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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (62729)	4/13/2010 9:58:22 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 219578

Fiscal ruin of the Western world beckons For a glimpse of what awaits Britain, Europe, and America as budget deficits spiral to war-time levels, look at what is happening to the Irish welfare state. telegraph.co.uk

To: TobagoJack who wrote (62729)	4/13/2010 10:20:24 AM
From: dvdw©	Respond to of 219578

Enjoyed this a lot, thanks for posting it....having said this, the entire dialog about the study was not coherent. The only part that shone, was the point about the animistic tradition of Chinese operating in a synchronous way with the environment.. Within the entire piece, several contradictions emerge, which indicates the author is speculating about his subjects. Nothing can be observed without casting its effects...projection about the observers observations are problematic and reduce the studies potential lessons.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (62729)	4/13/2010 11:38:24 AM
From: Canuck Dave	Respond to of 219578

That is really cool. Something you always suspect, but can't exactly pin down what it is. As a youngster coming from Europe to Canada, the behaviour of the other kids was like night and day. Over here, they were much more I-focused, and this study sort of explains why. CD

To: TobagoJack who wrote (62729)	4/13/2010 1:18:04 PM
From: benwood	Respond to of 219578

That study rings true with me at least as far as photography goes. I had to unlearn focusing only the subject in order to create better compositions; and similarly, I look at most people's photos and see the most glaring defects (e.g. telephone pole coming out of a head) that they seem oblivious to, even after seeing their print or photo on the computer. Even if I point out such a simple and yet glaring defect, they don't seem to mind. It never occurred to me that they don't care because perhaps only the subject matters to them.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (62729)	4/13/2010 4:27:01 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 219578

2001: "The Coming China Collapse". Yes, 9 years ago China was going to collapse, Mr. TJ! From 1978 through the mid-1990s, China had the fastest-growing economy in the world, and it appeared poised to dominate Asia, and beyond, in the near future. But after focusing on facts rather than theory and looking at the conditions behind the spectacular numbers, Gordon Chang presents the People's Republic as a study in wasted potential: "Peer beneath the surface, and there is a weak China, one that is in long-term decline and even on the verge of collapse. The symptoms of decay are to be seen everywhere." For a nation that has always taken a long view of history, time is quickly running out. Chang believes China has about five years to get its economy in order before it suffers a crippling financial collapse--a timeline he seriously doubts can be met. By failing to complete its reformation, China has maintained an illusion of progress, Chang explains, but in reality has caused more problems than opportunities for would-be entrepreneurs and foreign investors. Because reform has not been fast enough or comprehensive enough, China is unable to benefit from its modernization or keep up technologically with much of the world. The government's reluctance to get rid of state-owned enterprises has not only rendered China uncompetitive just as it prepares to join the World Trade Organization, but is causing the banks--which were forced to lend money to SOEs--to fail alongside them. Widespread unemployment, corruption within the Communist party, millions of resentful peasants, and a general lack of leadership further threaten stability. The Communist party "knows how to suppress but it no longer has the power to lead," Chang writes, arguing that the party is maintaining control only through the use of brute force and the people's instinct for obedience--popular support that could deteriorate as soon as the economy plunges. Simultaneously, societal ills such as gambling, drugs, and prostitution have become huge problems. Stuck between Communism and capitalism, "China is drifting, unwilling to go forward as fast as it must and unable to turn back." It is uncertain what will be in the way when the giant finally falls. --Shawn Carkonen From Publishers Weekly redicting the rapid fall of the Communist government, Chang, counsel to an American law firm in Shanghai and freelance journalist with the New York Times, the Asian Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, attempts to support his prediction by discussing a number of phenomena in China: the volatile discontent of political minorities and the unemployed; the futility of state-owned enterprises and industrial policies; the vulnerability of the private sector and the WTO economy; the threats the Internet poses to party censorship; the dangers lurking behind the banking system; and the failing role of Marxist ideology. By maintaining power at all costs and suppressing dissent, the regime, Chang says, has jeopardized the economy and Chinese society at large. His adept business policy evaluation and socioeconomic criticism ("Party cadres... insist on commanding as if they still had a command economy") connect names and anecdotes with otherwise abstract social ills. But his success ends there, for his sweeping historical analyses and social forecasts falter. "Today the people no longer want Mao's revolution or the party that administers it. And so the People's Republic is going to fall, just like its predecessors," writes Chang, hastily recounting the quick endings of the Qing Dynasty and the Kuomintang. His invocations of the "power of the Chinese people," or of an imaginary individual who will one day "end the Chinese state as it now exists," read more like political soap opera than judicious analyses. Preoccupied with such rhetorical (and often highly cynical) flourishes, he fails to pay adequate attention to something that would have better supported his predictions: the imminent intra-Party power turnover in 2002. Chang needs more than denunciations and calls for change to support his bold prophetic claims. (On-sale date: Aug. 14) amazon.ca