"Everything is fine," says David Brooks, the NY Times op-ed columnist.  What is worrisome is the spread of ideas from the "angry fringe." 

Brooks' columns are like Ritalin.  Designed to reduce our hyperactivity to make us be calm in class. Listen to the teacher.  Behave.  Swallow the mis-information.  And smile.

Today Brooks cannot understand why America worries so about the trade deficit.  A study says that the U.S. is number one in competitiveness, he says.  And we have values.

Classic misdirection.  Don't solve problems.  Just don't talk about them.  Change the subject.  Express exasperation that people don't recognize all the good things in life. He points this out:

Even Republicans, by a two-to-one majority, believe free trade is bad for America, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. 

Reality, Mr. Brooks, reality.

U.S. citizen's incomes are down in real terms, their good paying job with benefits has been replaced by two jobs... one at Dunkin' Donuts and one at McDonalds.  It's okay because some group of people in Europe believes our country's "competitiveness" is high.  Quit whining.

Then Brooks says:

not every economic dislocation has been caused by trade and the Chinese.

More misdirection.  That sentence is true, means nothing, and implies that the "angry fringe" actually argues that EVERY JOB lost was caused by trade. 

The true statement is that a tremendous number of jobs were lost because of the trade deficit.  A net job loss.  And a gargantuan loss in job quality and stability.  Instability is bad.  Just ask Wall Street.  But Brooks does not engage on those points.  He talks about something else.  Saying we should be happy, and are unreasonable if we are not.

So he ignores the trade deficit.  Our inability to produce for our military.  Our food trade deificit.  The housing credit crisis.  Income inequality.  He ignores their causes.

Brooks' techniques deserve deconstruction.  He is losing the battle of idea and is worried most about that.  He has a good job that makes him happy, but a world view that is being proved untrue by reality.

Another article on the trade problems caused by the consumption tax.  From the Financial Times.  Authored by two former Bushies.  

The Coalition for a Prosperous America policy on consumption taxes, aka border adjustable taxes, is here.

If we could craft a way to make the consumption tax revenue neutral and taxpayer neutral across businesses and demographic groups, we could have a shot at a switch-over from the income-payroll tax system.

The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University released a survey on leadership.

A new survey reveals a profound and growing unhappiness among Americans with their current leaders, not only in politics but in nearly every sphere. More than three quarters of the public (77%) now say the country has a “crisis” in leadership—up from 69% a year ago and 65% two years ago. And nearly eight in ten Americans (79%) believe that the United States will decline as a nation unless it soon gets better leaders.

Who cares about the country these days?  Or about the Constitution?  It seems they are few and far between.  

We are now "consumers" instead of "citizens."  Industry leaders are expected to take action that harms the country if it is good for the next quarterly results.  Elected leaders vote with those multinationals who fund campaigns, while distracting us with social issues.

We need leaders that can run a country.  And pay attention to the Constitution.  And can deal with the fundamentals, like the trade deficit.  

The current crop is not up to it. 

Here are selected recommendations from the recent, blockbuster report from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. (Report in PDF format).  I'll not comment further.  They are solid recommendations.

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THE COMMISSION’S RECOMMENDATIONS

Chapter 1 – The United States-China Trade and Economic Relationship

The Relationship’s Current Status and Significant Changes During 2007

1. The Commission recommends that Congress urge the Administration to press China to sign the Agreement on Government Procurement in fulfillment of a promise it made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

2. The Commission recommends that Congress enact legislation to define currency manipulation as an illegal export subsidy and allow the subsidy to be taken into account when determining penalty tariffs. In addition, Congress should amend the law to allow currency manipulation to be added to other prohibited subsidies when calculating antidumping and countervailing duty penalties.

3. The Commission recommends that Congress amend the 1988 law directing the Department of the Treasury to report biannually on “International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies.” Congress should eliminate the requirement that the Department of the Treasury first determine whether a country intends to gain an export advantage before deciding that country has manipulated its currency. (read more)