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2008-09-24 Home Front Economy

Societe Generale Issues China Economic Warning

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Posted by Anonymoose 2008-09-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [6 views ] Top

#1 May we please de-globalize now?
Pretty please.
Not only do we have to worry about our economy, which we seem to have only marginal control over, but now we need to worry about the chicoms imploding? This system is very complicated and only really benefits a small group of already super-rich people, not the common working ilk.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-09-24 08:33|| 2008-09-24 08:33|| Front Page Top

#2 Please, don't be a moron, bigjim. Unless you live in a shack in the hills and haven't set foot in a WalMart in the last twenty years, I doubt you personally have not benefited from globalization.

Stupid is a drug on the market this season. Don't get caught with a shitload of it in your porfolio.

Posted by Mitch H.">Mitch H. 2008-09-24 09:43|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]">[http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/] 2008-09-24 09:43|| Front Page Top

#3 This system is very complicated and only really benefits a small group of already super-rich people, not the common working ilk.

I saved this from a Readerâs Digest article _Rich as
a King_ condensed from Home by David Owen, 1995.

William I, who conquered England some 930 years, had
wealth, power and a ruthless army. Yet although William
was stupefyingly rich by the standards of the time, he had
nothing remotely resembling a flush toilet. No paper
towels, no riding lawn mower. How did he get by?

History books are filled with wealthy people who were
practically destitute compared to me. I have triple-
tracked storm windows; Croesus did not. Entire nations
trembled before Alexander the Great, but he couldnât
buy cat food in bulk. Czar Nicholas II lacked a compound-
miter saw.

Given how much better off I am than so many famous
dead people, youâd think Iâd be content. The trouble is
that, I compare my prosperity with that of living
persons: neighbors, high school classmates, TV
personalities. The covetousness I feel toward my friend
Howardâs new kitchen is not mitigated by that fact
that no French monarch ever had a refrigerator with
glass doors.

There is really no rising or falling standards of living. Over
the centuries people simply find different stuff to feel
grumpy about. Youâd think that merely not having
bubonic plague would put us in a good mood. But no,
we want a hot tub too.

Of course, one way to achieve happiness would be to
realize that by even contemporary standards the things
I own are pretty nice. My house is smaller than the
houses of many investment bankers, but even so it has
a lot more rooms than my wife and I can keep clean.

Besides, to people looking back at our era from a
century or two in the future, those bankersâ fancy
counter tops and my own worn Formica will seem
equally shabby. I canât keep up with my neighbors
right now. But just wait.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-09-24 11:27|| 2008-09-24 11:27|| Front Page Top

#4 The Chinese market has had shite returns for years. I certainly hope no major U.S. or Euro banks had any serious money there.

U.S. business, ont he other hand, does.

Posted by Mike N. 2008-09-24 12:07|| 2008-09-24 12:07|| Front Page Top

#5 I think this is why we put "in God we trust" on our currency.

Posted by Danielle 2008-09-24 12:45|| 2008-09-24 12:45|| Front Page Top

#6 Mitch, are you seriously arguing that the cheap plastic crap I buy at Wal-Mart should be considered a fair trade for the good paying construction and manufacturing jobs that have run from this country like water? Don't you be a moron, what has globalization ever done for you, bedsides cheaper consumer goods crap?
HAS IT MADE YOUR REAL WAGES GO UP?
HAS IT MADE YOUR STATE'S INFRASTRUCTURE BETTER?
HAS IT MADE YOUR KID'S SCHOOLS BETTER?
HAS IT MADE YOUR COUNTRY SAFER ECONOMICALY?
HAS IT DONE JACK SHIT AT ALL?
Probably not. Instead of quoting from the Conservative Argument Playbook, look at it from a rational angle. All the big debacles, all the big ripoffs, all the scandals and breakdowns have nothing to do with us. The super-rich and multi-national corps glean all the wealth from globalization. We get dick. We get our job sent to india, or we get a mexican bussed up from Tecate to replace us. That's the only effect of globalism I have EVER seen. I'm not trying to be pissy at you Mitch, but I see NO real benefit from globalization at all in my house.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-09-24 13:47|| 2008-09-24 13:47|| Front Page Top

#7 Jim, take a breath.

Look down at your keyboard. You know where all that plastic, glass, and parts are made?

I used to operate an IBM 360 back in the 70s. Big iron, with punch cards and big ass printers. The ones that only business, universities or government could afford. What you have before you is more powerful and far far cheaper than that piece of 'Made in America' iron. You got what IBM thought you needed. Globalization changed that for everyone. It's given you a voice you'd otherwise not have. It gives access to information that would have been buried or killed so you could understand the real world around you. Just give it a thought of where a media created individual like Obama would be had not this device been available like any other household appliance. There would only be THE ONE and ONLY because those who owned and operated the media would have only let you know what they wanted you to know. We would all be happy neo-socialist marching off to our new workers paradise promised that its different this time, cause ~~Big Brother~~ the 'right' people would be in charge.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-09-24 14:29|| 2008-09-24 14:29|| Front Page Top

#8 Jim, that period of super-high union wages was a dream paradise during which unions milked American companies and the American consumer for every penny he had, and destroyed entire American industries, ranging from stereo equipment, TV's, textiles, auto manufacturing, steel, and so on. Now that the unions have looted American companies into extinction, they want to loot the entire American economy as well. Here's the problem - the British tried the "the entire economy organized as one big union" concept during the entire postwar period ending with Margaret Thatcher's election in 1979, with union-dominated industries and high tariffs. The result was decades of stagnation at the end of which Brits made less money than a lot of European countries they had previously looked down on.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-09-24 14:40|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-09-24 14:40|| Front Page Top

#9
"The super-rich and multi-national corps glean all the wealth from globalization. We get dick. We get our job sent to india, or we get a mexican bussed up from Tecate to replace us. That's the only effect of globalism I have EVER seen."

Are you the guy who's also supposed to be getting his MBA?

Posted by Pappy 2008-09-24 16:49|| 2008-09-24 16:49|| Front Page Top

#10 Just because you are working on an MBA doesn't mean you are comfortable with globalization. I've worked in the construction industry most of my life, as a UNION pile driver, diver and welder, later as a supervisor. Globalization has wrecked the construction industry and most of the ancillary businesses that surround it. You have to order steel 18 months ahead of time from South Korea instead of calling Dayton Ohio and having it sent down on a truck the next week, and so on.
That's just one example out of a hundred. So yes, I'm working on an MBA, no I don't like everything I hear in the classes. And while it might be a boon to importers it has absolutely ruined some industries, like steel.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-09-24 20:58|| 2008-09-24 20:58|| Front Page Top

#11 And I don't know of anyone who made super-high, dreamy wages. Pile drivers (part of Carpenters Union) before I went back to school to work on my Civil Eng. degree were making about 25.60 an hour for heavy highway and bridge building work. Dangerous, back breaking, outdoor, weather affected, highly specialized work that requires highly trained people that don't grow on trees. That's not exactly what I'd call a fortune.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-09-24 21:02|| 2008-09-24 21:02|| Front Page Top

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