posted March 24, 2009 10:27 PM            

Seems like a historic phrase that should be revived.

Macroeconomics; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macroeconomics
(Love the graphic)

Something I was forced to study in college, but I'm not sure anybody really studies it anymore because I don't hear anything useful ever coming from that field.

So sometime during the last decade or two a new class of Robber Barons was born. They saw that huge amounts of money could be made in the financial markets. Along the way they decided that they did not have enough money and they changed the rules so they could have more. They pocketed huge amounts of money, as Robber Barons do, and then the house of cards fell apart. The house of cards was so big it crashed on all of us.

During this period of time manufacturing was devalued by the Robber Baron class. Manufacturing simply did not make money as fast. By shipping manufacturing to third world countries the profitability was improved a bit, but still not profitable enough. The real money was no longer in manufacturing. Manufacturing was given away! Previously much of the middle class of the US worked in manufacturing. Not nearly as many were required to work for the businesses the Robber Barons had created.

The process was interrupted by 9/11 for a little bit, which prompted a change in the tax code to help the middle class and the economy. Since the middle class was now made less, and the middle class was taxed less, the government brought in less money. The income of the middle class has been flat for a decade as the demand for manufacturing workers declined. Since the middle class had always been the largest total income group this greatly affected tax revenue. Hence the huge federal deficits.

Now I say the Robber Barons have screwed all of us by destroying the financial market they so love, and sending manufacturing overseas. By what means are we to re-create the lost wealth? Did the wealth really exist in the first place? Presently we are trying to prop up their house of cards with public funds that don't really exist and in an economy that will have trouble creating wealth.

Have you heard anything about reinvigorating manufacturing, a true means of creating wealth?

I’m just a lowly manufacturing engineer, but I don't think I'm that far off the mark. What I am perplexed about is the lack of good macroeconomic analysis of the recent past, and currently proposed policies. It seems that nobody is making a good analysis, or any analysis of the current situation.

Where are the professionals in that field?

I'm also hoping to open the eyes of my fellow manufacturing professionals on how the Robber Barons have impacted your life in more ways than one.

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Best Regards,

Tom Cunningham