President Bush's downfall...?

We can only hope.

...Since 1979, when manufacturing employment peaked at 19.6 million, 1 in 4 [American] factory jobs have disappeared. It took more than two decades to lose the first 2.5 million. The second 2.5 million have gone away since Bush took office in January 2001.

[...]

But even the optimists tend to agree this recovery is different. So far, it is occurring without a net gain in factory employment, and economists say it is likely that many of the lost jobs will not be restored. That's because most of the losses are attributable to permanent, structural shifts instead of the cyclical layoffs typical of past recessions.

"They're not all going to come back," acknowledged National Assn. of Manufacturers President Jerry Jasinowski. Displaced factory workers "will have to move on," he said, into growing sectors of the economy, such as home building and health care.

Pete Merriman moved on earlier than most. After being laid off several times as an industrial electrician, he staked his claim in the service economy shortly after Bush assumed office in 2001. For the last three years, he's been delivering pizza for a living.

"It's hurt [Bush] in my view, that's for sure," said Merriman, who said he is making decent money toting thick-crust pizzas around Green Bay but would rather be wiring paper-making machinery again. The rate of decline during Bush's tenure dwarfs the experience of his father, George H. W. Bush, who was turned out of office in 1992 after presiding over the first "jobless recovery." Over the four years of the elder Bush's presidency, America lost factory jobs at a rate of about 26,000 a month. Since his son settled in the White House, the monthly job loss has averaged nearly 80,000.

The reporter uncritically gives far too much ink to those who believe the massive hemorrhaging of American manufacturing jobs is a natural result of “the inevitable march of history.”

If that were true, why have European countries not suffered--and worse, too, as they consist of smaller, older, and more dependent economies?

What is happening in America is neither inevitable nor accidental. It is the result of deliberate taxation, trade and government policies which, for the past 30 years or longer, have been made in such a way as to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of those who are already wealthy and powerful. While the Republican party has taken both the ideological and legislative lead in this process, the Democrats have been not very far behind.

Complete story here.