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World's Largest Steelmaker Urges Europe To Declare Trade War On China
Currency wars are so pre-"QE eternity." At least that is the opinion of Indian multi-billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, and owner of the world's biggest steelmaker, who urged Europe to embrace protectionism and erect trade barriers to "protect" its manufacturers (benefiting one ArcelorMittal among others), while at the same time bashing austerity, saying "the futures of EU manufacturing depended on politicians in Brussels helping industry face what he said was unfair competition from China." In other words, it's time for Europe to escalate into full blown trade warfare with China. It is unclear if Mr. Mittal had any thoughts on how China would, in turn, escalate to this progression in trade warfare: whether with tariffs, subsidies, or outright dumping. What does appear quite clear is that the owner of ArcelorMittal, who on Friday posted a net loss of $345 million (down from a $92 million profit a year earlier) on Q1 sales plunging by 13%, whose stock is just off its 52 week lows, and who said he may close plants in Eastern Europe if the "economy continues to slump", may have some ulterior motives in asking that Europe fight his war for him.
Mr Mittal suggested that Europe should embrace protectionist measures to stop Chinese products flooding the market with cheap goods.
The London-based entrepreneur said Brussels should consider applying higher tariffs on imports of Chinese-produced steel, similar to the ones to be imposed on solar panels made in China. He argued that Chinese producers of steel were over producing, lowering the price of the metal globally.
“There should be increased tariffs for imports, or there should be a surcharge on the steel coming to Europe from countries where environmental standards are very low,” he said.
His call came as EU policy makers adopt an increasingly muscular approach to what they see as unfair competition from Chinese producers across a range of sectors.
Also not surprising was his lashing out at the latest bogeyman for Europe's economic doldrums: austerity, which has become the old world's equivalent of Bush, whereby everything that is wrong, is blamed on Germany's unwillingness to pursue "debt-reduction" policies through the layering of more debt, or in other words, to give the ECB carte blanche to follow in the Fed's footsteps and engage in outright monetization (a topic extensively discussed previously, and one where Europe will be at an impasse at least until Merkel's September reelection campaign is successful, or not).
“If Europe continues only with the austerity programme without spending money on growth for infrastructure, things will never improve,” Mr Mittal told the Financial Times. “We can clearly see that austerity is not helping economies to come out of recession.”
He added: “They [policy makers] have to save European manufacturing, whatever you may call it, what I want is actions to save the domestic manufacturing, including steel.”
At least now thanks to Lakshmi, Europe has a new bogeyman: evil, efficient Chinese steel plants which should be stigmatized due to "very low environmental standards."
Just as not surprising, was the lack of macro economic "advice" geared at the US - after all there Mittal's operations are still quite profitable:
ArcelorMittal executives say the operating environment in the Americas is much healthier than in Europe. Louis Schorsch, who heads a large part of the American business, said that steel consumption in the United States was approaching levels last seen before the financial crisis. Demand from the auto industry, probably the company’s most important customer in the United States, is ‘‘a good story’’ and housing is ‘‘a little better,’’ he said, while demand for drill pipe and other energy-related products is ‘‘a little bit off.’’
But in Europe it is a different story entirely:
Mr. Mittal said Friday that while the results were ‘‘still not satisfactory, at least I am starting to see the benefits of the actions we have taken’’ to reduce capacity.
Given the slump in demand in Europe, ‘‘we felt that this is not a cyclical but a structural change,’’ he said. ‘‘We needed to take action.’’
The closing of operations in Europe, especially at Liège, Belgium, and Florange, France, has led to tension with governments and unions.
The French government last year threatened to nationalize the Florange site, but Mr. Mittal largely held firm on his plans to permanently close blast furnaces there. The company did say Friday that it had begun a new production line at Florange for modern, lightweight automotive steel with the trademark Usibor.
Bottom line: Mittal's advice to France - don't target me, but instead make things much worse by re-escalating trade tensions and taking up the global currency wars at least one level. As for the long-term consequences of China getting actively involved in trade warfare, well - the stock market really only cares 1-2 quarters out. What happens in 2014, 2015 and so on, that's someone else's concern.
ArcelorMittal, which is based in Luxembourg, still looks as if it has a long way to go before it returns to the high profitability it enjoyed before the onset of the global financial crisis. The company reported net income of $10.4 billion in 2007.
‘‘There is a glut of steel supply globally,’’ said Jeff Largey, an analyst at Macquarie in London. ‘‘That is going to prevent a company like ArcelorMittal from making the type of profits it did in its heyday.’’
One wonders if Mittal will also demand protectionism to be enacted against Chinese miners next:
Even in mining, where Mr. Mittal is focusing most of his investment these days, the results were not stellar. Operating income of $286 million was down 19 percent compared with the previous year, although it was up 54 percent compared with the last quarter of 2012.
But ignore all that, and just blame China, which was a great friend and ally when it was helping the Indian's materials empire achieve record profits, but which may be sacrificed at the altar of hollow punditry and macroeconomic myopia once things start turning sour for the bottom line.
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Bring it on BITCHEZ
I propose a worldwide ban on Eurotrash with severe sanctions for dumping.
But Europe is awash in Eurofags! What do you propose to do with all of them???
It's a trade war for some. A battle for survival for China. The higher the Yuan goes, the closer China gets to the economic ledge.
According to Jim Chanos, China has gotten worse:
http://www.planbeconomics.com/2013/05/chinas-actually-gotten-worse-jim-c...
MUCH worse, if Australia is any indication...and Australia is a BIG indication of Chin's REAL condition...
They didn't accommodate them until Hollywood said it was Ok, and US politicians insisted on it.
Smoot-Hawley II.
Yea why not 25% unemployment?
The 25% unemployment is in those countries that had their jobs outsourced to China. It is here now in front of your eyes !
and i thought we would start a trade war first. oh well wrong again.
Here we go!
Right down the olde path of glory for state and people!
Trade wars, the next step in the global depression I shit you not.
You're likely right. But a comparative advantage (technology/climate/resources) is not equivalent to an absolute advantage (slave wages). Shipping our mfg to low wage country is NOT 'free trade'... it's suicide.
But, then how would the Wal-Martians be able to afford cheap Chinese manufactured products.
Yard sales, there is 100 years of built up inventory sitting in peoples homes, they just need to drag it to the curb and throw up a sign.
The proverbial, "your stuff is shit but my shit is stuff" in play here as broadcasted by non other than George Carlin.
He's definitely right. It is absolutely inevitable that international trade will completely seize up. International trade was crippled in 1914 when Real Bills clearinghouses were effectively shut down, forcing all trade financing and settlement into the banking system. It hasn't been the same since, and the endgame is upon us.
Knukles, you have swerved into the Truth.
Don't forget, however, that we still have all that Icky Foreign Debt to repudiate before we open the FEMA Camps.
A good Trade War would be perfect for a Retaliatory Default.
Let them Chinee types brutalize a few million Induns and the Namish People. 'N who needs Europe anyway.
China needs water more than it needs gold.
It would be such an easy, limited far away war.
Sure. WE could do it...
CW
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - China's decision to ease a boycott of some $11 billion (7.16 billion pounds) in Airbus (Paris: NL0000235190 - news) jet orders followed a high-level appeal from the planemaker urging Beijing to recognise its support over a trade row with Europe, a letter seen by Reuters shows.
http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-airbus-china-support-please-000950751.html
The EU will bow to the PRC, not India.
EXACTLY what happened LAST TIME...30's....!! Funny how s#!t always repeats...fk'n DNA...!!
currency, trade, real wars.
its not the DNA, its the few psyco-/sociopaths TPTB that want war in exchange for money and control. Every war is planned, so is WWIII. I hope we can avoid it.
double post
I'd rather live in China then India....really.
I'd rather kill myself instead of living in either country.
The only real difference lies in whether your sidewalk-deposited turds would be curry or puppy flavored.
Where's AnAnonymous when we need him to sort this out for us?
DaddyO
Stuck in the Mittal with Hu?
you should have 100+ UPs for that one...
ps. i thought Jon Dough offed himself..??
dup
We need him?
All the comics here on ZH need a foil, right?
DaddyO
Make us laugh!
CITIZEN!
The infantry is hiring! (Or soon will be)
25% unemployment in those countries which choose a socialist path.
Yes, Lakshmi doesn't care about 25% unemployment. He's just talking his book. Timken will just say the same thing when the USA goes back into recession.
Europe just needs a fracking boom. It will create demand for steel pipe, and a place to stash carcinogenic chemical by-products underground, um, below the water table.
In the spring of 2009, the market cap of US Steel fell below the cost of constructing a SINGLE new steel plant, much less any cash and inventory it carried (in addition to all the steel plants) on its balance sheet.
Lakshmi might not do so well if there's blood in the streets he has to fight to retain control of his company from someone hunting for strategic assets on the cheap.
They can have my 409 coil when they pry it from my cold, gloved hand...
what does that have anything to do with steel.
you are like a little boy.
Currency wars , trade wars, followed by world wars. Won't be long before the shooting starts.
Increasing the unemployment to 25% softens them up for war.
Sorry, Doc. Didn't see...posted the same thing below.
During WWII, the stretched, diluted British Army took Iraq and Iran in months, now the US couldn't.
Conventual wars are too expensive, but China could field 20 million. Easy. But we' d have to go nuclear, which would take everyone's attention off the economy, give central bank boys something new to do, solve unemployment and clear out our urban slums for a,hundred years.
Damn Doc, we burn a million tons of copper and steel laced depleted uranium a year shooting up streets in foreign lands, that ain't chopped liver.
Trade war, currency war, cold war, proxy war-- What a bunch of sissy warriors. Makes you pine for Attila or genghis.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Time for Mittal to hire GS for strategic alternatives...
Let's see if I understand this: QEInfinity plus tariffs = much higher prices for us 99 percenters, right?
Right on schedule.
To paraphrase Gerald Celente:
Currency wars...trade wars...world war.
"if goods don't cross borders, armies will" --Frederic Bastiat
This is it!!! fear ! panic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmzbosye2-Y
Currency debasement + protectionism + xenophobia + high unemployment = golden age
The world should have figured out earlier that the Chinese were mercantilists. To quote:
“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
-Winston Churchill
The story fits perfectly into the Macro Analytics chart from early March called "The Cycle of Deflation".Global End Game.
Mittal is an asshole who thinks only of his own pockets.
I predict he will soon be at their feet selling some of his plants to them at throw away prices.
All the Chinese have to do is to give back some of the Euro Trash Bonds back and accquire real assets anyway. Mario Demograghi is buying
... come to think of it, I'd best not say anything, even just a joke...
C'mon, not even a wok the boat joke?
Confucious say: Man who woks boat is frying off the deep end.
Ah, much so. Indeed, Confusius say: man who wok boat amidst river pigs end up with bacon-smelling junk.
Chines waiter when asked if they have elections in China, replies " yes evily night "
A magnifying glass being of much utility in that situation.
Or Tweezers and a pepper shaker...
DaddyO
NOT TRUE...Urban Myth...Dr. Drag bot a grand total of ZERO bonds since his famous proclamation
Let me repeat my self again:
There is no market, no bubble, no currency war. It's CENTRAL PLANNING WARS.
Much much much bigger game, way way way above central bank's pay grade.
Is that you Jim Willie? Is this me?
Central planning is leaded by banksters.
ypu have opinions on arcelor mittal also, same shit different color.
They never teach the money angle in any history text books...funny
Figures. His company was based on growth fed by lax protectionist rules, now he wants to lock his in.
http://www.deallawyers.com/blog/archives/000646.html
We Must defeat Our Enemies At Every Oportunity At Each Chance, Not For Ourselves But For the Childern. As Such, American Troops Are in the Process of Landing in (fill in the rest however bad you wnat it to be)
Quincy....
Indianapolis...
Iceland
Pottsylvania...
Then, we kill moose and squirrel...
These great United States of Merika......damn that teleprompter
Why can't we invade some country that has HOT CHICKS in bikinis, free flowing alcohol and lotsa surf?
I mean why do we always invade some shithole country that ain't worth invading in the first place?
Who picks these countries?
Were else do you want to have a free fire training zone but in some god forsaken dump...like Ft. Polk, Hood, or Iraq? People are happy on the beaches of Brazil. Besides, we couldn't afford South of France. We are broke, so it's Turd World or back to the barracks. We might only be able to afford domestic wars in a few years. Really, if we trashed 50 old Midwest/Eastern cities, Oakland, half of LA,..what could it cost?
More than they think... Molon Labe.
Which just goes to show, you can be a billionaire and a moron, all you need to do is "talk your book."
Milton Friedman on the Dangers of Protectionism (Obama's recent tariff on Chinese imports)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlkQRGZEycI (4:52)
As it unwinds, many more self-interested douchebags will be Exposing Themselves.
As we watch them Expose Themselves, the only real question is, is the douchebag who squeals first the smartest-greediest douchebag, or simply the most entitled-and-squeamish(?)
Mittal wants to sell steel for war?
Go to hell Mittal.... alone.
Mittal is correct.
This bs lopsided trade with China needed addressed, and stopped, years ago. Now, we (Europe and US) may barely survive the China great dump with intact economies.
Look at those who profit the most from the China slavery trade.
We give China real assets, they give us crappy trinkets.
no you are wrong. china gives you what your crappy retailers order from them.
"We give China real assets, they give us crappy trinkets."
You have it exactly backwards. They sell us real stuff and we give them fake money. That's why now they're buying real assets, like Gold and resources. They know all the "debt money" the west bought their trinkets with is going to shit.
And no, you're not correct. To simplify, You gave banksters all they wanted, no rule of law. Now they're collecting. From everybody. I'm amaze about the misunderstandig over the whole issue. You're in Finances, you're supposed to know better.
Banksters took over governments. Banksters put their men on gvts. Banksters produced a non well known amount of derivatives (a sort of QEnn in derivatives) out of thing air (currency wasn't enough), no collateral (derivatives on the market seem to be several times World's GDP). To face "loses" (so to speak, because they never loose), their men in gvts are taken away all they can from people, but there isn't enough. See bankster's CEOs incomes, what industries are fallen, those who are raising.
Everybody here weeping about gvt taxations but it isn't government taxation (better: not "gvt" as is commonly intended to be), nor socialism, it isn't a matter of ideology, race, religion or whatever. It's plundering, slaughtering, pillage, robbery, fraud, you name it. No Capitalism nor Socialism nor free trade... If you see shit today wait for what's coming meanwhile everybody is arguing about something else and picking the wrong target.
(Forgive my poor English).
P.S. They own almost everything in the West, including the MSM they own and/or control.
1) Do not believe ANYTHING coming from the MSM.
2) Information is a public good: take it back.
3) Currency is the main medium of exchange: it's not supposed to be owned by private subjects. It has to be PUBLIC. Take back your currencies.
4) Central Banks must belong to the States, otherwise the States practically belong to Central Banks. Take your Central Banks back.
THEN we can start talking about Economics wich, by the way, it's a SOCIAL SCIENCE.
"take back your currency"
Very funny coming from an Argentinian, your brain is so lopsided . Didn't expect anything else from you.
As I've been following your comments, it feels good you "minusing" me. Thanks.
Hi TNTARG, I just read the new "racism" policy on ZH which came into effect last Friday. If I get banned and my comments get deleted because of me mentioning that certain ethnic group whose name rhythms somewhat with Thursday in Spanish, or referring to the "Americans"* as "yankees," here is my address no2foreclosures at gmail. I would like to keep in contact with you.
*It is rather insufferable and bigoted and racist for the yankees to refer to themselves exclusively as "Americans" when ALL of North, Central and South America are Americans.
Tana porgudari todo junto en gmail. Te mandé un correo. Yo también quisiera estar en contacto contigo.
Much to share!
"This bs lopsided trade with China needed addressed, and stopped, years ago."
You need to do your research on the man.
It will take just a few minutes.
Who is "we"?
I don't remember giving China anything. Some things I bought and I paid a reasonably low price. Don't involve me in your Mittal BS.
"We" gave the Chinese "our" modern factories and technologies, for free. We packed up the factories in the US and Europe, modernized them, and gave them to the Chinese to run with slave labor.
Doesn't the word "ULTERIOR" look so crappy???????
Anterior.....OK
Ulnar....OK
Posterior......my wife's is yummmy....
ULTERIOR???????
wtf
Kinda reads like "Home Depot Urges USA To Clamp Down On Ace Hardware"
and given their political connections, they'd get it too.
Fuck HD, I won't buy a damn thing from those morons
Hahaha....trade protection....what are they protecting when nobody in Europe can afford to buy anything.....
Actually , an a. mittal bond was a super deal six month ago.
The chick from public relations still bragging to her dumb ass account managers for getting " one right "
The box of alfarores was a great idea.. :)
OK
If ESM13 hits 1619. 75 then sell
Risk $250.00 (five points)
Collect profits at 1601.25
Just under 4 to 1 RRR
this isnt a trade war against the chinese...it is a trade war against the people of europe. raise their prices and stick it to them...
What about Smoot-Hawley don't the aristos understand???
That we no longer export a wide-variety of value-added products that spread income throughout a growing middle class?
... and we all continue hurtling towards full-blown war...
Anytime an indian, a pakistani, or chinese magnate start talking about war, the underlying resource in contest is water. The world is awash in money, iron, oil, and equations. But potable water is a huge deal for our dear emerging nations central planners.
I'd say the Paks, Chinese and Indians are more short soap and deodorant then water.
It seems to me that if a nation of people chooses to buy cheap imported goods from foreign competitors, whom they know to not be their friends and acting in a preditory manner, then one shouldn't be suprised when they find themselves without jobs or money. I'm not quite sure why so many here are so hateful of protectionism when the very term would be what most here would prescribe for themselves as well as everyone else. Admittedly acts of protectionism at thislate date will most assuredly cause negative reactions but when we have a negative trade balance and have had for decades, how wuld we be harmed if we neither imported or exported anything at all? Are we going to pursue our current path where we subsidize our unemployed with fewer and fewer employees of those who can successfully export, even if it takes taxpayer subsidies to happen? Durring McKinnley's presidency we had a positive trade balance, Protectionist policies, and a government that was largely funded with the tarrif revenues on those imported goods and virtually no taxes on domestic businesses or personal income. So whats the beef with protectionism other than its too little too late?
Mittal has such a great sense of humor
A Socialist who knows Europe has run out of other people money to spend.
Every time an article uses the word "infrastructure", it acts like an MIB Neuralyzer...I forget to even finish reading and I find myself transported immediately to the comments.
So, what wuz this 3> jabbering about?
oh no you di - int!
Amercia knew full well what the modernization of China was going to bring. It embraced the new cheap labor market that American business could send it's jobs to and boost the profit margine. And in fact corporations enjoy record profits in the midst of mainstreet depression. Meantime more jobs flee to a nation that executes union organizers and imprisons any complainers who fail to do a hard days work for a shitty day's pay. All of the Corporate and political establishment in the US knew this result was coming. Corporations are super national, they are not tied to America or Europe or anyplace. Profits and stock prices are king. Nobody cares who makes the world's goods and services as long as they do it cheaply and never cause a problem. Stocks soar, profits rise. Why would anyone complain? This is what globalization looks like, China is simply doing the work better, faster, cheaper and with no useless union thugs to slow down the work place.
Why would anyone change this? Wall-Street is flush. Corporations are flush. And the US military enforces globalization at gun point.
If this steel magnate is unhappy, I suggest he look to strike a deal to produce steel in China. Many others are doing it with good returns. He is too lazy to change, so he wants government to ensure his profits without him making the needed shift to China. Lazy Bastard!
The long term end result of globalization and the rise of China is boosting corporate profits. That is what business is in business to do. China gives the producers what they need, labor and labor peace at cut rate prices. US consumers lap up the cheap goods with a spoon.
Kick out the globalists and shut down the borders.
Before ANY trade war breaks out, a real widespread war of conquest will break out. NATO is trying every trick in the book to pin an incident on Syria to justify an invasion. Today their Al-Qaeda puppets, or Mossad, blew up two car bombs in Turkey and now Turkey claims Assad's secret service did the bombings. CNN and FOX may announce that Turkey has the proof Syria is car bombing Turkey, Americans are stupid enough to believe such a fairytale. This comes after NATO failed to pin the lie of chemical warfare on Assad, instead they found the NATO Al-Qaeda army did it. So this pretext was dropped infavor of Assad the car bomber.
Sooner or later NATO will invade. They hired Israel to launch air strikes to provoke Syria to defend itself. That failed too. Britain sent foreign minister to beg Russia to stand aside and endorse a NATO invasion of Syria. Russia said "no".
The west is desperate for war, they want it so bad they can taste it. Another little state they can clobber and conquer. I have never seen NATO so war crazed as over this Syria thing. To divert the people from collapsing EU economies and US economic stagnation WAR is the medicine for the problem.
This will not end until NATO gets to start bombing.
Turkey is up to its eyes-balls in this, the deal with the Kurds guarantees a decade of further vicious conflict, even if Syria settled some. The usual suspects have been saying for over 18 months they're going to remove Assad, one way or another. If Russia does not take a solid stand against Allied belligerence now, their credibility as a diplomatic counterweight, and as strategic Ally, for either Syria or China is seriously harmed.
My estimation is Russia can not let that occur, so they will commit forces, they don't want to, but they will. So I expect to hear all sorts of vehemence from China, Iran and Pakistan, maybe a dob of DPRK on top, because these all know the significance of another US attack --one not via the UN SC.
Plus China knows access to Iranian oil is at stake here, it can see that.
But you're right, the Allies will fabricate huge and stupid lies and the majority will swallow them. But there's a strong anti-war sentiment in the West and that could alter the dynamics some. They all got suckered with Libya, as did Russia, which is why the US tries so hard and so obviously, to stampede us into war. It'll be up to everyone to make sure they don't, but the US is so brazen these days in pursuit of the next war, that it intends to not only ignore the UN SC process to attack, it will also ignore global sentiment (i.e. like Israel always does).
Full-blown aggressive Fascism is what that is.
Best to let Turkey get involved. Their "Special Forces" got whipped when they invaded Northern Iraq and the breakup of Turkey would allow Kurdistan to emerge as a bulwark for the Russians
Turkey is not in danger of breaking up, it will get bloody is all. The Kurds are best-buds with the west, they are the favored darlings of left-wing MSM outlets. The Beige House is stringing them along with the whiff of eventual statehood on offer, in northern Syria and Iraq. Turkey is enlisting the Kurds to do their fighting for them. But when Turkey gets 'attacked', it will claim it has been brutally attacked for no reason. On top of that, the FSA will use this tension to bomb Turkey further, and blame it on Damascus, to try and elicit direct NATO involvement, and further material support to the FSA. Just wait, we'll probably see something like a chemical attack in Turkey. There's no limit to what the FSA will do, to try and force an escalation, especially if they are being systematically defeated.
I thought that the biggest card Russia holds is our NATO's supply lines over their territory for our boyz in Afghanistan - particularly since Pakistan has closed it's borders for military convoys
further I thought that the correct word is imperialism - you don't have to be a fascist to be an imperialist, imho
'nuff said & +1
Good point RE supply lines but that's a shrinking pool of influence with a use-by date. Same for economic measures. Whatever John Kerry offered Russia to allow the US to take down Syria via the UN SC mechanism, he didn't get it.
I'm expecting to see much more material support for Assad (which the Russians already indicated) and probable deployment and cold-war type sabre-rattling. This is steadily turning into a regional proxy war and the US and NATO are determined to take it there, and Israel is as usual, drooling for war.
I don't use the word Fascism lightly here. Fascism is the desire for and use of violence as a first-resort to achieve State aims. This is what we are steadily seeing develop, except they are still offering some thin excuses first. The only reason they do that is to avoid being called what they are. This is not defense, this is naked aggression. We don't need to wait for fascism to come from soccer skinheads within euro-zone slum precincts, its here already, and the lack of challenge to it has emboldened it, to the point that they're ready to bypass the UN SC with plans for territorial conquest and regime change to install compliant puppets.
It's a variation on a theme of what Germany and Japan did to trigger WWII.
Kick Lakshmi Mittal's sorry ass back to India, where he can pray to the Indian god Ganesha to take care of the Chinese steel exporters. Or maybe Mittal can ask Wilbur Ross for help, the same Wilbur Ross who bought off the US Department of Labor, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and Judge Burton Lifland of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (who fast tracked the demise of retired steelworkers' pension and health insurance benefits. Mittel should know that America has been a thieves bazaar since Reagan. Mittal can expect no assistance, the Chinese are the big boys on the block and Mittal is a has been.
http://www.makingsteel.com/pocket.html
So one of the pricks that sunk American steel industry is now having his ass handed to him by a lower cost producer. how tragic...
The full potential of free trade can only be realised with the world achieving balanced trade to the highest possible degree.
Free trade so far has created massive imbalances which in turn have killed off employment, industries and inspired debt fuelled solutions to maintain. consumption.
"....evil, efficient Chinese steel plants which should be stigmatized due to "very low environmental standards."
and he is right...the chinese record on working conditions, the environment, and a host of other violations of decency - such as slave labor - are very good reasons to declare a trade war....currency pegging is not exactly a sign of efficient operations, zh!
It's too bad no one would believe Europe is serious about fighting a trade war -- as in cutting its own environmental and labor regulations, since that is the only real leverage which would might result in Chinese concessions to increase their own environmental and labor standards.
Is this man a fool or an agent provocateur? Currency wars lead to trade wars, and trade wars lead to hot wars. Shill!
.
I can agree with that but how do you deal with China?
ask yourself who made china into the china of today ?
Reply : US NWO/ deregulated outsourcing and Clinton/GWB policies.
On this issue in 1991, that old asset stripper and deregulatively leveraged acquisition king of WS called Jimmy GOldsmith came on french TV and said :
"Bush Snr's outsourcing policy is the greatest disaster for the West. If this guy thinks we can win big by outsourcing all our factories to China he is dead wrong. How can we EVER bring those factories back once this is strongly entrenched. 'Cos after China the international labour arbitrage will move to cheaper Vietnam and Bengladesh! We will never manage those productivity/ cost tradeoffs to win back those jobs. We will kill our own consumer base one day thru this outsourcing rage!"
....Spot on Mr Goldsmith, now 20 years down the road from Reaganomics and Thatcherist hatchery concoction of that outsourced greedy rampage.
Its the US oligarchy who created outsourced China and India for their own 1% owned profits.
Those Chinese should build a statue to Clinton and to GWB like the one they have for Ghengis Khan in Oulan BAtour.
Now that Middle Kingdom has gone Kong on USA/Eurozone, its every man for himself and may the devil take the hindmost!
Thats what sings King Mittal anyways! And he should know.
What the Oligarchy sowed we now reap.
Perhaps he has another daughter to marry. The cost for marrying the first one? The "estimates range from $60 million to $78 million.
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/27/the-10-most-lavish-weddings-ever/slide/vanisha-mittal-amit-bhatia/#ixzz2T8oA2aa7
she musta been a real dog's breakfast...but my old neighbors really did marry their American son outta a catalogue for a hefty price...really wacky s#!t...!!
All heiresses are beautiful - old proverb
He's just pissed off about Chinese incursion into Indian territory...BUT, he is right about Europe getting toasted by holding that dopey currency at these levels. Euro needs to go to like 78.29...and it MIGHT
The GDP of my country is so small and dependent on the amount of metal NATO (ussa) drops on it!
In other news: JGB yield is climbing FAST during Tokyo lunch hour. Shit is about to get seriously real in Japan
Japanese folks its time to get all your shit out of Japan, do it while the getting out is still good and cheap!
Ladies and Gents,
I think we are gonna start seeing some serious s#!t go down this week....and for many weeks to come.....!!
Do not bet that his idea will not get very serious consideration from the nimrods in Brussels. The union steel workers power is only exceeded by their stupidity. France is imploding and doubling down.
Not that China is playing fair by not floating its currency and by keeping wages really low.
So his advice is for Europe to kick its creditors in the nuts, and then hope its overtaxed and unemployed population can somehow afford its own goods. What a retard.
it was nice for more than a decade when china was killing local manufacturing and you were happily selling your shit to china supporting the demise of the western middle class, wasn't it, mr. mittal?
now that your ass is burning, you suddenly remembered the trade barriers, eh?
what a pathetic hypocrite are you, mr. mittal.
Liers and cheats vs liers and cheats.
Hmmm....let them destroy each other is my vote.
Of course Mittal talks for his own interest, but still, what he says make sense for the people of Europe. Why always wanting to stand against someone, just because he is not on your side ?
It's time for Europe to change its policies if we don't want to become the third world. Globalization only benefits to the few controlling trade, it is not bringing prosperity but impoverishment. See the import duties CHina, Brazil and other emerging markets impose on cars, etc. Why should we continue that way ? What do you want, that European and American workers work in the same conditions as in India or China ? This is what is awaiting us if we continue the "free trade" meme, which is another "misleading term" to describe an economy working under unfair competition conditions.
Surely Mittal's wealth is based on China's huge demand for steel for the Olympics and his use of cheap finance to buy cheap assets in Europe in a time when steel prices were rising ? Isn't that the secret of his empire ? So when it goes into reverse because China cuts back steel demand and fails to cut steel production and Europe is dead with the car sector and construction inj the doldrums.
Oh boy, higher steel prices for my mfg business.
Europe should declare war on HIS ass!