Re: But one thing that is very hard to spin is the growing jobless numbers. And they are looking for scapegoats, and have found one. China.
Actually, the sad truth US and EU technocrats repress and won't admit is that their Ricardian worldview(*) was flawed from the start... Remember David Ricardo? He was the guy who said/intimated that everything would be fine if Third-World wannabes like China, India, etc stuck to cheap manufacturing while the US and Europe climb all the way up the food-chain to ever more sophisticated, ever more "value-added" jobs. In short, the "Nike paradigm": sneakers manufactured in Indonesian sweatshops at the cost of 25c a pair, shipped to the US/EU markets, stamped/branded with the Nike logo --and Bob's your uncle! the same sneakers go for $60 at your local mart....
Of course, it never crossed Ricardianites' mind that third-world wannabes, one day, would also bid for top-tier jobs and enter the high-skilled labor market....
Re: I guess it is easy to pick on China because of the spectacular industrial rise, but I hear no complaints when Japan interferes in F/X markets.
But Japan, like Europe, never posed a global challenge to the US.... Unlike the former, China's got a finger in every pie: economics, military (nukes), diplomacy (permanent UNSC member), and, ultimately, geopolitics.
Gus
(*) iang.org |
