I was reading an excerpt from Wonkblog in the Wednesday, July 30, Washington Post today.  Matt O'Brien, the author, was lamenting "for the middle and working classes, real wages have been stagnant for the past 30 years and housing equity has taken a nose dive.  At this rate, it won't be long until the American Dream isn't even a memory for the middle class."  O'Brien doesn't provide any causes for the outcome that he accurately described.

The fundamental underlying cause for the American loss of middle class income and wealth is the increased participation in the global economy of hundreds of millions of workers in China, India and other Asian nations during the same period.  The value of labor around the world has been reset by market forces greater than the power any individual government.  Once trade agreements were established and the World Trade organization was created the power of global competition for work and jobs was unleashed.  US workers protected status that had existed since World War II was removed.  US workers have been forced to compete against hundreds of millions of low wage workers that were never part of the global economy in earlier decades.  When large amounts of new capacity are added to any market the value of the product declines.  In this case the product is unskilled and semiskilled labor.  US labor has a lower market value today than it did 30 years ago because of a massive increase in global labor supply.  It is a market fact.  It should be no surprise. 

Politicians don't want to discuss the truth behind this issue.  They talk about redistribution of wealth and fairness.  They don't talk about the fact that the global trade rules were changed by actions by governments.  Market forces worked.  The governments didn't understand the impact of unleashing the forces of a truly global labor market.  Or maybe they did understand what would happen and didn't tell the people the truth when the rules were changed.  After all, hundreds of millions of people in other parts of the world have much improved living standards.  On a global basis the world is better off.  Some people won, some people lost. 

US unskilled and semiskilled labor were among the losers.  The only way to materially impact this problem is for US citizens to increase their competitiveness through education and training.  There is no other way.  Handing out free stuff by the government doesn't solve any problem over the long term.  US citizens must increase the value of their labor significantly if they want their labor to have a value that delivers a comfortable life.

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Many people have analyzed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since it was signed into law in March of 2010.  The Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress after the 2008 elections.  President Obama thought he had a "mandate" for his agenda from the electorate.  Obama and the leadership of the House and Senate ignored the Republican minority and jammed the law through the Legislative Branch even though it was clear that much of the details of the implementation of ACA would be determined by regulators after it was signed into law.  It is not hard to appreciate how Republican lawmakers felt after being ignored by Obama, Pelosi and Reid on one of the most important and controversial pieces of legislation in decades.

There have been all kinds of issues surrounding the ACA since the law was passed.  The Supreme Court challenge, freedom of religion related lawsuits and implementation issues have grabbed the headlines.  The ACA has been subject to thousands of hours of cable TV news coverage and millions of published written words.

But the real impact of ACA hasn't received a lot of direct coverage.  After the Tea Party formed in 2010 and the Republicans reclaimed control of the House of Representatives in the November 2010 elections, the Obama "mandate" dissolved into nothingness.  Barrack Obama has accomplished nothing of significance since the ACA.  He is paying the price for his arrogance in jamming through the ACA without bipartisan support.  It appears the Republicans have a very good chance of taking control of the Senate in the November 2014 elections with a very slim majority.  If this happens we should expect the Republican agenda being passed through Congress at warp speed forcing Obama to sign the bills or veto them, putting himself in a position of denying the will of the people's elected representatives.  If we think we are having fun in Washington DC today, it will get really fun if the Republicans win the Senate in November.

The real impact of the ACA has been complete gridlock in the US government, created by Obama and his Democrat colleagues. The damage builds every day that passes with no progress on other key issues.  Whatever good Obama thought he accomplished with ACA he has offset with the damage he created in his relationship with Republicans.  Hopefully, historians will examine this period and acknowledge the problems Obama created and how his administration was a net failure.

The next two years could be really fun, not.

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Barrack Obama is in the second half of his sixth year as President of the United States.  Many of us pointed out years ago that he was not qualified to be President because he had no track record of demonstrated executive skills at any time in his professional career.  Over the years there have been many circumstances which demonstrated Obama's executive leadership failures.  However, none has been as visible and undeniable as the massive numbers of illegal immigrants crossing over the Texas border.  In addition to the blatant illegality of the people crossing over the border a humanitarian crisis has been created by the numbers of minors crossing without adult family members present.  Obama assured us months ago that the border situation was under control.  He either was misinformed or purposely mislead the American people.  No matter which is true, it is clear Obama failed to act to protect our nation from the invasion of illegal aliens and allowed a humanitarian crisis to be created.

Obama is now being criticized by well known people in his own party for his failure to observe the situation first hand by visiting the Texas border while he is attending fund raising events in Texas, just a few hundred miles away.  The criticism is well deserved.  He criticized George Bush for flying over the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and failing to immediately go to the gulf.  The illegal immigration issue is equally as important and Obama is now the one failing to go to the scene of the action.

Obama was ranked as the worst US president since World War II in a recent poll.  No kidding!  We are stuck with Obama for another two and one-half years.  However, we have the opportunity to remove the Democrats from controlling the Senate in November.  If the Republicans can gain control of the Senate and retain a majority in the House of Representatives the stage will be set for the Legislative Branch to put extreme pressure on Obama to change direction on many critical issues during the last two years of his term.  Obama may veto many bills in these circumstances.  If he does so he will take personal responsibility for his actions.

It is time for the United States to elect a President with demonstrated executive leadership skills.  We have over two years to find the right person and elect them.  We can't afford to elect the wrong person in 2016.

TPM

I have completed the Purplemuse.com Library project.  Check out the Purplemuse.com Library,  http://www.thepurplemuse.com/id59.html, to find a list of books I have read and discussed in my blog and articles and links to where they are discussed.  I hope this is helpful to those that are interested in exploring the various subjects that I have written about over the past seven plus years.  Please let me know if you have any comments by emailing me at tpm@thepurplemuse.com. 

TPM

I received a recommendation a few months ago that I create a library listing of the all the books mentioned on www.thepurplemuse.com to make it easier for readers to find books that I have read and how they relate to material I have written on the site. 

I have completed phase one of the project and created a new section of the site, Purplemuse.com Library,  http://www.thepurplemuse.com/id59.html.  I hope this is helpful to those that are interested in exploring the various subjects that I have written about over the years.  Please let me know if you have any comments by emailing me at tpm@thepurplemuse.com. 

I will be adding the books mentioned only in my blog in the near future.

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Have you ever acquired a book that looked interesting but you really weren't sure where the author was coming from when you acquired it?  I just finishing reading Twilight of Abundance - Why Life in the 21st Century Will Be Nasty, Brutish and Short by David Archibald.  Mr. Archibald's book can be viewed as a series of essays on somewhat related topics that mostly deal with the future of our world's natural resources.  He provides his views on serious long term strategic issues that the US and the rest of the world must address over the long term.

Archibald's states unequivocally that the global warming alarmists that have attempted to fundamentally change the carbon fuel based economy of the world are completely wrong in their climate change projections.  He states that warming and cooling cycles of the earth are created by solar activity cycles and that we have entered  into a severe cooling cycle that will last through 2040.  Archibald states that "changes in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration will have a minuscule effect on climate. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is not even  a little bit bad."  He acknowledges that the earth did warm during the 20th century but it was caused primarily by variations in solar activity, not human activity.  Archibald explains why he and others that agree with him are right and those that support the highly publicized climate change gurus are wrong.

The book addresses the potential of global cooling on global agriculture production.  This is the scariest part of the book.  Archibald points out that if he is correct that many fertile parts of the world will have substantially shortened growing seasons in the near future and that global agricultural yields will fall at the same time as populations continue to rise.  He explains that Middle East countries can't come close to feeding their populations through domestic agriculture and rely on imported grains from grain exporting countries.  In many countries around the world food cost is a substantial portion of the average persons income.  What happens if grain prices increase dramatically?  What happens if grain exporters no long have grain to export at any price due to shortened growing seasons?  Is Archibald's analysis correct?  Can the world make the needed changes in its agricultural industry to maintain and expand production to support a growing population in a global cooling scenario?

Archibald discusses the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology in the Middle East including Pakistan.  His view is that Islam is the foundation of failed cultures.   Is there really any way to avoid the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the Middle East in the fairly near future?  The Middle East issues are so complex that they define simple analysis by Archibald or anyone else. 

Does China really want a war with the US or Japan to reclaim its honor from the humiliation it suffered over the past century?  Archibald believes China does want a war and explains why.  It is hard for me accept that a major war makes sense for China.  I believe they would have far more to lose then gain.  But does anyone full appreciate the big picture in sufficient detail to make a valid assessment? 

Twilight of Abundance concludes with a discussion of our energy future.  Archibald provides his opinion on peak oil,  fracking, coal to synthetic liquid fuel conversion, compressed natural gas for automobiles and the role each of them can and can't play in our energy future.  He expresses his view that converting corn to ethanol fuel makes no sense at any level. He addresses solar and wind power and makes the point that they have limited utility in meeting our overall energy needs.  "Nuclear power is the obvious solution" states Archibald.   However,  he doesn't support "the currently dominant technology, uranium burning light-water reactors." Archibald believes the US must "develop the thorium molten-salt nuclear reactor. "This is the foundation upon which everything else rests." 

Archibald addresses a variety of problems that he believes are coming "over the next score of years."  One can agree or disagree with his analysis.  The global warming versus global cooling issue is one that needs to be addressed quickly.  If Archibald's global cooling analysis is correct, the US needs to start taking strategic policy actions now to prepare for its impact on the planet. 

I think there is one point that every rational person can agree on.  The US government must start thinking strategically for the very long term.  We can't continue managing our nation for the next budget year or election cycle.  We must begin preparing for long term changes that are coming.  We must take a different perspective.

TPM