Having said all that you have said and having agreed with that, I would like to ask what you think is the solution.
Hmm... Every journey has a beginning. And in one word, that is sum up as "Information" (or knowledge)..
When people see how others are living around the world, they generally want to have the same things. The more such information is made available (such as Iran and China), the more they stop believing the lies of those leaders who would seek to deny them economic prosperity.
Countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Libya etc. all have oil. But the oil in these countries is not a shared wealth.
The second major step is "Ownership", IOW, property rights. A ownership stake in the means of production so that those resources are properly used to maximize profit for those shareholders, not just a few individuals.
I've advocated the establishment of a royalty investment trust, similiar to the $25 Billion Alaskan Permanent Fund. This concept seems to be receiving some interest here in DC. Privatization of the oil industry in these countries (with proper regulation and stewardship) is a necessity.
But who will the proceeds go to? A government which is led by leaders who can readily misappropriate those funds to their favorites and family members? Or to a trust owned by the people of Iraq, which then loans that money back to the government for the purpose of rebuilding??
Some have suggested to me that non-transferrable shares should be issused to every Iraqi currently living there which pay an annual dividend. These could not be bought or sold until the death or retirement of the holder, and then only redeemable the the corporation that operates those fields. Generally they would be passed on to surivivors.
But I don't necessarily subscribe to this proposal because the purchase money from that privatization will still have to go somewhere, probably to the government treasury...
I think the establishment of such a "permanent fund" for Iraq, that shares in the royalties from oil drilling, will prove a powerful deterrent from too much power being assigned to any government that controls that country.
And another positive attribute is that it should unite all Iraqis with a common cause, maximizing the profitability of those oil fields for the long term, for THEIR OWN BENEFIT..
ridiculing the French for their disagreement
No... Bush "ridiculed" the French for their ACTIVE MEASURES aimed at supporting Saddam's regime. France, and in particular, Chirac, had been one of the most intransigent supporters of Saddam Hussein.
But I do recall a poll which stated that some 33% of all French people were actually rooting for Saddam Hussein over the US. That indicates to me that it's the French, and some others, who have misplaced their priorities.
I know that Americans are not better off than they were when this President took office.
Do you? Is that just a US related condition, or would that apply to the entire global economy??
People were being wiped out in the Nasdaq bubble well before Bush came to office. And the regulatory oversight of the market manipulations in the IPO markets which took place, occurred under the Clinton administration.. Bush just inherited the aftermath.. And Gore would have suffered the same fate, had he won. And that's not to say that Bush could have prevented a Nasdaq bubble any better...
The problem is that people like yourself seem to be looking to demonize Bush, making him a scapegoat for all the world's ills.. Well, I don't believe he has that much power.
And 9/11 would likely have happened anyway, regardless of who was in office, with the resulting hundreds of billions in economic damage...
What you have to look at is whether anyone else in the global economy is doing better than the US. And I don't see that occurring anywhere.. Certainly not in Germany or France, nor in Japan.
The Global economy has been running on one "piston" for the past 6 years. Every other economy has been mis-firing and overloading the US economy...
If anything, Bush is establishing a new system of order that will hopefully provide global investors the confidence to once again reinvest in global and emerging markets.
And hopefully those markets have learned the lesson that the financial markets giveth, and quickly taketh away, if their expectations are not met.
Hawk |
