The shift towards China was a direct result of corporate $profit$ ... a strong bottom line thus sustaining a high share value .... the demand for this strong share value reflecting in attractive investment portfolios. IMHO is directly related to the large population of baby boomers edging towards retirement (early retirement tastes good to a lot of people) and wanting a healthy sustainable income for for that retirement .... what happened is the whole thing blewup in our faces ..... it's a case of us (I feel we are all guilty in some ways) wanting more and more, not just in the ways of having a high standard of living in our golden years, but also more in the ways of cheaper material goods.

How can we turn this around ... well, it's happening now ... the economy is falling into a bottomless abyss which will in turn force us to do with less and start becoming more localized in our economic demands ... the problem is, especially in the U.S. the country is so far in debt with China (and getting further in debt fast) it's just a phone call away from China literally owning a third world nation.

biLL