US Economy Loses Top Spot to Swiss in Global Rankings

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The world economic forum’s Global Competitiveness rankings for 2009-2010 are out.

Notable:

1. The US lost its top spot to the Swiss.

2. China, India, and Brazil all improved their rankings, coming in at 29, 49, and 56.

3. Russia fell back to 63.

4. In Latin America, Chile was the most business-friendly, at 30 and Paraguay the least, at 124. Uruguay weighed in at 65 and Argentina at 85.

This isn’t a measure of the country’s laws or political stability. The press release from the WEF has this:

“The GCI is based on 12 pillars of competitiveness, providing a comprehensive picture of the competitiveness landscape in countries around the world at all stages of development. The pillars include Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic Stability, Health and Primary Education, Higher Education and Training, Goods Market Efficiency, Labour Market Efficiency, Financial Market Sophistication, Technological Readiness, Market Size, Business Sophistication, and Innovation.”

Christians Should Look Outside the Two Parties…

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Greg at The Holy Cause writes this, after reviewing the GOP’s record during the Bush administration:

“Christians should be leaving the Republican Party in droves. Christians should be crawling on broken glass as penance for blindly supporting the Republican Party. Christians should be repenting in sackcloth and ashes for thinking the Republican Party was the party of God.

Instead, even as more and more crimes of the Bush administration come to light, I fear that Christians who are outraged, and rightly so, at the crimes of the Obama administration and the Democrats will look in the next election to the Republicans as their savior instead of the champions of war and torture….”

My Comment:

I agree with the post that neither party is consonant with Christian values. But I fear that the tendency to identify one’s party with “the good and the true” isn’t limited to Christians. Liberals are equally convinced of it. I also question the findings of the Pew study cited by Greg that finds that evangelicals are more likely to support torture. As I noted when I posted the study a while back, the sample size jt uses seems too small to be useful.

Zionist Inquisitors and the Media Narrative

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“No media outlet mentioned that in 2003 Zionist media mogul Haim Saban acquired control of ProSiebenSat.1, Germany’s second largest broadcaster.

While wielding a major opinion-shaping media outlet during Merkel’s ascendancy as Germany’s first female chancellor, Saban described himself as an “Israeli-American” and “a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.” Steve Rattner, Saban’s financial adviser, explained the motive for his media acquisition: “He thinks Germany is critical to Israel.” Rattner re-emerged as president Barack Obama’s auto industry “car czar” before resigning in mid-July due to a pension fund scandal…..

..In June 2006, a Saban-led group acquired Univision, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S. With Latinos the fastest-growing voting bloc in the U.S., Univision is critical to Israel’s ability to sustain its control of U.S. foreign policy. Univision is the fifth largest television network in the U.S., reaching 98% of Spanish-speaking households through 62 television stations, 90 affiliate stations and more than 2,000 cable affiliates. [See “How the Israel lobby took control of U.S. foreign policy.”]….

. In addition to emerging as a reliable EU advocate for Israeli policies, Merkel threatened to arrest Williamson for Holocaust denial on a EU-wide warrant. A search of her phone records would doubtless uncover a discussion with a key supporter, Haim Saban.

Zionists and the lawmakers they groom are well positioned to advance a modern-day Inquisition—as when Bishop Williamson simultaneously faced arrest in Europe and expulsion from Argentina, the site of a seminary he directed and home to the largest Jewish population in Latin America.”

Read more about the framing of media narratives by Jeff Gates at Intifada-Palestine.com

China Quotes Ben Franklin, Criticizes Greenspan for Asset Inflation

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“Mr Cheng [former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee and current head of the green energy drive] said China had learned from the West that it is a mistake for central banks to target retail price inflation and take their eye off assets. This is where Greenspan went wrong from 2000 to 2004,” he said. “He thought everything was alright because inflation was low, but assets absorbed the liquidity.”

Mr Cheng said China had lost 20m jobs as a result of the crisis and advised the West not to over-estimate the role that his country can play in global recovery. China’s task is to switch from export dependency to internal consumption, but that requires a “change in the ideology of the Chinese people” to discourage excess saving. “This is very difficult”. Mr Cheng said the root cause of global imbalances is spending patterns in US (and UK) and China.

“The US spends tomorrow’s money today,” he said. “We Chinese spend today’s money tomorrow. That’s why we have this financial crisis.” Yet the consequences are not symmetric. “He who goes borrowing, goes sorrowing,” said Mr Cheng.

It was a quote from US founding father Benjamin Franklin.”

More here at The Telegraph (UK).

My Comment:

Three things give this remark away, in my humble opinion as a long-time propaganda watcher.

1. The speaker is the head of China’s green energy drive. That means he is likely to be on good terms with the green energy people in the US government, the financial center of which is Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs has extensive ties with China’s state sector and is counterparty to huge derivative contracts with state banks and companies.

2. It is notable that Mr. Cheng’s language echoes the language of the left-liberal governing class in emphasizing the role of Greenspan at the expense of everything else. Greenspan, being a former Randian and an avowed libertarian, is expendable to this group. Cheng does not mention the role of cheap money, the creation and trading of mountains of derivative contracts, and debt-based policies  that go back to long before 2004, and indeed long before Greenspan. He does not mention the Federal Reserve itself.

3. It’s also notable that Mr. Cheng echoes the left-liberal line about over-saving being a problem in China. But the problem is not thrift and savings (i.e. capital formation), which by definition can never be excessive in a capitalist economy where investment is put to work by genuine market forces. The problem is malinvestment caused by manipulation of the interest rate. And that’s a problem in which the Federal Reserve’s role is critical.

Major Market Move in Offing

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Looks like there’ll be a good deal of volatility ahead in the markets this coming week and through the fall:

*From Monday last week onward, New York has been riled up by the news out of China that Chinese SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) might walk away on derivative contracts that they think have been deeply manipulated. (They’re right on that). The SOEs involved are Air China, China Eastern, and Cosco.

*The derivatives are not mortgage-backed securities (the cause of the 2008 melt-down) but – likely- hedged oil futures in the OTC (over the counter) market, which is unregulated (that is, the SEOs hold synthetic longs).

*The threat – if it is that – has forced gold out of its summer trading range to within points of the $1000 mark, before falling back..and it pushed up the Chinese market by about 5%.(Sept 3)

*The counter-parties are 6 foreign banks, said to include Goldman Sachs, UBS, and JP Morgan. Goldman could take a hit on the contracts for around $15 billion, it’s rumored.

Note: The Chinese have been buying IMF bonds (50 billion) and watching the US meltdown and “stimulus” hocus-pocus with a good deal of warranted alarm, because all it means is their investments are being manipulated and driven down.

Obama’s reappointment of Bernanke was also taken as a bad sign by the Chinese. (correctly).

*Rumors have been swirling of further defaults of major US banks.

*The G20 has a preliminary meeting this weekend and the Chinese are said to have put the purchase of off-market gold on the table.

*The Chinese are pushing gold and silver on their populations, probably in anticipation of a currency meltdown.

*Meanwhile, Hong Kong has asked for all its gold to be returned from London.

*Last week, Germany asked for all its gold to be returned from London.

*Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and King County, Washington State have brought suit against Moody’s, S&P, and Morgan Stanley on fraud charges for the contracts they wrote, a case that would have massive implications for how other contracts are treated.

*[Oddly (?), Washington State is also where the earliest swine flu cases in the US were detected and where one of the largest outbreaks on campus just surfaced today – with some 2000 students at Washington State University coming down with the virus. Washington State had previously received large grants from Homeland Security for emergency preparations for pandemics, had TV Public Service Ads in place, had written up plans and practiced exercises].

Libertarian Living: A Country Boy Can Survive

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A Country Boy Can Survive
– Hank Williams Jr.

The preacher man says it’s the end of time
And the Mississippi River she’s a goin’ dry
The interest is up and the Stock Market’s down
And you only get mugged
If you go down town

I live back in the woods, you see
A woman and the kids, and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun rifle and a 4-wheel drive
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

I can plow a field all day long
I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn
We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain’t too many things these ole boys can’t do
We grow good ole tomatoes and homemade wine

And a country boy can survive

Country girl know how to fry..etc.

Ross Douthat on Sarah Palin

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Ross Douthat on what to expect if you’re a female candidate for office:

Male commentators will attack you for parading your children. Female commentators will attack you for not staying home with them. You’ll be sneered at for how you talk and how many colleges you attended. You’ll endure gibes about your “slutty” looks and your “white trash concupiscence,” while a prominent female academic declares that your “greatest hypocrisy” is the “pretense” that you’re a woman. And eight months after the election, the professionals who pressed you into the service of a gimmicky, dreary, idea-free campaign will still be blaming you for their defeat.

All of this had something to do with ordinary partisan politics. But it had everything to do with Palin’s gender and her social class.

Sarah Palin is beloved by millions because her rise suggested, however temporarily, that the old American aphorism about how anyone can grow up to be president might actually be true.

But her unhappy sojourn on the national stage has had a different moral: Don’t even think about it. “

“Me and Mrs. Palin” – Vanity Unfair’s Low-Class Smear Job

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The whole piece is posted at Lew Rockwell.

As I said, I’ve never been a fan of Sarah Palin as vice-president. It was apparent to me from the beginning that she was unqualified. But the fault in picking her was not hers but McCain’s. It was an opportunistic and silly choice, given the economic challenges the country was facing, and in my opinion it called into question McCain’s own temperament. But that said, vilifying the woman at every turn is pointless, ugly, and calls into question the motivations of her critics.

To take the example of a non-white woman who I believe is as unqualified and as polarizing, would people talk about Maxine Waters in the same way? I think not. And I hope not.

Then let’s extend the same courtesy to all candidates, regardless of their political affiliation or religion or race or class.

(Note: I’ve criticized attacks on Hillary Clinton on the same grounds on this blog).