- It is not our intent to alarm anyone, but we do hope
that readers are aware of the latest pronouncement from Warren Buffett,
the second-richest man in the world who is frequently referred to as "the
most successful investor ever."
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- The corporate free trade agenda, says Buffett, has created
a mess so serious that he is losing confidence in the stability of the
U.S. dollar, and the economy it underpins. "I am crying wolf again
and this time backing it with Berkshire Hathaway money," Buffett says
of the assets of the investment conglomerate he created and controls. "Through
the spring of 2002, I had lived nearly 72 years without purchasing a foreign
currency. Since then Berkshire has made significant investments in -- and
today holds -- several currencies."
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- Buffett says he is losing faith in the soundness of U.S.
currency as an investment vehicle because the United States is running
a huge trade deficit -- close to $500 billion, and rising rapidly -- that
is causing income to flow out of the country at such a rapid rate that
it will soon become unsustainable. In the November edition of Fortune magazine,
Buffett warns that the rapidly mounting U.S. trade deficit could lead to
a dramatic plunge in the value of the dollar and a host of additional economic
consequences that could add up to disaster for American families.
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- In the post-Cold War era, U.S. leaders embraced the corporate
free trade agenda embodied in pacts such as the North American Free Trade
Agreement and the granting of permanent most-favored nation trading status
to China. These deals and others like them encourage U.S. businesses to
engage in a race-to-the-bottom, relocating on a regular basis to countries
that permit them to pay the lowest possible wages, to despoil the environment
and to dismiss human rights concerns. U.S. businesses have shuttered factories,
laid off unionized workers and shifted millions of jobs overseas.
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- In Wisconsin, more than 50,000 manufacturing jobs have
been lost since George W. Bush assumed the presidency, as whole sectors
of our economy shut down here and move overseas, mostly to China.
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- Now the abandonment of American communities and families
has extended to the service sector. The shifting of manufacturing and service
work out of the United States is great for the huge corporations that contribute
mightily to the campaigns of politicians who back their free trade agenda.
These corporations can lower their costs by moving production to countries
where wages are low, and basic safety regulations and environmental protections
have been eliminated. But it is terrible for workers here and abroad, who
are pitted against each other in a battle to see who will work for the
least. And it is horrific for the U.S. economy.
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- By allowing for policies that have transformed the United
States, which used to export far more than it imported, into a nation that
imports far more than it exports, President Bush and the bipartisan congressional
coalition that backs the corporate free trade agenda are building up a
trade deficit that could ultimately take down the U.S. economy. Unwise
economic policies, Buffett says, are literally "selling the nation
out from under us."
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- Buffett's warning needs to be taken seriously, not just
by citizens who have already witnessed the devastation caused by the corporate
free trade agenda, but by elected officials. When U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl,
D-Wis., and U.S. Reps. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse; Paul Ryan, R-Janesville;
Tom Petri, R-Fond du Lac; Mark Green, R-Green Bay; and Jim Sensenbrenner,
R-Menomonee Falls, vote for free trade legislation, they are doing serious
damage to Wisconsin and to the U.S. economy.
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- Copyright 2003 The Capital Times
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- http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/editorial/60257.php
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