If Wal-Mart’s retail expansion into China comes to a grinding halt, I would dance for joy. If China stops Caterpillar from selling earthmoving machinery because only local manufacturers can be considered for government contracts, too bloody bad. If Google finally gets booted out of China, what were they really expecting in the first place when they entered the market? The world has known for sixty years, there is no such thing as freedom under communism. Crying foul, when even little guys like me have always accepted that China is a barbarous nation of cheaters, liars and stealers is nothing but laughable.

China is never going to open up and now that we have handed our technology advantage to them on a silver platter, the simple fact of the matter, there is nothing much more they need from us anymore. They can probably make a Caterpillar D10 bulldozer cheaper and better than Caterpillar thanks to Caterpillar moving some of its manufacturing/supplier base to America’s greatest enemy. The Chamber of Commerce and many of its members have sold their souls to the devil. Now the shoe has been firmly planted on the other foot, there is no going back. To all those ass-wipe who took glee is selling America down the river, you’ve made your bed, now lie in it! My only recommendation is the quicker we place tariffs on all the Chinese junk still flooding into our market, the better. We need to be shot of our so-called dependence on a country that in reality is the antipathy of what America stands for in every way.

The problem is not altogether the responsibility of the Chinese. In fact I lay most of the blame at the doorsteps of the Wal-Marts and other S & P 500 corporations who continue to make veritable fortunes closing down American facilities and looking to China as the replacement source of supply. Thousands of jobs have been lost in the plants around America to cheap imports over the past five years. When you look into who are the biggest importers of tires it makes your gut wrench. Amongst the biggest culprits are the tire manufacturers themselves. Led by Goodyear and Firestone they have all jumped on the bandwagon, closing plants and reducing production at home while making up the difference by bringing crap unfit for human “consumption”. It is all about morality and here is an example of big business that doesn’t really give “two hoots” about how America’s industrial giants behave. Their claim of selling what the people want is absolute balderdash. The simple fact is they make more money through import substitution, and the more money the corporation makes, the higher the remuneration for executive row.

This is an area where I have difficulty allowing the forces of capitalism dictating what is best for America. Common sense and what is right should over-ride the motive of greed. Quite frankly the only protector that can influence common sense and what is right for Americans is the government itself. I raise my hat to President Obama for his decision to slap an up to 55% duty on inferior tires currently being imported from China. China has already retaliated by halting the importation of poultry. The funny thing is the bulk of the poultry imported is in the form of chicken feet, a delicacy in China and a discard in America. In the “olden” days when I had a love affair with China, I used to dread being driven to a smart Chinese restaurant and parking in the rear. Inevitably outside the kitchen was a cage full of mangy chickens awaiting decapitation and prepared for the night’s dishes. It hardly placed you in the right mood for enjoying your meal! I would imagine “quality imported chicken feet from the USA” was regarded as an extra treat for the hapless Chinaman. Now his taste buds will have to revert back to the locally produced variety. Who is the biggest exporter of poultry to China? Tyson’s of course. This Arkansas-based company has been a polluter of the environment for years and for my money I couldn’t care less to see this mob now on the receiving end of China’s wrath.

I see no future in dialogue and placation. It is time for action. Either the world truly engages in fair two way trade or President Obama starts to create a balance by imposing tariffs against dumping. Private enterprise has proven to be an ineffective policeman for American consumers. Long gone are the days where businesses were proud to sell quality. Unless the company is Louis Vuitton, most western companies today will sell any old garbage so long as their pockets are lined. If General Motors had kept to their business model of their first fifty years in business of making a quality product, they would not be owned by Uncle Sam as they are now. The likes of the Goodyear’s, Wal-Marts et al have proven to be un-American in how they have treated their consumers and workforce. I am all for a little government intervention to put them back on the right track and I am certainly into government intervention in matters of trade that are not the best interests of all Americans. If that leads us onto to a path of isolationism to wake the world up and see reality then so be it. That being the case the first step is to immediately withdraw all fighting forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and redraw the way we do business, especially with countries who have never respected us. Amongst those I place China, Russia, India and Mexico at the top of the list.

With the 2008 collapse of Wall Street by years end oil quickly found a new level just above $32.00 per barrel from over $120.00 three months earlier. Experts were telling us that due to a huge drop off in demand the price could go down in the New Year at least another third to just over $20.00. Without Bush to continue telling the world what addicts Americans were, the futures exchanges around the world were concerned Obama and his European counterparts were going to regulate the markets in such a way, the world would never again be held hostage to a bunch douche bags making money out of people’s misery.

But what happened? President Obama quickly listened to his many advisors (most of whom I reckon must be Republican “plants”, including that little weasel of a Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner) because his earlier threats about cleaning up Wall Street, the banks and the futures markets really just ended up being exactly that- idle threats. Once the “non toxic” banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the futures traders realized it was basically back to business as usual, the first to jump in and go for “L” for leather catching up on lost time were the N.Y. Mercantile Exchange and their fellow brethren in London. Prices in all minerals three months ago started moving skywards.

Futures exchanges are nothing but “electronic casinos” and the players no different from poker playing Bret Maverick of Wild West 1800′s fame. David Hutton, CEO of supposedly credible London-based PVM Oil Associates, in public has recently become an outspoken critic of speculators. It was just a façade as it was one of his most revered traders who in two days last week was responsible for a hike in the price of crude rising over five bucks and at one point $2.50 in less than one hour. Since this was revealed the price of Brent Crude has fallen from $73.50 to a shade under $60.00. It is still being propped up by traders because their bets were along the same lines as the PVM cowboy.

Now when all this trading was going on in such a short space of time, at one point enough futures were bought in just one hour which if they were to be exercised, the volume was equal to twice the daily output of the world’s largest producer, Saudi Arabia! How ridiculous is that? The G 8 were meeting in Italy at about the same time as all this nonsense was taking place just a few hundred miles away in London, but did we hear anything from those “great” leaders? Not one word. Because they were more worried about arguing over the carbon footprint in year 2050! Hey, Barak, quite frankly I don’t give a hoot about 2050 mate, because I will be long dead and buried by then.

We need people in politics who want to serve and more importantly look after and protect the best interests of all rather than a greedy few. It appears at this point all those dirty low life bastards who caused this current economic mess will remain in business in perpetuity, the lot of them up to all the same old tricks that made them so wealthy at the expense of innocent hard working people around the globe. President Obama, I am looking to you to address these ills that have destroyed so much in such a short period of time and I expect some quick action from you instead of more talk. You did a great job of sinking General Motors so they will never rise again, now how about achieving the same deal with Wall Street, the banks and the commodity markets?