The crises in unemployment -- in the view of Walter Mead Russel

When one thinks about the unemployment problem in the US today, the idea of returning to the manufacturing economy pre China, comes to mind.  Everything would be okay if only we could correct those problems in the economy that were causing all our old manufacturing jobs, big and small, to flee to China. Not.  According to Walter Read Russell, at least.  He argues here that the solution is to reform city governments to remove all the restrictions inhibiting small businesses from emerging and thriving, much like they do in China and other emerging third world countries.  In short he argues a return to basic free market entrepreneurialism by eliminating all the current restrictions involving permitting, safety, and the like.  In other words roll back the nanny state and all its job destroying bureaucracy.  The "comments" section of Mead's article is particularly interesting.  He usually attracts intelligent responses probably because for an intellectual, Mead is quite rooted in real world common sense.  Obama should have him on the payroll instead of all those whacky overpaid socialists.

China's scary financial system

Just when China faces its financial meltdown is unknowable, but without draconian action by the central authorities it surely will as is evident from this explanation of their rapidly expanding credit system looking a lot like what happened in the US during the runaway housing boom of the last decade.  The bottom line is regulators cannot control the credit expansion as fast as financial entrepreneurs find new ways to create more.  There is this difference:  during the US massive credit expansion the government while democrats were in control, were complicit in making the bubble happen by enabling Fannie and Freddie Macs to underwrite risky mortgages in the name of "social justice". In China it appears the central government in the control of the Communists are trying to reign inn credit expansion but simply cannot keep up with the wily entrepreneurs who are enjoying the current fruits of their bubble.  Hard to say where all this leads as the commies are able to operate free of any pesky media and in the end can impose "solutions" unavailable in our more transparent and legally defined system.  One such "solution" might be to send the entrepreneurs off to the gulag, never to be heard from again.  Could happen.

China's looming revolution

Everyone, especially those who have visited China, is impressed by the economic activity going on in that country as well as the apparent affluence of the people in the major cities.  It seems like a disconnect that this kind of development can be going on in a communist run state where party apparatchiks are in charge.  One has to understand that the apparatchiks have allowed capitalism to work its magic by staying out of the way except to make sure the state credit machinery works for the benefit of entrepreneurs.  What we have seen is 30 years of 10% GDP growth and the creation of mountains of wealth and more millionaires than exist in the U.S.  What's missing in this equation is political freedom and all the associated values we associate with that important condition in the west.  Consequently many observers believe China is one big powder keg that one day will blow sky high, as soon as people demand their rights as free citizens.  This article by Guy Sorman articulates the dilemma facing the communist leadership and predicts an unhappy ending at some point in time.

China, Japan, and the US

As usual,  Jonah Goldberg brings clarity to the confusion sewn by left media pundits from all over.  His thoughtful  piece highlights the interdependency of the world's leading nation states and debunks the notion that competition among those states in the world economy is a zero sum game, and finally, highlights the conditions that lead to growth and maximum economic performance on the part of  an individual country's economy.  Not bad for one short article.