"Crisis hampers US trade leadership; Concerns raised at global conference" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | December 11, 2008
The global financial crisis - rooted in a US borrowing and spending binge - is eroding America's standing as the world's economic leader, making it harder to reach international consensus on issues ranging from trade and regulation to poverty and global warming, speakers at a Boston conference warned yesterday.
"In the eyes of many of our friends abroad, to say nothing of those who are not so friendly toward the United States, the credit crisis is seen as an inevitable outcome of US-style cowboy capitalism," E. Gerald Corrigan, managing director of New York investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co., told the US-China-India Innovation Partnerships Conference. "That's not a pretty thought, but that's the way it is."
Stronger global partnerships, including academic alliances, will be critical to driving economic recovery and solving long-term political and environmental problems, said speakers at the opening day of the conference, organized by Boston research firm Mass Insight Corp. But such alliances could be undermined by a new wave of protectionist sentiment in the United States and other countries, they cautioned....
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About 400 business, government, and academic leaders from the United States, India, China, and Singapore attended the conference, which continues through tomorrow at the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center. Many participants expressed alarm at the collapse of multinational financial institutions and the deepening global recession rippling out from Wall Street and the US housing market.
Corrigan, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, summed up the view of other speakers when he said much of the crisis stemmed from "global imbalances," with the free-spending United States running a widening trade deficit, buying goods and services from China and India, which run growing surpluses.
They set this whole thing up and now they complain about it?
See: Reflections on the Arrogance of Power
"One casualty of the crisis, and the suggestion that its roots are largely in the United States, is that US economic and financial leadership has frankly been damaged," Corrigan suggested in remarks that were astonishingly blunt for a prominent figure in American business. "That's in a context in which US leadership on the foreign policy front has not exactly been best-in-class for some time. And what that means, of course, is that President-elect Obama has a rather full plate."
Other participants agreed with Corrigan's assessment, and expressed disappointment with American stewardship. "You can't say nobody saw this coming," maintained Charles Yang-Sheng Liu, principal at Hao Capital Management, a Beijing investment firm. "The United States has been spending beyond its means for 25 years, borrowing more to keep the party going."
"I think America is where Britain was in the 1920s," said Hemang Dave, a Bedford investment adviser of Indian origin, who predicted that developing nations like China, India, and Brazil will vie with the United States for economic power in coming decades. "There is a risk that the US will not recover its leadership position. Every 60 to 90 years, there's a change of leadership in economic activity."
Wow! What a STERN INDICTMENT of BUSH!! He LOST the LEADERSHIP of ECONOMY for you -- as planned, Amurkns!!! Can't you SEE the GLOBALIST PLOT in front of you? They been working at this a long time!
Not everyone concurred. "The United States continues to be the most dominant economy, and for the foreseeable future it will be the dominant economy," contended Samir K. Barua, director of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India.
Carl J. Dahlman, associate professor at Georgetown University and former senior adviser to the World Bank Institute, said national governments will need to better align their regulatory standards and develop mechanisms for public and private partnerships to move forward on problems like carbon emissions. But in the near future, he warned, countries were more likely to focus on stimulating their economies, putting longer-term issues on the back burner.
Having recently returned from business travel across the Pacific Ocean, where other economies are also winding down debt, Ronald P. O'Hanley, president and chief executive of BNY Mellon Asset Management, said, "The Asian view is at least as pessimistic about the United States as we are about ourselves. There's an incredible sense of disappointment. People say, 'Yeah, we did the same things you did, but we did it because you did it.' "
--more--"Well, speak of the "devils":
"Chinese exports, imports decline" by Andrew Jacobs, New York Times | December 11, 2008
BEIJING - China's exports fell for the first time in seven years, the government reported yesterday, sliding 2.2 percent in November and providing stark evidence the global financial crisis has arrived here in earnest.
Exports had surged 19.2 percent in October. Imports also plunged sharply last month, falling 17.9 percent and widening the trade surplus to $40 billion, from $35.2 billion in October. Taken together, the trade figures will be bracing to those who had viewed China as a potential savior for the slumping economies of the Europe, Japan, and the United States.
The figures, together with further signs of a sagging economy in Japan, paint a picture of economic gloom spreading across Asia - even if much of the region will suffer from a less severe downturn than the United States and Europe. The worrisome developments will put added pressure on the Chinese government, which only last month disclosed a $586 billion stimulus package aimed at cushioning the effects of the global slowdown.
Why would such an authoritarian government worry about "pressure?" Unless the agenda-pushing, enemy-creating.... oh, no, not again!!!!
In recent weeks, the government has reduced interest rates, taxes on stock trades, and revealed other measures aimed at lifting domestic consumption.
Sounds like China is doing what AmeriKa should be doing: LOWERING TAXES, not RAISING THEM!! Sorry to spill the beans, folks, but those tax dollars are simmply WASTED!!!!
In a report broadcast on China National Radio after the trade figures were released, the government vowed to expand spending and cut taxes next year in an effort to spur job creation and bolster agriculture, social security, education, and small and medium-size enterprises. Beijing will also seek to ensure "healthy and stable" growth of the nation's property markets, which has slowed dramatically in recent months.
In another batch of sobering news, the government said direct foreign investment fell 36.5 percent from a year earlier and the producer price index, a measure of inflation at the factory level, had fallen to its lowest rate in two years....
Exports are a mainstay of China's economy; by one measure they make up 40 percent of gross domestic product. While some experts dispute that figure, analysts say the slumping demand for Chinese goods is likely to pull down the nation's growth rate, which was 9 percent in the third quarter, close to or even below the 7 percent figure that many Chinese economists contend is the minimum for maintaining social stability.
Now why would an authoritarian regime be worried abou... oh, never mind!!!!
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