We should Wonder. Then, Research.

I’m not, at this juncture, going to bother with details, though, if we think that the majority of developed(read: Proven) Technologies that have been Developed, over the last interim, have made their Way, unmolested, into our Economy, it may behoove Us to start Thinking, you know, For a Change..

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/interim

That Business Week article was certainly jarring. It puts all this shortsighted, quarter-to-quarter profit seeking behavior in context (a kind of scary one) and really reflects poorly on this era, especially on top of the shallow consumerism that has dominated. Wonderful, eh?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_36/b4145036681619_page_2.htm

As a consequence of exporting good jobs that are not fully replaced, the U.S. demand engine is broken. Of the roughly 130 million jobs in the U.S., only 20% (26 million) pay more than $60,000 a year. The other 80% pay an average of $33,000. That ratio is not a good foundation for a strong middle class and a prosperous society. Rather than a demand engine, it’s a decay curve. As a nation, we have papered over our declining incomes by accepting the need for two incomes per household and by borrowing heavily, often against paper assets inflated by financial bubbles (dot-com and housing). In recent years, personal debt has grown much faster than personal income. In 1985 the ratio of household debt to household income was 0.7 to 1; in 2000 it was 1 to 1; in 2008, it was 1.7 to 1. We earned less, so we borrowed more. In 2007 we reached our limit.

This cycle looks only to be getting worse. The effects of the massive scaling back of American science and engineering research in the 1990s and 2000s may just be beginning. Unless reversed, it is likely to have its greatest impact a decade from now, when the missing discoveries of a generation earlier would have been expected to come to commercial fruition. It’s time to identify—and fix—the root of the problem.

Hey, I hope y’all saw this:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/08/34-percent-of-workers-have-one-week-or.html

Very interesting article about suppliers. Just another unforeseen consequence of outsourcing among other things. The big manufacturer is lean and mean and can downshift quite quickly, but the burden falls instead on their suppliers who are crushed. Boy, I bet it all sounded good in biz school. They didn’t quite think this one all the wy through though, eh?

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE57O5AA20090825

ZH has a very good succinct descriptions of the current relationship between the US and China. Ignore the title, as it is somewhat irrelevant to the content of the comment.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ongoing-chinese-annexation-us-consumer