Some more blows in the ongoing World War IV, known as the War on Terror to the masses. WW IV was always about the perception of the US (and the Anglosphere in general) that the growing economies of China, and to a lesser extent India, posed a threat to access to world resources. The War on Terror was simply a pretext to establish bases from which WW IV could proceed at a more comfortable pace.
Thus Alan Greenspan’s recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, blaming Asia, especially China, for the US housing bubble:
“The result was a surge in growth in China and a large number of other emerging market economies that led to an excess of global intended savings relative to intended capital investment. That ex ante excess of savings propelled global long-term interest rates progressively lower between early 2000 and 2005. That decline in long-term interest rates across a wide spectrum of countries statistically explains, and is the most likely major cause of, real-estate capitalization rates that declined and converged across the globe, resulting in the global housing price bubble…”
Read this along with remarks by Tim Geithner in the Obama administration that China was manipulating the yuan to help its exports ( a sentiment also voiced by Obama during the elections).
That’s the perspective from which the little fracas (actually it’s the biggest fracas between China and the US since 2001) in the South China Sea should be seen. The USNS Impeccable – a civilian ship under Navy control – was apparently conducting surveillance in what it claims was international waters (where US doctrine insists on international freedom to move) but within the 200 mile zone in which Chinese economic control obtains. Chinese vessels came within 25 feet of the US ship which sprayed them with water, and then left.
This week China will also be unveiling plans for an increase of 15% in its defense spending, including expansion of its naval capacity.
What happened to Alan Greenspan? Did all of Rand’s teachings go in one ear and out the other?
I wish these guys paid attention to Smith and Riccardo in economics class.
Greenspan got close to power…
Power corrupts.
Yes very true.
This post is interesting because historically, individual countries or empires have always had their time in the sun (Greece, Rome, the Middle East, France, Spain, England, America etc). But according to Smith, life is not a zero sum game and countries can trade with each other and be each others’ customers. Now it seems as the power of America is waning we may see the rise of another superpower, such as China (according to Jim Roger) or India, so long as they implement free market principles. But do you think we will ever see a world where all countries can thrive? Is Adam Smith’s world possible?
Or are nations naturally self-destructive?
More specifically, Greenspan, or “Greenspin,” as I like to call him, can be classified as a “revisionist.” It is a popular species (not quite human) in Washington. That is, when given the facts (or the video or the text), that shows the deceit or the lie, the “revisionist” simply re-makes the history to conform to his/her position. Thus, Greenspan, when confronted by his previous, strong positions on the value of gold and its relevance to the dollar, wiped it away in public–he would only admit to his position in private. In the public record, he would not admit his previous views, just as if they did not exist. Ron Paul has talked and written about Greenspan’s lack of candor at length. Really, if a public figure cannot admit to his past, written positions, without qualification, then he must be a revisionist. Greenspan and many other Elites do not live up to the standards that they try to inflict on the commoners. Any commoner who ignores the past like Greenspan would be considered a serial liar, or at least an incompetent. To think that this idiot actually associated with Ayn Rand, given her very strong ideologies against central governance, tells us a lot: Greenspan is as worthless as the paper he printed.