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BOOK REVIEW - Made in the U.S.A. by Barr McClellan
Raymond Richman, 10/5/2010

Barr McClellan, Made in the U.S.A. -- Global Greed, Tax Laws and the Exportation of America’s Future; Why and How You Support America. (Arizona, Hannover House, 2010)

The author, Barr McClellan, published Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK, which became a best-seller in November 2003. In the book McClellan presented the theory that Lyndon B. Johnson and Edward Clark were involved in the planning and cover-up of the Kennedy assassination. He is also known as the father of Scott McClellan, Pres. George W. Bush’s press secretary.  Blood, Money, and Power created a sensation. His new book Made in the USA is not likely to create a sensation but it is a book that everyone concerned about the loss of millions of American jobs to China, the deindustrialization of the U.S., and subordinating the USA to a world government antagonistic to traditional American values should read.

In his Introduction, he writes about how the U.S. and British elites established a new world order following WWII, financed by the U.S.  As he writes, the UN was formed in 1945 to be the heart of the new world order but “Unfortunately, the United Nations and its related international organizations did not work.”  The book was prompted by the “results of globalization since 1945.”  He writes, “The world’s leading nation is no longer America.” The assault on America is never-ending.”  We were successful “because of a capitalist business and commercial economy and because of a democracy based on law.” The key for restoration of a strong and healthy U.S. is international relations “based on parity, on a level playing field and fair competition.”

He devotes the first two chapters on people like the “trillionaires”, Gates, Buffett, and Boeing and political personalities like Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Amb. John Bolton, and the media all of whom were “globalists”.

He gets serious in Chapter THREE in which he criticizes economists. Nobel Prize-winner Paul Samuelson dictum that “Economists have correctly predicted nine of the last five recessions.” Samuelson for a long time had good things to say about socialism in his textbooks, studied by generations of economists. Samuelson was also a Keynesian. Keynes believed that government was indispensable to secure full employment and a stable economy. By contrast, Milton Friedman put his faith in economic freedom and small government, relying on monetary policy to achieve full employment and stability.  He refers to the policies of Galbraith, Volcker, Greenspan, and Bernanke. All were globalists and believed in free trade. He singles out Lou Dobbs, who has a degree in economics,  as “one commentator willing to take on the ‘prevailing wisdom’ of our leaders and the media regarding free trade and open borders.”  McClellan argues that “We have to level the playing field. We are far beyond free trade. We have unbalanced trade. We need fair trade.”

He decries the impact of globalization -- manufacturing jobs down,  corruption, outsourcing, the trade imbalance , the national deficit, the declining value of the dollar, etc. International corruption is endemic. He quotes the State Department’s Agency for International Development that “corruption and poor governance fuel state failure, deter foreign investment, and cripple economic growth and development.” Congress needs to ensure fair trade. What is needed is a timeout and a return to traditional Christian and American values. Free trade is mostly evident by its absence as indicated by large chronic trade deficits.

Americans need to buy American, McClellan urges. But this is trying to talk a solution. For years, we have been asking China to liberalize trade to no avail.The problem cannot be solved by talking about it.

 He estimated a loss of over 20,000 jobs for each billion dollars of deficit. In 2008, we had a trade deficit in goods of about $800 billion. That would mean a loss of 16 million jobs. Our own estimate is between five million and eight million jobs. On page 264 is a graph of the trade deficits from 1970-2007.  How any economist could look at it and argue for free trade is beyond us.

McClellan’s book is a call to arms.  He is urging a change of policy. The recent passage by the House of a bill authorizing the executive to take action to compel China to revalue its currency shows that Americans are aware of the costs of the trade deficits. Fortunately, we have proposed a solution that does not require another country to subordinate its sovereignty to us or to an international body like the G-20. The later at two previous meetings called for restoring a reasonable balance of trade to no avail.

We call our proposed solution a scaled tariff on the imports from any country with which we have been experiencing large chronic deficits. The rate of the tariff would diminish as a country increased its imports from us. We believe it conforms to the rules of the World Trade Organization which permit countries with chronic trade deficits to impose tariffs and other trade barriers where the purpose is to promote balanced trade.