Outsourcing Provides New Opportunities for Trust Industry
Today, Americans agree that the economy is their principal concern. But no one wants to mention the most damaging effect to the economy — the outsourcing of jobs; the outsourcing of production; the outsourcing of technology; the outsourcing of research; the outsourcing of investments; the outsourcing of the economy. We can’t get the presidential candidates to pronounce the word "outsourcing." And the free press is worse. David Leonhardt, in a New York Times Magazine article, faults Obama for not telling "… an effective story about the economy during the campaign." Nor does Leonhardt. His article, entitled "Obamanomics," discusses every effect to the economy but the outsourcing of the economy.
Congress has become accustomed to Corporate America taking care of the economy. Henry Ford developed the most important part of the economy, the middle class, by doubling the minimum wage and instituting health care and retirement benefits. And Ford and other business foundations developed the communities. Enforcement of our trade laws was left to hearings before administrative bodies and Congress allowed treble damages to be awarded to a business that succeeded in enforcing our trade laws. Congress doesn’t regulate outsourcing because the economists and business leadership keep telling us the economy may need a little stimulation but it is fundamentally strong. And now, Congress is fearful of stopping outsourcing because Corporate America that contributes to campaigns constantly admonishes "free trade," "protectionism."
After World War II, the strategy in the Cold War was to defeat communism with capitalism. We instituted the Marshall Plan and entered into free trade agreements to open markets, yielding entry into our market. But Japan refused to open its market and set about taking over in international trade with an assault for market share. Japan sold its export at cost or below cost, making up the profit in its closed domestic market. It directed this global assault by financing production with the Ministry of Finance and selecting aim in trade with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
