Where to begin?

When a country and its society import more than they export for over a quarter of a century, it is bound to erod the economy to its primate state.

No. First, we have imported more than exported for a heck of a lot longer than a quarter century. During that period, the US went from a superindustrial to postindustrial economy and saw the greatest growth in our history.

If the trade deficit disappeared tomorrow, our economy would totally go down the tubes.

Besides, cheap imports from China have done the poor more good than all the welfare programs put together. And are a natural wedge against inflation. In 1970 you had to pay $40 for a pair of shoes (a BIG expense in 1970, not only because of inflation, but because of MUCH less wealth banging around).

Now you can get acceptable shoes for $15 dollars. Excellent shoes cost $100 (i.e., MUCH less than $40 a la 1970).

American debts are increasing beyond our wildest dreams, endangering the future economic vitality of our future generation.

No. Plain old no. Total debt is around nine month’s worth of GDP. The deficit, even with the war, is minuscule in percentage terms. You have to consider national economy in percentage terms, not in absolute amounts, just as you do in normal day-to-day living.

Most of the goods for and by Americans and its companies are produced overseas and in the past decade with the advancement of telecommunications, many of the services sector are also imported.

Our economy is no longer based on mindlessly banging things together and reading off of cue cards. That is a GOOD thing.

Americans are a nation of great technology and knowhow. We must utilize that technology and our resources to find new means to regain our economic independence.

technology and knowhow ARE our economic independence. Rejoice that what you want to “regain” will plague us no longer!

Inflation, recession and financial crises are here.

Are here, were here, always will be here. The climate is not the only thing that works in cycles. And it’s the free market that has pulled our nuts out of the fire every time. Let us not “take the bull by the horn”. It solves nothing and annoys the bull. And brings on the bears.

Fortunately we are in an extended period of “Economic Warming” and the “positive feedbacks” are very real! (Unless we put our wellmeaning governmental foot in it and screw it all up.)

The increased costs of energy over the past 10 years, has affected the economy to unimaginable comprehension.
Yes, and, Congress is getting set to add to those costs with the upcoming “Climate Security Act”. They have already paved the way with declaring polar bears “threatened”. We are our own worst enemy.

When a country and its society import more than they export for over a quarter of a century, it is bound to erod the economy to its primate state.

We have only ourselves to blame, what goods and products are we exporting, what goods and services are produced in the USA, the answer is very little by comparison.

In the past 50 years as our population has increased, technology advanced, we have become a nation that consumes enormous amounts of resources, we shop for competitive prices. Corporate America is constantly looking to increase the bottom line.

Most of the goods for and by Americans and its companies are produced overseas and in the past decade with the advancement of telecommunications, many of the services sector are also imported.

The increased costs of energy over the past 10 years, has affected the economy to unimaginable comprehension.

This economic activity has eroded our economy to its core. It seems that the situation is getting worse every year. American debts are increasing beyond our wildest dreams, endangering the future economic vitality of our future generation.

I hope it is not too late for our society to recognize the graveness of our economic predicament and its resolve to take appropriate action to stem the tide of our economic downturn.

Americans are a nation of great technology and knowhow. We must utilize that technology and our resources to find new means to regain our economic independence.

We must face and implement fiscal responsibility, both by the government and the population with its infrastructure of corporate America.

It is no longer an option, it is a must if we as a nation want to survive and retain our way of life and economic vitality.

Inflation, recession and financial crises are here. Let us take the bull by the horn, initiate immediate actions to minimize and hopefully reverse our economic crises.

Jay Draiman, Northridge, CA.

PS
The US economy has enormous momentum. Metaphorically speaking, if someone turned off the locomotive that drives the US economy, the economy would go on for miles before anyone would likely notice something was wrong. But something has been wrong for many years. Is there really hope for the future? Maybe. But the terrible truth is that no one really knows. But if there is hope, we’re already on the wrong track. And that has to change..

1. Use public transportation

In my neck of the woods, public transportation is centralized, where urban sprawl renders it useful only for the rich or very poor.

2. Burn carbohydrates instead of hydrocarbons–walk, bike

One is responsible for producing less CO2 by driving to shop for the meat one eats to walk or bike or skate, than to do so for that purpose.

3. Don’t drive above 60 mphs.

Although it will change, my commute is about 160 miles per day, I normally drive with traffic to be safe, not to save 15 minutes or 5 bucks.

4. Empty the trunk of your cars from “storage” loads (no golf clubs stored there–very fuel expensive); keep proper air pressure on your tires, use less electricity–yep, turns the lights off and follow other common sense measures; no one needs to freeze in the summer.

I live out of my car; are you kidding?

5. Organize car-pool networks

Ah, you are kidding.

6. Write cohesive letters to your congressmen and senators. Team up with those who can provide technical information and economic impact data on your communities and their “voting pool”. Ensure those letters are read. Yada-Yada-Yada notes or acclamations in public fora are routinely dismissed.

I don’t write often for fear of arrest by the FBI and/or Secret Service. I have issues.

7. Form or join politically active groups established to gain back control over our political lives. May I suggest a key point in the agenda: improve smart public transportation in your communities.

I don’t like people, they don’t like me, peace.

Passed a station on my way down to the cities this weekend, Unleaded $3.85, E-85 $3.05. At 70% the mileage (a generous, governmentally estimate) E-85 should have been at $2.70 for parity.

This, by the way, is E-85 country, having been available for about 5 years.

How come the disparity, kum?

Oh, and the corn crop was three weeks late getting in the ground, and we had a freeze in the northern half of the state last night. Watch those futures sky.

I think they use byproduct for that.

I’m not sure why the advice re gasoline price needs to result in me driving slower or taking some other measure to conserve. Over 60% of the oil used is NOT used for fuels of any sort, but products. Seems to me that reducing the use of plastics in packaging would be a start — I neither need nor want to toss 1/2 lb of plastic blister pack that I can barely open to purchase 2 AA batteries; chinese restaurants seem to be able to make take-home using paper products and not styrofoam; landfills are awash in el cheapo plastic toys that lasted 2 days before they broke. I wonder how much oil is needed to create containers for the pure water environmentalist types prefer… and I’m supposed to drive slower?

Nuts.

Re biofuel debate, I’d like to see a serious look at where every gallon of crude oil goes before I worry about doing 60 on the interstate. My guess is that cutting back on plastic packaging nobody really wants anyway would pay for the ethanol experiment until such time as the technology matures (i.e. isn’t using corn.) Overall I think biofuels are a good idea — oil is too valuable to simply burn (or waste on blister packs for batteries.)

here is how to get light sweet from rock:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/30/magazines/fortune/Oil_from_stone.fortune/index.htm

The real issue is whether the Enviro Catastrophists will allow us to burn ANYTHING that produces Plant Food at a reasonable price!!!! I can see the same issue with the gentlemen who have introduced new methods of producing fuel from algae.

That may be the case. Still the same, I think it would be a mistake to blame it all on biofuels. I think it’s pretty obvious that there are other issues involved. Failures in complex systems in all sorts of contexts usually have many causes, and I would argue that the global food distribution system is no different in that regard. That said though, I think it’s obvious that adding biofuels to an already stressed system doesn’t help. So it seems to me that there should be a really good explanation to warrant it. And so far as I can tell, all of the explanations I’ve heard so far basically fall into one (or both) of two categories: (1) wishful thinking, or; (2) greed. But I accept the possibility that I may be wrong. I am, after all, just an interested amateur trying hard to make sense of it all. In that light, IMO, the best argued position in favor of biofuels is that offered by Vinod Khosla. Whether you agree with the guy or not you have to appreciate how willing he is to (1) explain his point of view, even to serious and high profile skeptics, and (2) put his money where his mouth is. If it were not for people like Khosla, I’d have turned the corner on crop-based biofuels long ago.

That being said there is, of course, other solutions (though not necessarily “orthogonal”, or “either/or” ones) to the whole transportation energy problem besides biofuels. And the one that is becoming increasingly obvious is “electrons” — batteries. As luck would have it, there are some interesting tie-ins there to Austin and the surrounding area, too. One of the companies that has made quite a buzz lately is EEStor of Cedar Park, TX (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEstor). Supposedly they’re working on an ultracapacitor with some incredible characteristics. But they’re still working in stealth mode. So although their partners (Zenn Motors and Lockheed Martin) remain optimistic it’s hard to say what will happen. Their first commercial production plant is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, so I guess we’ll see. By the way, much of their equity appears to come from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (aka “KB”), of which Al Gore is now a partner. Al Gore not withstanding, I really hope they’re for real. If they are, their product could be a real game-changer. If it does, it could make Al Gore a very, very rich man. But I don’t care about that. Whatever works.

Along the same lines is AFS Trinity (www.afstrinity.com). They recently came out of stealth mode and are now on a cross-country tour to show off their prototype car: a converted Saturn Vue small SUV that they claim puts out up to 370HP and get up to 150 mpg. They do it more with thought innovation rather than technical innovation: they used off-the-shelf components to put an ultracapacitor front end on an otherwise run-of-the-mill gasoline/plug-in electric hybrid. Check out their video page (btw, some of the videos were shot in — you guessed it — Austin). What’s interesting about these guys is that their product is available now. All they need are distributors (they hope to attract the interest of the major automakers).

In addition to that, Nissan, Toyota, and Honda have all recently announced plans to invest big bucks in “next generation” battery production (where are the US companies?). They just didn’t do it in Austin, lol! Anyway, electric vehicles and hybrids are definitely on their way to a showroom near you. Heck, even big rig manufacturers are developing hybrids. That doesn’t obviate biofuels, but it does help to mitigate their impact on an over-all solution. After all, if batteries eliminate a substantial portion of the need for on-board liquid fuels in the near term, sustainable replacements for on-board fossil fuels can be pushed back further into the long term. And that would be a good thing, too.