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The end of Chimerica - 12/22/2008 3:02:20 PM

LadyEllen

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http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/guorui/2008/09/29/the-end-of-chimerica/

This is quite a long piece by the author/presenter of The Ascent Of Money (UK Channel 4) - in fact much of it was presented in this evening's programme.

It is well worth reading and considering.

And then, we shall reflect on the nature of treason in the modern world.

E

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RE: The end of Chimerica - 12/22/2008 4:28:19 PM

Politesub53

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I will bite. Where does treason come into things ?

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RE: The end of Chimerica - 12/22/2008 6:10:52 PM

OneMoreWaste

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2nd that.

I thought the whole "War On Nature" bit was a bit half-assed.
Also, he overlooked the natural resources of the U.S. on the one side, understated the impact of shifting manufacturing capacity on the other, and completely ignored the issue of "intellectual property" and rights thereto.
Overall, I give it a "B" as a TV program, "C+" as an informative article.

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RE: The end of Chimerica - 12/23/2008 3:42:15 AM

LadyEllen

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The article describes how we got into this mess; Chinese people's savings, pumped into the west by way of the financial sector to be used for all the bubbles we now see bursting, and notably the sub prime problem where things started bursting. There was so much money, the financial sector didnt know what to do with it, and sub prime was one of their means of dealing with it.

On our side, conspicuous consumption borne on easy credit from the Chinese people's savings, of the goods formerly made here and now made in China for low prices. Easy consumer credit being another way to deal with all that money, but more importantly - noting that the west's savings had dwindled and its means of generating wealth had been outsourced - the only remaining means of supporting the economies of western nations.

So we have a terrible sequence here - declining western prosperity, the outsourcing of its means of generating wealth, and the imminent collapse of its economy until the prop of Chinese savings flooded in as easy credit to produce a consumer economy which could only last for so long given its foundation. In other words, we have been living on the savings of millions of ordinary Chinese people the last few years, spent the lot and now have nothing, nowhere to go.

Meanwhile, the Chinese are doing OK; yes, their exports are dropping, but they have such a large domestic market that they remain untroubled by our problems. They shall be the dominant nation within a decade or so merely on the basis of their rising domestic wealth and their colonial expansion into Africa to lay claim to the resources they need. And we shall be debtor nations to them for a long time to come.

Where does treason come in? Well, we have seen the result of a sequence of events started not by the Chinese but by our own. Our own politicians, our own companies, our own financiers, and we ourselves have wrought this too. Our politicians and companies and financiers have allowed and enabled it, welcomed it - they have deliberately and purposely bent the knee to foreign usurpation of our position in the world, they have looked to the easiest solutions to our problems and made things far worse in a simpering betrayal of all that placed us in dominion. And we the people went along with it, through ignorance and apathy as it may be despite the warning signs so many could see, selling out the achievements of generations for a cheaper shirt that has cost us and our children dear.

The treason is shared by all of us that have taken part - which practically is all of us - in this episode. But it is not a treason against the state or the nation; it is a treason against our ancestors stretching back centuries who suffered and worked hard all their lives in the hope of giving us a better life than their own. Our generation will go down in history, likely written in Mandarin, as that which betrayed its inheritance and its obligation to its descendants, and be roundly and rightly condemned by the Chinese writers for it.

E

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RE: The end of Chimerica - 12/24/2008 11:21:17 PM

Hippiekinkster

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I almost started a thread about this until I remembered I saw the word "Chimerica" Somewhere.

IMO it's an insighful look at where we stand vis-a-vis the Middle Kingdom. I maintain that their environmental problems will end up crippling them. They've already converted 20% of their arable land to desert.

And I think the notion that China is dependent upon the USofA for its developmental capital by way of exports is naive.

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RE: The end of Chimerica - 12/25/2008 7:25:43 AM

corysub

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The good professor makes some interesting points in his essay but the question he asks, "Today, the key question of geopolitics is whether or not China will one day mount an analogous challenge to American primacy." really is easily answered. Of course China will challenge America for primacy down the road...economically at first, and militarily once that has been achieved. The Chinese political leadership today has tremendous focus and by allowing a style of capitalism to flourish have begun to build a well disciplined and cheap labor force that is not world class at this point but in a few generations will
accomplish what the Japanese were also able to accomplish. Lets not forget, that initially the joke was that every TOY a youngster received in my generation seemed to be made in Japan....and from there the went on to dominate the steel, shippbuilding, consumer electronics, and auto industries, among others.

But China is only one adversary. Radical Islam is also an important threat and is weaving it's way into American culture...using the system to eventually defeat it. Sharia Law is already prevalent in the United Kingdom, and is growing in this country. Harvard set aside a gym times for "muslim women",
in Minnesota taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport--about three-quarters of whom are Muslim--started refusing to transport passengers carrying alcohol. One woman, returning from France with wine, was turned away by five cabs in succession. Refusals of service now number about 100 a month, and heated altercations have erupted. http://www.opinionjournal.com/cc/?id=110009832
And more is coming.....

And what do Americans have today in Washington as gardians at the gate?? A dysfunctional Congress, led by politicians who believe
it's "party first", who personally attack each other, who demean a President they disagree with politically with poisoned language that than
infects the "great unwashed" that laps up this lowest common denominator in civil discourse. We will be building "windmills" to compete with ch
a China that is building fossil fuel and nuclear plants...We will be wasting the national treasure on "green" uneconomic and unprofitable solutions such
as "ethanol"...rather than developing the huge fossil fuel natural resources in this country from oil, to natural gas to coal...Further, the cleanest fuel
of all, NUCLEAR, is given only lip service by the democrat leadership while other countries build that capacity and France has over 70% of it's power generated from nuclear. We are great at saving the spotted owl...saving the whales, saving the polar bears, ...but we favor aborting tens of millions of
babies in the womb.... and this is supposed to be a civilized country?

We have seen the enemy...and it is us!....not China, or India...or what's left of Europe.

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RE: The end of Chimerica - 12/25/2008 8:30:25 AM

MissEnchanted

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quote:

Where does treason come in? Well, we have seen the result of a sequence of events started not by the Chinese but by our own. Our own politicians, our own companies, our own financiers, and we ourselves have wrought this too. Our politicians and companies and financiers have allowed and enabled it, welcomed it - they have deliberately and purposely bent the knee to foreign usurpation of our position in the world, they have looked to the easiest solutions to our problems and made things far worse in a simpering betrayal of all that placed us in dominion. And we the people went along with it, through ignorance and apathy as it may be despite the warning signs so many could see, selling out the achievements of generations for a cheaper shirt that has cost us and our children dear.

The treason is shared by all of us that have taken part - which practically is all of us - in this episode. But it is not a treason against the state or the nation; it is a treason against our ancestors stretching back centuries who suffered and worked hard all their lives in the hope of giving us a better life than their own. Our generation will go down in history, likely written in Mandarin, as that which betrayed its inheritance and its obligation to its descendants, and be roundly and rightly condemned by the Chinese writers for it.

Lady Ellen,

I love your mind!