The New World Economy
So the G20 met over the weekend, and if there was any doubt before, there should be none now: the financial balance of power is shifting. China, Brazil, even Japan can all claim more sound economies than the United States, and they collectively let it be known that they would no longer take marching orders from the Washington consensus. They expect a voice, and they are not asking permission.
Yet, the leaders of those countries are not blind to the interdependence of the world. However much they may secretly take some pleasure from seeing the United States humbled, they know that the global system demands a stable and strong America for the foreseeable future. They recognize that we are all in this together, that recriminations may provide some satisfaction but do nothing to solve problems.
Yes, it was startling to hear Henry Paulson admit on CNBC that "We have in many ways humiliated ourselves as a nation with some of the problems that have taken place here." One could take that as a positive step, in that acceptance is part of the road towards recovery, or so they say. It was also a symbol that the United States can no longer snap its fingers and expect that the rest of the world will jump and ask how high - not with China holding trillions in U.S. debt, not with Brazil holding reserves in excess of $200 bill, or Saudi Arabia with its billions and Russia to boot. For the first time since the end of World War II, the United States is confronting a world that it needs more than a world that it commands.
In truth, we have always needed the global system, but with overarching power came the temptations of that power, and hubris. We lost sight of the mutual dependence that was the source of so much of our strength, and instead succumbed to the comforting illusion that we could command the heights and lead alone. Now, the rest of the world arrived in Washington to sit next to a lame duck and lamed president and remind him and us with some dignity that the system has gone off the rails and only joint effort will put humpty dumpty back together again.
We will soon have a president who recognizes that leadership is not dictating; it is not being the decider. It is instead a recognition of who we are and what the world now is, a willingness to take responsibility, and to sit down and allow others the voice they have rather than fleeing into cultural narcissism where the only sound heard is the comforting delusions of one's own perspective. It's only a shame that we must wait until January.
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I suggest, for all the good it might or might not do, that we should not "wait until January."
There is a rather-huge criminal element in what has been going on here, and the criminals are "civil officers" of this Government. You can start with the kingpins or you can work your way up from the bottom, but the fact remains that what has happened here consists of millions .. literally .. of individual Felonies.
We now need to say, "you know, this is what 'High Crime' really IS, and we're not gonna take it anymore."
Crime, after all, is simple. A criminal wants to steal and to keep stealing; simple as that. He'll build an impossibly-big house with all his ill-gotten gains and just keep stealing. And he has always had friends in high places, with hands just as blood-soaked as his own. And nothing ever stops until it is STOPPED.
hmm the new world economy eh!
that's the same as the new world o rder!!
The arrogant Capitalists that burned down our Republic to build an empire of slaves, kings and endless war have perverted the entire world with greed and apathy.
The slaves will wake up and revolt, before long. It will be bloody.
We are our own worst enemy. The non-regulation of Wall Street, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and other acts of cronyism brought that to its extreme. Even if we fix our economy, we'll never be able to return to what we were under Clinton (and he was no great president). Let's just face the fact that China and India (and possibly Brazil and Russia) are going to lead the world economy over the course of this century.
China and Brazil probably, but definitely not India, which is a mess. Russia is too dependent on high oil prices. They have burned a huge part of their reserves in the last month or so trying to maintain the value of their currency, and it's not working. The Russian economy is in much worse condition than ours.
I have a simple solution to mujch of America's economic woes. Cut military spending.
We spend as much on ourt military as the rest of the world combined.
Perhaps we are defending ourselves to death!
We could have just as effective a defennse force with less. (Though our offensive force might be lessened -- as perhaps it should be for our own health.)
We can then spend the amount saved on productive civilian projects that better aid our economic recovery, on controlling our debt, and on needed social items that will improve our nation's social strength.
But I doubt that this proposal will get much of a hearing. Being now a corporate-military state, 'defense' spending is sacred and can never be cut! That can't even be discussed in polite circles.
Japan, China, and Brazille are doing it the way we told them thay HAD to. So they are doing better then we are. The problem is.....we are not doing it the way WE are supposed to.The leader of the free world is no longer the leader of the free world, because we have had a bunch of loony idiologs futzing up our capitalist democracy for the last 8 years, while we have been bombing innocent women and children in places we are not even talking about yet!
"Japan, China, and Brazille are doing it the way we told them thay HAD to."
Nope, sorry, but that's not correct. If those nations had stuck strickly with the Friedmanite freemarket fundamentalist crap foisted on them, they'd be in consdierably worse shape; it is their failure to follow through and/or bottom-up resistence to further economic restructuring that has allowed there leaky boats to ride higher in the water than our own.
What many do not realize is that the profiteers are still hard at work, within this so-called economic rescue plan.
And watch what happens next, as these delusional creatures try to re-sell the notion of less regulation is actually a better, more fiscally sound solution than the regulation that anyone with half a brain knows very much needs to happen.
If anyone watched Washington Journal Saturday, they would understand that the New World Order has reached it goals thanks to Beorge W. Bush.
Nancy Birdsall from the Center for Global Development was on touting the wonderful world of globalization in wihch China and India are the Kings. Traitor.
The idea (or experiment) all along was to make it so that the world was so interdependent that no one dare cause trouble. Not the poor natives or displaced or any Individual thinking person or country. The juggernaut has won.
I think the entire Bush adm. was just bringing the American, British , and European workers to their knees in the name of globalization.
So who are the winners. Yes China Yes India and Yes Brazil. , But mostly it is the MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS that will rape the worlds natural resorces to make a buck in a world regulated only but the WTO .
Damn the Traitors at the Heratige Foundation, the Center for Global Development, and all the other traitors both here and in England.
An angry post. Good!
he's not angry he's stating facts!!
awe there's a man who knows what he's talking about right there
they won't listen here there to stupid save it for somewhere else my friend your just going to get called names here!
but i totally agree with you!!
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