As I have so often stated, given a choice I wouldn’t buy a $0.50 Chinese-made pair of sox, so when I am forced to buy Chinese it truly sticks in my craw. Everything about China is the antipathy of America. Firstly it is communist and we have fought wars against those evil bastard regimes on every continent since WW 2. Secondly, human rights are non-existent and China ranks a close second to Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Thirdly, it is the most corrupt trading nation on earth. Fourthly, there has never been a manufacturing nation on this earth since the Industrial Revolution that has such a consistent and appalling reputation for poor quality. Lastly, the truth is they are a sworn enemy of America. Not that I care, but they oppose ever motion put by America at the United Nations and they are the supporters of every evil regime in the world, starting with Iran and North Korea.

If the Fed can buy our debt, why didn’t we think of that before? I like the idea of keeping everything staying in America. I still reckon China is on the precipice of a mountain about to fall off, even worse than Japan did in 1991. I just hope and prey we don’t come to their rescue. I don’t go for this nonsense that China has been propping up America; Walmart maybe, but not America. Like many Americans when China’s economy collapses, if it means thousands of Walmart stores closing down, as small business is the pulse of America, small business might just pick up where they left off. Only wishful thinking! The sooner we get China out of our hair, the better.

The grandest example of the success of Keiretsu how the Japanese auto and electronic industries have been able is less than forty years to grow and withstand competition to globally dominate these sectors. When say the old General Motors needed some funding, it would have to go to market and depending upon its credit rating, it would pay market or higher than market interest rates. By comparison, Mazda’s CEO, part of the Sumitomo keiretsu, would make a phone call to the CEO of Sumitomo and “Bob’s your uncle”, funding was immediately in place with a below market rate. With such low cost of money large Japanese corporations with such huge protective shields around them literally became too big to fail. At the turn of this century, with the rapid ascension of China as a source of cheap supply the lives of keiretsu companies began to change.

Firstly with Nissan, the keiretsu company bank was Mitsubishi and they elected to stop funding which resulted in the company in 1999 being saved by Renault who bought 40% of the company and literally took over the management. Soon after, some major banks were restructured and several disappeared, being absorbed into better capitalized competitors. With deflation taking root over the last ten years, the days when the good “old boys” could get together and sort out any problems with their keiretsu brethren, started to become numbered. Ever since the rapid rise in fuel prices, Japan Air Lines has been on the brink and until last week, it was thought that with its keiretsu support, bankruptcy would never be an option. To the surprise of the Japanese public and even the outside world, not even the government was interested in bailing JAL out so a company once considered “too big to fail” called in the liquidators.

It was the keiretsu philosophy which created Japan’s bubble economy and when that bubble burst nearly twenty years ago, it has taken all this time for Japan to enter the reality of the real world. China’s bubble is about to burst, but instead of private enterprise propping up the economy as was the case with Japan, the communist Chinese government can print as much money as it wants, but when it happens there, unlike Japan’s soft landing of sorts, “it is all over, Rover”, for the Chinese!

We could get those troops back to America and place them in civilian roles helping rebuild the infrastructure. I do hope the Army Corps of Engineers do a better job than they did with the levees in New Orleans but in saying that, here is an example of how we can redeploy the troops; right now we have utilities who refuse to upgrade their grids (in California fallen power lines have been responsible for numerous wild fires) and rather than fine them when they are responsible for the next disaster, do the work they steadfastly will not do and bill them accordingly. If we can do a take on General Motors, then the Utilities will be a breeze.

It is so odd we want to create democracy in two countries that have operated by the laws of the jungle for centuries when in contrast to this we suck up to every other totalitarian regime or dictatorship on earth. As I said on many occasions, it is horses for courses. Some cultures lend themselves to democracy, others are better pursuing their own agenda. The deal should be unless any country menacingly threatens the territorial sovereignty of the United States, let sleeping dogs lie. We have so much that needs to be accomplished within America that we should let go of being the world’s peacekeeper and hand that role over to Japan, France and Germany. Their defense budgets as a percentage of GDP is miniscule compared to Britain’s and ours. In fact we can sell them the armaments, that will keep the defense industry fully employed for years to come!

As far as Al Qaeda is concerned, I would concentrate on routing out their cells in America, Germany and England before checking out the caves on the Pakistani-Afghan border. It is obvious Pakistan is on the verge of civil war. I can understand that. It is a totally corrupt country. If the Taliban want a slice of Pakistan why should we step in their way? What use has Pakistan ever been to us? In spite of the huge aid doled out to them the vast majority of Pakis believe we are their enemy and fair game to be attacked. Simple logic has it they would trust a Japanese peace force ahead of us.