----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Jannuzi" <jannuzi at edu00.f-edu.fukui-u.ac.jp>
>
> No one in the world of US-dominated finance or monetary
administration
> listens to Malaysia's PM Mahathir's call for a world currency that
doesn't
> benefit one country.
====
Robert Mundell and me...............
>
> As for free trade, no one talks the talk in such an effectively
> propagandistic way as the US, but it also ruthlessly pursues
strategic
> interests in a way no other OECD country does. One difficulty in
stably
> describing this pursuit, though, is it does vary in specifics and
emphases
> from administration to administration.
============= Which is why free trade is an empty signifier; a desired absence or, as the trade minister from Brazil put in the summmer of '99, something for PhD. candidates to play with.....
>
> For example (and this is just one example) , this, and not free
markets, is
> why MS and Intel got to be such profitable monopolists in the 90s.
Back in
> the 80s, at the same time it was decided that the yen should gain
value
> against the dollar, it was also decided that the Japanese would stay
the
> hell out of processor chips and computer OSes (though I use the
Japanese OS
> Tron, which was an open standards OS when Linus Torvalds wasn't even
at
> university) .
>
> Moreover, even as Japan was forced not to invest government money
in
> developing processor chips and the OSes to go with them, the US
government
> invested in a big way. And all those guys like Larry Ellison and
Scott
> McNealy who complain about Bill Gates and MS were of the same ilk
and lined
> up at the same feeding trough.
============ No..............not hypocrisy.........
>
> There are plenty of other signs of what the bubble markets in the US
do
> worldwide right here in Japan. US holding companies have bought into
> Japanese banking, real estate and insurance--buyouts often in part
financed
> by the Japanese government in the form of debt written off, and, in
the case
> of insurance policy holders, by the policy holders lost dividends.
> (As controlling stock holder, US Prudential helped run a
demutualized Kyoei
> into the ground and then took 8% from retirement annuities in order
to
> capitalize a new company , even as it sold off former Kyoei assets
for huge
> profits--I know because I was a Kyoei policyholder. We had no rights
as
> Prudential stole our money.)
>
> Meanwhile, all the present idiot for a PM can talk about is reform
and
> privatization, as if that was going to do anything about a terribly
> over-valued yen and the deflation that it has caused. But what can
you
> expect when you let the US determine from the very start the content
of the
> discussion?
>
> I still see a pattern:
> Stock market booms, followed by US expansion of ownership and
control within
> the client states.
> Military crises then further consolidate alliances such as NATO and
the
> US-Japan 'security' pact. The IMF and World Bank almost completely
serve US
> interests. The WTO does, indeed, often rules against the US (not
something
> played up much in US controlled media), but that's because the
idealists at
> WTO really do believe in trade liberalization beyond US nationalist
> interests.
============ plug "underdetermination" into http://www.google.com
>
> I've seen quite a few middle brow theses to explain the fate of the
US and
> the world--some even hit the bestsellers lists (though remain
largely
> unread): empire overreach, end of history according to capitalist
> utopianism, clash of cultures, and now globalist empire.
>
> But we still haven't got past the American imperium; its just in one
of its
> crisis military mode right now.
>
> Charles Jannuzi
===========
Yup............
Ian