I'm too used to Grist, which believe it or not has nothing like that. They claim they'll redo the system next year, Real Soon Now. I think I can manage in the future.
State corporatism? They still are in partnership, force partnership with the state for any private enterprise, especially any foreign one as far as I know.
Great post and you might notice the "reply" link in the comments. Comments are threaded, and tracked in the "my account" action so people can have a conversation, see who has replied to theirs. Have to hit the reply link though for the threads to work.
When to me it's a totalitarian regime. They have state owned enterprise, so I guess that falls under it, a lot of the corporations are 50% China owned.
It's more like a one-party dictatorship, with maybe a patina of ideology, but I don't think they spend much time quoting Marx or Mao anymore. A chunk of the economy is still state controlled, and they still have some planning, from what I understand, but basically they're capitalist, and their "safety net" has been the rapid expansion of the economy. If the rapid expansion stops, they're screwed, legitimacy-wise. Thus the desperate clinging to a devalued currency and a huge trade surplus with the U.S., even though they only get back dollars. They're in some trouble now as the U.S. contracts, so we'll see what happens.
That one of the basics of any communist government was a social safety net for the poor. After all, that is the only draw communism has over capitalism- that everybody is taken care of. If they've got a communist government that fails to provide that, then they've got MORE reason to revolt than the US did in 1776: King George may have been a tariff-riding scoundrel, but at least he provided what he said he'd provide.
Economic systems are all about the social contract, break that contract only at your own peril.
They had full employment before, that is, jobs in state-run factories and farms, so they didn't need unemployment insurance. They had "barefoot doctors" and various other forms of health care -- I'm not sure what happened to that.
There's been a tendency for the east Asian countries to push for less consumption at home so that they could accumulate the investment capital necessary to build export industries. Japan did the same thing. The entire planet has become used to the idea of using the U.S. as their main market, which is also part of the problem.
The Chinese should be using their production power to create public goods such as train systems, a health care system, education system, etc., instead of investing in the U.S. and keeping the Chinese currency so low. Another part of the problem is that companies with dollars are required to put their dollars in state-run banks which then invest in the U.S.; those state-run banks could easily use that capital for internal development instead. That might also lead to more export potential from the U.S. to China.
MITI (now METI) have initiated many such programs. Also, in Korea, they established a separate bank just to help invest in companies and similar developments.
is more the truth of it and I think much of this is because those lobbyists control government. They get their fat salaries spinning and weaving tales of economic fiction to get what they want and hence we now have a fictional economy.
I'm amazed at that alone- I thought all clothing was made overseas these days. Though tube socks- that should be automated by now, not that hard.
Anyway- Ace Hardware has the original high quality Wood & Metal Radio Flyer stuff. I happened to notice it this year.
Portland, OR ended up with not as much consumerism this year- Mother Nature decided to give us a White Christmas, starting 2 weeks early. It was the day after Christmas before I could leave my house safely.
I think the New Year's Resolution in the article was "Invest in the U.S.", but he also makes the correct point that a big part of the problem is that we, as a nation, have been living beyond our means for quite some time now.
We've built a Culture of Debt- a culture that wants everything now, damn the cost to the future. I'll keep to Robert Oak's rules here, on my own blog I've mentioned several times the link to another CofD, but we see it in piles of consumer debt, in the actions of the young who spend more than they earn, in the inability of a certain class of society to actually survive on what they earn.
And we should be as ashamed, or more so, of living in a Culture of Debt than that other CofD- for if you are in debt, you have surrendered a good portion of your future choices in all endeavors.
Very informative my friend. I always learn alot while reading your blog post. I look forward to what you have to say in 2009 because I strongly feel the problems of 08 are not fully buried yet and we are still a while away from normalcy.
Near as I can tell, the FED is about $12 Trillion short of what we really need: an elimination of the "Culture of Debt". We need enough liquidity that investing in a new business can be done out of pocket change. Which means M1 Available Dollars must => GDP.
Two ways to get there- quick and slow.
Quick is the government abandons this stupid idea of borrowing money from itself, prints the dollars, and starts spending on stuff we need like Universal Health Care, Universal Fiber-To-The-Door internet, electric transportation, and existing Infrastructure Repair.
Slow is that we cut production, and jobs, raising unemployment until GDP <= M1.
Man that's a great idea, it's a area of seriously needed innovation. So is power engineering. But he should also have grants to obtain PhDs in these areas and for U.S. citizens and make sure they get jobs too. I don't have a background in materials science, chemical engineering, but I do know the Japanese are kicking our ass in national investment in these areas.
I'm too used to Grist, which believe it or not has nothing like that. They claim they'll redo the system next year, Real Soon Now. I think I can manage in the future.
JR on Grist
State corporatism? They still are in partnership, force partnership with the state for any private enterprise, especially any foreign one as far as I know.
Great post and you might notice the "reply" link in the comments. Comments are threaded, and tracked in the "my account" action so people can have a conversation, see who has replied to theirs. Have to hit the reply link though for the threads to work.
When to me it's a totalitarian regime. They have state owned enterprise, so I guess that falls under it, a lot of the corporations are 50% China owned.
It's more like a one-party dictatorship, with maybe a patina of ideology, but I don't think they spend much time quoting Marx or Mao anymore. A chunk of the economy is still state controlled, and they still have some planning, from what I understand, but basically they're capitalist, and their "safety net" has been the rapid expansion of the economy. If the rapid expansion stops, they're screwed, legitimacy-wise. Thus the desperate clinging to a devalued currency and a huge trade surplus with the U.S., even though they only get back dollars. They're in some trouble now as the U.S. contracts, so we'll see what happens.
JR on Grist
That one of the basics of any communist government was a social safety net for the poor. After all, that is the only draw communism has over capitalism- that everybody is taken care of. If they've got a communist government that fails to provide that, then they've got MORE reason to revolt than the US did in 1776: King George may have been a tariff-riding scoundrel, but at least he provided what he said he'd provide.
Economic systems are all about the social contract, break that contract only at your own peril.
They had full employment before, that is, jobs in state-run factories and farms, so they didn't need unemployment insurance. They had "barefoot doctors" and various other forms of health care -- I'm not sure what happened to that.
There's been a tendency for the east Asian countries to push for less consumption at home so that they could accumulate the investment capital necessary to build export industries. Japan did the same thing. The entire planet has become used to the idea of using the U.S. as their main market, which is also part of the problem.
The Chinese should be using their production power to create public goods such as train systems, a health care system, education system, etc., instead of investing in the U.S. and keeping the Chinese currency so low. Another part of the problem is that companies with dollars are required to put their dollars in state-run banks which then invest in the U.S.; those state-run banks could easily use that capital for internal development instead. That might also lead to more export potential from the U.S. to China.
JR on Grist
Do I understand you right? That China has failed to provide enough of a communist safety net for the poor, is the cause of China's great savings rate?
As always, my good man.
MITI (now METI) have initiated many such programs. Also, in Korea, they established a separate bank just to help invest in companies and similar developments.
is more the truth of it and I think much of this is because those lobbyists control government. They get their fat salaries spinning and weaving tales of economic fiction to get what they want and hence we now have a fictional economy.
Glad your holiday was nice! WB!
I read this a day or two ago, but have been on the road for the past week and a whilrwind Christmas tour of the wife's kinfolk.
Herbert's spot on. We need to stop being stupid.
But don't hold your breath. I give the chances of Herbert's advice being taken at about fifteen percent.
I must regrettably note that I give much higher odds, of around 75 percent, to James Kuntsler's deeply pessimistic forecast of 2009.
I'm amazed at that alone- I thought all clothing was made overseas these days. Though tube socks- that should be automated by now, not that hard.
Anyway- Ace Hardware has the original high quality Wood & Metal Radio Flyer stuff. I happened to notice it this year.
Portland, OR ended up with not as much consumerism this year- Mother Nature decided to give us a White Christmas, starting 2 weeks early. It was the day after Christmas before I could leave my house safely.
I think the New Year's Resolution in the article was "Invest in the U.S.", but he also makes the correct point that a big part of the problem is that we, as a nation, have been living beyond our means for quite some time now.
We've built a Culture of Debt- a culture that wants everything now, damn the cost to the future. I'll keep to Robert Oak's rules here, on my own blog I've mentioned several times the link to another CofD, but we see it in piles of consumer debt, in the actions of the young who spend more than they earn, in the inability of a certain class of society to actually survive on what they earn.
And we should be as ashamed, or more so, of living in a Culture of Debt than that other CofD- for if you are in debt, you have surrendered a good portion of your future choices in all endeavors.
Very informative my friend. I always learn alot while reading your blog post. I look forward to what you have to say in 2009 because I strongly feel the problems of 08 are not fully buried yet and we are still a while away from normalcy.
of a national strategy which identified critical innovation in technologies and subsidized the industry.
Isn't it correct that Japan as well as other Asian nations have done similar national strategies on a host of advanced manufacturing technologies?
the batteries are being supplied by Compact Power an American subsidiary of LG Chem, a Korean company.
Near as I can tell, the FED is about $12 Trillion short of what we really need: an elimination of the "Culture of Debt". We need enough liquidity that investing in a new business can be done out of pocket change. Which means M1 Available Dollars must => GDP.
Two ways to get there- quick and slow.
Quick is the government abandons this stupid idea of borrowing money from itself, prints the dollars, and starts spending on stuff we need like Universal Health Care, Universal Fiber-To-The-Door internet, electric transportation, and existing Infrastructure Repair.
Slow is that we cut production, and jobs, raising unemployment until GDP <= M1.
Man that's a great idea, it's a area of seriously needed innovation. So is power engineering. But he should also have grants to obtain PhDs in these areas and for U.S. citizens and make sure they get jobs too. I don't have a background in materials science, chemical engineering, but I do know the Japanese are kicking our ass in national investment in these areas.
What a great image that is. I also find the insight of of the Fed seeing if Milton Friedman's monetary policy is correct in real time a great line.
With the idea of Too Big To Succeed.
I can't seem to find a single company that actually runs on profits instead of credit.
Pages