Much of the scrap metal is remade into steel rolls which return to America only to be sold at below market prices. It has a huge effect upon the locally made product being able to be sold at all let alone a competitive price because the Chinese literally dump the steel into our market. Again, when you consider the cost of shipping to and from China it beats me why steel mills here cannot absorb the millions of tons of scrap metal and manufacture the steel in America. Maybe then we could start give China back some of their own medicine and start dumping it into the Chinese market.

Growing up in New Zealand the only quality towels we would buy were the American-made Cannon brand. It is now almost impossible to buy an American produced towel in this country anymore. Why do we export cotton only to have it shipped back in finished form? Turning cotton into fabric and then into towels is literally 100% accomplished by machine so the differential in manufacturing costs between China and the United States would be negligible. However there would be huge savings removing the international shipping costs and the consequent delay in getting the finished goods to market that I believe the American-made towels would actually retail cheaper than the imported equivalent.

Presently the insult to injury affecting our exports is a shortage of containers due to the shipping lines reducing capacity. Shipping lines need exports of value to start entering the westbound trade. Shipping commodities of little value is not a solution for export growth. In fact because scrap is a twelve month a year export with containers being loaded close to port, shipping lines are not interested in the time consuming and costly job of positioning containers to inland points for manufacturers entering the export business. Ships are great pollutants in port and at sea. For the sake of our environment more than anything else, international trade should be about moving goods that are needed, not crap that isn’t. Add to this, returning to a philosophy of making as much as we can in America for our home market made good sense. No American city would be allowed to emit pollution like its Asian equivalent.

If those nutty Kiwis could take their heads out of their “you know what’s” and have a good look at themselves, they too could be basking in good economic times like Australia. What I can’t understand is on the one hand this land of four million is just so proud of being cast as these peaceful mountain climbing, tree hugging, bike riding, hemp wearing, pot smoking, bearded (both sexes!), environmentalist, ecology conscious, organic vegetable growing, anti-whaling but oddly very much smoked salmon socialists; then on the other they think it is quite okay for the world to view the Maori Haka on TV before every game of international rugby as New Zealand’s rendition of a “must see” native cultural delight. The funny thing is the world is divided. Some view the Haka as some sort of twisted joke; others consider it as intimidation at its very worst from a bunch of modern day savage thugs. Having been born raised and educated in New Zealand I see the Haka as the latter and the nation’s divider not uniter. It is this split personality thing that stops New Zealand from ever moving forward and is reflected in the historic weakness of its economy. Australia moves from strength to strength as a cohesive and successful nation, while the native combative Maoris (in the main a bunch of social, selfish and shit-stirring misfits) are continually tying the government up in knots over absolute nonsense, thus always keeping New Zealand’s eyes off the main chance.

When we include www.tunasupport.com V.P. Tony Feist’s achievements into growing our business into Polynesian island nations, the South Pacific may represent just 2% of the global economy, but for us it is our raison d’etre!

****Updated 8/28/2009 1806****

And don’t tell me the Haka plays no role in promoting violence in schools. Sublimely it endorses and encourages it!

More kids lash out at school

Primary school pupils of all age groups are increasingly willing to resort to violence, worried teachers say. Auckland Primary Principals Association president Marilyn Gwilliam said school heads were … More

]]> http://thekeeling.com/archives/529/feed 0 http://thekeeling.com/archives/523 http://thekeeling.com/archives/523#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:27:38 +0000 julian http://thekeeling.com/?p=523 One of the aspects I enjoy most about the Internet is to be able to read international newspapers, the ones of some repute and not those tacky tabloids controlled by that wrinkled up little prune, Rupert Murdoch! London’s Daily Telegraph in my opinion is amongst the finest of newspapers. One article which recently grabbed my attention was an insight into the inner workings of China, which our economists, industrialists, politicians, investment bankers and diplomats want to keep hidden from us. To begin with, we have to remember one thing; China is a communist country. Because communists do not believe in God, unlike the Westminster system, their laws are without a foundation. In fact most judges in China have no legal qualifications or any previous background in law. Being appointed a judge means you have been recognized as a good communist. A glaring example of that is four Rio Tinto (an Anglo-Australian mining company) executives are being prosecuted for spying and bribery (that is the pot calling the kettle black!) and there is every likelihood they will all be thrown into clink with the keys thrown away. Why? Because Chinalco’s (the largest aluminium company in China) partial takeover bid of Rio Tinto was rejected by Rio Tinto’s board of directors. In retaliation those numskull Chinese think these current actions will put Rio Tinto out of business.

Using the Rio Tinto situation as an example of how a Communist regime operates you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to conclude why in the hell have we for so long we put China on a pedestal? Exclude the fact they are our number one enemy, China wins the title as the most loathsome nation on earth. The country is devoid of any human rights, poverty for all but a few million matches anything that exists in the poorest nations in Africa and the country’s leaders are all cheaters, liars and stealers. So much has been attached to how wonderfully well their stimulus package is working and how this most disgusting nation on earth will lead the world out of recession. This is nothing but a cock and bull story.

Exports account for over 40% of its economy and one thing for sure, if and when the rest of the world emerges from the recession and business gets back to normal, China’s dominance will be a thing of the past. Why? Two things, firstly we really don’t need most of the junk they used to dump on us and secondly, their Ponzi scheme is about to collapse and their bullshit and bravado has about another six months life. This current run up is about China celebrating its 60th anniversary in October. On that anniversary date they plan to have a huge party celebrating their success at becoming in their eyes the “world’s number one” super power. I call it their swansong!

Right now China is constructing buildings that will never be occupied, railway lines that will never feel the weight of a trainload of goods, and roads that will never be used. They are also investing in their stock market (the Shanghai Index is up over 80% this year) in the hope they will be able sell off to their investments to foreign “suckers” before it all collapses. Under capitalism, Ponzi schemes in the main affect individuals. Under communism, everything starts off being owned and generally retained by the government. Bernie Madoff’s only involvement with the government was that his activities were illegal. Uncle Sam lost not a dime, but tens of thousands of investors, mainly individuals lost close to $60 billion. Yes, there are some wealthy Chinese capitalists investing in the stock market, but the bulk of the investment is through Chinese government-owned enterprises. There are very credible experts in Europe who claim Chinese equities are currently overvalued by 50-100%. It is a great time to buy puts!

We are talking about a bubble economy which when it falls (within two years) it will make Japan’s experience look like it was just a hiccup. All Chinese banks have up to 70% of their lending tied up in property, not the real economy and values have gone through the roof. When the real estate market collapses so too will most of the banks. Chinese people are not consumers, they are hoarders. History dictates their spending behavior. Although China claims their stimulus package has increased retail sales by 15%, Chinese habits die hard. I wouldn’t give credence to that statement. It is all about measuring. The western world gauges its GDP on sales and China gauges it on output. In other words factories can keep pumping out junk where there are no buyers and China will continue to tell the world the country is booming when in fact most of that junk will fill up and stay in warehouses never to end up in people’s houses. Fifteen years ago, Chainsaw Al Dunlap who was Chairman of Sunbeam tried the same caper, manufactured enough barbeques for literally every American, invoiced bogus customers, registered the sales, to give a credit down the line but in between telling Wall Street the company was booming thus the stock price soared through the roof. Dunlap sold his stock options at the peak and once he banked the profit, walked away from the company, which immediately fell into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The story is exactly the same with China.

Remember you first read of China’s imminent demise on this blog!