Maybe they'll bring back the ol' sheep licking the foot torture method.... makes cats tongues look smooth as silk!!

gogul: It's not dead. They'll just get fined or settle out of court!!

Another record.... Civilization!! New kings, different terminology.

Hu Gin Tao is too frightened to appear in L'Aquila. What a coward.

(V): Nice one. Of course they say it's not important. The Murdoch group is dead and nobody cares?

I like to talk about the torture record of the Chinese KP. chinaemb_ch@mfa.gov.cn

The Murdoch group and the police are in trouble over phone tapping. The Murdoch group for doing it, and the police for not telling anyone they knew.

The News group is saying it is not important. Despite 3 possible cases of phone tapping being settled out of court...

Some very silly figures waste their time again somewhere with no outcome. Europe is made to experience a economical crash. Green and wet as good as everywhere.

That one is funny. In Dubai they worry to get critisized by the media. Well, integrity trumps. Any counties who know any kind of restrictions regarding the press. How can they be taken seriously?

Can somebody paint a realistic picture of the Iranian forces. Because their propaganda is something like a joke. They were 8 years in war with Irak, Irak had no army in 2003.

Israel and the finance sector have this in common: good kernel and infraction, transgressio, misdemeanor, violation, infringement, breach, trespass. Their heresy is to own as much as possible.

GTCharlie: Then that is a load of rubbish. Mr Jackson (if you listen to one of his interviews) quite honestly admits that the only time he felt safe at home when he was with his brothers. Alone was bad!!!!

Hence his need to have boys around him and his dependence on painkillers. ... pain was a reminder of his dad.

It could happen to anyone, and probably has and will... but with luck, maybe it'll happen less it being in the news and all.

GTCharlie: It's always about Race with him. I'm tired of the race card.

(V): I think Al (Tawanna Brawley) Sharpton turned it into a race thing

Artful Dodger: It has nothing to do with race relations.. M Jacksons behaviour was related to something that can happen to any kid..... a psychotic oppressive, violent dad.

He is just a 'titanic' in such that through who and what he became will since he was and is a big star be more public.

Hopefully much good can come of this if politics stays out of it and it's dealt on a purely human level.

Czuch: $5 stores... I doubt it, but prices on "Made in China" goods would go up, McD's would cost you more...

Also, if like us you've stuff done in India. Then if like us, you ban(ish) 'sweat shop' clothes made (if not already) then more price increases. Plus ... many dead and obsolete computers are recycled in India by hand... with the chemicals they use.

... another reason to make sure your hard drive is wiped 1000% before selling it, or getting it recycled!! .... etc.

Tuesday: Yep!!

gogul: Maybe.

(V): What I wanted to say, with a single "nope" written in a post you waste the time of those who can make up their own minds.

(V): Indeed.

gogul: Why keep repeating myself??? Nope.... not needed.

Hu Jintao, you'll be one of my toys

Have some nice times (time?). Don't neglect your diary :)

gogul: Julien, say how it is. Lame politicians? That should be : the lame prosecutor of a certain Canton.







Heulen und Zähneklappern

It's no venting mood, just a cross over of stupid political minds. Steinbrück made jokes about swiss banking? Jokes? I really hope somebody brings the UBS down. It is in certain critical parts a criminal institution. Nobody raised objection when the Americans called out the UBS, juridicaly not totaly correct. As swiss politicians are lame in this matter, seems that Americans have to prove the accusation.

The german Peer Steinbrück worries about a worse credit crunch for the next months (globaly). Who the heck needs credit? Eat stining nettle.

I hate it like pest if politicians worry the people for things which are problems of their criminal finance sector.

Tuesday: Nirvana = purgatorial fire ? ;)

This Chinese government could get powdered to Nirvana. Nobody would miss the chinese KP.

About time that the Han learn a little something how to treat minorities. Welcome.

A little dash of colour, not ment to interrupt this interesting conversation going on, but..

In China the Uyghurs make troubles. Why? The systematic acts of caprice of the Han Chinese are simply not acceptable.

In response to Czuch's question:

> Whats the solution then???

I think the answer to this question is ideologicaly charged. How we as human beings are going to solve the problems and ineffficiencies in the Capitalist system is complex because it is colored by how we see socialism and the role of the state in regulating the economy and the business environment. Politicians do know that this problem exists and I have seen some opinions about it. I can start perhaps with what I will call the "pessimistic and radical view".

Among the more hawkish neoconservatives in Washington there is this belief that the current economic relations between China and the US will eventually lead to military conflict. There is a perception that the US is in an economically unmanageable situation because its foreign debt has become too great to manage properly without causing hardship for millions of working Americans. If at some point China decides that it is time to collect on the debt, the only response viable will be a war because the US will not be able to pay such a huge debt. To me this is a destructive and pessimistic view because it implies that China is a hostile, unreasonable power with nothing but evil intentions towards the US. Thus the more hawkish right-wingers see war as the only outcome.

More moderate views say that if China is given enough time, its population will move from a "producing" population to a "consuming" population. As the economy in China grows the rate of consumption will increase and that will open avenues for products to be sold to China and bring the trade deficit into balance. Evidence of this is seen in both the expansion of local businesses in China and the increase in demand of certain luxury consumer goods (e.g. cellular telephones, televisions, computers, etc.)

There is another view, and this is the one I subscribe to, which sees the current economic relations between China and the US as part of a much greater, and much older economic process. This process is called "economic integration". It is a concept that was born first from a Marxist view of economic systems and then it developed further in the Soviet Union in the 1950s after WW II. The theory is that as time is passing the entire world economy is in a process of "globalization". Originally economic systems arose locally and in isolation, then as time passed different economies came into contact and as they engaged in trade and exchange a process of adjustment had to take place. If enough time is allowed to pass, these economies merge into one larger economy.

The evidence of this is very strong and we all have heard of globalization and the formation of large economic blocks such as the European Union. The process of economic integration requires for nationalistic or local interest to concede ground to the much greater interests of the whole economic block.

The shifting of labour force from the US, Japan and Western Europe into China and India is driven by the self-interest of large corporations, but its ultimate effect is a process of economic integration in which all the economies involved become so interdependent that it becomes impossible to separate one from the other.

We saw this in the latest crisis in the economic system. As the American economy slid into recession, the demand for Chinese goods dropped suddenly and China also experienced a shrinkage in its economy.

As China and the US exchange more and more capital, eventually it will become impossible to separate one economy from the other and the US and China will end with a fully unified and integrated economy.

Many capitalist economists don't like this idea at all because it implies that western capitalism and communism end in an economically inseparable state, and that means a politically inseparable state.

If the current crisis in the world economy is not resolved, we will see a situation in which the state will have to intervene fully to keep the world economy afloat and that will mean moving from local central banks (like the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England) to a larger central bank regulating the world economy. We will have a "World Reserve" that will regulate banking and interest rates on a worldwide scale. We already saw this with many large cenatral banks lowering interest rates at exactly the same time and central bankers meeting to discuss common strategies to fight the crisis.

Parallel to this there will be regulatory bodies that will have to enforce labour laws on a worldwide scale to ensure that wealth is distributed more evenly and to minimize wage disparities that are further fuelling the current crisis and causing hardship for millions of people around the world. Many people are already complaining that there were massive bailouts for banks, car companies, real estate and mortgage companies, etc. However, the poor of the world get no bailout and they go on being poor. So the only way forward is to ensure that there is more wage equity in other places around the world.

Such an aggresive and global form of the state scares many people and is seen as a form of "socialism" and an "engineered economy". There is great political opposition to any "socialist" measures to fix the world economy.

(V): Nope. I work with words which I build to sentences. I admit that I'm funnier than most in doing this.

(V): No foreign cheap labour source ... basically no more "99c" stores.

Okay, so everything would cost more, but nothing else would change, would it?

If manufacturing came back here, unemployment would go down, but wages would go up, then it would still be cheaper to manufacture in China, even at minimum wage, so we would be right back where we started, except now, instead of 99 cent stores we would have 5 dollar stores!

(V): Its a waste of time to post a "nope" in my opinion. What?

Czuch: No foreign cheap labour source ... basically no more "99c" stores.

Artful Dodger: Nope.

In 2007 Romano Prodi announced the '09 meeting to happen in La Maddalena, a island in between Sardinia and Corsica. Fabrizio Ciccitto from the party 'Forza Italia' wasn't happy: "Its obvious that Prodi wants to seal off the party to prevent an attac of violent demonstrators and extremists". Too funny not.

Ok, Silvio had an idea... ................ ....... OMG this strange dude is still developing ideas. The party happens in L'Aquilla. A earthquake ruined the town in April (it was I think). Berlusconi visited the place, and said into a camera that the people here should just take it as a camping vacation (over 300 dead). The town would be rebuilded soon. Lately he said into a camera that this is happening, which is a lie. Well, ok, party in L'Aquila... Berlusconi hopes for international help to rebuild the little town (yes he said that, and he loves to show up in front of cameras the ugly guy). Well, it's a mess. L'Aquila seems to have other things to do than get flooded by a massive policeforce. The people from L'Aquila living in tents, people who do not trust the next winter, are not amused. Pictures like Bush showing up with New Orleans, does the world needs to see this kind of awful manipulation 2009 in L'Aquila with Berlisconi? Is that boring

Übergeek 바둑이: Whats the solution then??? Government mandate wages paid? Maybe that US manufacturers should have to pay US minimum wages no matter who does the work? Then where will that leave us? What would the after effects be?

Übergeek 바둑이: excellent post... reminds me of some friends of mine who say " That job(some type of labor) isn't worth X amount of money, A Mexican{ or illegal immigrant) will do it for Y amount,, Americans won't do this type of work anymore"

Übergeek 바둑이: Well said.....

In response to these comments:

> I am sure if I had a billion people working for me who I could steal from
> (their productivity wise) I could assume a bunch of the US debt as well.

> I just have an image of some poor Chinese kid, up to his thighs in rice paddy,
> runny nosed on a cold morning, thinking how wonderful his government is
> because they can afford to buy the debt of the US

I heard this idea of "China buying US debt" being tossed around during the election. Barack Obama used it a lot more that John McCain.

There is a general lack of understanding about how China came to hold billions of dollars of "US Debt".

Back in the 1960s China was a nation in a state of collapse. Having come out of a bad revolution and a "cultural revolution" China found itself with almost no industry, no agricultural production and a lack of a good educational system and technology. Western economicsts knew that China did have one asset which was worth a lot. This was its people. With a high population China was sure to come out of its problems if China could channel all those people into industrial production.

Richard Nixon made that historic trip to China and later Deng Xiaoping (the communist leader educated in France) agreed to allow foreign investment in China. After the fall of the Berlin wall, western companies rushed to open factories in China because with an average salary of 800 USD per year China offered one of the lowest labour costs in the world.

Western companies have made trillions of dollars manufacturing goods in China. Rather than calling this "we are exporting jobs overseas" or "we are exploiting Chinese people", western economists invented a sanitized term: "Outsourcing".

The US has "outsourced" so much of its production to China that now the capital flow to China exceeds anything that they could afford to buy from the US by approximately 45 to 50 billion USD per month. American politicians cry fould saying that China has protectionist policies in place but the reality is that China does not need much along the lines of manufactured goods. China buys billions of dollars of grain and legumes from the US, but agricultural products are valued relatively low. American manufactured goods have become in essence luxury goods. The average Salary of Chinese workers does not allow them to buy cars or computers, so the balance of trade is out of whack.

Since the US debt is now growing at 40-50 billion per month in trade and capital exchange, the Chinese are not stupid and they are heavily hedging their holding of Us dollars by purchasing massive amounts of treasury bills and federal reserve bonds.

American politicians point the finger at China and the Chinese government, but the reality is that the debt is being fuelled by our consumption and the greed of large monopolies that have shifted all of the manufacturing to places like China, India and Vietnam. They do it because people in those countries are poor and when you are poor it is easy to be exploited.

Should the Chinese government raise their minimum salary? That would cause massive inflation in the US because the manufacturing cost would go up, and companies like Walmart oppose anything like that. Should the Chinese government take measures against foreign companies that exploit Chinese workers? The American government has already taken China to arbitration to the WTO when they tried to impose restrictions on foreign companies. Walmart fought tooth and nail to stop the Chinese government from passing a law requiring that Walmart employees in China join local unions.

Pointing the finger at China is unfair, because our side is as much to blame as theirs. I will believe in pointing the finger on the day when the American government (and other western governments) requires American companies to honor minimum salaries on a worldwide scale. On that day unfair labour advantage will end and American companies will pack up their bags and bring manufacturing back to the US, and the US will stop "selling its debt" to countries like China, India or Korea.

(V): "And AD's example is not relevant, it was not caused by a depression but a change in competition rules. If you cannot understand the difference then study economics"

The CAUSE is not relevant but the effect is. Therefore my example is more than relevant. We are talking about the effects of policy change. And in the same way ATT was split due to policy, so are the big car companies being bailed out due to policy. You can argue that the bailout policy is due to depression and you can also argue that the ATT split is due to a depression of sorts: smaller companies were economically depressed (or suppressed) by the big monopoly.

It's a relevant argument.

(V): "a service being split is not the same as a company busting through worldwide economic depression. Such a comparison is not relevant."

It's relevant because thousands of jobs were eliminated because of government intrusion. You are right that new jobs were created as a result and this point supports my position. The car companies are allowed to fail and new companies would spring up. There's always someone waiting to jump in.

But bailout a failing company? No. How will that help in the long run? It won't. History will show this bailout of car companies to be a huge blunder.

(V): and that collapse of one segment can lead to the whole being severely weakened to the point of collapse.


That is your quote.... the collapse of on part can lead to the collapse of the whole.... explain then what that means?

To me it means that if you let part of the auto industry collapse, then it is possible the whole auto industry will collapse as a result... what else could your statement mean then?

(V): How about dinosaurs? They existed once, in great supply... you cannot blame humans for their demise nor any government could have saved them....

Its just the way of the world.... there might come a day when humans dont exist on this planet, talk about ghost towns!

You can have your governments keep putting their finger in thew dike holes, but just like that wont keep the dike from failing, your governments cant stop the world from changing as it is going to do

Czuch: I didn't say that. I never said that.

Please.. as you say keep to the debate.

(V): So, you really believe that there is a chance that the whole worldwide auto industry will collapse????

I can bet you any amount of money that there is absolutely a ZERO percent chance that will or can ever happen, at least until we all stop driving cars