I have been to Malaysia a number of times and there is an interesting symbiotic relationship between the Chinese descended population and the native Malays. The Malays are Muslim while the Chinese population is primarily Buddhist. The Muslims control government and much of industry. The Chinese control finance. If you are in a sales situation, the salesman will be chinese and the customer will be Malay. These are generalities, but definitely a predominant trend.
I always found it interesting that when I was in meetings with the Malays, they would make sure to show me the picture of the president of the company posed with the King or the King's brother or nephew. Or in some cases, the president of the company was the King's or Prime Minister's nephew or cousin or some other relation.
On the corruption or more accurately "trustworthiness" front, I found that the Chinese and Malays were very close to being on par. However, the Malays were certainly very open to doing business with westerners. And in many ways, I think that they would be considered to be corrupted by western influence. But it is important to remember that much of the planning for 9/11 happened in Malaysia and that the Indonesians have proven to be violently unfriendly to westerners.
As far as the question of corruption and screwed up economies go, I believe that we are a more self-correcting economy. Ours are more visible because we hang them out to dry when we catch them. We shine the light on them and shame them. Eastern and Mid-eastern cultures rarely recognize it publicly, let alone look for it.
I have no doubt that they will be successful with the Dinar. Maybe that is a good thing. But the mistake is in assuming that the gold has a meaningful intrinsic value that is much more meaningful than a piece of paper. In the end, they have billions of people to feed, clothe and shelter. For all the oil in the mid-east, the people are dirt poor. The money is highly concentrated in a very few people. Same with China. Where are the people going to get money that will fuel these new economic powerhouses? The only way is to empower the people and have them start to produce. People talk about the power hegemony in the U.S. and we are amateurs compared to those nations. It sounds like you and I agree on some of the handicaps that they have though.
Like you, I think that the Brits see what is going on in the big picture. I think that the french and germans are thinking very short term. I suspect that their economies are much more closely tied to the mideast nations than ours. Basically, they have turned into the lapdogs of the mideast. Wasn't it recently brought to light that Germany has been selling military supplies to Iraq? And if it isn't the lapdog thing, than their actions are likely more driven by trying to fly beneath the radar in hopes that the terrorists don't take a more active role there.
I think that the biggest advantage that we have in the upcoming economic war is innovation. I think that this is an area where we excel more than any other culture.
I guess one of the things that I see is that a war is inevitable. If you look at Israel/Palestine, whenever there is hopes of a peaceful resolution, another wave of terrorists attack the israelis. For the tyrants in the mideast to maintain power, they need an outside evil force to keep the focus of the masses away from the tyrants. This means that in an economic or military war, the tyrants cannot win as the focus would then shift to them. But they also need to keep the conflict alive. So until they change this behavior, they will continue to be a thorn in our side, rather than a meaningful economic threat.
I believe that they need us more than we need their oil.
Some thoughts by Grace Zaccardi on this
Message 18487095
I agree with the basic thoughts in the last paragraph.
I do have a short term target for gold at $420, so I obviously see upside there. When we get there, I'll reevaluate as to whether the bull market in gold has more rally in it. |
