Have you ever noticed that when the United States has an increase in the trade deficit, the middle class reports stagnant wages, massive foreclosures, the number of Americans living in poverty jumps or massive underemployment surges, the pundits come out and call everyone a Protectionist?

How did the concept of protecting the United States economy and national interest end up being a dirty word?

That God Damn, evil movement, Protectionism, even made it to the G8 summit:

One of the heretical thoughts I continue to hold is that the "slow motion bust" that we are living through, may not proceed to destroy the entire economy like a nuclear bomb. Rather, like a neutron bomb over Wall Street, it might destroy the financial sector but leave most of the economic infrastructure in place. If it is a worthy goal that the doctrine of "Profits are privatized, losses are socialized" must cease, then it may be an absolute tonic if several financial enterprises thought "too big to fail", nevertheless do.

A noteworthy graph from Yahoo finance demonstrates that the "neutron bomb" scenario indeed may be unfurling. The graph below covers the last 3 years for the S & P 500 (red) and compares it with the financial sector as represented by the Financial SPDR (blue), starting from a baseline (0%) of 5 years ago:

Who's to blame for the economy?
It's not just a political question, it's an economic question as well. It is essential that this question be answered because without an answer we won't know what to do to fix it.

Remember 1999? The federal budget was balanced. The trade deficit was still manageable. The unemployment rate was low, as was the poverty rate. There were plenty of good paying jobs out there. Corporations were making record profits.

It was also the year that the economy was broken.

"Let's hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters."
- email sent Dec. 15, 2006, from one rating agency to another

(UPDATE NOTE: New economic data released, see below!)

The Democrats are finally going after McCain's jugular. That is, his economic policies. Oh sure, we all know he's Mister War, and that is one of his weak links too. But the economy, in particular the jobs situation, that will help propel Barack Obama into the White House.

The DNC responds to McCain's Jobs First campaign restart.

The Democratic National Committee finally released their response to John Airbus McCain's reboot of his half-ass presidential campaign under a "Jobs First" theme. But slightly off topic for just a brief second, can anyone tell me how the hell this man hasn't even been replaced by Cheney yet with someone else?? Shit, Viagra whore, Bob Dole, ran a better campaign than this! Ok, back on topic.