Kamikaze Capitalism: GOP out to destroy

I am not sure, at all, who this person is, but he has a column today in Marketwatch.com with this title.


Yes, Sen. McConnell, the drama’s unfolding, powered by your vow that the GOP’s “No. 1 priority” is destroying the Obama presidency. Not creating jobs … not economic recovery … not even national security.

Where will we be in twelve months? Eighteen?

Get it? America’s losing. And we better reinvent our Kamikaze Capitalism soon. Because the New Beijing Capitalism is winning the 21st century economic race, and we’re helping them beat us.

It doesn't take much imagination or perspicacity to see that the "Western" capitalist model is damaged. The right wing's response is to prescribe more of the same failed policies, to denigrate their opponents as unAmerican, America-haters or socialists, and promise bright days ahead for those that believe.

Friedman’s Disaster Capitalism peaked under Bush, adding trillions of new debt to pay for two costly wars, huge tax cuts and an increasingly privatized government. Today even Reagan’s Budget Director David Stockman warns “his GOP has destroyed the American economy.” Yet, even as GOP bullies keep adding insult to injury telling the world that their No. 1 goal is destroying Obama’s presidency, the gutless Dems continue talking compromise, failing by refusing to stand on principle and fight dirty on GOP turf, using their weapons against them, in a ruthless political war.

President Obama will have to make a choice in about four months, and no matter how many times he calls for bipartisanship, it will be a choice between caving in to the Republicans, or fighting them head-on.

China to top US

Here’s a finding that will have any red-blooded American spluttering into his cornflakes. According to the Conference Board, a highly respected economic research association, China will overtake the US as the world’s biggest economy by 2012, or within two years.

Any? Point taken, nonetheless. That fact, and this picture, surely will infuriate many.

.Many people, especially those who already dislike Barack Obama, will take umbrage at the sight of the US president bowing to the Communist (or to a sheik or emir), ignoring the picture of George W Bush holding hands with the King of Saudi Arabia.

And this will add fuel to the fire:  Wednesday, Obama was in Jakarta, the capital of the world's most populous Muslim nation, issuing a call for trust and cooperation. He lived in Indonesia as a boy from 1967 to 1971 and found himself flooded with memories. "Let me begin with a simple statement: Indonesia is part of me," he said in Indonesian language, drawing cheers from the audience of more than 6,000 mostly young people at the University of Indonesia. Obama took care in his remarks to note that he is Christian; back home in the U.S., he continues to fight erroneous perceptions that he is Muslim..

Pentagon in race for raw materials

Associated Press - The U.S. may stockpile lithium, thin pieces of which are shown here at the Center for Lithium Energy Advanced Research lab in North Carolina

Stockpiling Minerals Takes on Greater Urgency as Global Supply Gets Squeezed

The new plan, dubbed the Strategic Materials Security Program by the Pentagon, would give the military greater power to decide what it stockpiles and how it goes about buying the materials. It would also speed up decision making at a time when military technology evolves rapidly, commodity markets swing widely and countries around the world fight to secure access to natural resources.

Right now, the military can't add to the stockpile list without congressional approval, a process that can take as long as two years. The military wants to remove that restriction. It also wants the authority to strike long-term deals with companies or allied nations to provide emergency supplies of materials that the military says are irreplaceable for making weapons, jet engines, high-powered magnets and other gear.

China controls more than 90% of global production of rare-earth elements, which the U.S. military uses in lasers and high-powered magnets. The U.S. in October added several of these elements to its list of materials that it might warehouse.

Hu to visit

An apparent thaw in recently frosty relations between China and the US indicated by President Hu's announced visit to the US.

Andy Rothman, a former U.S. diplomat who is now a strategist for the brokerage CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Shanghai, said the announced visit "almost guarantees" that the White House has decided against officially pressing the issue.

That seems interesting: a former diplomat now a strategist.

"There is a possibility that the U.S. won't label China a currency manipulator as a return for China's compromise on the Iran issue, plus President Hu's visit to Washington for the nuclear security summit," said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. "I think it would be best for the U.S. Treasury not to name China a currency manipulator, as otherwise China will see another surge of anti-American sentiment among the public."

A second story, on the relationship between China and Iran, contains an interesting quote:


Guo Xiangang, a foreign-policy analyst at the China Institute of International Studies, said he doesn't think China's position is changing. Rather, he suggests U.S. officials are trying to demonstrate progress on Iran for political reasons. U.S. President Barack Obama "needs to raise his domestic profile," said Mr. Guo, whose institute is affiliated with the government. "He has gotten a lot of criticism from people saying he is too soft on Iran...So these statements that China is moving closer are for a domestic audience."

 The relationship between Iran and China is extensive, and China has not supported calls for strong sanctions against Iran.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator came to Beijing for talks amid signs of headway in the U.S.-led effort to secure backing for sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program. Saeed Jalili arrived Thursday in the Chinese capital for his second official visit in two years. He was scheduled to meet with State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi before holding a news conference in Beijing late Friday.

 China has some leverage on Iran, if only by virtue of not kowtowing to the US line.

But the talks come amid signs that Beijing may be easing its resistance to a fresh round of United Nations sanctions against Iran. On Wednesday, China participated in a conference call with the four other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany—known as the "P-5 plus 1"—to discuss a possible sanctions resolution. China in that call reaffirmed a commitment it made in a similar call last week to negotiations on the text of a possible resolution.

 Why Germany is not a permanent member of the UN Security Council is a question without a good answer. WW2 is long over, and it is past time for realigning the global diplomatic schema.

Mr. Jalili is the latest diplomat to visit China to solicit its backing, underscoring how the Iran dispute has strengthened Beijing's international clout. In February, Israel sent officials to persuade Beijing of Iran's weapons ambitions; visitors in March included top China officials from the U.S. State Department and National Security Council, as well as U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

China  is the second strongest country in the world, after the US.


China and Iran have extensive ties, particularly in the energy sector. China is the world's second-biggest oil consumer after the U.S., and last year overtook Japan as Iran's top crude-oil buyer. Iran accounts for about 8% of China's oil imports.


... last week's conference call marked China's first participation since mid-January in such a meeting about Iran with the other permanent Security Council members and Germany. It came after the U.S. backed away from pursuing several tough measures—including efforts aimed at choking off Iran's access to international banking services and capital markets and restricting its national air-cargo and shipping lines—to win support from China and Russia for a new sanctions resolution, people familiar with the situation said last week. Several analysts say the China-Iran relationship is shifting somewhat, in ways that could erode Beijing's sense of obligation to Tehran.


China is building a big presence in neighboring Iraq, where Chinese oil companies have signed a string of deals that could overshadow the Iranian supply in a few years. In the first two months of the year, China imported nearly 40% less oil from Iran than it did during the same period last year, and bought more oil from other countries. Monthly figures can be misleading, but Chinese oil companies have been struggling in Iran amid Tehran's unattractive commercial terms and sanctions that make it difficult to get parts for complex projects.