Baksheesh

by | May 3, 2012 | 0 comments

Baksheeh is a Persian word widely used throughout the Arabic world as well as in south east Asia and India to describe tipping, charitable giving and certain forms of political corruption and bribery. Think of it. With the same word, one can be said to be inducing someone to conduct illicit behavior or giving them alms.  Isn’t language wonderful. I come to this subject because of the landswell of press reports about that poor, struggling retailer, Walmart. You know them, they are the ones who have killed small town America by offering low, low prices on poor quality goods they acquire anywhere but America made by anyone but Americans and sold to those...

Made in America…..Not

by | Dec 1, 2008 | 0 comments

Let’s start with the basics.  America is and has been running a negative trade balance for lo these many years.  And everyone knows that pundits like Lou (The Hitman) Dobbs has been tearing corporate America a new a**hole for their unconscionable outsourcing of American jobs to far away places. Are there dots here to be connected between these two events?  Of course there are, but we love to buy cheap stuff too much to connect them.  Whaddya mean, you say?  Well, lemme connect them for you. In the latest period for which I could get reliable date, our exports (that’s the stuff we sell outside the US of A) were 9.8% of our GDP, while our imports were 13.9% of...