The Hightower Report

Seismic Jolts in Shreveport

The corporate chieftains who have relentlessly pushed American factories and our middle-class jobs offshore rationalize this globalization of production by declaring that it's all about efficiency, as though that's the highest value to which a civilization can aspire.

Values aside, however, the problem with corporate efficiencies is that too often they are not. Not efficient, that is. This is because the corporate scheme of moving stuff from A to B to G to Y to achieve the narrow goal of maximizing profits can look so simple, sensible, and even slick in a boardroom PowerPoint presentation, largely because it ignores inconvenient realities, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear meltdowns.

For example, Shreveport, La., has been jolted by the horrific one-two-three blow that has pummeled Japan. What hit Shreveport was not a seismic aftershock, but the inherent fragility of the distant supplier networks built by profiteering globalizers. A General Motors Corp. truck plant there had to shut down for a week because one truck part, made at a factory in the devastated area of Japan, was unavailable. One! Amazing. Cars and trucks have about 20,000 parts, but the inability to get even a single one delivered from abroad can bring an entire assembly line to a halt!

GM's bean counters had decided at some point that they could have this gizmo made in and shipped from Japan a bit more cheaply than making it here. So GM and other globalizers have made themselves – and us – dependent on an unreliable, far-flung network of foreign factories. Moreover, these scattered suppliers also are at the mercy of their suppliers – a plastic gadgetmaker in Japan, for example, might rely on a Chinese plant for a chemical to make the plastic.

The "efficiency" of globalization is nothing but a cross-your-fingers fantasy.

Hoovernomics, Part II

It took him some 80 years, but he has now made what looks to be a full comeback to power.

He is Herbert Hoover. With the Great Depression spreading misery across America, President Hoover's prescription was to insist on reducing the size and spending of governments to boost "business confidence." Hoovernomics was a disaster for our country, and it was not good for him – he lost the presidency in 1932 to FDR.

So here we are in a new century with widespread relentless unemployment, mass underemployment, stagnant wages, a rapidly falling middle class, and dimming economic prospects even for college-educated young Americans. In the face of this destabilizing, inegalitarian pressure on our economy and society, what remedy are America's corporate and political leaders demanding? Hoovernomics.

Not a single jobs bill is in the congressional hopper. Despite rhetoric about a new green economy, the White House has offered no job creation plans at all. Instead, Washington's energy is going down the Hoover hole of restoring business confidence. "The deficit is the devil," cry the New Hooverites, as they wildly slash spending and try to kill federal programs like Head Start that lift people up.

Not to be outdone, a covey of extremist right-wing governors are demonizing, disempowering, and firing thousands of public employees. These Little Hoovers maniacally shriek that with state revenues down and so many families out of work, the smart thing to do is eliminate more jobs! They're shoving teachers, firefighters, and other public employees out the door – thus shutting off the taxes that these employees pay to the state, while simultaneously increasing the number of out-of-work people looking for jobs.

If ignorance is bliss, they must be ecstatic. Hoovernomics is back – as goofy and destructive today as it was last century.