It's Friday Night! Party Time!

Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

This week, I found some original reports on worker displacement through insourcing from the 2003-2004 time frame. Insourcing is when corporations bring over cheaper labor via guest worker Visas and displace US workers. In other words, the jobs exist, US workers are simply swapped out for cheaper counter parts. I think to believe it, and get your head around this practice, you just plain have to see it.

This story rarely gets out but when you see the real people this is happening to, it makes the unbelievable real. It is real.

One of the more amazing spins of the day is how the term diversity has been cast to mean global labor. The original term was for United States Domestic diversity. In other words, giving equal opportunity in a nation to all of her citizens.

Well, there are now damning reports coming to light on what is happening to a large segment of the American Professionals and that is women.

The Joint Economic Committee of Congress released a report entitled Equality in Job Loss: Women Are Increasingly Vulnerable to Layoffs During Recessions.

According to the JEC:

The stock market is tittering, the financial sector is imploding, real estate instead of a place to live for families, is now a gambling chip, the deficit is rising and the dollar is tanking.

So, how long can the United States be only seen as a consumer market and not as a nation to invest in her people and infrastructure?

On a mile high level, it seems the great generation, that of WWII , understood what happens with unfettered capitalism, no regulation and no power to workers and we have stood idly by while all that was built has been under attack for over 30 years. Now the United States stands not as an economic world leader, but more of a fat cow to slaughter. Hungry nations prey, salivate and take the prime cuts.

In the news and the blogs there have been a series of reports, valid or not, that the world is looking at a global economic downturn of significant proportions. While this maybe true or not, one thing to note is more Americans control their own retirement accounts and are subject to choice and market conditions. Are we setting up an economy of fear? Riding the wave of emotional sentiment when your retirement future is bouncing on a VIX 100 foot wave fear and uncertainty sea is no way to build a secure social safety net.

Now that the primary is over and many Progressives are now stunned at the realities of Obama being center (I always take that term to mean multinational corporations and the super rich agenda) and McCain is running around with the queen of offshore outsourcing, Carly Fiorina, who isn't even an economist, a huge question emerges of NOW WHAT?

The Economist's View has a good post on how to bring about transformative change we really need in this country.

Instead of shilling for Barack, or Hillary, or whoever, we should have been pressuring the candidates to work for our votes
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we're like cheap dates