Zerohedge had an article about a towns biggest factory being closed and how there were no more jobs. It was a paper factory, bought up by a hedge fund, my assumption is it will be asset stripped for profit. Is this China's fault, how many businesses have been destroyed by Wall St for short term profit? Where was Trump? Nowhere to be seen. Reindustrialization will never happen as none of the underlying problems are being addressed, including of course Wall St.
"Reindustrialization will never happen as none of the underlying problems are being addressed, including of course Wall St." Agreed.
Here is a quote [with a small embellishment] from Part two of the Lu Feng piece,
"... a historical law of capitalist industrialization [as produced from west eurasian feudalist societies]: as labor costs rise, capitalist enterprises with the SOLE GOAL of maximizing profits will withdraw from those labor-intensive industries, while the financialization of the US economy has caused even capital-intensive and high-tech industries to gradually withdraw from the manufacturing sector that is considered to be of lower added value."
Money is meant to be MERELY a medium of exchange much like blood exchanges oxygen as it FLOWS. Financial capitalism acting as a blood clot, via billionaires, is not healthy.
Trump has been described as being both a 'moron' and a 'crook', which may have been the qualifications he had to demonstrate in order to be eligible to stand as a Presidential candidate of the USA in the first place. Given the accuracy of your words [quoted above] Trump is just another part of the process sometimes described as 'the decline of the West' [back toward feudalism, perhaps]. I think that process whatever the form it takes is inevitable because the historical foundations have already been established.
Makes no sense to manufacture paper in America. The closure you reference is the tail-end of that evolution of capital deployment and extraction. I doubt many of us Ohioans even noticed its closure, given the quarter century of wealth harvesting of the midwest by the New York-to-DC financiers. We've moved on, but unfortunately Trump and his kind want to now punish us through tariffs and non-tariff sanctions for our cooperative relations with foreign manufacturers and manufacturers with strong foreign sales. It never ends, Capital will continue feasting on us and our families until we revolt.
About fracking shale for gas and oil, "the cost of energy as a result of both the shale revolution and the Ukrainian conflict, is working…", I recently read a comment from a person knowledgeable about the fracking business who said that fracking has reached its limit, and bounteous American shale gas and oil will not last much longer. If so, this paints a wholly different picture of the Empire.
I thought about picking that bone, but the target there is/was Europe which is the only thing the Empire has won with its invasion of Ukraine as Europe is now not just vassals but colonies. Trump will now try to turn them into tributaries. As for overall energy production, China’s #1 with its amazing electricity output, which AI and all the future hi-tech gear will require, and that’s a big problem for the Empire. The Empire doesn’t do planning, which is another big problem.
Yes, Putin's final term; if the SMO drags on I doubt a more patient replacement. As for the US it won't reform so shall end up like some defunct and bankrupt enterprise in a resolution process of salvaging what assets exist, and unfortunately the human capital has been in a steady decline (just look to IQ rankings). No, the US had it's chance with the New Deal and squandered it by allowing the oligarchs to take over and completely hollow out essential industrial capabilities, besides the US is completely different to its early and mid 20th Century form. Rome's demise may have the most to offer here. And as for the remainder of the Anglo-sphere, well, that will be problematic as the lesser members can't look to the UK, so may become like lost dogs looking for a new master.
This article is one of the best analyis I have read about the actual economic situation in US and subsequently about the European aka German deindustrialisation.....the USA debt is how close to 37 T.....and counting....the financial collapse of the collective West is imminent...hopefully the BRICS and SCO as well as the Global South are prepared for the upcoming szenario
When you say "And then there’s a psychological personality observation that the Empire would rather destroy what it created rather than allow any other nation(s) to have power over it" you remind of my time in Cleveland, OH, twenty years ago,
There is (perhaps it's different now) a strip of now mostly empty lots along a street once known as "millionaires row." Once the epicenter of ostentatious wealth displays by the self styled titans of industry, it featured ornate homes, each unique and meant to outdo its neighbor in opulence and grandeur with custom appointments now unreplicable - walnut staircases, chandeliers of cut crystal, etc.
Today, most, if not all, of them are gone and their former glory surround by brown fields, slum housing, and packs of stray dogs. Not because of white flight, rezoning or any of the myriad ills of progress, but because these titans of industry had provisions in their wills to have them destroyed on their death so that no on else could enjoy them.
I find it interesting that Russian and Chinese geopolitical experts are very aware of the history of the United States. They don't just know about America's big events, but understand the trajectory of how it came to be the preeminent nation in the world three decades ago. And they're also aware of how it declined from that lofty position. I find that encouraging for the future world order, because if you don't learn from the mistakes of others you will surely make them yourself.
Perhaps part of American mindset, at least among the elite, is that history doesn't matter any more; that being so exceptional, there's no more lessons to learn. The gods are not kind to such hubris.
Not mentioned anywhere is the Rand Corporation report from 2019 which set out almost exactly the playbook by which USA Criminal Inc. has been dealing with Ukraine. It was a win-win situation for the US, either Russia suffered strategic defeat, or the Euro allies got de-industrialized as competitors to the US.... That's a 'must-read' report, because it spells everything out.
As for China, well, that genie is out of the bottle and will never be returned. The only question that remains is whether or not the US will go quietly into the night. I doubt it, and present Senator Graham as prima facia evidence of the US' inability to see past the only great mega-structure it has created since WW2 - its self-aggrandisement as exceptionalist, empowered by manifest destiny.
Name the 1st the Rand Corporation was right about anything. The Euro’s getting industrialized hasn’t helped anyone nor has Russia been defeated. Look at the WEF playbook where they want depopulation that’s what war was about. Amerika believes it can win a tactical nuclear war hence the doubling down after doubling down. The WEF elites are psychos, they only know destruction
Thanks again for another great article. What this topic is about, explains the irrational & desperate behaviour of the current Western rulers. Hopefully they don't take everyone down with them.
The self destruction of usa capitalism has nothing directly to do with China. It is vampire consciousness permitted free reign and pumped by stock market profiteers and riggers.
the State apparatus in China invests in the betterment of its people while the Private Sector apparatus in usa beggars its people. The Russian writer, Alexander Yakovenko, Head of the Committee on Global Problems and International Security of the Scientific and Expert Council of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, writes this: "At the same time, China is able to make long-term strategic decisions and there power stands above business (and in the United States – vice versa!)" and he is correct but perhaps even "politically correct."
Note he uses the word 'power' when in actual fact it is the State aka The Central Committee etc., that "stands above business". Business is good but short term whereas the State represents the inter-generational continuum of the people, their aspirations, their development. China is only too well aware of their grandmothers and grandfathers difficult times living under feudal conditions and enforced ignorance wielded by the passing dynastic rulers, the Western and Japanese colonial invaders and the Kuo Min Tang dynasty. The State therefore is held in esteem and delivers the goods through a publicly negotiated schedule of continuous service improvement and care for the education of the children of today. Not so in the usa! Methinks Alexander needs to explicitly recognise the legitimate role of the State and use euphemisms like 'power'. Sure there is no going back to the old days of moribund USSR Politbureau but there is immense scope to establish a State authority over Private Capital through protection of the people's assets in natural resources and levying taxes to carry the generations forward.
The balance between State and Capital demonstrated in China reveals the humane philosophy and ethics being applied to achieve that end. The imbalance in the usa between State and Capital reveals the consequences of vampire capitalism and the destruction of nations, the crushing of inter-generational equity, the impoverishment of human dignity and spirit.
“the Empire would rather destroy what it created rather than allow any other nation(s) to have power over it.” Compare this to the behavior of supremacist lunatics known as followers of Leo Strauss: https://www.voltairenet.org/article217976.html
“One of the characteristics of this group is that they are ready for anything. For them, all sacrifices are possible, including for themselves, as long as they remain the first; not the best, the first. … Several of the members of this sect have held very high positions in the United States and Israel. …
In 2000, Paul Wolfowitz was, together with Zbignew Brzezinki, the main speaker at a large Ukrainian-US symposium in Washington, organized by Ukrainian "integral nationalists" [banderites] who had taken refuge in the USA. There he pledged to support independent Ukraine, to provoke Russia to go to war with it, and ultimately to finance the destruction of the resurgent rival of the USA.”
The Nazification of Ukraine would not be possible without the involvement of powerful jewish interests.
The neocons are by birth Jewish, but Zionism is their ideology, guiding light . There is that difference that many don’t want to acknowledge. Zionism is much worse than Nazism as the Nazi’s tried to hide their crimes while the Zionist openly brag about their crimes
Trump has a vision of US revival, but it and he are off their rockers. Meanwhile, the Democrats -- as beholden to capital as the Republicans -- have no substantive vision and, indeed, dare not concoct one any bolder than the pathetically weak "abundance" agenda they're now trying to sell.
"...the genuine size of the Empire’s GDP is closer to $10 Trillion than the stated $25 Trillion..."
If you do a regression analysis of the world's economy using energy as the independent variable and GDP as the dependent variable, the true US GDP is about $11 trillion. All the G7s except for Canada are sitting at the edge of being outliers or are outliers.
This horse has bolted - yet Hegseth appeared to be unaware of this fact, this reality, as he loudly and very aggressively slammed the stable door in "Communist China's" face in Singapore. Diplomacy it ain't.
I have yet to get to Vance's more recent elaboration but assume it is somewhat similar.
Money:Power:Lifeworld - Money over Power in One: Power over Money in the Other.
I leave the reader to decide which Lifeworld may be the better one to live in.
Zerohedge had an article about a towns biggest factory being closed and how there were no more jobs. It was a paper factory, bought up by a hedge fund, my assumption is it will be asset stripped for profit. Is this China's fault, how many businesses have been destroyed by Wall St for short term profit? Where was Trump? Nowhere to be seen. Reindustrialization will never happen as none of the underlying problems are being addressed, including of course Wall St.
"Reindustrialization will never happen as none of the underlying problems are being addressed, including of course Wall St." Agreed.
Here is a quote [with a small embellishment] from Part two of the Lu Feng piece,
"... a historical law of capitalist industrialization [as produced from west eurasian feudalist societies]: as labor costs rise, capitalist enterprises with the SOLE GOAL of maximizing profits will withdraw from those labor-intensive industries, while the financialization of the US economy has caused even capital-intensive and high-tech industries to gradually withdraw from the manufacturing sector that is considered to be of lower added value."
Money is meant to be MERELY a medium of exchange much like blood exchanges oxygen as it FLOWS. Financial capitalism acting as a blood clot, via billionaires, is not healthy.
Trump has been described as being both a 'moron' and a 'crook', which may have been the qualifications he had to demonstrate in order to be eligible to stand as a Presidential candidate of the USA in the first place. Given the accuracy of your words [quoted above] Trump is just another part of the process sometimes described as 'the decline of the West' [back toward feudalism, perhaps]. I think that process whatever the form it takes is inevitable because the historical foundations have already been established.
Makes no sense to manufacture paper in America. The closure you reference is the tail-end of that evolution of capital deployment and extraction. I doubt many of us Ohioans even noticed its closure, given the quarter century of wealth harvesting of the midwest by the New York-to-DC financiers. We've moved on, but unfortunately Trump and his kind want to now punish us through tariffs and non-tariff sanctions for our cooperative relations with foreign manufacturers and manufacturers with strong foreign sales. It never ends, Capital will continue feasting on us and our families until we revolt.
Trump was in his counting house counting out his money. lol
About fracking shale for gas and oil, "the cost of energy as a result of both the shale revolution and the Ukrainian conflict, is working…", I recently read a comment from a person knowledgeable about the fracking business who said that fracking has reached its limit, and bounteous American shale gas and oil will not last much longer. If so, this paints a wholly different picture of the Empire.
I thought about picking that bone, but the target there is/was Europe which is the only thing the Empire has won with its invasion of Ukraine as Europe is now not just vassals but colonies. Trump will now try to turn them into tributaries. As for overall energy production, China’s #1 with its amazing electricity output, which AI and all the future hi-tech gear will require, and that’s a big problem for the Empire. The Empire doesn’t do planning, which is another big problem.
He who bails first, bails best.
Alas those satraps are the tentacles on the bloated mothership, all on life-support and will sink along with the titanic.
Hotel California
'Last thing I remember, I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
Relax said the night-man, we are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave'
Aye aye captain, thar she blows!
Gone are the natural gushers, the whales,
Now all we're left with are the Bourne Legacy Chemtrails.
Yes, Putin's final term; if the SMO drags on I doubt a more patient replacement. As for the US it won't reform so shall end up like some defunct and bankrupt enterprise in a resolution process of salvaging what assets exist, and unfortunately the human capital has been in a steady decline (just look to IQ rankings). No, the US had it's chance with the New Deal and squandered it by allowing the oligarchs to take over and completely hollow out essential industrial capabilities, besides the US is completely different to its early and mid 20th Century form. Rome's demise may have the most to offer here. And as for the remainder of the Anglo-sphere, well, that will be problematic as the lesser members can't look to the UK, so may become like lost dogs looking for a new master.
The American government has been carefully weeded out of the American patriots.
"...the US had it's chance with the New Deal and squandered it by allowing the oligarchs to take over..."
Looking back at history and the cycles of empires, this was bounded to happen. The 2nd law of thermodynamics predicted this.
This article is one of the best analyis I have read about the actual economic situation in US and subsequently about the European aka German deindustrialisation.....the USA debt is how close to 37 T.....and counting....the financial collapse of the collective West is imminent...hopefully the BRICS and SCO as well as the Global South are prepared for the upcoming szenario
Another great article.
When you say "And then there’s a psychological personality observation that the Empire would rather destroy what it created rather than allow any other nation(s) to have power over it" you remind of my time in Cleveland, OH, twenty years ago,
There is (perhaps it's different now) a strip of now mostly empty lots along a street once known as "millionaires row." Once the epicenter of ostentatious wealth displays by the self styled titans of industry, it featured ornate homes, each unique and meant to outdo its neighbor in opulence and grandeur with custom appointments now unreplicable - walnut staircases, chandeliers of cut crystal, etc.
Today, most, if not all, of them are gone and their former glory surround by brown fields, slum housing, and packs of stray dogs. Not because of white flight, rezoning or any of the myriad ills of progress, but because these titans of industry had provisions in their wills to have them destroyed on their death so that no on else could enjoy them.
This is the American exceptionalist mindset.
Veblen’s “conspicuous consumption” to da max—if you can’t take it with you, then no one can have it. Thanks for that tale!
I find it interesting that Russian and Chinese geopolitical experts are very aware of the history of the United States. They don't just know about America's big events, but understand the trajectory of how it came to be the preeminent nation in the world three decades ago. And they're also aware of how it declined from that lofty position. I find that encouraging for the future world order, because if you don't learn from the mistakes of others you will surely make them yourself.
Yes, well said. The opposite cannot be said, which is a big part of the problem.
Perhaps part of American mindset, at least among the elite, is that history doesn't matter any more; that being so exceptional, there's no more lessons to learn. The gods are not kind to such hubris.
Not mentioned anywhere is the Rand Corporation report from 2019 which set out almost exactly the playbook by which USA Criminal Inc. has been dealing with Ukraine. It was a win-win situation for the US, either Russia suffered strategic defeat, or the Euro allies got de-industrialized as competitors to the US.... That's a 'must-read' report, because it spells everything out.
As for China, well, that genie is out of the bottle and will never be returned. The only question that remains is whether or not the US will go quietly into the night. I doubt it, and present Senator Graham as prima facia evidence of the US' inability to see past the only great mega-structure it has created since WW2 - its self-aggrandisement as exceptionalist, empowered by manifest destiny.
God help us!
Name the 1st the Rand Corporation was right about anything. The Euro’s getting industrialized hasn’t helped anyone nor has Russia been defeated. Look at the WEF playbook where they want depopulation that’s what war was about. Amerika believes it can win a tactical nuclear war hence the doubling down after doubling down. The WEF elites are psychos, they only know destruction
Thanks again for another great article. What this topic is about, explains the irrational & desperate behaviour of the current Western rulers. Hopefully they don't take everyone down with them.
The self destruction of usa capitalism has nothing directly to do with China. It is vampire consciousness permitted free reign and pumped by stock market profiteers and riggers.
the State apparatus in China invests in the betterment of its people while the Private Sector apparatus in usa beggars its people. The Russian writer, Alexander Yakovenko, Head of the Committee on Global Problems and International Security of the Scientific and Expert Council of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, writes this: "At the same time, China is able to make long-term strategic decisions and there power stands above business (and in the United States – vice versa!)" and he is correct but perhaps even "politically correct."
Note he uses the word 'power' when in actual fact it is the State aka The Central Committee etc., that "stands above business". Business is good but short term whereas the State represents the inter-generational continuum of the people, their aspirations, their development. China is only too well aware of their grandmothers and grandfathers difficult times living under feudal conditions and enforced ignorance wielded by the passing dynastic rulers, the Western and Japanese colonial invaders and the Kuo Min Tang dynasty. The State therefore is held in esteem and delivers the goods through a publicly negotiated schedule of continuous service improvement and care for the education of the children of today. Not so in the usa! Methinks Alexander needs to explicitly recognise the legitimate role of the State and use euphemisms like 'power'. Sure there is no going back to the old days of moribund USSR Politbureau but there is immense scope to establish a State authority over Private Capital through protection of the people's assets in natural resources and levying taxes to carry the generations forward.
The balance between State and Capital demonstrated in China reveals the humane philosophy and ethics being applied to achieve that end. The imbalance in the usa between State and Capital reveals the consequences of vampire capitalism and the destruction of nations, the crushing of inter-generational equity, the impoverishment of human dignity and spirit.
Thank you!
“the Empire would rather destroy what it created rather than allow any other nation(s) to have power over it.” Compare this to the behavior of supremacist lunatics known as followers of Leo Strauss: https://www.voltairenet.org/article217976.html
“One of the characteristics of this group is that they are ready for anything. For them, all sacrifices are possible, including for themselves, as long as they remain the first; not the best, the first. … Several of the members of this sect have held very high positions in the United States and Israel. …
In 2000, Paul Wolfowitz was, together with Zbignew Brzezinki, the main speaker at a large Ukrainian-US symposium in Washington, organized by Ukrainian "integral nationalists" [banderites] who had taken refuge in the USA. There he pledged to support independent Ukraine, to provoke Russia to go to war with it, and ultimately to finance the destruction of the resurgent rival of the USA.”
The Nazification of Ukraine would not be possible without the involvement of powerful jewish interests.
The neocons are by birth Jewish, but Zionism is their ideology, guiding light . There is that difference that many don’t want to acknowledge. Zionism is much worse than Nazism as the Nazi’s tried to hide their crimes while the Zionist openly brag about their crimes
"the Empire would rather destroy what it created rather than allow any other nation(s) to have power over it.”
Or another way to say this and history does repeat itself.
"An Evil Man will burn down his own country to rule over the ashes."
Sun Tau
Oh well will Amerika take down the world? I hope not and as pointed here other countries are prepared.
Thanks Anna & KS
tl;dr:
China biiig
USA baad
Trump is showing himself as a grifter. The White House has a “For Sale” sign on the front lawn
Trump has a vision of US revival, but it and he are off their rockers. Meanwhile, the Democrats -- as beholden to capital as the Republicans -- have no substantive vision and, indeed, dare not concoct one any bolder than the pathetically weak "abundance" agenda they're now trying to sell.
The Duopoly effectively serve the same master.
"...the genuine size of the Empire’s GDP is closer to $10 Trillion than the stated $25 Trillion..."
If you do a regression analysis of the world's economy using energy as the independent variable and GDP as the dependent variable, the true US GDP is about $11 trillion. All the G7s except for Canada are sitting at the edge of being outliers or are outliers.
Very useful.
This horse has bolted - yet Hegseth appeared to be unaware of this fact, this reality, as he loudly and very aggressively slammed the stable door in "Communist China's" face in Singapore. Diplomacy it ain't.
I have yet to get to Vance's more recent elaboration but assume it is somewhat similar.
Money:Power:Lifeworld - Money over Power in One: Power over Money in the Other.
I leave the reader to decide which Lifeworld may be the better one to live in.