re: "Globalization opened up opportunities to find new people to exploit their ignorance. And we found them."

Globalization has always been about exploitation -- of land, people and resources.

The whole filthy scheme is about destroying national sovereignty, corrupting and controlling political systems, neutering regulatory agencies, privatizing a nation's natural resources, and driving wages down to the lowest possible level, destroying unions in the process (and, of course, hoodwinking unwary investors and crashing the economy while raking in untold trillions of $ in public bailouts, to boot).

As Carroll Quigley wrote in Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (1966)

The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world... For the first time in its history, Western Civilization is in danger of being destroyed internally by a corrupt, criminal ruling cabal which is centered around the Rockefeller interests, which include elements from the Morgan, Brown, Rothschild, Du Pont, Harriman, Kuhn-Loeb, and other groupings as well. This junta took control of the political, financial, and cultural life of America in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Oh, really?

What jobs would those be, exactly?

re: 15 percent unemployment?

Try 20-25%

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Part-Time Workers Mask Unemployment Woes

The national unemployment rate has risen to 9.5 percent, the highest level in more than a quarter-century. Yet it still excludes all those who have given up looking for a job and those part-time workers who want to be working full time.

Include them — as the Labor Department does when calculating its broadest measure of the job market — and the rate reached 23.5 percent in Oregon this spring, according to a New York Times analysis of state-by-state data. It was 21.5 percent in both Michigan and Rhode Island and 20.3 percent in California. In Tennessee, Nevada and several other states that have relied heavily on manufacturing or housing, the rate was just under 20 percent this spring and may have since surpassed it. (MORE)

http://tinyurl.com/nrfwzm

re: Folks with real bona fides don't feel the need to trumpet them

They do when those bona fides are questioned. Once again, if you'll look back through the thread, you'll find that it was you who started the argument by attacking me. So don't start whining about it now.

re: continue enjoying the recovery

What recovery would that be? Since the vast majority of Americans have not been the recipients of billions and billions of $ of bailout funds from the government, for them there is no "recovery". Oh, Goldman and their ilk might be alright (for the moment), but that's about it. And that isn't an economic recovery, it's a crime.

No, real people with real lives are not going to recover, because unemployment will continue to rise, housing will continue to tank, and there are NO replacement jobs with good wages and good benefits anywhere on the horizon. Real Americans will continue to lose ground economically, while the already obscenely rich rake in more $.

re: Normally after a recession it takes 12-18 months for unemployment to get back down to 'base' of 5-6%. This time probably 24-30 months. Which means it won't 'feel' like a recovery, but it will be one.

Talk of a so-called "jobless recovery" is nonsensical.

Try reading these pieces:

Part-Time Workers Mask Unemployment Woes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/business/economy/15leonhardt.html

Also check out the readers comments. Many good ones. I especially liked comment #19, a very thorough comparison of current unemployment with the Great Depression.

No Recovery in Sight

by Bob Herbert

How do you put together a consumer economy that works when the consumers are out of work?

Economists are currently spreading the word that the recession may end sometime this year, but the unemployment rate will continue to climb. That’s not a recovery. That’s mumbo jumbo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/opinion/27herbert.html?_r=1

re: But recover we will

Recover to what, exactly? An ever-lowering standard of living? A consumer economy fueled by consumers who have no money or jobs? Get real. People can't eat trumped up GDP numbers.

Part-Time Workers Mask Unemployment Woes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/business/economy/15leonhardt.html

Also check out the readers comments. Many good ones. I especially liked comment #19, a very thorough comparison of current unemployment with the Great Depression.