the present grim situation?
Please excuse this lengthy explanation but I am getting to my point now! Believe it or not!
In the first part of 2011, Maclean's Magazine included a lengthy article about unemployment in Canada, and especially the greatly reduced prospects for young people.
And who did they quote in this article? They quoted Thomas Friedman and his outrageous theory!
Here we have a very strong example of censorship spilling over from the U.S. into Canada.
Then in the August 15, 2011, issue of Maclean's, page 12, Thomas Friedman's alleged wisdom is invoked again.
Can't Maclean's find any Canadian experts, to the extent that they have to rely repeatedly on the completely corrupt Thomas Friedman?
In any case, maybe the Canadian experts are also obeying U.S. censorship!
At least in this blog there is no compliance with censorship!
"Millions of Canadian manufacturing jobs have been transferred to China and other foreign countries. There is only one way to improve the economy of Canada, and that is to get the manufacturing jobs back..."
It is amazing that they let me say these things because there is a strong censorship in the United States, spilling over into Canada.
In the United States, the effect of the censorship is that the media will not publish anything that includes the above two statements, and politicians do not make these statements.
(There are a few U.S. politicians who do make these statements, but they are in minority and have great difficulty making their point with their colleagues.)
The measure of the manufacturing status of any country is the balance of trade calculated as follows:
value of exported manufactured goods MINUS value of imported manufactured goods
If a country imports more than it exports, the balance of trade is NEGATIVE.
In the United States, the NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods, with all foreign countries, is over 500 billion dollars per year. This is real physical money pouring out of the country, greatly impoverishing the country.
Mention of the negative balance of trade is another issue not allowed, under the censorship.
In Canada, the latest information I have found is that the NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods is 89 billion dollars per year. I am open to any further information on our balance of trade. If I receive or obtain better information I will be happy to revise my statement.
You can see that proportionally the Canadian NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods is GREATER than in the United States.
In an overall sense we are saved in that we have oil to export, while the United States imports oil. And, our oil industry including the oil sands creates a lot of employment.
But the "overall" situation does not trickle down well. For Canadian students graduating from high school, college, or university, and for Canadians generally of all ages, it is very difficult to find employment. We are missing great chunks from our manufacturing sector. It is the manufacturing sector with all its complexities that provides little nooks and crannies where people can find work. There is work for assembly line people, engineers, designers, machinery maintenance, purchasing agents, financial personnel, sales, liaison with distributors, and so on.
Canada also benefits from having materials and resources (commodities) other than oil to export. Superficially, sales of these commodities make the national balance sheet look good.
The great concern however is that there is no forward planning to see how much of these commodities we will need here in Canada in the future. We are selling commodities today at giveaway prices, whereas in twenty years we could be short of these commodities, and the value could be 10 to 20 times higher.
In the past in Canada there have been regulations that unprocessed logs could not be exported. The object was to create employment in Canada and I assume to reduce the wholesale denuding of the country. However, if I am not mistaken, for some incomprehensible reason these regulations have been removed and large volumes of raw logs are being exported.
Take another example: coal. Maybe it is OK to sell coal to China. But for heaven's sake don't destroy the Canadian landscape to find coal to sell to China, again at giveaway prices. Also, don't sell ownership in the company, land or processing facilities to China. Sell the company, the land or the processing facilities and you are on a downhill slope to national economic suicide. This statement applies to all other bulk commodities such as potash, salt, and metallic ore.
But now let's go back to the censorship issue. Who are the people imposing censorship in the United States? I believe the most likely suspect is the China Lobby. China doesn't want questions raised concerning the wisdom of United States or other western country pouring out its life blood to China, enriching China beyond imagination. China does not want talk about "getting our manufacturing jobs back from overseas".
Because people are not allowed to talk about the real causes and real solutions for the economic problems, writers and analysts who are prepared to sell themselves for money are inventing what I call fantasy explanations of why we have these problems.
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times says that the problem is that "the boomers have eaten through the abundance". This fantasy explanation is absolutely outrageous in several ways. First of all, it blames the ordinary citizen for the problem, rather than government and business "leaders" who actually created the problem. It is a "blame the victim" theory.
The boomers are the people of retiring age around the present time. Friedman says that these people lived extravagantly over the 40 to 50 years of their working careers, and this is why there is now so much government debt and so much unemployment. On its face this theory is ridiculous.
But add in the fact that Friedman conveniently forgets that the 50-year period 1961 to 2011 is exactly the period in which transfer of manufacturing employment to overseas locations began, and continued at higher and higher levels for 50 years. Doesn't it seem likely that tremendous loss of manufacturing employment, rather than normal behaviour of ordinary people, is the cause of the present grim situation?
Please excuse this lengthy explanation but I am getting to my point now! Believe it or not!
In the first part of 2011, Maclean's Magazine included a lengthy article about unemployment in Canada, and especially the greatly reduced prospects for young people.
And who did they quote in this article? They quoted Thomas Friedman and his outrageous theory!
Here we have a very strong example of censorship spilling over from the U.S. into Canada.
Then in the August 15, 2011, issue of Maclean's, page 12, Thomas Friedman's alleged wisdom is invoked again.
Can't Maclean's find any Canadian experts, to the extent that they have to rely repeatedly on the completely corrupt Thomas Friedman?
In any case, maybe the Canadian experts are also obeying U.S. censorship!
At least in this blog there is no compliance with censorship!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
What nonsense!
Maclean's Magazine, August 8, 2011, page 13. Paul Wells column about Canada-China relations.
The first part of the column provides to the reader a general impression that high-principled Canada has not been dealing with China, due to the human rights situation in China.
Canada is a tiny, ineffective and inconsequential mosquito compared to the giant elephant that is China. Does anyone believe that China is concerned about Canada's views on human rights in China?
Suppose Canada really refused to enter into any economic dealings with China. Do you think that China would be concerned in the slightest? China has huge volume dealings with United States, Australia, and every other western country. Do you think that China would be concerned if Canada were not on this list?
The politicians of Canada, starting with Prime Minister Harper, and his Cabinet Ministers, seem to be totally out of touch with reality. They don't seem to know what every ordinary Canadian knows, and that is that our stores are filled with goods made in China.
I went into a wholesale plumbing store and a staff member told me that every item in the store is made in China.
So despite the pretense that Canada is not dealing with China due to the human rights situation in China, the fact is that we ARE dealing with China. We are buying huge volumes of manufactured goods from China.
Millions of Canadian manufacturing jobs have been transferred to China and other foreign countries. Successive Canadian governments have allowed this transfer process to occur. In fact, Canadian business and government "leaders" in the 1960s approached a tame think-tank, a think-tank that will say anything the client desires if there is enough money on the table, and arranged for the production of a report on economic trends.
The report stated that we no longer need old-fashioned "smokestack" industries. We don't need to manufacture anything. Where the manufacturing of ordinary consumer items is done is immaterial. The Canadian economy will grow and thrive on "knowledge-based" activities. So the Canadian government had its rationale for allowing the "hollowing out" of manufacturing in Canada.
I have taken the phrase "hollowing out" from an excellent letter to the editor written by an ordinary citizen in the 1980s. Amazing how the ordinary citizen's understanding is so much more profound than that of whole armies of politicians and government bureaucrats!
The results of the 50-year process of transferring manufacturing employment to China and other foreign countries were entirely predictable and are now apparent to everyone, except those politicians and bureaucrats:
+ Simplification of the economy, eliminating many "niche" job functions where people formerly could find employment. Now Canadians at all levels of education cannot find employment. A frightening column by Thomas Walkom, Toronto Star, July 30, 2011, page A6, describes a dog-eat-dog employment future where the working career is a continuous scarmble for the next short-term employment contract, with no guarantee that wages will be paid, with no benefits, with no security.
+ Perpetual government deficits at all levels, because so many Canadians have no employment or employment at lower wage levels than in the past, with the result that there is less tax revenue going to governments. Politicians and bureaucrats forgot that workers in factories in China don't pay Canadian taxes! Business "leaders" forgot that Canadians who don't have employment can't buy!
+ Impoverishing of the Canadian economy due to loss of the critically-important value-added effect of manufacturing.
+ Evaporation of the claimed "knowledge-based" benefit to the economy, as it became all too clear that knowledge-based employment can also be transferred to low-wage countries.
There is only one way to improve the economy in Canada, including the top priority of increasing employment, and that is to get the manufacturing jobs back from China and other foreign countries.
Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet Ministers and all other politicians at all levels of government should be taken on a tour of stores. They should pick up the packages and look on the back and see the phrase "Made in China". Maybe if they would spend several days doing this it would penetrate into their brains that too much manufacturing has been lost to overseas locations, causing too much damage to the economy. Maybe it would penetrate that this destructive process has gone too far and has to be reversed.
Fortunately, costs of manufacturing in China, and associated costs of doing business in China and other low-wage countries, are going up. A recent U.S. study showed that manufacturers for a number of years have been overestimating the "savings" associated with overseas manufacturing. So even without intelligent action by governments, manufacturing activity is gradually coming back.
Intelligent actions that could be taken by the Canadian government include:
+ Tariff or foreign sales tax on manufactured goods from foreign countries that don't buy from us in approximately equal amounts.
+ Reduction in taxes for business organizations, incorporated or not, that do their manufacturing in Canada.
+ Encourage small business, incorporated or not, by eliminating tax on first $50K of profits, each year.
+ Extreme caution and re-consideration before going ahead with a trade agreement with EU. It is very unlikely that EU will buy manufactured goods from us.
Why do politicians and government theoreticians think it is a good idea to get into a free trade agreement with an entity such as EU with a population 20 times greater than ours? The larger entity in a free-trade arrangement always demolishes the smaller partner.
Much worse is free trade with China. Population is 40 times greater and wages are one-tenth. So we are suffering a 400-fold disadvantage. It is completely insane to be in a free trade arrangement with China!
The first part of the column provides to the reader a general impression that high-principled Canada has not been dealing with China, due to the human rights situation in China.
Canada is a tiny, ineffective and inconsequential mosquito compared to the giant elephant that is China. Does anyone believe that China is concerned about Canada's views on human rights in China?
Suppose Canada really refused to enter into any economic dealings with China. Do you think that China would be concerned in the slightest? China has huge volume dealings with United States, Australia, and every other western country. Do you think that China would be concerned if Canada were not on this list?
The politicians of Canada, starting with Prime Minister Harper, and his Cabinet Ministers, seem to be totally out of touch with reality. They don't seem to know what every ordinary Canadian knows, and that is that our stores are filled with goods made in China.
I went into a wholesale plumbing store and a staff member told me that every item in the store is made in China.
So despite the pretense that Canada is not dealing with China due to the human rights situation in China, the fact is that we ARE dealing with China. We are buying huge volumes of manufactured goods from China.
Millions of Canadian manufacturing jobs have been transferred to China and other foreign countries. Successive Canadian governments have allowed this transfer process to occur. In fact, Canadian business and government "leaders" in the 1960s approached a tame think-tank, a think-tank that will say anything the client desires if there is enough money on the table, and arranged for the production of a report on economic trends.
The report stated that we no longer need old-fashioned "smokestack" industries. We don't need to manufacture anything. Where the manufacturing of ordinary consumer items is done is immaterial. The Canadian economy will grow and thrive on "knowledge-based" activities. So the Canadian government had its rationale for allowing the "hollowing out" of manufacturing in Canada.
I have taken the phrase "hollowing out" from an excellent letter to the editor written by an ordinary citizen in the 1980s. Amazing how the ordinary citizen's understanding is so much more profound than that of whole armies of politicians and government bureaucrats!
The results of the 50-year process of transferring manufacturing employment to China and other foreign countries were entirely predictable and are now apparent to everyone, except those politicians and bureaucrats:
+ Simplification of the economy, eliminating many "niche" job functions where people formerly could find employment. Now Canadians at all levels of education cannot find employment. A frightening column by Thomas Walkom, Toronto Star, July 30, 2011, page A6, describes a dog-eat-dog employment future where the working career is a continuous scarmble for the next short-term employment contract, with no guarantee that wages will be paid, with no benefits, with no security.
+ Perpetual government deficits at all levels, because so many Canadians have no employment or employment at lower wage levels than in the past, with the result that there is less tax revenue going to governments. Politicians and bureaucrats forgot that workers in factories in China don't pay Canadian taxes! Business "leaders" forgot that Canadians who don't have employment can't buy!
+ Impoverishing of the Canadian economy due to loss of the critically-important value-added effect of manufacturing.
+ Evaporation of the claimed "knowledge-based" benefit to the economy, as it became all too clear that knowledge-based employment can also be transferred to low-wage countries.
There is only one way to improve the economy in Canada, including the top priority of increasing employment, and that is to get the manufacturing jobs back from China and other foreign countries.
Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet Ministers and all other politicians at all levels of government should be taken on a tour of stores. They should pick up the packages and look on the back and see the phrase "Made in China". Maybe if they would spend several days doing this it would penetrate into their brains that too much manufacturing has been lost to overseas locations, causing too much damage to the economy. Maybe it would penetrate that this destructive process has gone too far and has to be reversed.
Fortunately, costs of manufacturing in China, and associated costs of doing business in China and other low-wage countries, are going up. A recent U.S. study showed that manufacturers for a number of years have been overestimating the "savings" associated with overseas manufacturing. So even without intelligent action by governments, manufacturing activity is gradually coming back.
Intelligent actions that could be taken by the Canadian government include:
+ Tariff or foreign sales tax on manufactured goods from foreign countries that don't buy from us in approximately equal amounts.
+ Reduction in taxes for business organizations, incorporated or not, that do their manufacturing in Canada.
+ Encourage small business, incorporated or not, by eliminating tax on first $50K of profits, each year.
+ Extreme caution and re-consideration before going ahead with a trade agreement with EU. It is very unlikely that EU will buy manufactured goods from us.
Why do politicians and government theoreticians think it is a good idea to get into a free trade agreement with an entity such as EU with a population 20 times greater than ours? The larger entity in a free-trade arrangement always demolishes the smaller partner.
Much worse is free trade with China. Population is 40 times greater and wages are one-tenth. So we are suffering a 400-fold disadvantage. It is completely insane to be in a free trade arrangement with China!
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