[skiwi]

I'm sure some of you will find this an interesting article especially the comments by John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the US cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies

Asian Perspective of Global Economy

Originally referenced from www.whatreallyhappened.com
which some of you may also like to add to your bookmarks

[Kingcoal]

I like the end of the article, which asks the question; what happens when the devil that the world knows and hates (and sometimes loves) falls?
The US is dastardly, devious, cunning, manipulative and often without mercy. Again, the question begs: what evil will replace it or will utopia finally blossom across the world?

If the Euro replaces the dollar, the temptations that corrupted the US will now befall the EU. My point is that innocence is lost in the face of power. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. However, without the orderly exchanges of power you have anarchy. History tells us that people typically would rather put up with anything other than anarchy. That's why the world has always prospered as a whole, the most when there is a dominant power running things. It is hard on the lowly members of society, but the alternative is much harder still and good things trickle down to them from the wealth generation. In contrast, wealth is created, then destroyed in an anarchistic system.

[Colorado-Valley]

I've always argued for governments that are small, decentralized and user-friendly.

Large, centralized governments tend to be corrupted.

Empire governments are the worst, almost always sociopathic, in my opinion.

[savethehumans]

PO should bring about small communities, and localized government. They will be equally corruptible. But perhaps it will take time for such corruption to spread over wide distances. I think that's the best we can hope for in a world ruled by human beings....

[SD_Scott]

Recently someone posted an article from the Asia Times, so I started reading more stuff from that site. I think it's a great site and there's many references to PO over there. Here's an interesting article.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GA20Ag01.html

[BabyPeanut]

Boy that dioxin messed up Yushchenko's face. This is the first time I have seen the damage.

If the Asia Times article is true then there was a big bunch of fools wearing orange and taking to the streets. When I was hearing about the events I was thinking why didn't we have such a movement about the US elections? Now I'm more confused about the issues than ever.

[Liamj]

Agree, SD_Scott, the Asia Times is about the best mainstream media you'll find, IMHO. Their coverage of Asian stories in particular usually comes from locals who provide 100 times the context & background info of yr average networked hack.

The prominence they give to reader letters, guest commentators & signif stuff from other media (e.g. al jezeera & Pak.Times editorials) makes our ads+hype+lies+ads media look about as free as Ronald McDonalds arse. They've published stuff from Aus journo's that Aus papers wouldn't touch.

They appear to be not a subsidiary of any of the majors, some kind of management buyout after crashing in late nineties? Whatever they're doing it seems to be working, but there is an obvious market: if you were a new millionaire from Schenzen or Hanoi, would YOU take Wall Streets word for ANYTHING?

[The_Virginian]

Or beijings word...or pyonyangs....or bang-cock's...or______???

[stu]

Have to agree. Asia Times is one of the first places I go to post news.

Another one worth checking out is www.khaleejtimes.com. Purely for it's columns by Noam Chomsky and Henry Kissinger.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/ColumnistHo ... ky&col=yes

[Carlhole]

This is a worthwhile but difficult article to read not so much because the concepts are hard - it's because it seems to be written by an economist whose Merlot has been imsprinkled by a pinch of magic mushroom powder.

In the middle of it, he rambles off into a historical discourse on Jewish, Christian, Roman lending philosophy. It almost seems like a different article was mistakenly cut-and-pasted in the middle of this one. But Henry K Liu is respected and this article has been posted all over the place.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

http://atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GF16Dj01.html

[excerpt]

"The IMF, which has been ferocious in imposing draconian fiscal and monetary "conditionalities" on all debtor nations everywhere in the decade after the Cold War, is nowhere to be seen on the scene in the world's most fragrantly irresponsible debtor nation. This is because the US can print dollars at will and with immunity. The dollar is a fiat currency not backed by gold, not backed by US productivity, not backed by US export prowess, but backed by US military power. The US military budget request for Fiscal Year 2005 is $420.7 billion. For Fiscal Year 2004, it was $399.1 billion; for 2003, $396.1 billion; for 2002, $343.2 billion; and for 2001, $310 billion. In the first term of George W Bush's presidency, the US spent $1.5 trillion on its military. That is more than the entire gross domestic product of China in 2004. The US trade deficit is about 6% of its GDP, while it military budget is about 4%. In other words, the trading partners of the US are paying for one and a half times the cost of a military that can some day be used against any one of them for any number of reasons, including trade disputes. The anti-dollar crowd has nothing to celebrate about the recurring US trade deficit.

It is pathetic that Rumsfeld tries to persuade the world that China's military budget, which is less that one-tenth of that of the United States, is a threat to Asia, even when he is forced to acknowledge that Chinese military modernization is mostly focused on defending its coastal territories, not on force projection for distant conflicts, as is US military doctrine. While Rumsfeld urges more political freedom in China, his militant posture toward China is directly counterproductive toward that goal. Ironically, Rumsfeld chose to make his case about political freedom in Singapore, the bastion of Confucian authoritarianism. "

[Carlhole]

[...and another]

"The transition to offshore outsourced production has been the source of the productivity boom of the "New Economy" in the US in the past decade. The productivity increase not attributable to the importing of other nations' productivity is much less impressive. While published government figures of the productivity index show a rise of nearly 70% since 1974, the actual rise is between zero and 10% in many sectors if the effect of imports is removed from the equation. The lower productivity values are consistent with the real-life experience of members of the blue-collar working class and the white-collar middle class who have been spending the equity cash-outs from the appreciated market value of their homes. World trade has become a network of cross-border arbitrage on differentials in labor availability, wages, interest rates, exchange rates, prices, saving rates, productive capacities, liquidity conditions and debt levels. In some of these areas, the US is becoming an underdeveloped economy.

The Bush administration continues to assure the US public that the state of the economy is sound while in reality the country has been losing entire sectors of its economy, such as manufacturing and information technology, to foreign producers, while at the same time selling off part of the nation to finance its rising and unending trade deficit. Usually, when unjustified confidence crosses over to fantasized hubris on the part of policymakers, disaster is not far ahead. "

[The_Virginian]

written by an economist whose Merlot has been imsprinkled by a pinch of magic mushroom powder.

um maybe he does the beer and coffie thing as well? Maybe A-times is just a hobby like Hiku in Ashai?

YES, it is a good article right up to the last paragraph where he sounds like Ron Paul married to Castro.

Great article overall, I actualy liked his rant on Rome, and had to do a double take that his name was not some typicaly Jewish one.

It was difficult to follow, but the underlying concepts appear sound.

(note: It is "all over" as I read it over on a very diffrent site)

[MicroHydro]

I have read Liu before. He is incapable of writing clearly. He needs an editor. A series of columns with one major point in each might work better.

[PenultimateManStanding]

So the US policymakers let big chunks of polluting manufacturing go overseas to countries with cheap labor and then took the money back in the form of debt to finance a huge military build-up in the years leading up to resource wars caused by nearing or passing the global peak production of oil. Gee, you would almost think they knew what was coming or something.

[PenultimateManStanding]

These Yankee elites are pretty shrewd, alright. Back forty years ago we had rivers catching on fire from pollution, the smokestack industries were damaging the environment. All the working class jobs made for strong Unions. The anti-war movement was growing and eventually forced an end to the Viet Nam War and the miltary draft. In short, the elites were on the ropes. Now there is a large pool of youth joining the miltary voluntarily while the 'wogs' are making the inessential non-military stuff. The unions are weakened, the environment is cleaned up, and the military is the strongest in history.

[FairMaiden]

Asia is starting to feel a crunch. Check out CNN today.

Could this be the start of it?

Time Asia: Peril at the Pump

[spudbuddy]

All kinds of mixed feelings about this one...

For instance, I find myself wondering a lot...if North America and Europe in particular pulled back into a conservationist mode of consumption, would Asia follow suit?
I could see Japan doing so...but the thought of China and India determined to emulate American consumption habits is pretty disturbing.
Imagine 2 billion people all wanting a three-car garage?

Rumblings from Wal*Mart. I'm not surprised. If the cost of transporting cheap goods from Asia to North America doubled...there go their profits.
Take that to its ultimate conclusion...and much of globalized business is in similar trouble. (Except perhaps for telecommunications and IT industries.)

And not only are transportation costs affected...but manufacturing costs as well.
I was struck by the comments of that one particular Asian plastic manufacturer - that everyone expects plastic to be cheap.
Remarkable......the word "cheap" has prefaced the word plastic in the North American lexicon...ever since plastic first showed up.
And as the fellow remarked...his raw material costs have risen 30% already...with just the price rise so far. Imagine what just a $100 barrel price would do.

I have to say it: just another example of how globalized profit at all cost was a bad idea in the first place.
Methinks the Asian tigers will become pussycats before too long.

Then again...if they smarten up somehow and regionalize and localize their economies (basically divorcing North America and Europe) they could do okay.
But I guess that is the point: Everyone's still thinking globally.
It strikes me...I have read this phrase so much in the past 6 months..."addicted to cheap oil."
I'm not sure anymore that this phrase is entirely accurate.
Perhaps it would be more to the point to re-phrase that:
"Addicted to cheap profits."

All that globalized wealth came with a hefty price tag, after all.

[FairMaiden]

Very good points!

If plastic wasn't cheap - we wouldn't need it. Think about it - plastic vs. paper - paper is better! Most plastic versions of products are disposable which is definitely unsustainable and a bad idea. If we actually started to wake up to the cost of unsustainable and the cost of globalisation - maybe there is hope yet that we can reduce demand quickly enough to stave off some of the scenerios posted on this site.

[Subjectivist]

For a true perspective on how industry has changed Asian economies check out this infographic video of the top ten car manufacturers by year. initially America and Europe dominate easily, but over time Japan, South Korea and finally China enter the game and come to be the major players by 2020.

https://youtu.be/kZCeuTzc850

[Tanada]

good video albeit a little frightening in terms of how dedicated our species is to spreading car culture to the furthest ends of the Earth. No wonder China is internally consuming 20 million new vehicles a year as well as importing a few million more to offset the millions they are themselves building for export at very low prices to growing neighbors and markets in Africa.