THE DALY SHOW

Folks, Time To Choose

This is a posting over at JohnDalyLive about the economic choice you need to make for our leaders.

Conference On Global and Green Economy

I am emceeing a big event in Las Vegas November 17 and 18 at the Las Vegas Hilton.  Here’s a video to explain it all.  If you’re looking to jump start your business in this new economy and go green, this is the place to start.  You will also have a chance to network with companies from around the United States and around the world while also being a part of the International Congress of Business Professionals.  I was enticed by their strong educational programs that will train and re-train workers and executives in this new world.  I’ve written many times here that the economy went through a tectonic shift in the past two years.  Those who understand it and are educated to navigate the wreckage and the opportunities will thrive in the next few years.  I think this is one place to start.

Preparing For Economic Earthquake

Get Ready.  The ground is shifting.  In this post at JohnDalyLive, I have put together a piece that should be a guide for this new shift in our economic, political, and social landscape.  Please give me your thoughts.

Missing The Point of Atlas Shrugged

 This is a posting about a piece written by Stephen Moore in the Wall Street Journal about Ayn Rand’s classic novel Atlas Shrugged and its relevance to today’s economic crisis. Although I agree with most of what Moore says, I think he fails to mention the true meaning of Atlas. I would also encourage you to read another classic, The Great Gatsby, which has many more lessons we fail to learn.

LAS VEGAS, NV (January 12, 2009) – Stephen Moore is an economics writer for the Wall Street Journal. He’s also a frequent guest on news and business talk shows. I enjoy him and his work. This past weekend he wrote a piece January 9, 2009 called Atlas Shrugged: From Fiction To Fact in 52 Years. It was well-written. Here’s Moore’s nice description of Ayn Rand’s work that has become the Bible for libertarians.

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises — that in most cases they themselves created — by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

Moore also makes his pitch to gather new converts.

If only “Atlas” were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I’m confident that we’d get out of the current financial mess a lot faster.

Not so fast, Stephen.

Like most libertarians and followers of Ayn Rand, Moore has missed the true meaning of Rand and her effect on American life in 2009.

First, Rand has already bled into the fabric of American life and business. Look at the millions of small businesses in America. Look at the number of people who work full-time and have businesses on the side. Imagine how many more enterprises will sprout as the Internet becomes a ubiquitous form of distribution and we shake off the old ways of last century’s corporate culture. Even Democrats, once known as strictly the party of unions and welfare recipients, understand the need to spur business to create jobs.

Rand, for me, is imbedded into the thinking of most Americans who haven’t even read the book.

But secondly and more importantly, libertarians and Randites fail to see the Rand-created villains that still exist today in their own ranks – namely Wesley Mooch. Mooch is a mediocre bureaucrat who becomes the nation’s economic dictator through betrayal and well-placed connections.

Who is Wesley Mooch today? He is the lobbyist and campaign donor; he’s also the corporate executive who wines, dines and lavishly entertains our elected officials behind closed doors. These are the people who have helped kill innovation today: look no further than our car companies.

Trust me, I’ve seen it. I’ve met many of these elected officials and business leaders who are nice guys but cannot intelligently, let alone intellectually, converse on issues that affect our way of life and business. Yet, they set policy; policy that’s based on who pays them – not on what’s good for America.

(Look at TV news – especially cable news. People like Ann Coulter are always on air because she offers “good television,” not because she has intelligent insight and information.)

While we try to figure out whom to give bailout money to, we forget that most politicians in both parties have gotten sweetheart deals from big business on mortgages, land deals, and campaign donations. The secret wiretappings of Gov. Blago are the norm, not the exception. Does Duke Cunningham ring a bell? You can add others still in Congress like Rangel, Dodd, and Frank.

And this won’t stop. Why? It makes too much sense (and cents) for big business to curry favor with politicians who are making laws. Laws can and will be tweaked to benefit the donor. It’s a small investment that can return millions. But it also creates an unfair advantage to small businesses that don’t have the clout, money, or access.

And this is where Moore and the Randites look silly. Their ranks are loaded with Wesley Mooches and they don’t even know it. I love to hear corporate bigwigs scream about how high our taxes are in America. Yet, they fail to mention the give-backs the politicians bestow on them. With those give-backs included, the U.S. has one of the lowest net corporate tax rates, according to many analysts. And then we scream about other nations stopping free trade.

And what’s even more amazing is the number of people who are small business people who will take to the Rand pulpit and defend these give-backs that will never reach them.

If Ayn Rand were alive today, she’d be asking for the abolishment of all forms of campaign contribution. Politicians don’t need it. They have the internet and other forms of mass communication to inform and educate the masses. But it’s much easier to line their pockets with money from donors and large media companies who reap profits from those donors in the form of campaign advertising.

Wake up, Randites and libertarians. You’ve been invaded by Mooches. And you have yourselves to blame because you’ve gotten lazy and rested on the original interpretation of Atlas.

I’m sure libertarians have just placed their version of a fatwa on me. This is blasphemy to them. But libertarians, like staunch liberals and conservatives, fall in love with their philosophies; they stop thinking and evolving. Think back on the famous adage of “No new taxes.” It sounds good and it’s well-founded economic theory – only if you include spending cuts.

Ayn Rand was an anti-Communist who woke us up to the pitfalls of Socialism. It’s no different than what Marx did in the 1800s; he woke us up to the pitfalls of capitalism. Both thinkers – and many others like Darwin and Keynes – transformed society; how we live and how we do business.

America is an evolving, reactive society. We don’t follow one philosophy. We’re a melting pot of thought. What makes us exceptional is our ability to form new forward thinking through social and business experimentation.

Ayn Rand is a major part of that American progress. So is Marx — whether we like it or not. (If Marx were alive today, we’d be listening to him on TV and one of the things he’d be upset about is the portrayal of his theories by the totalitarians in Soviet Russia and Red China in the last century.) But Keynes and Darwin are also strongly embedded in our thinking. Many others, too.

Should you read Atlas? Absolutely. It’s a great work. It is one of my five most influential books in American history. (A literary note: read Alan Greenspan’s autobiography. He was a Rand disciple and spent a lot of time with her in the 1950s and 1960s and he offers some interesting insight into Rand.)

But Atlas is not the Bible as most libertarians think. It has its flaws.

My problem with Atlas is its homage to one man – John Galt – who has the answers while being persecuted and tortured by the enemies of society. In the end of the novel, he is exalted as the messiah to America who will deliver us to true capitalism. This is trite and one dimensional.

Galt is the creation of a Russian writer; surely an anti-Communist, but also a Russian. Russia loves their strong-armed, rugged, individual leaders – not intellectuals or sacrificing servants. The line of dictators and despots starts from Peter The Great, Catherine The Great, through the czars, Lenin, and ending today with Putin. Can you make a literary connection between Galt and Putin? Sure, they’re both bringing order back to society that have been ravaged by their enemies.

Sorry, folks, but parts of Rand smack of Fascism. Still, that doesn’t remove the lessons we Americans have derived from Atlas.

My suggestion is to also read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. (It’s shorter reading.) This is still the greatest American novel. It was written in 1925 and its lessons still ring true.

Like Gatsby’s 1920s parties, we just lived in “orgiastic” times. Now the party is over with plenty of hang-over headaches. Some of our high and mighty have had Gatsby like endings – dead and motionless in the bottom of a swimming pool.

Gatsby’s gangsters are no different than today’s. Meyer Wolfsheim is the 1920s version of Bernie Madoff. Gatsby says Wolfsheim “fixed the 1919 World Series.” The laudatory tone of Gatsby’s description of Wolfsheim is similar to the pre-crisis belief that someone with money must be a good person. No one dared question Madoff’s incomprehensible returns: he’s rich. I’ll let you decide if stealing $50 billion equates to fixing the 1919 World Series.

(Another literary note: Wolfsheim is the dramatic creation of Arnold Rothstein, the gambler who really set the Black Sox scandal into motion. Read the book Eight Men Out or see the film.)

Gatsby even foresees the environmental crises that will occur decades later. He takes the famous Hawthorne poem, Evangeline, in the 1800s that extols “a forest primeval” and turns it into “This is the valley of ashes” in Gatsby. Fitzgerald laments that all those trees the first Dutch sailors saw in America are gone.

What’s amazing about Gatsby is that it was written in the 1920s – before the Depression. Yet, Fitzgerald saw that coming, too. Rand, on the other hand, wrote about the effects of Communism decades after 1917.

Like Gatsby, we Americans “are borne back ceaselessly into the past” to our detriment. Gatsby thought he could go back into the past and find love with Daisy. We Americans constantly think we can find that fountain of youth or the financial model that will make us all wealthy. The truth is we age and the economy has cycles.

We also believe we can find that one philosophy – like the 1950s Biblical lessons of Atlas – to find utopia. But society changes along with our technology and our thinking. The lessons of the 1950s don’t entirely apply today.

We fail to learn the lessons of Gatsby — until it’s too late. We’re “like boats against the currents”. We struggle, survive, and then thrive through traumas like Steinbeck’s 1930s Grapes of Wrath and the upheavals of today.

US Dissolves. Russian Hope or American Lesson?

This is a posting about a Russian analyst who believes the United States will not exist by 2010 and will be broken up into various parts owned by other countries. Sure, it’s silly stuff. But let’s look at the underlying reasons for such a prediction – while looking at ourselves.

LAS VEGAS, NV (January 3, 2009) – According to Igor Panarin, in two years I’ll be living here in Las Vegas under the government of the Peoples Republic of China.

Panarin is a Russian academic who has predicted that the United States would dissolve into four different countries and be run by other countries.

For example, the Northeast and parts of the Midwest would be part of the European Union. (Would that mean easier access to Amsterdam?)

The northern plains would be Canadian. (Think of how much better the NHL would be with fewer teams. And Canada almost certainly wins the gold medal in the winter Olympics.)

The Republic of Texas would be part of Mexico. (And this will bring one of the bloodiest civil wars of all time. Bush and Cheney would be the new el Presidentes, getting what they’ve wanted all along: controlling all oil reserves and declaring war on a group of people who are clearly evil — the drug traffickers.)

And folks like me in the Far West would be under China. (I can see us Las Vegans thinking that the gaming industry will prosper greatly. But I doubt our comrades in Idaho are going to be passive when it comes to the Chinese.)

And, here’s the best: Russia would get Alaska back. (Wouldn’t that be justice for Sarah Palin? If she’s still governor, she would be taking orders from Vlad Putin.)

Surely, this is silly stuff. Panarin is trained by the Kremlin so there is plenty of Russian wishful thinking. It makes me realize that Russian intelligence is as out of whack as ours was before 9/11.

I emailed the article to my friend, John Alexander, a PhD who consults for U.S. Special Forces. He wrote back: “While we have some significant problems, I suspect he (Panarin) is pretty far off base.”

Panarin really doesn’t appear (notice I said “doesn’t appear”) to “get” Americans. And I’d bet he never saw Casablanca. Remember the Nazi, Major Strasser. He asks Rick about German forces marching into New York City. Rick replies, “Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.” The same holds true today whether it’s Baltimore, Miami, LA, or Boise.

Apparently Panarin thinks Americans and Russians are alike. A Washington Post article offers some good counter-balance to Panarin. The article quotes Thomas Baerwald, an investigator in a project called “Beyond Borders” and past president of the Association of American Geographers. He compares Americans to the citizens who were living under the former Soviet Union.

“We constantly were corrected when we tried to use the term ‘Soviets’ as a catch-all phrase for residents of the U.S.S.R.,” Baerwald says. “People firmly told us that they were Russians or Lithuanians or Estonians or Ukrainians or other terms that identified a region or subregion that described their own geographical identity. In contrast, if you ask U.S. residents what term describes who they are, an enormous majority will reply ‘I am an American.’ Even in those places where regional loyalties are especially strong, such as Texas, loyalties to the U.S. are far greater than they are to states or regions.

Still, Panarin’s predictions resonate. He hits home in a slightly unsettling way. No one in America would have heard of Panarin if the Wall Street Journal didn’t publish a front-page story on his findings and the Russian media frenzy following him. Ironically, it is still the most read article on the Wall Street Journal online. Don’t negate this.

So, someone is obviously giving Panarin an ounce of “what if?”

And it’s for good reason, too. We are in a financial mess that most of us can’t figure out. We see our leaders – namely the supposedly smarts ones like Paulson and Bernanke – scratching their heads. President Obama has to put together a team that is non-partisan; in other words, they really have to work since going to Washington isn’t a perk anymore but a responsibility as a citizen of this country. He’s really serious and that scares us.

I’ve written about a possible Armageddon here. I still say you need to keep cash on reserve for 2009 and be prepared to protect yourself and your loved ones. Too often, I hear from friends – wealthy friends – who don’t sleep at night wondering if their fortunes are going to be wiped out.

We also hear from pundits, sure they seem extreme, who say we’re printing so much money that we will have devalued the dollar to nothing, leading us to a regional currency called the Amero that will include Mexico and Canada. Others say our debt is owned by China, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai: if we default, then they own us. Hey we trashed the analysts a few years ago who said we are headed for a housing collapse. Who wouldn’t at least listen to these new theories?

However, before you run for the hills with shot-guns and survivalist supplies or you start trying to speak a foreign language to get acquainted with your new oppressors or lawmakers, let me assure you I’m only making a point here. We’re not going to disintegrate.

However, Panarin’s theory is partially right. And this is the lesson we need to take from the theories of this Russian.

We have disintegrated as a country. We have strayed from our ideals. Am I condemning America? No, we suffered through 9/11 and its effects are far deeper than we imagined. As a result, we have, at times, stopped being the America we once were.

When President Bush and VP Cheney point to their enduring achievement, it’s that we were not attacked again on American soil after 9/11. They’re right. But they’re wrong, too. As a result of that goal, which we all clung to, we became a different country. We invaded Iraq. We told the rest of the world, “You’re either with us or against us.” We became a black and white country; we never saw the gray. Our leaders sounded like Fascists. We acted like Fascists, torturing to allegedly stop torture.

Am I condemning this out-going Administration? Not totally. I was not in their shoes. I don’t know what they faced. However in hindsight, they responded like frightened old men. They headed to the bunkers and failed to lead.

There’s a good book. It’s called, The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith With Our Values In A Dangerous World. It’s written by Anne-Marie Slaughter.

She points out that America is currently in a state of trying to seek power as an end in itself and as a result the world looks at us as ignorant, immoral, and incompetent imperialists.

Slaughter also points out that these values are the foundation of our country: liberty, democracy, equality, justice, tolerance, humility and faith. She points out how we have failed to live up to them.

What we show the rest of the world too often is Madison Avenue, rich and loud American entertainers, sports figures, and business executives who are the extremist minority of America. For instance, we never questioned Bernie Madoff because he was exceedingly wealthy, but that was the reason we should have questioned him.

The world sees the lavish Super Bowl half-time show but is never taught the intricacies or beauties of the football game. I don’t know about you, but I have barely seen any Super Bowl half-time show.

One of the consequences of losing our real values is this economic downturn. This is my take, not necessarily Slaughter’s. We offered plenty of liberty to certain interest groups who had money and pull with our elected leaders while failing to create equality – especially in business. Our founding fathers were worried about “human fallacies” so they gave us a system of checks and balances. This Bush Administration and some Democrats in power discarded those values – especially the checks on greed in business.

The two values we need to concentrate on are humility and faith. As powerful and as smart as we Americans are, we don’t have all the answers. We need input from other countries. We also need to say every now and then to the world, “We screwed the pooch.” The War in Iraq and the economic downturn would be two good places to start.

Subconsciously, we Americans know this. That’s why we voted the way we did in November. That’s why some forward thinking people like Newt Gingrich, now in the minority, are telling the GOP to start being a party of ideas, not whining obstructionists.

I think Obama will at least give us a humble face to the rest of the world. We’ll see how long that lasts when he faces the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Surely, we need to stand with Israel, but we also need to make sure that the power of the Israeli military doesn’t create more conflict among the down-trodden Palestinians. It’s in our interest – and Israel’s – to have a prosperous Palestine.

And our faith. We’ve lost a lot of faith – thanks to religion. Slaughter points out that many of our religious institutions divide us rather than including some of the good secular themes such as tolerance. And the secularists are just as much to blame (maybe me too) by automatically dismissing all of the overly religious as stupid or intolerant.

So, don’t read Panarin — and his theories of Russian wishful thinking — with disdain. No, read it with some humility and faith, and then take away something to make America stronger.

Daly Economic Stimulus Package III

This is a posting considering what the Swedes did to solve their banking crisis. Can Swedish thinking solve the world’s economic crisis?

LAS VEGAS, (November 24, 2008) – I’ve proposed an infusion of government money to the nation’s homeowners in a previous post. Sure, it’s fraught with problems. What plan isn’t? Doing nothing would be criminal. Doing something too small, it seems, is worthless.

Barton Biggs is a big-time investor who now has a company called Traxis Partners. He was just on CNBC’s Squawk Box. He doesn’t know about my plan, but he seems to think the same big thinking I have. (Maybe not as big as mine, but still big.)

He thinks the current TARP is a “half-way measure.” He believes banks won’t start lending until those bad loans – CDOs and CDSs included – are off the banks’ balance sheets. The only way is for the government to buy those bad loans and infuse the banks with more capital.

He looks at Sweden’s banking crisis in the early 1990s – which survived and thrived. The Swedes infused money which was equivalent to 20% of GDP.

That means we would have to infuse more than $2 trillion – far less than my $7.5 trillion – but far higher than what we’ve done so far which is about 4%.

Again, I’m no economist, just an observer. So, take my plan with a grain of salt. But you need to look at what is happening out there – and what is not happening. Primarily, we’re doing too little as a nation to solve this problem.

But there is a silver lining to doing something big.

We’ve been hearing all the talk about America’s falling power and prominence in the world. I think those assessments are over-exaggerated. Are other emerging market countries rising? Yes. But they’re not about to overtake us politically, economically, or militarily.

If anything, this economic crisis shows American strength and our control over the world. When we sneeze, the world gets a cold. In this case, it’s the flu. If our economy went into the tank and the rest of the world thrived, then, yes, I’d agree that we’re on the decline. But the world needs us desperately for some specific reasons.

First, our government and banking system, though causing these problems, has to be the leader to solve them.

Second, once we get our economy moving again, the rest of the world will begin to recover. The American consumer is the basis for the world’s economy.

Third, even though we’re suffering here and the suffering will get worse over the next year, there is no talk of riots or a government coup here. The foundations of our government and our economy are in place. Those foundations do not exist in China, Russia, or Iran.

Those governments are worried. China has infused money into their financial system just to quell any protests from the many workers who are no longer working – since Americans aren’t buying.

Russia is losing revenues due to the fall in oil prices. Their stock market is in the tank. The Kremlin worries about food lines and unemployment.

Iran is the same way. Their oil revenues are dropping while they have failed to upgrade their refining capabilities and they continue to subsidize citizens’ gasoline use. They’re bleeding money over there. In fact, Iran’s lack of revenues might have led to the U.S. agreement on troops in Iraq.

This economic unrest is scary. Massive economic downturns lead to totalitarianism, as we saw in the 1930s.

To avoid further dictatorships, America needs to step forward and get our economy and the world’s economy flowing again. The APEC meeting this weekend seemed to understand that free-trade – not tariffs – is needed. That’s a good sign. But the real catalyst will be a massive infusion into the U.S. economy now.

Go Sweden.

The Sarah Palin Chapter: Hopefully The Silly Season Finale

This is a posting on the ridiculousness that has transpired since John McCain surprised everyone by picking Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.  I have some guidelines on how to assess her.

LAS VEGAS, NV (August 30, 2008) – Don’t get me wrong. I’m not making any judgment on the choice of Sarah Palin. She could prove to be a fabulous campaigner, a credible debate opponent to Joe Biden, and one of our great leaders. Time will tell.

Certainly the bloviators on both sides have no idea. Heck, most of them didn’t know her name and couldn’t even pronounce it moments after McCain made his choice. Yet, they can tell you how great or how awful she is?

The choice of Gov. Palin reveals the hypocrisy and the instability of both parties and the stupidity of how we decide our president. I’m not talking about the electoral process but the entertainment sideshow fueled by the loud-mouthed extremists and the media that fail to answer our most pressing questions as a nation.

My advice: ignore the garbage spewing from the blogs and what I call the Talking Points Media.

What is the talking points media? The prime examples are MSNBC and Fox News Channel. MSNBC, whose main spokesperson Keith Olbermann, at times, appears to read from the DNC talking points and Fox News Channel, who has a slew of mouthpieces, the loudest and most ridiculous being Sean Hannity that read exclusively from the RNC talking points. Remember, these people are entertainers; they’re not journalists or non-partisan analysts.

Let’s look at what we know of Sarah Palin. First, I understand why John McCain chose her. He’s trying to win an election. Just as MSNBC and Fox are trying to get ratings, politicians are looking for the highest number of votes. As a result, Palin fits with the GOP conservative base: gun rights; anti-corruption; drilling in ANWAR; and anti-abortion.

This is surface stuff as of now. Let’s hear more from her in the debate and some tough questioning from real journalists.

Palin’s also a mother of five with one son going to Iraq and another, a newly born boy who has Down’s syndrome.

Here’s where the partisan hypocrisy starts.

The GOP and its minions now say it’s discriminatory for anyone to question whether Gov. Palin’s responsibilities to her children, including a handicapped child, would interfere with her duties as VP or possibly being president.

Really? We can’t question that? This is utter stupidity. We’re choosing a Chief Executive Officer for the most powerful country in the world. This is not American Idol or one of those shows where someone replaces the wife or mother. (As you can see, I may have been a pioneer in reality TV, but I don’t bother with today’s staged versions.)

Let me disclose even more, so you know where I’m coming from. My sister is Down’s. She has been nothing but joy to our family. However, the joy came from working with her and helping her become a member of society using the most of her abilities. So, I’m not saying Gov. Palin can’t do both.  My working father was the driving force with my sister.  But dedicating yourself to a Down’s child takes a lot of time, energy, patience, and understanding. Frankly, working with my sister was much easier than some of the knuckleheads in politics.

We made the mistake of choosing a president last time based on whether he was the type of guy you want at your barbecue. Aren’t we doing it again with these restrictions? And these same backers of Gov. Palin appear to have failed to offer the same feminist thinking to Hillary Clinton. Conversely, Hillary supporters appear hypocritical when they now judge Palin strictly through the GOP attacks.

Sorry, folks, but politics is a full contact sport. Everything about Sarah Palin is fair game – just as it is for everyone else. We should question whether John McCain is too old. We should question if Barack Obama is too inexperienced. We should question if Joe Biden is too inside D.C. Why would Gov. Palin’s background or lifestyle be taken off the table for questioning? Frankly, it’s an insult to her to not ask her those questions.

And it should not be considered out of bounds if we raise the question why men with similar or more credentials weren’t considered by McCain. Did she get this choice solely because she was a woman and she is being held to a lower standard? Funny how the GOP isn’t talking about that now?

But of course, both sides want to talk about the one issue that has become the most ridiculous part of our modern campaigns – abortion.

Think about it. We choose someone who will lead us in war, who will make decisions that could cost us our jobs and livelihoods, and who holds a portion of our children’s future. And yet the criterion to choose that person, for some of us, is when a fetus is considered a human being with a soul.

If you vote for a candidate solely on the abortion issue, you are a moron. You should do the country a favor: don’t vote. And before I get hate mail from anyone, understand this. I’m talking about the whack-jobs on both extremes.

The majority of Americans believe this: abortions should be prevented and stopped while ensuring that a woman’s health is not jeopardized. Let’s move on to more important issues.

I want to know where Sarah Palin stands on education. I hear she’s for teaching creationism. That won’t sit well with me and anyone else with intelligence. I really want her to address the educational disparity between our students and the students in India and China, but I’m sure we’ll hear more questions about Darwin.

I also want to know what she thinks about campaign finance reform and how we remove special interests from unfairly influencing lawmakers. I hear she has stood up to the cronies in Alaska; will she do the same in D.C.? I want her to address the lack of transparency in the financial markets that, in some ways, has led to the credit crunch and the lack of economic activity that is hurting us.

I want to hear how she will cut the budget while allowing the war costs to continue. Apparently she hates waste. That’s a plus in my book. Some disclosure her: my choice for McCain was Mitt Romney since I thought he had the business and management experience to do what Al Gore did for Clinton, cutting government and making it more efficient. Apparently, Gov. Palin has shown signs of being able to do this, too.

Although I’m concerned about her lack of foreign policy experience, I still want to hear what she has to say. Bill Clinton ran Arkansas, but his knowledge of foreign affairs and economic matters was quite good – because he was intellectually curious. She could be the same; however, we don’t know yet. Still, to think Alaska’s proximity to Russia gives her an edge in the Russo-Georgia conflict is a stretch, as proposed by the weather guy, Steve Doocy, on Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends.

So, concentrate on issues like these when you’re assessing Gov. Palin. And remember, filter what you hear or read in the media: it’s not all wrong, but it’s not all right either.

Reading China’s Moves, Motives

This a posting from Gary Murphy, Owner and President of Arisa Global, an outsourcing company that works with American companies who need products from China. Gary’s company has relationships with more than 200 factories in China. He visits China often and he works closely with Chinese businessmen and he knows the Chinese government. When a recent article by Stratfor, titled “China, Olympics, and Visa Mystery”, was released, I asked Gary to offer his insights. Notice two things from Gary here. First, I wondered if the economic slow-down might help Mexico take some of China’s manufacturing power. And second, pay attention to the difference, he believes, between America and China. Here’s what he wrote:

First off, what Stratfor says is happening in China is mostly true, although I do not agree that it is happening exactly as he sees it.  For a moment, let’s focus on a couple of the quotes in the article below – because they really help bring light to the visa issues, restrictions, and government imposed rules and regulations which appear to be much tighter during these Olympic Games. 

“But if Chinese history since 1949 (and really quite a ways before) is any guide, the core of the CPC leadership is willing to sacrifice social and economic stability to preserve power.” 

This one quote could literally sum up why China is doing what it’s doing right now, they are essentially doing what they’ve always done and that is to absolutely preserve their power and stability, using any means necessary.  Sure, this will cause unrest, but China has been working this system for hundreds of years, so why stop now? 

Yes they have been trying to show their better and more socially acceptable side for some time, but when it comes right down to it, they will as pointed out below, “risk stability in the short term to preserve stability in the the long run.”  Think about that. To me, it makes perfect sense.  While it is for sure not politically correct and makes waves, in the Chinese governments eyes to complete their master plan their government mandates and control must be carried out in their entirety.

Likewise, take a look at this quote from the article, “Every province, every city, every factory was supposed to be a self-contained unit, making the country capable of weathering nearly any military attack.”  Think about this strategy, and what all is behind it. If the government is going to go this far to create a ‘country capable of weathering nearly any military attack”, then you can bet they will limit visas, travel, and enforce other security measures to preserve their long term objective of world dominance.   

As far as Mexico becoming the next China, I’m not so sure about that.  While I do not disagree wholeheartedly, I can’t say I agree either.  Really, we [Americans and the outside world] do not know what China has up its sleeve… world domination or otherwise, they will continue to grow and grow. I read something the other day about how China has been “saving” a billion dollars every other day, while the U.S. is in debt trillions of dollars.  China is doing what they’re doing for a reason, what that reason is, perhaps only our children and grandchildren will understand, and maybe not even then.