As Halloween approaches millions of Americans are going to seek fear by watching horror movies, going to haunted houses or reading horror novels. Halloween represents a time when people love to be frightened. Unfortunately, we may be getting more than we bargained for this Halloween – an economic meltdown.

It seems like the daily news almost always has a new fact or figure relating to our weak economy. Like the narrator for an old-fashioned horror flick, pundits foretell of impending doom and despair. The recent chaos surrounding foreclosing practices has been treated by the mainstream media as nothing more than a side-note, but in reality this scandal could expose years of fraud in the U.S. mortgage industry. If that occurs, the potential for another round of unprecedented chaos for our economy seems inevitable. With a paralyzed mortgage industry and no industrial base to fall back on the United States will be in for a rough ride.

If the mortgage industry falls the U.S. will have an incredibly rough time recovering; any recovery we made thus far would be wiped away. Decades of increasingly relying on imports for consumption while exporting less and less has wiped our country of its manufacturing industry and caused a massive hemorrhaging of American jobs. Unfortunately, the bad news keeps coming.

For example, it was announced that the U.S. trade deficit rose once again in August despite our urgent need to rely much, much more on domestic goods for consumption. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that our trade deficit rose $46.3 billion during the month of August, up from a $42.6 billion rise in July.

Despite the incredible urgency our country must take in restoring manufacturing to our shores, the mainstream media gave virtually no attention to the Census Bureau's new numbers. Perhaps horrendous trade deficits hardly qualify as news anymore. That would certainly mirror the general complacency felt by Washington for years regarding the disastrous results of “free” trade.

These trade deficits represent what is killing our economy. Does spending $45 billion more than you sell for months on end seem like good policy? Most of the countries around the world who are experiencing abundant new wealth have done so largely by trading with the U.S. through free trade agreements and the WTO. This has killed our economy and our country.

While the rest of the world essentially buys America out, our once prosperous manufacturing cities, the hidden gems of America's prosperity, have been wiped away to become veritable sewers.

The main issue on the forefront of every politician's mandate this election should be the trade deficit and if it isn't he has no business running for office at this juncture.
Guess what? Practically all of the politicians running for office hardly mention the trade deficit. Why? Why have politicians literally abandoned the representation of the electorate? Does the public not care? Is it possible they do not know? These are the questions and problems we need to be answering and solving as soon as possible. Scary enough for you?