by Charles Coughlin

On Friday, the stock market dropped 213 points, falling well below 11,000, where it’s been for most of the Bush Presidency. The US economy is heavily based on consumer spending. It would make some sense that things like continuing high gas prices, outsourcing of jobs and the disappearance of good quality American jobs would eventually have some effect. While gas prices have slipped back from near $3 per gallon, the prices are still higher than they should be and act as a drag on the economy.

The massive one day drop in the stock market was followed by Ford announcing the lay off of 30,000 workers. One news article notes “Ford and GM (have) shown all the signs for companies going down towards… bankruptcies. They will be cutting jobs, benefits and lower costs and prices of cars to survive. Federal money will try to buoy them…Ford Motor will axe almost a quarter of its north American workforce and close seven vehicle factories by 2012 as the world’s third-biggest carmaker aims to return… to profit by 2008.”

The Bush administration has done absolutely nothing to reverse the policies of NAFTA and GATT which have exported millions of good paying jobs to the Third World. In fact, a new treaty, CAFTA was drawn up to further accelerate the exportation of any remaining manufacturing jobs.

A recent scandal in Japan involving internet portal LiveDoor appeared to cause ripples of uncertainty in Wallstreet last week. When more bad news came in on Friday, the Stock Market took a sharp dive. One news story reports “Lackluster earnings reports from Dow Jones industrials General Electric Co. and Citigroup Inc. sent stocks plunging Friday, giving the Dow its biggest single-day percentage drop in nine months.The major indexes each lost more than 2 percent this week. At the close of trading, the Dow dropped 213.32, or 1.96 percent, to 10,667.”

For America to be prosperous, we need to keep manufacturing right here in the US. We need to encourage innovation and to provide competitively-priced products. American corporations should be investing in robot factories so that the cost of products can be brought down through improving technology. Instead, special interests have paid off our politicians to go along with outsourcing factories to locations with near slavery conditions.

America is also filling up with Mexican illegal aliens. An estimated 13 million are in the US right now. While dishonest politicians claim these people “help” the economy, the truth is different. Public schools must provide free education for the the children of illegal aliens which has led to overcrowding and the near bankruptcy of school districts in the southwest. Illegal alien families also get free medical care, which has bankrupted a number of county hospitals in California. Citizenship laws need to be changed immediately so that illegal alien families can’t obtain permanent status in the US by having “anchor babies.” The financial drain created by illegal aliens is yet one more serious problem facing the US economy which our politicians refuse to address.

Another ominous thing on the horizon is the possibility of the Chinese manufacturing automobiles for sale in the US. Americans are getting tired of mediocre vehicles at ridiculously high prices. It’s long overdue that someone should provide truly affordable cars again. In ten years or so, the Chinese could easily finish off Ford and General Motors with bargain-priced Chinese cars if Ford and GM are still in business by then.