Just call it 'two steps forward, one step back' for the global trade talks.

The collapse of the World Trade Organization's trade talks this week without an agreement is a setback, economists contacted by BloggingStocks agreed, but it is not likely likely to prevent international trade from growing in 2009.

The nine-day talks in Geneva -- aimed at completing the Doha Round -- collapsed Tuesday after the United States and the European Union could not reach an agreement with China and India on what constituted acceptable tariffs for food imports, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The U.S. and E.U. say China and India wanted to impose prohibitively high tariffs. China and India counter that they were insisting on safeguard rules to protect their food supplies.

Economist Glen Langan told BloggingStocks the elimination of food import tariffs would have resulted in more-efficient deployment of resources, and, ultimately, lower food prices for consumer around the world, along with increased the increased commerce that trade brings. "The failure of the talks is a real loss for consumers in China, India and in the U.S. and Europe," Langan said. "It will also really hurt low cost food producers in Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Ultimately, China and India will have to relent, or the west may begin to complain about free trade conditions for manufacturing and services. That manufacturing free trade policy has been the source of a considerable amount of China's and India's economic growth."

Today's Democratic Party is not the Democratic Party as your grandfather knew it. If you think that the Democrats are all about working peoples' needs and how best to serve them, you may wish to think again. The days when the powerful labor unions were backed by legislation-wielding hot-dogs who were ready to step into the gap to protect the working class in wages, safety, and working conditions have faded away. In fact, I'm of the mind that the decline actually began way back with the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa and the slow ugly death of that empire once known as the American steel industry.

Fast forward to NAFTA and GATT, and you'll find two of the most damaging pieces of paperwork that the American economy has ever endured. Do I need to mention the one name most closely associated with both of those documents from the American side? I'll give you a hint, his ex is now looking to plant her feisty butt in the oval office.

Take a look, if you dare, at the link I have provided. It's an article called "Dems Sell Out on Trade" and surprisingly enough it's written from a slightly Democratic perspective. Read it, digest it, and then look at the past three decades in light of it. No, today's Democratic Party is not the Democratic Party that your grandpa supported. The new breed means business . . . in a stinkingly non-American, global sense.

As I watch the retreating of prices on a selection of consumer goods I wonder where this is all going. Housing prices have dropped nationwide. Consumer electronics are sliding downward. The "big three", Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), Daimler Chrysler (NYSE: DCX) and General Motors (NYSE: GM) are reducing sticker shock to the customer. Sure, these are nice things relative to the bottom line as consumers, but is this the signal of hard times to come? If I was seeing an overall increase of incomes at the same time as these price declines I'd be more excited about the "recession". Although the government says we're earning more, at ground level I just don't see it.

No, what I think is happening is the rising of a monster that I have feared for quite some time. We have lost such a significant share of the world's manufacturing output relative to our population that our economy is adjusting itself to compensate for the losses of those well-paying jobs. Don't let Washington fool you. Just because they say employment numbers are good doesn't mean you can sleep better tonight. When it takes three employees in the warehouse at a retail outlet like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) to earn the same income as one dude used to earn building cars or vacuum cleaners, that's a sad state of affairs. Those three warehouse workers won't be buying flat screen TVs. The auto worker could have bought a couple of them.

Will our government wake up and send word to the World Trade Organization that we're starting to get a bit edgy over here? Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the WTO is a major obstacle to our success. They hold us to marketing price structures that are unrealistic by instituting tariffs and controls that strangle real free trade. At the same time, they refuse to have a hand in requiring the implementation of solid requirements regarding the compensation and treatment of the world's work force. Add in the inability of our own governments, both federal and state, to control spending and the continued upward spiral of out-of-control taxation and you have an economy that is being held hostage to the whims of a limited and scary percentage of power mongers. What can we as wage earners and consumers do about all this?

I'm open for suggestions.

Okay, so my title is a bit misleading. No, I don't mean a bigger trade deficit is a good thing. What I'm getting at here is that bigger thinking could help lead us down a better road. Beginning with the introduction of transistors in 1947 and then progressing from transistors to integrated circuits and on through to today's computer chips, the trend in electronics manufacturing has been to make things smaller and smaller. While this shrinking of electronics has been an overall good thing, the concept has crept into nearly every class of consumer merchandise. This has made the manufacturing, shipping and importation of foreign manufactured items that much more lucrative.

In the 1970's we were faced with much screaming and yelling about how crude oil was going to run out in 20 years. There was a world wide mad dash to do something to prevent that from happening. The mantra for auto makers became "if it's not a compact car it'll be a subcompact car." People didn't like those cars much but they were sold to us as fun and practical. At .95 cents a gallon for gas, people were eager to use less oil in order to help save the world. Chromium steel was replaced with ugly black and gray plastic. Roofs were lowered to eliminate glass. Tires had their sidewall area reduced and tire widths began to narrow. Japan began to salivate as the proposition of exporting cars to America became lighter, leaner and cheaper. .

(photo courtesy of: www.njscuba.net/ )