This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
White House Hypocrisy And Trade Sanctions Against China
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
Practically every car sold in the US contains Chinese-made components. But suddenly, in the middle of a heated presidential campaign, the Obama administration decided to do something about it.
“We’re certainly looking at that,” Tim Reif, general counsel in the US Trade Representative’s office, told reporters, though he insisted that the election had nothing to do with it. Instead, it was all about “careful examination of the facts.” Earlier in 2012, as Republican candidates were bashing not only each other but also President Obama, the United Steelworkers union smelled an opportunity and began pushing the White House to take a stance against “a flood of auto parts from China.” A Department of Commerce investigation, resulting in anti-dumping or countervailing duties, or a WTO case against Chinese subsidies would do.
Political picante sauce: 188 lawmakers, many from swing states like Ohio where the auto industry is important, sent a letter to the White House, lambasting China for its “vast array of policies” that heaped unfair advantages on Chinese component manufacturers. And now, five months before the election, the White House is showing its dentures.
The force behind the epic migration of component manufacturing from the US to China, however, is the US auto industry itself—and Wall Street engineering.
Delphi, the former component division of GM, is Exhibit A. GM spun it off in 1999. In 2001, Delphi axed 11,500 workers. In 2004, it got tarred and feathered over its accounting practices. In 2005, six years after its IPO, it went bankrupt and closed 24 plants. In 2006, it closed another 21 plants. Meanwhile, GM was sourcing components elsewhere, particularly in China. In 2009, Delphi Automotive sold its chassis division to BeijingWest Industries, a joint venture of three government-owned companies—Shougang Corp, Bao’an Investment Development Co., and Beijing Fangshan State-Owned Asset Management Co. BeijingWest now develops and manufactures brake and chassis components for US and European automakers.
Visteon, Ford’s former component division, is Exhibit B. Ford spun it off in 2000. In 2009, nine years after its IPO, Visteon went bankrupt and shuttered numerous plants. Its center of gravity shifted to its Asia Pacific Corporate Office and Innovation Center in Shanghai. It consolidated its interior and electronics divisions into its Yanfeng joint ventures with Huayu Automotive Systems, a subsidiary of China’s largest automaker, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC), which is owned by the Chinese government. And the building of its North American Corporate Office in Van Buren Township, Michigan, was sold earlier this year.
Germany, whose highly successful auto industry plays a disproportionate role in its export-driven economy, has seen the same migration. The latest was Kiekert AG, the largest manufacturer of automotive door-lock systems in the world. Among its customers: GM, Ford, VW, and BMW. It has plants in Germany, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, the US, Mexico, and, since 2008, China.
As with Delphi and Visteon, financial engineering played a role. Permira, a European PE firm, acquired it in 2000 and stuffed it to the gills with debt. In 2006, the game was over. Kiekert was handed to its creditors, Bluebay Asset Management, Silver Point Capital, and Morgan Stanley. In March this year, they sold it to Lingyun Group, a subsidiary of China North Industries Corporation (Norinco), a government-owned conglomerate that manufactures motorcycles, cars, trucks, machinery, weaponry, missiles, ammo.... The Bush administration had slapped it with sanctions in 2003 for selling missile-related products to Iran.
In the US, manufacturer after manufacturer followed the routine; they invested billions in China and sent millions of jobs across the Pacific. Sure, the Chinese eagerly played along and encouraged it—not only to expand their manufacturing base but also to obtain proprietary technologies that would, if the plan works out, make it a world leader in the auto industry.
So, it’s no surprise that more and more components are manufactured in China. Outsourcing and offshoring—for a myriad of reasons—have been the primary philosophy of American manufacturing for years, and it’s hypocritical for the White House to go after the Chinese five month before the election, just to gain a few union votes in swing states.
2010 was a magical year in China: 18 million new vehicles were sold. Sales had skyrocketed 33% that year and 54% in 2009. Mind-boggling. It catapulted China to the number one new-vehicle market, far ahead of the US which had never sold that many units in a year. But now, the China auto bubble is emitting a sharp hiss. Read.... A Mixed Bag Turns Very Ugly.
And here is Marin Katusa’s superb article.... The New Cold War: with China this time, and over oil.
- advertisements -


boring dull bland boring. The best cooking in the world is Indian, Persian has to come pretty close though.
The best cooking in the world is Indian, Persian has to come pretty close though.
__________________
That is not what US citizen surveys say.
They say: Chinese and Italian cooking (hint: one has copied out the other)
STFU
I love Lebanese food.
Best cooking in the world is apparently American fast food. KFC most popular in China. McDonald's alone sells more meals in US than all Chinese restaurants combined.
By this measure, people have been prefering common day food over celebration food, this since dawn of time.
The kind of conclusions one reaches when following the path of US citizen economics. And one wonders why the state of the world is the current one.
One answer: US citizenism
STFU
pity you guys don't frenchify your tastes enuff to sing cheese n wine with rillettes, foie gras and paté de campagne.
This is precisely the point upon which the Ron Paul / laissez-faire / libertarian world-view breaks down. I am perfectly entitled to take my capital, my industry, my whatever to China, as many American companies did.
China is playing this game to their own advantage, and your stock, or banker money, has always been funny money to the Chinese government. They have stolen your technology, your industry, and your economy. It is theirs: not some shareholder's or some American manager's.
Laissez-faire that... bitches. And estimate that into your determination of "value."
in a ron paul laissez faire world, the financial engineering that created the mess would not have been possible. no federal reserve cheap money for thier friends to make cheap credit to fund offshoring while hiding falling domestic real wages. no unlimited government entitlements to buy the silence of the growing armies of un/under employed. without government intervention, the system would have reset how many times? 1987? 2000? and 2008?
laissez faire leads to horrible abuses. government central planning and crony capitalism lead to the same abuses, but without the all important reset function, while spreading the pain and suffering onto non participants of the looting.
Lazy Fair ain't the problem hogwash. Letting the slopers maniuplate their currency is, and ManBill, BushLite, and Barry Soetoro let them do it so their buddies at the banks could make billions for themselves. Now the slopers are trying to build a new central currency by bi-lateral trade agreements between themselves and the BRIC's and Prick's in the Middle East, who have been alienated because America has been supporting the two headed coin of Saudi Arabia. There, we have paid a continual ransom for what is way over priced, a ransom which is used to pay for the Wahhabi extremism to expand and conquer Islam, which we have then allowed to be turned against us, draining America further.
No wonder out government in going bankrupt (economically, spiritually, and morally), and caused the American people to go deeper into bankruptcy. This is the historic definition of Revolution, and that is what is occurring in America today, and America's way out (at least peacably), is to elect a new Congress that has the economic, spiritual, and moral fortitude to take back all its contitutional powers, place them all back into the Public Forum, re-create the transparency required to allow the people to render their Consent of the Governed....
AND START TAKING IT ALL BACK!!!! FUCK YOU HAND WRINGERS. See www.nar2012.com.
You are correct in that China has figured out the basic weakness in credit money system and how to use it to their benefit. If my count is correct, this will be about the third time the people in the USA have lost a great deal of their wealth.
When we spend credit/debt based money to purchase their exports, it creates a debt. When we used the Trade Dollar system, It was simply a trade, silver for goods, goods for silver. The books were balanced.
A picture is worth a 1000 words.
http://coinman.hubpages.com/hub/Whats-a-Trade-Dollar
Consider that...
In 1900, the USA made and exported over 50 percent of the worlds goods, our workers were paid in gold and silver coin, and there was no tax on labour (so called income tax), and our Treasury had a huge surplus.
The government changed the system to it's own detriment
Ron Paul's world view includes limiting government to essential functions - listed in Article 1 Section 8. The essence of Limited Government.
Coin Money and Regulate the Value Thereof.
One of the highest and best functions of government is protecting rights. That would include protecting peoples property and that property would include our protecting our nations commonwealth or national circulating coin. It would also include setting up a just monetary system. The science of money is a very exact science. It is possible to set up a fair and just system.
In 1900, the USA derived most of it's operating expenses from taxing imports and exports.
It would be easy under this system to use the power of taxation to limit trade with nations.
This system of taxation also has the effect of protecting our own peoples rights and wealth from alienation.
I think you will find this speech interesting. I like how he says that we are looking at the effects and not the cause. That is still true today. This article is a great example.
http://www.afn.org/~govern/mcfadden_speech_1932.html
When reading this speech, it helps to read the language on the back of a Series 1914 FRN.
http://barrygoldberg.net/photos/coins/Series_1914_Five_Dollar_Note_Rever...
This old book speaks of the first legislative departure from the original system - people were much more educated about coin, credit and circulation back then.
http://archive.org/details/coinsfinancialsc00harvrich
Then you should read LBJ's comments at the signing of the 1965 Coinage Act.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=27108#axzz1y2KwJw5O
Compare to what happened in the 1800's as reported in "Coin" Harvey's book to this Act.
If people want to fix things, one of the best things to do is study history. Find out what worked in the past and what didn't.
http://www.fame.org/NotableQuotes.asp
And this book. It speaks of the USA before we even had an established money system.
http://archive.org/details/andrewjacksonan01royagoog
We have already been down this path before. I believe it is still possible to fix things and do it in a way where no one is harmed. It is possible to do this in a way that does not use coercion or force. If we continue on the current path, everyone will suffer. It won't matter how rich you are. If a good system is re-established, the rest of the problems we have will be nothing.
Revert. Thank you for the thoughtful post.
You are naive. Simple providing for hard currency will not create some Utopia... as you repeatedly point out, hard currency has been used in the past. Gold did not prevent wars or government instability... gold caused these things.
I do believe, however, that hard currency is a prequisite for any sound government... just not the end all, be all of a commonwealth.
"Gold did not prevent wars or government instability... gold caused these things." No the people in power caused these things because they had the power and used that to their benefit.
Don't blame an object for its mis use. GUNS don't kill people people kill people. Gold does not cause economic hardship. People cause economic hardship.
Please read and digest what I have provided.
We didn't use gold. We used Silver as our national Standard - The dollar was defined as a measurement of Silver. The Eagle was the measurement for gold coin. Read some of what I have provided. Read Johnson's comments at the signing of the 1965 Coinage act. Read how much silver coin was in circulation. No one would argue that the USA was more prosperous then. Of course it was. For 172 years - until 1965 with one brief departure (described in Coin's book above) the dollar was always worth the exact same amount of 90 percent silver coin. 10 dimes, 4 quarters, 2 halves or 1 silver dollar. All 90 percent silver. Any paper dollar could be redeemed for that much silver. Problem was, we let someone else start printing the paper dollars. Until 1913, banks always had to redeem their own notes for their own coin in their own vaults.
Here is the key. The prosperity is determined by the amount of wealth in circulation as coin. Right now, there is not enough real wealth in circulation. All that silver and gold is all sitting idle in bank vaults. Gathering dust.
If the government re-estabilshes public mints and assay offices and Regulates the value of the coins to a value that will draw that wealth into circulation, it WILL create prosperity again. People will pay their debts.
Imagine if the Government opened a mint tomorrow and said for every ounce of silver you bring us, we will mint a $100.00 coin and give it to you. Would that draw the silver into circulation again? YES. Would it allow people to pay their debts? Yes..that coin would continue to circulate. The government is trying to do this right now by printing more paper money. It won't work. It just devalues all the other paper money in circulation. They say okay, we can't do that so we will just loan the paper money into circulation against collateral like land..well, eventually, there is nothing else to borrow against, so you have them doing stuff like student loans .. against the people themselves..
Consider that our current money system is like the old time scrip of the company store. Do you really want the world to be like one big giant company store? That won't work.
The gold and silver coins that are minted now have too low of a face value and are made of pure metal. They won't circulate. Mint a 1/2 ounce 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper coin with a face of $1000.00 and that coin will circulate. You will have people, banks, everyone turning in their bullion to get those coins. Coin money and REGULATE the value therof! They need to set up a new system of coin that matches the percieved values of the market now. That is how the system used to operate. The paper money doesn't matter. It is just a receipt for the coin.
Even to this day, it still is. We are just operating on pennies and nickels. That is why the Dollar is worth only about a nickel compared to the 50's. The money only has value because it can be 'redeemed' for something.
The silver coin is real wealth. Real value. It continues to circulate. Do you see? In the 1950's people used that coin to buy hamburgers, pay their employees, build factories, etc. When their were too many paper receipts printed against the circulating coin, then the coin became worth more than the receipts (perceived by people as the price of silver going UP). It was really just too many paper notes being printed against all of those circulating silver coins. There were some people who understood what was going on. They snarfed up the silver coins. That silver was dug out of the hills and brought over on boats by the American People. It was our heritage, part of our commonweath.
This is a key thing that has been lost in modern schools of economics.
Redemption!
The values above are just made up values for the purpose of discussion. Real values could be ascertained. Even the Federal Reserve system could be kept in place. It has a lot of good points like the Check clearing system, etc. We need to quit blaming people, pointing fingers, etc and fix things. The people in government are so worried about how to pay the debts that they are turning on their own people, writing draconian laws, etc.. There is no reason for that. There is another answer - read the history books!
"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." - John Adams
"Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice." - George Washington
Really good stuff! Thank you. It is interesting to me how the exchange of value is at the heart of all true (honest) commerce - which we also call "barter" How wonderfully self-balancing it is!
56,000 manufacturing plants closed here since 2001. National economic suicide. Brilliant play, CEOs and board members. Nice job wrecking your own market, well done.
Shareholders are all about quick profit too, the bottom line. They have slit their own, (and our) throats. No foresight at all.
We need to level the playing field, tit for tat on tariffs and import regs. A little environmental and labor protection in China would be a leveling factor as well.
Shiiiit..that many?
It is not just the plants that we are loosing. The knowledge to run them and mantain them.
Knowledge that was passed on for several generations - from father to son, master to apprentice, teacher to student. It will all be lost. Truly tragic.
“The company shows us a newsreel that makes the point that since the year 2000, the United States has lost 56,000 factories and five or six million manufacturing jobs,” said Tom Slocum, chairman of the U.A.W. local’s bargaining committee, “and the message is that, but for the O’Shaughnessys, the factory here could join the 56,000.”
It was in the NY Slimes, and a labor advocate said it. (so it must be true- Ar ar) I've seen figures from 42,000 to 65,000. Any way you slice it, we're losing the factory jobs to Asia and they won't be back without big changes in the 'free trade' agreements.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/business/subsidies-aid-rebirth-in-us-m...
http://plantclosings.com/pcn/
Plant closing news
If third world countries like china (it's a shithole despite all the pretense) want to flood the markets of civilised nations they should be strictly forced to comply with the local delusional unicorn fart laws that so hamstring local would-be producers. Not allowed to ignore them at will with their disgusting poisonous food, fuckwittedly shoddy machinery, etc.
It is dangerous to look to the gubmint for help -- it gives it more power, makes it bigger. Consumers have a choice and those choices have consequences.
The net effect of the massive outsourcing/offshoring our manufacturing base is that we have chronic unemployment. The unemployed cannot buy cars, houses, appliances, etc. This trend can kill off entire industries, not just in the US but worldwide.
Mercifully, this can be reversed but not without economic pain. We have the resources and we have the capital (cheaper than ever before). We have the talent, the know-how and the entrepeneurial spirit. We simply have to remove the myriad barriers -- high taxes to support a bloated government that keeps spewing out more and more useless regulation. A financial system which encourages the misallocation of resources, rewards short-ternm and short-sighted thinking, and hell-bent on robbing people of their savings -- with the full support of the aforementioned .gov. Finally, we have a political system that is so thoroughly corrupt that it is wholly beyond repair or redemption.
Hit the "Reset" button and start over. Default on all obligations owed to non-US entities, issue new money which cannot be created out of thin air. Close our markets to all foreign goods for two years ("closed for renovation"). Let companies which cannot exist without some form of .gov subsidy, fail. This includes banks, auto makers, whatever.
That will only happen after a bloody revolution. US ruling class is allied with foreign ruling classes - not the average citizenism.
"It is dangerous to look to the gubmint for help -- it gives it more power, makes it bigger."
I agree, but they hold the levers of power- I would ask they repair the fences they tore down, to give what little industry we have left a fair chance. If the Phillipine Islands have a 100% tariff on US imports, then we should do exactly the same to them. All collected tariffs should be accounted for and commensurate tax breaks given to supercharge the effect. Tax breaks for companies that hire new full-time employees, for instance.
And that goes for all our 'trading partners' around the world. Add a little regulatory relief and voila, our manufacturing sector begins to grow again.
It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
But then our globalist overlords would find it difficult to gut America in order to create a global government world run by THEM!
"If the Phillipine Islands have a 100% tariff on US imports, then we should do exactly the same to them."
Sounds like fair trade, a novel concept that no one remembers anymore due to the wall of trade policy propaganda going on for over 2 decades.
"Close our markets to all foreign goods for two years?" Who will stock the store shelves and how high will the prices be if there is an item still left on the shelves? It could take decades for the factories to come back if the American dollar loses it's value.
The reality is that Chinese factories that are owned by Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Europeans and Americans make products based on the specs provided to them. If it is crappy it is because the company that had the product produced intended it to be crappy. Add to that the price tells you the quality you will receive. If you buy things in Wal Mart it is highly likely they have ground the manufacturer into the dust and he has what they have offered him to produce the goods. If you are looking to blame someone Wal Mart would be a good place to start.
The Chinese "make products based on the specs provided to them."
Horseshit ! American corporations with investments in China HAVE TO say that.
Everything made is China has been chickenshitted in some way or other.
I helped a friend unload a pallet of transport truck brake drums yesterday - Made In China.
I asked him how they lasted. He laughed out loud. About half as long as American made, but when Truck manufacturers only stock "made in China" shit, then you have no choice.
Spot on Kay. As long as American buy the cheap shit they will continue to get the cheap shit. Vote with your fricking wallet. American made goods are out ther for alot of items if your will to pay for them. Of course if your looking for bathroom fixtures and some other items for your home your basically screwed as they are no longer made here at all. Well you can buy one American made toilet and it is from Kohler and it is 925.
Sometimes it is not easy to vote with your wallet depending on what you want to buy. But Americans do want their cheap crap and until behavior changes it will come from Asia. The Chinese are starting to get pissed as the new areas with even cheaper labor rates are Cambodia, vietnam and South Korea. Oh wait Obama just signed another trade agreement with these three.
There's no need to blame anyone. If you don't like it, buy elsewhere.
The system of debt and fractional reserve allows for bad circles to develop. There's no other way to solve these problems (imbalanced trade, runaway debt..) but to free gold.
I'm with you. Vote with your fiat! At least while people still accept it as valuable.
Just know that if we all get together and choke off some big sector (like the banks) - the fed will just print them off a shit load more fiat, bail them out, and charge it to our tab anyway. Oh well, baby steps, baby steps - eventually it will have to return to some form of backed currency.
I just gotta say that I am horrified that most car parts are made in China. For God's sake I can't even buy a pencil sharpener that works anymore. My earphones constantly break. The infant formula in China has been tainted more than once. The shoes my husband got had some really thin plastic sprayed on over the felt they were made of. Products are getting crappier and crappier. I really don't want my car breaking down as often as the other things from China break.
I don't buy crap, and even if I did it wouldn't be from China. If you are horrified that more car parts are made in China, you might be even more horrified if they were made in the USA. But we're all brainwashed by the msm aren't we?
Let me give an example of a critical parts supplier. Do you remember Toyota's faulty pedal assembly in 2010? - Sticking accelerators and faulty brakes were MADE IN USA. It forced Toyota/Lexus to recall over 1.66 million cars worldwide. The supplier is CTS Corp., who incidentally also supplied Honda's master brake cylinders forcing them to recall over 500,000 cars. That story got very quickly buried by the msm, because surely Americans don't make dangerous crappy goods?. Want to sure of quality? Buy European, or European outsourced parts.
+1 I remember that "scandal" very well and a few friends pointed the same out as you. But first Mr. Toyoda had to excuse himself in public, eh? The Japanese won't forget that so soon.
Yea, that's not China's fault at all to be honest. Blame the companies that are selling it to you. They are the ones who set the price points and demand the shoddy crap to be manufactured in the first place. It's entirely possible to get high quality stuff over here at a higher price and still be far cheaper than if it was made elsewhere.
Of course, Americans can't really afford that anymore. Seriously, you are blaming the wrong people entirely. The profit margins are all going to the middle men, the manufacturing costs are practically nill. You complain about crappy shoes... I can get handmade ones for cheaper than you are paying and they will last forever. The labor costs are rising but are still nothing compared to finished product value. The materials costs, also rising but also practically nohting. You are paying all your money to marketing and importers who specifically pick and choose the crappiest junkiest spec to make a quick buck and have you coming back a month later when it falls apart.
Don't like it? Tough shit I guess, you don't really have a choice in the matter. As more Chinese get real money to play with, over here we are importing our goodies. Result? The factories realize they need to meet higher spec if they want to keep the domestic market and product quality has been getting far better far faster than you would expect. Well, except for the exported junk to the US. Getting the stuff marked for export (typically termed "waimao") is rarely marked for export to the US anymore... we go for the stuff market for other countries.
My favorite example of this was waffle irons. I bought one, factory direct, as a sample, at 4x cost. Price to me? $10. Price to you once it gets a label slapped on it and thrown into a box? $130. Same exact thing, real FOB cost is $2.50 a unit for volume under 5,000 units. Everyone on reviews love it and think it's the best ever. Step down a level to crap that is $30 and has a FOB of $1 a unit? Everyone whines bitches and moans about it being crap. The real difference between great and crap is about $1.50 in this case, but you'll be shelling out $100 extra for no real reason.
Meanwhile, a comparable model made by a US factory is around $70 FOB cost and no one even bothers to try and sell it anywhere. You could *theoretically* get it for cheaper than the stuff made in China, but that price difference has jack shit to do with China and everything to do with the marketing channels. Furthermore, you are entirely ignoring the effect that this shift would cause. That "value-add" that jacks the price from $2.50 to $130 is paying for who knows how many salaries along the way. Kill that and you are only fucking yourselves. End result in all this? You don't have the cash to dump on a nice one, so you get the $30 model, flip it over see "made in China" on the bottom and bitch and moan when it breaks. Any US model that tries to meed a similar price point where it's affordable will be even crappier and you'll be lucky if it doesn't burn your house down.
I gave you an up arrow for making many good points, especially about rapacious middlemen who do nothing but skim profits. But I don't know that the quality of Chinese products is solely a function of the specifications. I say this because I am working with several Chinese factories, and looking at raw quality data. It is not good.
At the same time, your point is well-taken. The quality will improve as people work with different technologies over time and as the domestic market calls for more higher quality goods. I've seen this process in several countries, first Japan and Korea in the 70s and 80s, then Taiwan in the 90s, and now China. Some of the early Korean products were perhaps the worst workmanship I've ever seen, even the worst of the Chinese stuff isn't that bad. But all countries learn over time, as tribal knowledge is gathered and refined.
The one difference is that (for whatever reason) China does seem committed to maintaining its tribal technical/industrial knowledge-base, whereas in the US, people who had expert knowledge were removed in round after round of layoffs that still continue. It is a kind of cultural genocide, in that the people who had the knowledge no longer have a place to apply it and pass it along, and so the knowledge is lost. We were encouraged to "retrain," presumably as hamburger flippers because with all the manufacturing jobs going to China, this hands-on knowledge became worthless to the skilled laborer because there was no market for his/her skills and knowledge. There was actually a wikileaks embassy message saying that the Chinese pressured US corporations to layoff in the US rather than China to preserve that knowledge, and that US corporations went along. So we are being screwed by "our" corporations, but as is painfully clear, they have no national interest, apart from manipulating the laws to their advantage to further increase their looting.
And to add insult to injury, the US H1B visa program is an explicit technology transfer program, and has been since it's inception. I've trained Japanese, Taiwanese, Singaporean, and lately, Chinese engineers, but I think it is very unrealistic to expect to get a population up the technology curve in a few decades, especially when so many workers are coming right off the farm. There may come a time for China to crow about its technical expertise, but I don't think we're anywhere near that point. Cheap, yes. Excellence, well, not so much.
America should be entirely self sufficient and could be particularly if it reined back it's MIC, however, i fear it's just too far down the road to change, a real shame. But it make take a generation or two but the empire will fall apart at some stage, should be a wonderful place to live then.
stick to the made in USA husband and pray he doesn't break down too often... hows that for the best advice of the day!
To peddle my unrepentant cosmopolitan thoughts, that should redden my horizons here :
The end of current perception of western civilization will truly occur when we outsource our future wives to asian sourcing. And our ex wives do the same to asian men for partners. And vice versa on all continents. Then peking duck in NY will be as common and kentucky fried chicken in Beijing. The saucy poet will then elocute ; whats in an asian honeybun? A cock by any name or origin would smell/taste just as sweet when dabbled in it!
Game over! BTW the Romans survived all those saucy mixtures over five centuries of joy riding slaves of different origins, both male and female; that came to be known as Italian Pizza pie over the ages.
Give me a glass of what ever your drinking...
The US needs a bloodless coup whereby the military or the spooks take control.
All bankers are jailed, as are all lobbiests,all politicians and all goverment officials. After proving their innocence they can participate in society once more.
Military - perhaps, as long as the General is not CFR/trilateral or Builderberg (good luck with that) -
CIA and their ilk, no way. These people are wierdos at best.
The last thing that the United States needs is for a secret police force, or anyone commanding the loyalty of the secret police, to take over. Unfortunately... that is the most likely outcome.
Societies where corruption runs rampant tend to crumble, not revolt. Further, coups in corrupt societies tend to replace the lazy and corrupt with the ambitious and corrupt. The Red Terror in France might be a light example - except one in America would be ten times as Red and just a terrifying. But we do deserve it
LOL at the unintended consequences of selling one's country out, politically, industrially and financially. I'd rather be a capitalist entity headed for an alleged hard landing because it's only projected to grow at a measly 7-8% than a bona fide banana republic piloted by practitioners of opportunistic self-destruction.
Shooting themselves in the foot exempting Iran from SWIFT and now trade sanctions against China?
"Ready, Fire, Aim!" - U.S. "Administration"
complete bullshit- like we don't lock out Brazilian corn and sugar from the Caribbean
The US government practiced protectionism until after WW2, when the undamaged US economy had become dominant.
It was then, from that position of dominance, that the US began promoting "free trade" as a means to ruin or take over local markets abroad.
The uber-national corporations and those who head them use "globalism" as a synonym for self-enrichment. No one should be surprised at their lack of "patriotism", or more broadly, lack of humanitarian concern. "Humanity" does not appear in the bottom line of any global corporation or its symbiotic prodigal ally, global militarism.
+10. FDR saw the opportunity and took it, to solve internal depression and external chaos. Kairos moment for US, thanks to Euro/japanese Oligarchy implosion as consequence of their totalitarian bend. But to his credit he did try and make checks and balances in his global scheme of things. His successors went full blown Imperial purple, using "we've lost China and Berlin Airlift" mantra. Bandung 1955, Dien Bien Phu and Korean divide, gave them the key to justify third world takeover, beyond the cold war barrier. Pax AMericana had its world crusade moment and Holy grail justification. Until they killed their own President and then the decay began from within. That's hubris and house of Atreus. Now its Nemesis time and its in the frying pan. New Kairos moment coming up.