This morning when I tuned into CNBC to check the stock market, I watched some fat cats proclaiming business in 2010 will return to “as usual” as it was before the recession. I suppose for them they can get back to their $40 million remuneration packages after starving for a year on $20 million, but for the rest of us, the road is still full of huge pot holes. At CII, we will continue on the path of gaining a bigger share of what I still see as a continuing smaller pie. Next month we will add innovations onto our website where our forwarder customers around the world need not worry about what the time is in America, they can sign in and obtain pick up rates from all post codes of the United States and the computer will also tell them the total cost to destination. Peter, Graham and Jeremy were responsible for this project coming to fruition.

By the time August 2010 arrives, we will have the most sophisticated screening operation on the Los Angeles airport, manned by a team of experts 24/7. If it weren’t for President Obama’s stimulus plan we would never have been able to claim this achievement eight months before it happens! We believe this investment will become a major earnings contributor for the company in the years ahead.

In July we will be seventeen years old. Our L.A. Headquarters have remained in Bellanca Ave all this time. It is easy for the observer to determine I am a crusty old bugger resistant to change. As we work through the next difficult year or two there may be some tweaking here and there, but the culture of CII will remain the same. We are a dedicated team of individuals with good hearts who always set out to do the right thing for the company and the customer.

China has factories closing down by the thousands every week with thirty plus million out of work migrant workers still catching trains back to their rural homelands. With this as a backdrop, we are being informed everything (all good!) that is happening in China, the opposite is taking place in America. New cars in record numbers are leaving the showrooms, local manufacturer Haier can’t keep up with the demand for white ware and hi def flat screens will soon be in every Chinaman’s home! I suppose they will shortly feed us with the boloney the few remaining Chinese without cars will be riding 35 speed Lance Armstrong racing bicycles!

This week I noticed a two paragraph article hidden at the bottom of a rarely read section of the Wall Street Journal declaring that Chinese exports for February plunged 25.7% year over year. And the Beijing government of course made the announcement! In all probability and going by the empty container ships filling the outer Singapore harbor to the brim, if the truth be known, the plunge is more like 50%. The simple fact is these people cannot be trusted and why does the western world feel so obligated to be told and accept that China has all the right answers and they are so great but we are all so dumb. It is odd how the Pentagon views China as the enemy by keeping a very close eye on their military activities, yet on the other hand Wall Street has great delight in ramming down our throats they are the savior of America because they buy our bonds!

For me, it is over, Rover. Never in the history of mankind, has a country produced so much cheap junk and products of inferior quality as China has accomplished in their short time as a major supplier to the world. As a child I remember us laughing at how bad the Japanese were at making toys, but within a short space of time Japan quickly became makers of quality cameras and watches that started outselling their German and Swiss rivals. For me, even in ten years time, I just can’t imagine a Chinese Chery car outselling even what Yugo achieved when they were a “hit” in America thirty odd years ago.

China, through the media, you tell us you are not worried about collapsing exports and this hiccup has created the opportunity and the timing to look inwards and invest domestically. I say great and long may it continue. It now allows us to rebuild our factories and put millions of Americans back to work. To the Wal-Marts and other mongrel companies, I wish you the best of luck in seeking replacement suppliers and dealing with the new Chinese philosophy.

Yes, this recession is global, but I disagree with the experts that the solutions must be global. This is the time when we need to look within and work on the principle, charity begins at home. Right now we do not have the resources to continue looking after the rest of the world and quite frankly with our popularity around the globe having hit new lows under the last administration, we can quietly concentrate on repairing America. I do feel badly for poor third world nations’ economies becoming more desperate, but let Russia, India and China (and experts in knowing what poverty is all about) with their new found wealth open their check books and help. Why does it always have to be America?