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Why Capital Is Fleeing China: The Crushing Costs Of Systemic Corruption
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
What China will be left with a poisoned land stripped of talent and capital.
Corruption isn't just bribes and influence-peddling: it's protecting the privileges of the few at the expense of the many. Rampant pollution is corruption writ large: the profits of the polluters are being protected at the expense of the millions being poisoned.
This is why capital and talent are fleeing China: systemic corruption has poisoned the nation and raised the cost of doing business. External costs such as environmental damage must be paid eventually, one way or the other.
Either the cost is paid in rising chronic illnesses, shorter lifespans and declining productivity, or profits and tax revenues must be siphoned off to clean up the damage and the sources of environmental degradation.
In large-scale industrial economies such as China and the U.S., that cost is measured not in billions of dollars but in hundreds of billions of dollars over a long period of time.
I have often noted that one key reason why the U.S. economy stagnated in the 1970s was the enormous external costs of runaway industrialization were finally paid in reduced profits and higher taxes.
China's manufacturing base simply isn't profitable enough to pay for the remedial clean-up and pollution controls needed to make China livable. That means labor and all the other sectors will have to pay the costs via higher taxes.
Pollution and environmental damage is driving away human capital, i.e. talent. This loss of talent is difficult to quantify, but it's not just foreigners who have worked in China for years who are pulling up stakes to escape pollution and repression--talented young Chinese are finding jobs elsewhere for the same reasons.
The game-changer is automation, i.e. robots and software eating the world. To understand the impact on China, let's start with unit labor costs, i.e. the cost of labor needed to produce each unit of output.
If it takes one worker an hour to assemble 10 light fixtures, the unit labor cost of each fixture is 1/10th of an hour's total compensation costs, i.e. wages and overhead. (Total compensation costs include all overhead such as vacation, healthcare, pensions, social security taxes on labor paid by the employer, etc.)
If an automated machine can produce 1,000 of the same units in an hour, and the only labor is the machine's one operator, the the unit labor cost of each fixture is 1/1,000th of an hour's total compensation costs.
When labor's contribution to production costs drop to near-zero, there's no labor arbitrage left to make China a low-cost producer. Frequent contributor Mark G. explains:
"Doing business in China has its own set of local costs. In the past, these costs were outweighed by the greater profit potential of dirt-cheap Chinese labor. But once unit labor costs fall to near-zero as factories are automated, the remaining cost inputs for any manufacturer become a proportionally much larger part of the price.
Environmental regulatory arbitrage is the sole exception. But even this advantage must fade as the Chinese consumer middle class acquires influence. Very few Chinese of any class will have a direct profit stake in automated factories. Any pollution emitted by automated factories becomes a direct cost and a form of tax that those living nearby must bear. Therefore I anticipate that even this current advantage of effectively no environmental regulation will soon dwindle as Chinese tolerance for pollution fades."
Environmental clean-up costs have been avoided due to corruption. Filters are taken off at night, when the smoke is less visible. If local residents complain too loudly, local squads of goons attack them.
The Chinese state exists to enforce the privileges enjoyed by the few at the expense of the many. Paying pollution-remediation costs slash profits--indeed, in many cases, these external costs completely wipe out profits.
Dissenters and anyone daring to question the corruption must be suppressed by whatever means are available, and the central and local governments in China have been liberally deploying every tool of repression.
This systemic repression is the direct consequence and cost of corruption. So by all means, poison the nation and its non-privileged citizens to benefit the few at the top of the heap, and arrest, beat up or silence critics and dissenters.
What China will be left with a poisoned land stripped of talent and capital. That's the ultimate cost of systemic corruption.
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You could be talking about the US as well as China. It is not a country phenomenon. It is an elitist parasite phenomenon.
The article creates the impression that the US and the EU are any better. Does anyone here have a clue about the rules and regulations, environmental bullshit, OSHA, affirmative action queer quota and other assorted crap one has to put up with in the US and EU. It's no better than China. At least in China there is only one small group of people you have to deal with.
Long robots and the component producers. That would include precision bearings.
* * *
I wonder what any large-scale Chinese emigration would do to the price of gold, perhaps nothing, but I still wonder...
* * *
Wealthy Chinese wanting to buy a subtropical US oceanview condo feel free to track me down, no financing.
As long as they keep that some of that capital flight directed into SF Bay Area tract homes like mine I might make it out alive from the current bubble. Maybe.
so the elites would have His Holiness come to make a speech at the UN on climsate change?
All for large scale cover-up?
What an Agenda.
You obviously have never been to China. You have no fucking clue the level of red tape in China. At least the rules in the US are decipherable. The rules in China are not rules and change by location and time of day. Orders of magnitude worse than the US-- Although since 2008 are polituburo is composed of the banks and oil companies.
"fragrant grease" solves many problems.
Now that's good, LOL.
+ 1.3 billion or so to keep odors under control.
In China, as in many other places, a well targeted bribe will solve most of your problems. People (other than "exceptionalists") tend to include that sort of expenses in their cost of doing business...
guang jou
You mean guanxi...
that's what I meant ;0
But you can get around almost any of them with some well placed money or family connections. Bribery can actually be a positive form of efficiency to get around a bureaucracy that has no interest in producing anything other than red tape and obstruction.
Dude, you can't be this ignorant. The corruption is as bad here as it is there, but the pollution is magnitudes worse there than here. Their main rivers look like raw sewage systems. Indigenous wild life dies for lack of clean water. They are absolutely destroying their environment to the point that the conspiracy people think the reason we've given so much land to China is so they can relocate a good percentage of their people here because their nation will be unlivable. They have cities whose air pollution is so bad that the literlally never seen the sun, but rather a dim ball of light in the sky completely masked by particulate matters. They have to create articifial light to keep circadian rhythms working "properly". I hate our gov't probably more than even you, but at least we have clean drinking water and breathable air.
I didn't say go ahead and dump whatever you have anywhere you want. But the environmental situation is the US is pretty much on the other extreme of the spectrum. Unless it is the EPA doing the dumping of course.
Also do you have any idea what Britain was like during the Industrial Revolution? One of the reasons of the "clean US" is because everything is made in China.
God forbid, we have regulations that prevent pollution! Oh no, it's costly to comply with that regulation. :(
I guess we're a bunch of commies here in the USA for demanding clean air and water.
MD, careful there. Believe it or not there are folks here who wouldn't see your (blatant) sarcasm.
We still have a lot of pollution here in the US that is grandfathered in for the powerful and government related. There is discrimination in enforcement.
It is an elitist parasite problem. We need a huge can of buggerers-be-gone.
I'm not a commie but, clearly, Nixon was. EPA, normal relations with Communist China, Earth Day and closing the gold window. Daddy Bush used to say, while in office, that trade with them would empower the average Chinese, that they would demand more freedom, etc. Well, now they're choking on that 'freedom'. Sorry to tell you comrade, those reg's were used to export jobs, not to save your precious lungs.
Yeah, the myth is that apart from the good people in government we would all poison ourselves and kill ourselves on the job, etc., etc. Government follows. It never leads. However, it follows with teeth and then uses those for political advantage.
Well said Syrin. Hugh-Smith is confounding 'fleeing pollution' which is not it, with 'talent fleeing' which is not it either. He does have the corruption part right.
They're leaving because it's game over or nearly so.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-3221301/Chinese-fir...
The EU and US are better but the Rulers want to emulate China. Which means things are getting worse.
Well no. The rulers would like some place nice to live. Moderately prosperous (Trump?) so great wealth is not an excessive danger.
My guess is that the powers have decided the US is going to be their landing place.
Got to suck to be the rest of the world.
===============
Hate works the same everywhere. I think Goering pointed it out.
And about half the dupes posting here fall for some brand of hate. It is ALL useful.
To THEM. Who ever they are. It is of no use to you. In fact it will hurt you. But you love your hate. It FEELs so good. Roll in it. Revel in it. Delicious hate.
It is a deadly sin for a reason. Not because of what it does to THEM. Because of what it does to you. It clouds the mind and corrodes the soul.
+ Eternity
+ Infinity
Hatred & resentmernt are killers of souls...
They are natural extensions of survival mechanisms refined through centuries. That's why they're are no saints among us. Everyone, please down vote to prove me right!
They are better, but that's not saying much.
"I have often noted that one key reason why the U.S. economy stagnated in the 1970s was the enormous external costs of runaway industrialization were finally paid in reduced profits and higher taxes."
^^^Stopped reading here.^^^ The 70's stagnated due to runaway inflation to pay for LBJ and Nixon's welfare/warfare policies. Oh, and Nixon created the EPA while opening up formal relations with China (and stabbing Taiwan in the back). No coincidences there.
Just send in the EPA., they fix everything they touch.
Splendid idea! Would be nice to have them out of our hair for a while.
Fukda epa & everyone of its overpaid bureaucrats... Fukem.
He knows that, but his priapism for China simply won't abate...
Clearly you've never been to China. The pollution in that country is incredible, there's nothing in the US that compares.
And despite people posting things here about what a totalitarian society the US is, they really do not have ANY freedom of speech or of the press in China.
"The US is no different, rabble rabble rabble!" You don't know what you're talking about.
Many folks have never been out of the country and don't get it. But yet they comment as experts.
45+ million Americans on welfare so that those poor Chinese can choke on pollution. This was all financed by US gov. deficit spending. China couldn't be where they're at w/o it and the US welfare recipients(former workers) would eat w/o it. If this house of cards collapses, I'm more concerned about defending myself than polluting the ground with a former welfare recipient's blood. Freedom of speech in the US? Trump's(the guy who said China is screwing us, which is only half the truth) found out about that.
They should build a wall around it like the US is doing to keep the people from getting out.
a wall.
plus a net for the jumpers.
Sounds like most western countries
What Name a country will be left with a poisoned land stripped of talent and capital
You see, every country could use a Donald Trump
Meantime regarding corruption in Russia under putin regime criminal elite...
Import replacement. Self-sufficiency. The classical Russian endurance to hardship. Spiritual values. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov doesn’t have time for any of these things. See all that patriotic bullshit is for ordinary Russians, not the elite. The elite gets to have weddings in an elite hotel where rooms start at $580 a night. The elite gets to wear watches worth over half a million dollars, in spite of their far lower official salary. The children of the elite, like Peskov’s daughter, prefer to live abroad, in the decadent West. It matches their lifestyle, after all.
In my early years in Russia this kind of thing wasn’t too shocking. I mean sure, the idea of a watch whose value could buy several decent houses in the US is by itself shocking, but in the glory days of Putin’s Russia, or better said the Golden Age of Medvedev the Great, such a watch would simply be a drop in a vast sea of conspicuous, dick-waving opulence. At the time I used to find the flaunting of such staggering income inequality to be highly offensive. If only I could have known what was coming.
In those days, the elite might have flaunted their power via yachts or diamond-encrusted skis, but they were so secure in their positions at the national trough that they didn’t care as to ordinary people’s reactions. Though the media was still largely controlled by Putin, the internet was practically liberated territory, and people spoke openly and freely about corruption. They didn’t necessarily do anything about it, but they at least felt totally free to express their opinions. To be honest they had good reasons- the glut of wealth from high oil prices and foreign investment meant that they too enjoyed a higher standard of living than they were used to, and thus it seemed like there was a sort of unspoken social contract between the government and the Russian people: “Don’t actually bother us or stand in our way, and you can do whatever you want, or whatever you can get away with.”
Now that situation has changed. While Putin displays a stunning lack of foresight and is clearly oblivious to material reality, his fire-from-the-hip actions in Ukraine have given him something he sorely needed- a seemingly real conflict with the West on which he can offload all the problems for which he or his system bear responsibility. Suddenly people who should know better have started mouthing the regime’s talking points, though they may be 180 degrees the opposite of what they said before. People started pretending like the things they constantly complained about every day for years just stopped. Patriotic propaganda, backed by threats both concrete and implicit, replaced the conspicuous consumerism of the previous years.
Peskov’s watch, at least for a moment, seemed like a dose of cold reality. Not only was it the talk of the Russian internet, but my students spontaneously brought it up in class yesterday evening. It’s really hard to pretend that Russia’s tormentor is the United States when the president’s personal secretary inexplicably possesses so much money to burn. It’s hard to pretend you’re happy limiting your vacations to Russia while the sons and daughters of the elite actually live in New York, Paris, London, or Brussels. Hypocrisy is tolerable when the hypocrites don’t demand your loyalty or submission, but now that’s exactly what’s happening.
None of this should be taken as a sign that mass unrest is spreading in Russia. For one thing, the country has a large elderly population, as well as a large population of middle-aged people who don’t see any change as possible and/or depend entirely on the state for their meager subsistence. These are the types of people who enthusiastically voice their support for Putin, shake their fist at the United States, fervently wish to see Russian armies openly invade Ukraine to drive out the “fascist junta” from Kyiv. They do not have male children of military age, they are ineligible to serve themselves, and they depend on the state, hence they are seemingly insulated from the consequences of these policies.
As a morbid consolation, these people are starting to feel the effect of inflation and cutbacks in medical care, meaning that privation, suffering, and even death might be the steep penalties these folks will have to pay for their refusal to stand up for their rights. Tragic, yes, but the price of such politics must ever be high, lest more people believe they can afford to indulge in them. So while these generations that support the status quo may be more numerous in number, they’re also the type of people most likely to drop like flies as the elite turn the screws of austerity ever tighter.
Where you might see a change is when the younger, internet savvy, more worldly generation starts watching their older relatives suffer and die due to healthcare cutbacks and low pensions unable to keep pace with the rate of inflation. These males are usually able to escape military service themselves, and I doubt that Russia will get so involved in Ukraine as to have dozens of dead and wounded streaming back into the country to create an Iraq War-style spectacle. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the barracks collapse in Omsk killed more Russian soldiers than a week’s worth of combat in the Donbas. On the other hand, virtually all of these younger people have older relatives.
It’s only a matter of time before people start making connections between the money that’s missing from healthcare, education, and infrastructure on one hand, and the massive in-your-face opulence of the elite. How much medicine could Peskov’s watch buy? How many apartments? How many hospitals could be built or at least upgraded for the cost of Yakunin’s massive palatial compound? What could Russia’s citizens have got for the $1.8 billion embezzled from Russia’s space program? And all the while, the recipients of these ill-gotten gains will be lecturing the people on patriotism, enforcing it with the power of the state.
These days anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism is like a veil that gives the appearance of some sort of national unity, but it is a thin veil nonetheless. I’ve seen that by spending a few minutes talking to the most vehement vatniks, they eventually drop the whole act and start complaining about the injustice and corruption they see in their country. Those who weren’t vatniks but adopted the lingo in 2014 do so even more readily. Whether they say it out loud or not, they know. Everyone knows. Russia’s bane isn’t the United States or NATO bases around its periphery. It’s what’s around Peskov’s wrist.
http://nobsrussia.com/2015/08/04/peskovs-watch-as-a-wake-up-call/
It's not working...
Fuck Russia.
It's Kiev, not Kyiv.
Kiev (/?ki??f, -?v/)[7] or Kyiv (Ukrainian)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev
Life for ordinary ruskies are not like its for criminal putin regime elite
Here ruskies fight in line to get free potato to feed their families
http://youtu.be/Fpt20u8dm6s
and here ruskies fight for free apple
http://youtu.be/SNsn3I3_1uk
I hear multi-millionaire Hilary Clinton's email server was designed by Richard Mille too.
Do they just make these articles up out of thin air, like the MSM does? National Enquirer material
All countries are coming to the very same endpoint. Interesting times, but chance will always favor the prepared. My tribe and I are ready, life will go on just fine.
same as it ever was...
the only talent leaving are those with a talent for stealing money
Apparently it is necessary to overstate the obvious for the benefit of the author whose many trips to China have been watching CNN.
Corruption isn't just bribes and influence-peddling: it's protecting the privileges of the few at the expense of the many...
just to be clear, we're talking about china here?
stop generalizing
Their power plants have pollution scrubbers that the government brags about, but they all run in bypass because they are expensive to operate and maintain. It works all across their system in the same way. The 'special' elite is in charge, so SSDD till it falls apart.....
Note to CH-S: capital is "fleeing" China because the Chinese finally decided not to put up anymore with the shit perpetrated by GS, JPM and their kind... Boo, hoo, hoo & don't forget to take your algos with you before closing the door on your way out ! Maybe other countries would follow the Chinese example...
Capital is fleeing China by USING JPM, GS, and their kind. It is what they get paid to do. Move "money".
You ought to give up your hate. It clouds the mind.
So, do you believe that GS & JPM were using their HFT algos over the last few years (in China, as well as in US) to serve you better ? Well then, I have a nice historical bridge to sell you in San Fran, beautiful view too... By the way, it's their fucking market and they can do whatever the hell they want with it ! Somehow, I don't think that China will suffer from "capital scarcity", all things considered... I know it must hurt some banksters feelings but hey, such is life: it sucks, and then you die !
.... which is exactly what happens in centrally-planned economies where the government dictates everything.
Terrist!
Blah blah blah. taxes=corruption=the cost of doing business. In China or elsewhere.
For now, it beats living in a cave and having to kill your food on a daily basis.
same as it ever was...
Lifestyles of the poor and third world... coming to your neighborhood soon.....
It's no different in China than it is in the U.S.S.A Charles. The problem China is facing is due to the rampant malinvestment and speculation in real estate. China has been building out so fast that they have an over capacity and don't have anybody to occupy their spaces. I had lunch yesterday with a major distributor, and he was telling me how difficult it is to get product out of China right now. One of his suppliers got caught up in the real estate bubble (trying to diversify their business model) and is now on the verge of bankruptcy. Their company once employed 6,000 people in the factory and now they are reduced to 300 trying to meet demand. He travels to China frequently on business and this is not an unusual phenomenon.
"I have often noted that one key reason why the U.S. economy stagnated in the 1970s was the enormous external costs of runaway industrialization were finally paid in reduced profits and higher taxes."
OR this was when the US reached peak oil, pumping money out of the ground is easy.
Or computerization? Forward looking mechanisms and all that.
WTF....
August 27, 2015 Reference: Some Company SAVINGS PLAN Dear JR : Our records indicate that your recent exchange activity in the fund indicated below in the Plan account referenced above raises concerns related to our efforts to identify and address excessive short-term trading in certain plan funds. Fund Name 'Omitted' POOL The purpose of this letter is to remind you of the excessive trading policy regarding certain funds held within your account and to serve as a warning on the above-referenced trading activity within your account. We value you as a customer and we want to help you transact business in your account in accordance with the fund's excessive trading policy. We understand that not everyone who receives this letter has the intent of being an excessive trader. Short-term and other frequent trading by shareholders can adversely affect a fund's performance by disrupting the portfolio manager's investment strategy, by increasing expenses (such as trading commissions), or allowing some investors to capitalize on stale pricing at the fund's expense. To help protect the interests of fund investors in collectively seeking long-term returns on their investments and in accordance with the terms described in the fund prospectus or other governing document, the above fund prohibits excessive trading and limits exchanges. For this purpose, we review round trip transactions (as defined below) in plan accounts holding funds that are subject to excessive trading policies . A "round trip" is generally defined as an exchange purchase that an investor directs into a fund, followed by an exchange sale within 30 days. Round trips can result in restrictions being placed on an investor's ability to trade . Our records indicate that you recently completed a "round trip" in the fund referenced above. Although, as of the date of this letter, this activity will not currently restrict your ability to make an exchange purchase into the above referenced fund, if we find any additional round trip exchanges within 90 days from the day that you performed the exchange sale out of the above referenced fund during your prior round trip, your ability to exchange into this fund in your Plan account will be suspended for the period described below. Fund Name Suspension Period 'Fund Name' == 85 DAYS
wow!
what a crock of shit!!!
this scenario fits the ussa to a tee! not china you asshole...
This is a macro example of blue state taxpayers fleeing the corruption of the red states. (Yes, I know both national political parties are utterly corrupt, so don't bother to school me on the obvious)
Chicago is in Illinois. People are fleeing Illinois. These days Illinois is considered a blue state. Illinois is one of the most corrupt states in the Union.
You might want to look up where the pResident couts as home turf. A $billion dollar library around the corner from UChicago.
Don't be ridiculous Charles, if the pollution has to be cleaned up by the taxpayers, then it's good for the economy. The Chinese should break all their windows and breath deep of all that stimulus.
Give up on ever getting a Nobel Prize in Economics. Maybe you should attack a few countries, kill millions, and go for the Peace Prize.
Fuck the Chinese.
Heh people are not only leaving because of the pollution.
I noticed to get a valid visa the cost has gone up 3 fold since a few years ago, the duration is shorter and the requirements harder in addition.
Eighter they dont want foreigners or someone got too greedy collecting visa fee's.
The Chinese with money are leaving because the fertile crescent from Vancouver to San Diego is welcoming their dirty money. The pollution, although alarming to westerners, they are actually relatively used to as normal.
I'll grant that the younger ones, particularly those with travel experience in the USA, are starting to get what a cesspool their masters have made of China; but pollution is not the driver here, parking money is.
Are you talking about a Chinese visa? I've had odd experiences over the years. Every couple years I need to spend a week or two in China, working. I know how to get myself invited over, and I use a US-based service to handle the paperwork and payments. I've always applied for a 1-year visa. Sometimes that's what I get. Sometimes I get a 6-month visa. One time I got a 2-year visa. No difference in cost; it just seems to be arbitrary. It didn't affect what I needed to do so I didn't really care. The 2-year visa was a great deal though; I was able to use it 3 times, and having that access got me a project I might not otherwise have gotten.
"Very few Chinese of any class will have a direct profit stake in automated factories. "
But, but, but look at all the trickle down we've experienced here in the "land of the free."
"When labor's contribution to production costs drop to near-zero, there's no labor arbitrage left to make China a low-cost producer."
The good news is all your jobs are coming back. The bad news is they are going to robots, and the cherry of top is you can pay the costs of pollution arbitrage.
Get a skill. Robot repair. John Henry died pounding steel with a hammer. He got beat by a machine.
You might have heard the song.
Me? I design robots.
You sound so full of yourself ! Well, get ready for the time when the robots will decide to re-design you... or mothball you altogether for being an un-necessary headache.
I'm not sure that specialized skill can be translated into jobs for a hundred million people, many of whom lack the talent or the desire-- much less the education.
And I wouldn't advertise your job too much-- at least not around blue collar bars filled with laid-off factory workers.
Gee China, I guess this capitalism thing ain't as easy as it looks, especially when you keep up with the central planning horse crap.
The corollary to the story of their empty cities building project, is that decently-paid (by China standards) workers there have to live in squalor, because nothing decent has been built in their price range.
This is a function both of how the Chicoms count GDP -- not at final sales but at the endpoint of production, so all those empty building counted -- and the fact that a lot of the Party members have brothers-in-law who are in the concrete biz.
What's happening in China is indeed appalling. I've been there 6-8 times in the past decade, and it's just getting worse and worse. This past April I got really sick from air pollution in Shanghai, and it took a good week back home in vastly-cleaner Minneapolis to get my immune system back under control. I can only imagine what it's like to live there.
This time I also, for the first time ever, had to deal with Chinese "regulatory bureaucracy." In the past, I've hired a local vendor to deal with all the various levels of baksheesh that have to be handed out. Parking permits, permits to get a truck to a certain point at a certain time, etc. This time I had "Safety Inspectors" requiring silliness like making anyone who climbs a ladder wear a hard hat (but not the guys on the ground, who are the people whose heads would get hit with anything dropped), etc. And I had an Electrical Inspection, which was 4 huge Chinese Army guys showing up in fatigues with rifles. That was a little disconcerting.
The US is nowhere near as screwed up and corrupted as China, but that's a matter of familiarity and means rather than a qualitative difference. In the US if you hire the right "brokers" to advance things with the bureaucrats and buy the required permissions you'll be mostly OK. The issue in the US is all the carrying costs of Finance, which as CHS has pointed out many times, have multiplied and now function as sand in the gears, causing the system of How Things Get Done to grind itself to a halt. It's a different way of preserving the privileges of the Elite and letting them get a cut of every transaction. In the US it's more sophisticated and developed. Our Elites don't have to pollute everything to profit anymore; they've cleaned their hands of that and just get straight to divvying up the money.
But the end result is the same; it's the same process.
yes, equilibrium and entropy, on a long enough timeline...
Our elites exported our pollution to China, simple as that.
Lot of truth in that. And now we're exporting our financial pollution too.
China is overrated now, to take over the world economically, like Japan was overrated during the 80s and 90s. The difference is, the Chicoms will be tempted to start a war to keep their grip on power at home.
All I can say is, thank goodness for our strategic submarine fleet.
Submarines are somewhat overrated in the age of Shkval like torpedoes...
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/shkval.htm
Good in theory. But very noisy when running. That means if they are homing they can't chase really quiet stuff. And if they are not homing they can be evaded.And by now the US has countermeasures.
A lot of this stuff is just put out to impress the homeboys and scare the politicians and ignorati. Iran has loads of that kind of stuff.
About 3 or 4 years ago the commenters were a LOT smarter around here. Then we got a mass of haters and boy, are they stupid. Me? I don't condemn whole religions. They ALL have their bad apples. Some more than others. But I look at individuals.
I like Einstein, Bohr, Feynman and Milton Friedman. Grenspan and Yellen - not so much. And Greenspan especially. He was a libertarian kind of guy before he was head of the FED. He knew where fiat leads. And instead of moderating or weaning us off fiat he doubled down.
A torpedo doesn't need to be too silent when it closes in for a kill at over 200 kts (that's 370 km/h for those metrically inclined) in water ! It's not like the targeted submarine could take evasive action or something, the kind you can only see in Red October type movies... BTW, "countermeasures" it's a nice story to keep people relaxed while doing their job, and it works much better in movies than in reality.
bulshit...
China's only ace in the hole at this point may be their 20 thousand + tons of gold and their ability to take control of it's pricing.
Sellers don't control the price. Buyers do. Hasn't you EVER made a deal?
If you set the price to high - no sale.
It depends on demand elasticity...
In America when you want to get something done, you have to hire lots of lawyers and lobbyists, You pay them obscene amounts of money to bribe the lawmakers and politicians of the country. Then you get what you want. In China, you pay one official. It's cheaper, more efficient, and its a lot more honest.
It is bribery. It is not dressed up like some thing else. And it cuts a lot of Jewish lawyers and lobbyists out of the equation. Boy do they hate that. They will get a blog and badmouth the Chinese as being corrupt until the world ends, that's how much they hate it. I wonder if one of them owns this blog.
6509642 Syrin
The corruption is as bad here as it is there....
Dude, seriously... wtf are you babbling about? Sure, there's corruption in the US, we all know the score, but corruption in China is so endemic it makes your fucking head spin. How many times did you bribe your kids' teachers at PTA meetings to make sure they got special attention? Do you routinely bring special gifts to your local dentist or doctor for your checkups? Or slip a $50 in Statie's clipboard to dodge that traffic ticket? Seriously, you guys don't have the faintest fucking clue how endemic corruption is in China. The have companies that churn out plastic fucking rice for chrissakes.... restaurants that serve cardboard dumplings. Yeah, when a division commander retires with his one or two stars he'll get a fat contractor job at some MIC or a cozy consultancy gig. Yeah some of the NCOs run some scams on the side disappearing shit from Supply every now and then, but our company commander never rented out the fucking company to go pave some dickhead's roads for him like goddamned prison labor. Are you fucking kidding me? I could go on for 20 pages on this shit. In that sense Charles makes a valid point, aside from the hideous abuses and deviant market behavior corruption engenders it presents a considerable cost to just get simple shit done in a society as maladjusted as that. Where Charles is wrong is painting it as if the corruption originates in some Cosa Nostra type secret society victimizing the poor oppressed people, or the 1%ers getting over on the rest of us. In China... everyone is fucking everyone else over. It gets so fucking fuktarded every now and then you ask someone, why do you do it? and the answer comes back plain as pie. You either bribe your teachers and doctors and shopkeeps and beat cops and building attendants and lawyers and clerks and boss and bus driver and immigration officer and mechanic et-ce-te-rah ... or shit. doesn't. get. done.
We're rank fucking amateurs compared to the great Han people whenit comes to bribery. Our corruption is a vampire squid, their corruption is a million cannibal piranha feeding off eachother in a rabid bloody frenzy. But not to worry. They're bringing alllllll that cultural baggage with them when they buy that 750K condo out in Suburbia, U.S.A. with hot illegally gotten gains.
In the mean time, spare me this total fucking bs the corruption is as bad here as it is there claptrap.
It's not the Han. It's the Mao people. In Communism, whether it is Russian or Chinese or Cuban, corruption is the only way to get things done and then it becomes the only way things are done. The rules are for show, civil rights are whatever the guy with the gun thinks they are and so on. All regular commerce comes to a halt. Notice all Communist countries go full retard after the Commies take over. There is essentially no technical or social advancement. None.
More importantly, lying becomes a simple way to survive. It is stripped of all morality and all conneciton to reality. It is simply a method. So, when the local commisar orders new free public housing at the agreed on low-low price everyone says "Yes, comrade!" to avoid jail or reeducation camp. Then they thin out and sell your concrete three times on the way to the construction site. Only half the rebar gets used. Only one electrical outlet that will be used to light the room for the newspaper photo will work. It will take three times as long as promised but still be officially "on time" because one unit was done.
This carries over into commerce and quality. When you contract Christmas toys with the Chinese and ask if they will meet all regulatory requirements, on cue they will say, "Yes, my friend!" (Phrase updated for western capitalist pigs). They have no damned idea what the regs are and no one is going to look them up. The green paint on the choo-choo might be loaded with lead and toxins and even peel off but that was the cheapest available. It was also thinned at the converted commie plant.
Say what you will but capitalism over time requires and demands a much higher level of product and honesty. The market learns who serves up garbage, including dangerous garbage. Liability lawyers can make you bleed.
The only reason they have any quality whatsoever is from the influx of western methods, including Taiwanese and Hong Kong businesses that showed them how to function in world markets. However, the legacy of corruption and Communism still run deep.
Take into account all the arable land in USA poisoned by round-up,all the areas which can no longer support plants polinated by rapidly becoming extinct bees and all the water tables poisoned by fracking & other chemical contaminents as well as the drinking water oligopolies taking over all sources of water includng rain water run off,Fukashima poisond Pacific not to forget the weaponised weather (Chemtrails) & pro Monsanto laws enacted that is pushing small farmers into bankruptcy thus its clear to see that its the USA which is faster than China becoming a land destroyed and a population debt enslaved + denuded of good health by the competing corporate interests that carve up amongst themselves everything that remains looting public purse all quite legally because they own most of the folks public office.
USA is way more crushed than China now in 2015 and in fact its only western capital which is fleeing with their uwanted US$.Chinese are saving in the form of real estate with less wealthy putting huge sums into more liquid assets like gold coins, jade and surprise surprise,amber,which is mined in places like Kallingrad and even Donbass
Another ignorati. Do you know anything about Roudup except what you read in the hysterical ecofreaks blogs? It decays in the open in about 3 days. Compare that with what we used to use.
And who pays for ecofreak hysteria? People who want our food supply to go down and our cost of business to go up. We have cleaned up a LOT in America. But it is getting to te point where we are paying a billion dollars to save an ESTIMATED 10 lives. That is NOT cost effective. That billion spent elsewhere might save 10,000 lives. For real. Not estimated.
Who pays for anti-fracking hysteria. Quatar. You can look it up. Probably Russia pays for it in Europe. Don't want those stinkin Euros to get their own gas supplies. It would be bad for Russian business.
For a historical account look up "Current Wars" it is about Tesla vs Edison. AC vs DC. And Edison used every underhanded trick in the book. Bad publicity. Buying politicians. etc. Fortunately AC was so much superior technically than DC at that time that AC crushed DC. We are now going back to DC because we have much better technology. Transistors. You might have heard of them. Look up IGBJT if you want to go deeper.
Look at all the lies spread about cannabis. Who benefits? Drug companies. It would RUIN their anti-depressant profits. Among the many uses for the stuff medically. Now apply that knowledge to everything you find some one fear mongering about. Maybe 1% is real. The other 99% is protection of some ones business model.
Don't be a dupe. It makes you look dupid.
In Russia under criminal putin regime elite rule street musician is illegal because is definded as illegal street meeting that has not be authorised by putin regime goons
http://youtu.be/KMgXPqBL0lY
Sorry to trash the party, but think I spotted a fatal flaw in this article's line of reasoning...
Why would robots want light fixings?
Money is a human-created contraption for the sole purpose of satisfying desires... do robots have desires? what will they desire the most?... get rid of his "useless eater" controller?
Never studied much about money, eh?
Robots are not animate but the people who run them are. Look there.
This is the best CHS note ever, better than his last "best note." Rock on, Chuck!
Fire Angel
6512083 FreedomGuy
I'm making an assumption this is a reply to my earlier post @ 6509642 (btw... for some time now the "replies" linking seems to have broken down. All you need to do to reference an original post is simply cut and paste that post's number into your text.)
Sorry FreedomGuy, but corruption in China predates the loose adaptation of some elements of what has loosely become called "communism." We might as easily call it gangsterism, because that's what ends up getting adapted in the name of communism. At any rate, corruption predates communism's arrival by a few thousand years. You find very similar strands of corruption throughout Asia, irrespective of the political systems that the various countries have adapted.
Aside from that, I largely agree that capitalism in the Adam Smithian hypothetical sense--not the monstrosity that has morphed into what it is today--proposes a social organization far more efficient in mashalling social resources than the various "virtuous" doctrines of social organization Asia lumbered along with (Confucianism, Neo Confucianism etc.).
Btw... there's nothing Capitalist about Hong Kong's core historical businesses. They were all founded as opium pushing criminal organizations that subsequently went into the property monopoly business. When the British were squatting in Hong Kong, they happily pushed opium and sang God Save the Queen. When the Japanese landed here during WWII they promptly dropped the British like typhus and raised the Kyokujitsu-ki and shouted Banzai! and when the commies rolled up here in '97 they at once donned their Mao suits and embraced the comrads as long lost brothers. They're stinking traitors, opportunists and turncoats. If you think any of this is hyperbole, do some Googling. And if you can name one innovative product that has sprung from the brain trust of a Hong Kong conglomerate I'm all ears, because I don't know of any. Their businesses are all rent seeking monopolies that add no value to the economy. When they earned their first profits off the Made in Hong Kong brandname in the early sixties they did it by perfecting the mercantalist model that has spread like the plague around the world since then; the exploitation of cheap labor. Talk about innovation.