Does your house have to blow down before you recognize a hurricane is coming? You are obviously so biased and blind that you cannot and will not see.... no sense for me to explain. (BTW... if you've read any of my other posts, you know I also hate the Republicans.) All of us Americans are "frogs in the pot". I feel the heat. You apparently don't.
Recently, my now 80 year old Dad told me a story when he came out of the train station on the day they emigrated and for the first time in his life walked through a Western European neighborhood he couldn't believe his eyes as people were out in their gardens, busy mowing and watering humongous areas of lawn. This was unthinkable in Eastern Europe, where he came from. Land was valuable and if you were lucky to "own" any then you were growing crops on every square inch. He told me he mentioned to my mom back then "A time will come in the future when these lunatics will be forced to take out the shovel from their garden shed and turn their lawn into farming ground."
..................................................................... And remember there is no waste after meals.... As the chickens become your best friends at 7am, 12, and 6pm....
It is no coincidence that shovels and other garden tools, seeds and rural lifestyle/self-sufficiency/gardening books are selling like hot cakes the last couple of months. The First Lady getting her hands dirty. Who would've thunk?
.......................................................... 1% going back to 70%.....? Time to go long "something"....
It worse than the MBA infestation we had with Bush, now the the advanced degrees in Economics have taken over and they are a far more dangerous vermin. The horror!
Could be a market for a home based flash freezer for vegetables and fruits. Flash freezing is suppose to retain the vitamins and taste better than canning or jarring. Some people recommend spacing out the veggies on a metal pan and putting it in the freezer for a few hours. Others say that home freezers are not cold enough and that a better way is to put the veggies on a pan in a cooler with dry ice. Then transfer to a zip-lock baggie and store in the freezer. Maybe the ghost of Billy Mays could hawk a home flash freezing system as an infomercial. Someone brought up a good point as to what the impact would be on agriculture prices and farm land if urban people started growing their own. Instead of spending time on a law, why not spend it growing food? The next question would be, what would you grow?
Oh, please, this is all photo op stuff. That's all National Parks Service real-estate. Nobody starts their first veggie garden at the White House. Look at those gloves. First time. I have a whole box of leather gloves. Most have holes/missing fingers. The photo insults our intelligence.
How about demanding that China and India properly float their currencies against the Dollar & Euro. This would very quickly erode the "cheap labor" differential. Secondly, how about requiring that these other nations don't export low quality products that kill people. Maybe it is time to bring back high import tariffs until these other countries open their markets to the importation of American goods without the bureaucratic stalling and other anti-competitive measures that they currently utilize. There are a number of measures that the U.S. can take to become an export oriented economy again.
"Floating" the currency sounds nice, but it would never float far enough to offset the labor cost differential. Besides, the only ones who benefit from other countries floating their currency are politicians who wish to cheat you some more without your understanding how they're hosing you. High import tariffs? On goods from countries we're dependent upon to fund our borrowing needs? Not likely. No, there are NOT "a number of measures US can take to become export economy again".... unless below current minimum wages. If there were, we'd be taking them.