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Whatever Happened to "the Giant Sucking Sound"?

Cal

Well-known member
Whatever Happened to "the Giant Sucking Sound"?
by Daniel T. Griswold
http://www.freetrade.org/pubs/articles/dg-6-6-00.html
In the thick of the recent debate in Congress over permanent normal trade relations with China, House Minority Whip David Bonior (D-Mich.), Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO and other opponents of the trade deal warned that it would lead to a stampede of U.S. investment to China. Their protests echoed those of Ross Perot in 1993, only this time "the giant sucking sound" would be heard over the Pacific instead of over the Rio Grande.

With another crucial trade vote looming in Congress in the next few weeks, this one on whether the United States should stay in the World Trade Organization, it's worth asking: What ever happened to the giant sucking sound that was supposed to follow passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement and establishment of the WTO?

The simple truth is that the predicted massive flight of capital to countries with lower costs and standards never materialized. More than half a decade after congressional approval of NAFTA and the WTO, domestic investment in the United States is booming. The same open economy that has benefited American consumers and workers has created a profitable climate for new business investment.

Since 1992 real nonresidential private investment in the United States has almost doubled, from $630 billion to more than $1.2 trillion (in 1996 dollars). Real investment in information-processing equipment and software has more than tripled. This surge in investment and new technology has led directly to a rise in worker productivity that in turn has fueled economic expansion and raised living standards.

In fact, during the past decade the United States has been the world's largest recipient of foreign investment. Year after year the United States has run a net surplus in its capital account, with foreign savers investing more in the United States than American savers have sent abroad. From 1994 to 1998, the United States received an average annual net inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing of $12 billion.

This inflow of foreign capital has kept interest rates down, built new factories and brought new technology and production methods to our economy. If there has been any giant sucking sound since 1993, it has been the rush of global capital to the safe and profitable haven of the United States.


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The United States has nothing to fear from openness to trade with and investment in less-developed countries.


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American manufacturers continue to be net investors in Mexico and China, but the relative size of their investment remains small. From 1994 through 1998, the annual net outflow of manufacturing FDI to Mexico averaged $1.7 billion, an amount equal to about 1 percent of annual U.S. domestic investment in manufacturing. The net annual outflow of manufacturing FDI to China has been even smaller, averaging $661 million. In contrast to the relative trickle of outward investment to Mexico and China, new domestic investment in U.S. manufacturing in 1997 totaled $192.3 billion.

While anti-trade polemicists focus all their attention on jobs shipped overseas, they ignore the jobs shipped here. Today some 12.3 percent, or almost one in eight, of manufacturing workers in America are employed by a U.S. affiliate of a foreign-owned company. Honda, Toyota, DaimlerChrysler AG, BMW, Fuji and other foreign-owned companies have become major employers in the United States.

As is the case with trade, most of America's foreign investment dealings are with other advanced economies. According to a study by the Deloitte & Touche consulting firm, 80 percent of FDI by U.S. manufacturing firms in 1998 was in other high-wage countries. The top destinations for U.S. manufacturing FDI in 1998 were the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany and Singapore -- all high-wage economies with labor, health and environmental regulations comparable to or more restrictive than those of the United States.

Outward U.S. foreign investment is not drawn primarily by low wages and lax regulations in poor countries. "Contrary to common belief, cheap labor does not drive U.S. manufacturing FDI," the Deloitte & Touche study concluded. "Indeed, global expansion strategies are driven in large part by relative economic stability, well-developed infrastructures, lucrative market potential, and talented and skilled workers. Access to lower cost labor and raw materials is important, but not the primary driver."

By focusing on low wages in less-developed countries, opponents of openness ignore the crucial fact that workers in poor countries are much less productive than workers in the United States. Their wages are lower, not because they are inherently lazy or incapable, but because they lack the human and physical capital and the pro-market institutions that foster higher productivity.

The United States has nothing to fear from openness to trade with and investment in less-developed countries. Global trade liberalization encouraged by the WTO promotes investment, growth and development at home as well as abroad.


Daniel T. Griswold is associate director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies. He is the author of the Cato study, "WTO Report Card: America’s Economic Stake in Open Trade."
 

T3023

Well-known member
Basicly this constitutes a land grab! If you do not have funding to pay your bills, then where does your land go.... and where do you go????

"Too the centralized cities where you will strive to live!"
 

Cal

Well-known member
If this were all true then why do the beef prices keep dropping?
Why have they spent the last several years rising? There will always be corrections and cycles.


Basicly this constitutes a land grab! If you do not have funding to pay your bills, then where does your land go.... and where do you go????
So are investments the US makes oversees land grabs as well? What do you think would happen to our economy without foreign investment? Not having "funding to pay your bills" is nonsense.

"Too the centralized cities where you will strive to live!"
Where the Black Helicopters are parked?
 

T3023

Well-known member
Cal said:
If this were all true then why do the beef prices keep dropping?
Why have they spent the last several years rising? There will always be corrections and cycles.

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This is a slow process that has been going on for 100 yrs. Just like the up keep in religion. This is nothing new. If you did a history research from 1913 to the present time, (1913 is when central banking got a foot hold into the country) on cattle pricing from that date you would see the gradual shift, a penny here and a penny there until you didn't notice any longer. It happens just like Fraud....a penny here and a penny there and before you know it...there is a lot of pennies missing. It would be up and down over a period time and it all relates to the NWO. They are forcing out the smaller ranchers and farmers who may not run but 2/300 head or have 2/300 acres.

*********************************************************

Basicly this constitutes a land grab! If you do not have funding to pay your bills, then where does your land go.... and where do you go????
So are investments the US makes oversees land grabs as well? What do you think would happen to our economy without foreign investment? Not having "funding to pay your bills" is nonsense.

**********************************************************

No, it is the depriciation of the US, the selling off US assetts for world power. With the UA buying our ports and china owning long beach, spanish owning the tow roads; these are payments due to the large deficit and the results fall on the little guy ...... this is all corporate and they are trying to run us out while controlling the nation.

Do you remember several years ago the big news in main stream media was the little farmer "Was no More". If you didn't own a 140,000 dollar piece of equipment you didn't matter. Those where the signs of the time we are now living in and it was the NWO and it's central banking system at work for profit/control. This created the worlds greastest "Fraud".

Go to this website and read on Amendment 14


PAC | Welcome to the People's Awareness Coalition |
People's Awareness Coalition is an Organization that centers in Constitutional Law.
http://www.pacinlaw.org/



Without forgien investments we would become self-sufficient and more prosperous, we would be in control of our assetts and we wouldn't be dealing with NIAS, Corporate USA, which is all discussed in Amendment 14. If you research "Central Banking" in this country; they were in play 3 different times and kicked out twice. During the times when central banking was not allowed in the US, the US prospered but everytime they came back, the US economy failed.

In 1962 President Kennedy was going to return to the gold standard, he lasted 8 months.

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"Too the centralized cities where you will strive to live!"
Where the Black Helicopters are parked?

OH... you mean "Marshal Law and Quarentines :wink:
 

Cal

Well-known member
You go ahead and worry about all of that nonsense for me...okay...because I have neither the time nor interest.
 

nonothing

Well-known member
Cal said:
You go ahead and worry about all of that nonsense for me...okay...because I have neither the time nor interest.


ok cal wins best thread ever posted.......could not of been writen any better....ty cal that was nice to see... :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: standing ovation
 

T3023

Well-known member
nonothing said:
Cal said:
You go ahead and worry about all of that nonsense for me...okay...because I have neither the time nor interest.


ok cal wins best thread ever posted.......could not of been writen any better....ty cal that was nice to see... :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: standing ovation



This is a very good example why our constitutional rights are no longer honored. This is why the judicial system does what it wants too. We don't have time to worry ourselves with worry, because our dollar has dropped in value already to the point we have to work our asses off to make a living. We are dragged through the court systems with words manipulated and twisted because we don't understand what is going on.

The people don't care. Our Constitution was written to protect the people from political and judicial money mongers, not to protect them from the people.

:oops:
 

T3023

Well-known member
There is one thing I can say for the Native America's and the Hispanics and the Iraqi's and the Iranians. They come together as a nation and they act together as a nation, they work together as a nation for what they believe in and fight for what they believe is right. At least their nations rise to the occassion......

Ours just sits on their lazy "Minds" because they have far to much on their plates to care.

"Interesting isn't it"
No wonder we are where we are!
 

Red Robin

Well-known member
T3023 said:
There is one thing I can say for the Native America's and the Hispanics and the Iraqi's and the Iranians. They come together as a nation and they act together as a nation, they work together as a nation for what they believe in and fight for what they believe is right. At least their nations rise to the occassion......

Ours just sits on their lazy "Minds" because they have far to much on their plates to care.

"Interesting isn't it"
No wonder we are where we are!
I would say iraq and iran would accept a citizenship application. If they are admirable...move there.
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
T's got a good point though. Those societies are tribal in their historical structure and it's all for one and one for all!!

Ever heard the Arab saying... " The enemy of my enemy is my friend"...again based in the tribal structure.

It is a fact!
 

T3023

Well-known member
You need to read the 14th Amendment. That's what took away your rights as an American. Read all of it, not just the first paragraph. The 14th amendment states that you are a slave to the political powers that be and you need to understand what "Citizenship" really means.

:p
 

Red Robin

Well-known member
T3023 said:
You need to read the 14th Amendment. That's what took away your rights as an American. Read all of it, not just the first paragraph. The 14th amendment states that you are a slave to the political powers that be and you need to understand what "Citizenship" really means.

:p
All said while sitting in your mainstreet , heated and airconditioned, modern house a block or two away from any thing you want. Health care available , freedom of worship available, freedom to voice your opinion without someone cutting your head off.....yea , were slaves.
 

T3023

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
T's got a good point though. Those societies are tribal in their historical structure and it's all for one and one for all!!

Ever heard the Arab saying... " The enemy of my enemy is my friend"...again based in the tribal structure.

It is a fact!

Kudo's to you Kolanuraven. You speak like an American. Stand like the "Power of the People United" will make the difference.

8)
 

T3023

Well-known member
Red Robin said:
T3023 said:
You need to read the 14th Amendment. That's what took away your rights as an American. Read all of it, not just the first paragraph. The 14th amendment states that you are a slave to the political powers that be and you need to understand what "Citizenship" really means.

:p
All said while sitting in your mainstreet , heated and airconditioned, modern house a block or two away from any thing you want. Health care available , freedom of worship available, freedom to voice your opinion without someone cutting your head off.....yea , were slaves.


AGENDA 21
:D
 

Red Robin

Well-known member
T3023 said:
Red Robin said:
T3023 said:
You need to read the 14th Amendment. That's what took away your rights as an American. Read all of it, not just the first paragraph. The 14th amendment states that you are a slave to the political powers that be and you need to understand what "Citizenship" really means.

:p
All said while sitting in your mainstreet , heated and airconditioned, modern house a block or two away from any thing you want. Health care available , freedom of worship available, freedom to voice your opinion without someone cutting your head off.....yea , were slaves.


AGENDA 21
:D
If these things are brought about by agenda 21, I much prefer it to sadams agenda or the one they have under chaves or the iranians.
 

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