Charlie Rose

SharkswithfrikingLazers  04/28/2011 04:29 PM Report

Great interview Charlie! I am glad I stayed up and gave up an hour of sleep.

Where is the transcript?

SharkswithfrikingLazers  04/28/2011 04:28 PM Report

Better link to Daily Mail story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1036105/How-Chinas-taking-Africa-West-VERY-worried. html

SharkswithfrikingLazers  04/28/2011 04:25 PM Report

My neighbor, just back from Angola, says China sends their prisoners there to work. Perhaps that is where we will find Wei-Wei? (These two sentences should really scare you.)

"How China's taking over Africa, and why the West should be VERY worried"

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1036105/How-Chinas-taking-Africa-West-VERY-worried. html#ixzz1Kr5kZtJy

JohnGelles  04/28/2011 07:46 AM Report

The question is --

..... Will America be dethroned by China snd/or India (with Russia as the third leg of that stool)?

..... Or will the EU and America bring back the intellectual power that made the West master of the Earth --on account of the Industrial Revolution -- a revolution that led to --

..... ..... two world wars in Europe in a single century

..... ..... and the current ascdendancy of Asia as the workshop threatening to take over the front office -- as the Information Revolution makes way for thinking machines that build thinking machines that work as well as human beings?

For the moment lowest cost producers can still displace a rival. Soon that won't be possible, as war again emerges to favor power over money and WMD's over cheap human labor.

There is a way out of the past. It would fight for peace before all was lost in a cloud of smoke and ruin.

laupan  04/28/2011 04:52 AM Report

In 2010-11, the number one U.S. export to China is “scrap and trash”. The number one thing that China buys from us is our garbage. According to author Clyde Prestowitz, China’s number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment (nearly $50 billion) while our number one export to them is waste paper and scrap metal (approximately $8 billion).

Is this what the consumers in China will want to purchase in the coming years? Let us get real folks, we need to design, engineer and produce tangible items consumers will wish to purchase from us if we hope to export consumer items to the world market. Cutting edge products, we know the world is capable of reverse engineering, they do it so well, so we do not rest on our laurels, we need to develop the next evolution of the product keeping two steps ahead at all times. We have gotten use to hiding behind rules and regulations of copyright and patient infringement laws. Did we worry about these laws when we stole the technology from Europe prior to the Industrial Revolution? Noooo. “kinda” of like what we use to do in the old days before we had all these outrageous costs of labor, taxes rules and regulations to work with, around. Shipping alone is killing our competitive advantage. Let us get rid of things like the Jones Act and other barriers and let American business compete in the world market.

Ask many Americans what a “trade deficit” is try an experiment some time. Go up to a few people and ask them to define “trade deficit” for you.

If you objectively analyze the facts, India, Korea, China and other countries are beating us economically. In projecting that the Chinese economy and soon the Indian economy will be larger than ours by the year 2030.

Many countries are buying up futures on resources at competitive prices and we are forced to pay a premium, suppliers of oil, rare earth elements and metals. We are being beaten in the game and we have weak coaching. We need leadership and a plan of action which we have neither.

Mr. Karl Gerth your views on China and your book “As China Goes, So Goes the World is an enlightening read however we need more than “garbage and scraps” to export to the new consumers of China. Also what do we think India will be doing during this time period???

REMant  04/27/2011 02:26 PM Report

Nice to hear someone on this subject who knows what he is talking about for a change.

Transitioning to a consumer society cannot be just a matter of consuming. If it were, trading pelts for firewater would have transformed the American West. I would conjecture the major factor will be how well Confucian values and peasant society get along with market capitalism.

As I've said a couple times before, I think constructing a pay-go social safety system is a very bad Keynesian idea. Simple insurance is fine, but things which contravene Say and Cantillon ought certainly to be avoided. Ditto the idea of subsidizing sales, because if prices rise so high workers cannot afford what they make it is due to an excess of money alone, tho, of course, the Chinese have little control over external prices and credit, and an honest country is held hostage by the dishonest. If the Chinese stop subsidizing American sales it will hurt trade, and if they continue it will further aid inflation. It's a no-win situation.

Similarly, the question of whether 19th c US growth would have been faster under free trade has been argued quite a lot by the Reaganites, tho without taking into account either money or external factors, which unfortunately for them are the purview of the protectionists. Historically, as with China, tariffs, bounties and easy money, have been required to build industry through trade, but the reason has been because the other side is doing it too, not because of the latter's higher degree of development per se. Commodities and labor are undervalued as a result, making a level playing field impossible. Theoretically, free trade should be most efficient, even in the face of automation, but it requires a stable, uniform currency.