This is probably an oversimplification from an old fart who doesn’t know very much but likes to read lots of different kinds of stuff and thinks about what’s going on. If what these guys are saying and Russia and China’s economy’s are actually bigger and stronger than the us why is it immigration still mostly runs this way and not that way? Seems to me actual people still vote with their feet wherever they can.
1. The author doesn't say Russia's economy is bigger than the US economy.
2. People voting with their feet is a result of multiple factors, not least that life can be very good in a country whose currency is inflated by a global protection racket. Most of the recent immigrants have no particular loyalty to America or its "way of life"--it's just cashing in on a successful racket.
3. Things could change drastically with dedollarization and EU woes.
4. The US has plenty enough resources to get back to the basics of a well run economy. That's up to the character of Americans--which has been undermined by generations of government bribery of the electorate and identity politics.
What I'm saying is that our standard of living, while by no means entirely owing to exporting inflation, is greatly influenced by that. And it appears that that situation is coming to the end of its line.
My impression, without doing any research to back it up, is that the US earns a lot from agriculture, passenger planes, weapons of war based on our 800 lb. gorilla military that runs a sort of global protection racket, energy and other mineral resources. Those are all hard objects but not nearly enough to make up for everything we've outsourced for cheap labor to support the guns 'n' butter, inflation fed economy we've put in place. The ability to export inflation is, of course, also a key part of the protection racket we run. The idea that social media corps. and Wall St. rent seeking and other such nonsense somehow contribute hugely to a viable economy of a country like the US seems baseless to me. Without King Dollar we'd have to repay our debts or go through bankruptcy. The first is pretty much impossible, anyway. Hollowing out the manufacturing basis in a country as populous as the US seems a recipe for utter disaster to me.
Agree on all points. The move to a "service economy" never made any sense to anyone with a 5th grade understanding of economics. It is amazing it has taken this long for the scam to unravel.
I want to thank you for bringing us back down to earth with this column. We are all so consumed with politics that the real world gets neglected. Does anyone know how we calculate GNP these days? During the Obama years I remember reading that an important part of GNP was the intellectual content generated by Hollywood, apart from any monetary profits. It was worth a laugh at the time. It got deadly serious when all sorts of intangibles were calculated as capital. President Trump reversed the trend and made us productive and competitive, not only energy independent but energy exporters, kept us out of wars at the same time as he was stabilizing Afghanistan and honing our military effectiveness. These are the real reasons I consider him a great President, yet every time I say something nice about him everybody reminds me of his political shortcomings. Maybe he considered the health of the Nation more important?
Biden has done a magnificent job of reversing all the positive accomplishments of President Trump, especially our military preparedness. Going back to January 2021 NPR in a typical negative article about Trump nevertheless quotes "Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, acknowledged he is no "Trump fan," seeing him as "an extremely dangerous commander in chief" and citing his saber rattling and his threatening a war with North Korea.
But O'Hanlon sees Trump's overall legacy as relatively positive.
"The increase in budgets, readiness levels and modernization efforts will be sort of like a 'mini Reagan period,' " O'Hanlon says. "Fifteen years of war and several years of budgetary dysfunction had left things frayed."
A lot has to do with the US tax code and financial reporting requirements. Stock buybacks are an abortion that should be eliminated. So money is borrowed to buy back stock increasing the stock price enriching officers that get bonuses tied to stock.
And being under leveraged is also punished. Capital expenditures / taking risks is also punished. Boeing is the poster child of this.
And Sarbanes Oxley has made it very expensive to go public.
And Covid destroyed a lot of small businesses, and helped larger businesses.
Vernon's Product Life Cycle Theory is used to explain this cycle of outsourcing/off-shoring production, in simplified terms, due to Labor costs. However, bringing industry and manufacturing back to the US now is one extremely challenging/daunting tasks, since it isn't just Labor costs any longer that are holding back the re-introduction of manufacturing.
Trump reversed some of the more egregious regulations that impacted industry; these regulations serve(d) as a tax on American goods and services produced within the US. further driving up costs. If you think about it, these regulations have had the additional impact of allowing us to export our environmental concerns as well.
So, now, you have a manufacturing shortage in Labor (skills), a manufacturing shortage in the production of equipment to allow us to manufacture, the return through the Biden administration of regulations (new and the reversing of Trump's reversal of regulations), and environmental concerns. Why would anyone ever want to produce here in the US again?!
American Thinker has an article claiming Russia has been laying the groundwork for years. Playing chess, vs checkers indeed.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/why_brics_and_mint_might_save_russia_and_sink_the_us.html
Yes. I quote from it in another post today.
This is probably an oversimplification from an old fart who doesn’t know very much but likes to read lots of different kinds of stuff and thinks about what’s going on. If what these guys are saying and Russia and China’s economy’s are actually bigger and stronger than the us why is it immigration still mostly runs this way and not that way? Seems to me actual people still vote with their feet wherever they can.
1. The author doesn't say Russia's economy is bigger than the US economy.
2. People voting with their feet is a result of multiple factors, not least that life can be very good in a country whose currency is inflated by a global protection racket. Most of the recent immigrants have no particular loyalty to America or its "way of life"--it's just cashing in on a successful racket.
3. Things could change drastically with dedollarization and EU woes.
4. The US has plenty enough resources to get back to the basics of a well run economy. That's up to the character of Americans--which has been undermined by generations of government bribery of the electorate and identity politics.
What I'm saying is that our standard of living, while by no means entirely owing to exporting inflation, is greatly influenced by that. And it appears that that situation is coming to the end of its line.
My impression, without doing any research to back it up, is that the US earns a lot from agriculture, passenger planes, weapons of war based on our 800 lb. gorilla military that runs a sort of global protection racket, energy and other mineral resources. Those are all hard objects but not nearly enough to make up for everything we've outsourced for cheap labor to support the guns 'n' butter, inflation fed economy we've put in place. The ability to export inflation is, of course, also a key part of the protection racket we run. The idea that social media corps. and Wall St. rent seeking and other such nonsense somehow contribute hugely to a viable economy of a country like the US seems baseless to me. Without King Dollar we'd have to repay our debts or go through bankruptcy. The first is pretty much impossible, anyway. Hollowing out the manufacturing basis in a country as populous as the US seems a recipe for utter disaster to me.
Agree on all points. The move to a "service economy" never made any sense to anyone with a 5th grade understanding of economics. It is amazing it has taken this long for the scam to unravel.
I want to thank you for bringing us back down to earth with this column. We are all so consumed with politics that the real world gets neglected. Does anyone know how we calculate GNP these days? During the Obama years I remember reading that an important part of GNP was the intellectual content generated by Hollywood, apart from any monetary profits. It was worth a laugh at the time. It got deadly serious when all sorts of intangibles were calculated as capital. President Trump reversed the trend and made us productive and competitive, not only energy independent but energy exporters, kept us out of wars at the same time as he was stabilizing Afghanistan and honing our military effectiveness. These are the real reasons I consider him a great President, yet every time I say something nice about him everybody reminds me of his political shortcomings. Maybe he considered the health of the Nation more important?
"honing our military effectiveness"?
Did you forget the /s tag? Or maybe you don't know people in the military?
Even worse, I don't know what /s tag means. I would appreciate a clarification.
/s = sarc (sarcasm, sarcastic)
Thanks, Chuck.
Biden has done a magnificent job of reversing all the positive accomplishments of President Trump, especially our military preparedness. Going back to January 2021 NPR in a typical negative article about Trump nevertheless quotes "Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, acknowledged he is no "Trump fan," seeing him as "an extremely dangerous commander in chief" and citing his saber rattling and his threatening a war with North Korea.
But O'Hanlon sees Trump's overall legacy as relatively positive.
"The increase in budgets, readiness levels and modernization efforts will be sort of like a 'mini Reagan period,' " O'Hanlon says. "Fifteen years of war and several years of budgetary dysfunction had left things frayed."
A lot has to do with the US tax code and financial reporting requirements. Stock buybacks are an abortion that should be eliminated. So money is borrowed to buy back stock increasing the stock price enriching officers that get bonuses tied to stock.
And being under leveraged is also punished. Capital expenditures / taking risks is also punished. Boeing is the poster child of this.
And Sarbanes Oxley has made it very expensive to go public.
And Covid destroyed a lot of small businesses, and helped larger businesses.
Vernon's Product Life Cycle Theory is used to explain this cycle of outsourcing/off-shoring production, in simplified terms, due to Labor costs. However, bringing industry and manufacturing back to the US now is one extremely challenging/daunting tasks, since it isn't just Labor costs any longer that are holding back the re-introduction of manufacturing.
Trump reversed some of the more egregious regulations that impacted industry; these regulations serve(d) as a tax on American goods and services produced within the US. further driving up costs. If you think about it, these regulations have had the additional impact of allowing us to export our environmental concerns as well.
So, now, you have a manufacturing shortage in Labor (skills), a manufacturing shortage in the production of equipment to allow us to manufacture, the return through the Biden administration of regulations (new and the reversing of Trump's reversal of regulations), and environmental concerns. Why would anyone ever want to produce here in the US again?!
We also sell coffee and snacks to each other, served by our offspring with degrees from institutions of "higher education".