In article , Pete C. says...

One of the biggest problems is that investors and corporate board are
driven to show constant growth as opposed to the stability and
consistent profits of the old days.

Constant growth is simply not sustainable, there is a relatively finite
market for any given product. Corporations found out some years back
that they had reached market saturation on many products.

Lately all this "growth" that they show in the bottom line profit
numbers is not driven by increased sales and market share, but rather by
false profits from outsourcing and layoffs. The very outsourcing and
layoffs they are using to try to fudge the bottom line is also causing a
shrinkage in the market as people who are out of work are buying fewer
products.

When they have outsourced and laid off all they can in a few years there
will be nowhere else for them to create the phony growth from and this
will likely trigger a giant stock market crash when the bottom line
profits go flat on nearly every company.

Well I'm happy to see that somebody agrees with me about at least *one*
aspect of this issue, namely the fact that if it (offshoring) goes
on long enough, the market for all the imported goods will be just gone
because nobody will have any money to buy any of them, no matter how
cheap or tasty they are.

And there seems to be some resonance likewise, about the issue of
short-term ROI by these companies. Seems like the most often-heard
justification for shutting down manufacturing in the US is "but if
we don't do it, then our competitors will, and they'll take all our
profits then."

The giant stock market crash may well be preceeded by a giant real
estate crash.

Jim


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