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The Myth of American Productivity

January - 13 - 2012

In 1939, when John Steinbeck completed The Grapes of Wrath—a heart-wrenching tale of a family of sharecroppers forced out of their home during the Depression— roughly one-quarter of the U.S. population still lived on farms. Today, family farms are increasingly rare, and less than 2 percent of employed Americans work in agriculture.

But rather than viewing the decline of farming jobs as a tragedy, economists almost invariably count agriculture as a shining American success—the triumph of productivity. And why not? A handful of farmers using GPS-equipped combines and sophisticated moisture sensors can grow far more food than the population of an entire rural county in 1939. Food has become so plentiful and cheap in the that it has been blamed for the increase in obesity. And agricultural products have become one of the country’s chief exports, totaling more than $115 billion in 2010.
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History may one day judge the global economic crisis as the turning point that finally forced Washington to confront the runaway monster of military spending.

On Thursday, U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta is to spell out the details of an estimated $450 billion in military cuts.

At the same time, the Pentagon also fears it is expected to lose up to another $500 billion over this decade as its share of a second round of across-the-board cuts to reduce the overall federal deficit.

That would represent close to $1 trillion in reduced military spending over the next 10 or 12 years.
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Do you think predications can be turned into reality? Well, in the case of 2010’s predication, it went wrong. A year ago, it was predicted that 2011 would help us to return to the normal economical life, escaping the bites of credit crunches or recessions. But, nothing seems to be going straight that way. We expected stability in the economy with ’s resurgence due to the springboard for his campaign of re-election, but roaming without results.

Expectation is what leads us to act or response and that was the reason for which many of the citizens thought that May was the best month for the to move ahead with some good financial terms. Other wiser heads suggested May 2013, but that also seems a matter of confusion as per the current situation.
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In a sense, the controversial radio talk show host and former Fox News Commentator Glenn Beck had it right: The could be headed for a major period of social unrest — or worse — but not for the reasons Beck stated.

Beck blamed the . Or President Barack Obama. Or former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Or the Democrats. Or liberals. Or unions. Or George Soros. Or Woodrow Wilson. Or the builders of Rockefeller Center. Or all of the aforementioned, plus the public sector, for “getting in the way, and preventing what the free market is capable of doing.”
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