$$$ - Protectionism - $$$

[noirua]

To what extent is reducing wages protectionism and having a weak currency. If the AUD gets even weaker against the USD then the main export industries in Australia could be saved. The problem may be, that if it happens too quickly then the changes for the worse affected companies could be dire indeed. Is the Governments real policy one of holding the currency around present levels for a while and then letting a further slip happen after commodity export deals are agreed with Japan on 1st April 2009?

 

[Aussiejeff]

To what extent is reducing wages protectionism and having a weak currency. If the AUD gets even weaker against the USD then the main export industries in Australia could be saved. The problem may be, that if it happens too quickly then the changes for the worse affected companies could be dire indeed. Is the Governments real policy one of holding the currency around present levels for a while and then letting a further slip happen after commodity export deals are agreed with Japan on 1st April 2009?

Interesting thought there, noirua.

On a side note to that, we have just witnessed a MAJOR rejig of world power, given the historic "protectionist" agreements and handshaking by China, Korea & Japan over the weekend.

Not only are they pledging to loan more to each other (which leaves US and Eurozone worse off?) and set up their own self-help mega-fund to draw on (which leaves US and Eurozone worse off?) but they are also setting up a new "free trade deal" between the three nations (which leaves US and Eurozone worse off?).

Forget the smiles and platitudes of "this will help the world recover from the finanacial crisis" rhetoric - this is the New World order shaping up - the Triumvirate Of Three - China, Japan & Korea - WILL be a financial force to be reckoned with AS OF NOW and Unca Sam will not be amused as their future influence has suddenly been drastically further diminished.

Obama better have a sense of wry humour!

aj

Edit: Hey, maybe Rudd San can beg for a spot at the Triumvirate's New Table. Who knows, with some smoooth dialectics, he might even get us into a Gang Of Four!! LOL

 

[noirua]

Interesting thought there, noirua.

On a side note to that, we have just witnessed a MAJOR rejig of world power, given the historic "protectionist" agreements and handshaking by China, Korea & Japan over the weekend.

Not only are they pledging to loan more to each other (which leaves US and Eurozone worse off?) and set up their own self-help mega-fund to draw on (which leaves US and Eurozone worse off?) but they are also setting up a new "free trade deal" between the three nations (which leaves US and Eurozone worse off?).

Forget the smiles and platitudes of "this will help the world recover from the finanacial crisis" rhetoric - this is the New World order shaping up - the Triumvirate Of Three - China, Japan & Korea - WILL be a financial force to be reckoned with AS OF NOW and Unca Sam will not be amused as their future influence has suddenly been drastically further diminished.

Obama better have a sense of wry humour!

aj

Edit: Hey, maybe Rudd San can beg for a spot at the Triumvirate's New Table. Who knows, with some smoooth dialectics, he might even get us into a Gang Of Four!! LOL

I wonder Aussiejeff, if they have plans to buy up most of Australia and treat it as their backyard, as a certain other country has in the past. Probably more likely to take the coal, iron and uranium, and dump the uranium waste somewhere in the outback.

 

[numbercruncher]

As the great globilsation experiment coninues to show its monumental failures more and more protectionist policy appears ......

Protectionist dominoes are beginning to tumble across the world

The riots have begun. Civil protest is breaking out in cities across Russia, China, and beyond.

Greece has been in turmoil for 11 days. The mood seems to have turned "pre-insurrectionary" in parts of Athens - to borrow from the Marxist handbook.

This is a foretaste of what the world may face as the "crisis of capitalism" - another Marxist phase making a comeback - starts to turn two hundred million lives upside down.

We are advancing to the political stage of this global train wreck. Regimes are being tested. Those relying on perma-boom to mask a lack of democratic or ancestral legitimacy may try to gain time by the usual methods: trade barriers, saber-rattling, and barbed wire

The last great era of globalisation peaked just before 1914.

cont ......

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/3870089/Protectionist-dominoes-are-beginning-to-tumble-across-the-world.html


PS. The buck stops here - Buy Australian made @! ( not that we have any manufactoring base left)

 

[GumbyLearner]

As the great globilsation experiment coninues to show its monumental failures more and more protectionist policy appears ......

Marxism could never work because of human greed. After all humans are malleable and corruptable just like anyone else. And what Bush and his cronies did was to allow the market especially in the US to go about its business without regulation and/or with crony regulators who were TOO SCARED to blow the whistle and call these mega fraudsters ie. Citigroup, Lehmann, WaMu, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Chrysler, GM, Ford, Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley, Lloyds TSB, RB OF S, Bernie MAdoff etc.. (This is a non-exhaustive list, there should be more yet )

And so the unfettered free-market capatilism needs checks and balances too.
Well this is where the system has failed. I know there are commentators like Schiff will disagree with me but I cannot rely as an investor on the "goodwill" of unregulated or lazy bureaucrats to protect me from the fraudsters. The system needs more transparency and anyone who would continue to invest in a system without it will do so at their own risk.

I think the problem with the FAILOUTS and bankruptcies in the US it should really fall into the laps of guys like this.... Mr.Gramm from TAXUS!!!




Thanks Mr. Gramm

 

[numbercruncher]

I always suspected that Carbon trading / Green policy would be protectionist to the core ! and here we have the Governments own Professor Garnaut confirming that .....

Hilarious really, Gov is pro Globilisation in one breath and seriously protectionist in another ..... actions will prove louder than words and sentiments though ....

Professor Garnaut is even more alarmed at the dangers posed by the Government's decision to issue free carbon permits to industries exposed to international competition, such as steel, chemicals and paper and pulp.

He writes that this is an act of protectionism that threatened to provoke other countries to follow suit.

He likens the potential to the notorious US protectionism that deepened the Great Depression of the 1930s.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/carbon-plan-fuels-meltdown/2008/12/19/1229189886133.html


May the protectionist political warfare begin then ?

 

[GumbyLearner]

May the protectionist political warfare begin then ?

And you know what NC, your absolutely right! I cant argue with you mate about that point. Because the truth from a couple of my Yank friends is "..what's good for GM is what's good for America!.."

But GM is completely operationally and financially smashed!!!!!

But in reality they will still consider our farmers "collateral damage" in world markets and we will still have to fight tooth and nail to get out stuff to market internationally.

This is going to be BIG, REALLY F***** BIG!

 

[Aussiejeff]

And you know what NC, your absolutely right! I cant argue with you mate about that point. Because the truth from a couple of my Yank friends is "..what's good for GM is what's good for America!.."

But GM is completely operationally and financially smashed!!!!!

But in reality they will still consider our farmers "collateral damage" in world markets and we will still have to fight tooth and nail to get out stuff to market internationally.

This is going to be BIG, REALLY F***** BIG!

We have stopped waving to the neighbours across the road. Now we are beavering away nailing boards over the windows and doors to keep them out. Then we will start stockpiling some useful weapons "just in case" something "bad" happens.

Describing my local neighbourhood in the Wild West of Wodonga?

Nope.

Just the current state of the planet!

aj

 

[Aussiejeff]

More BAD news (for our economy) today...

A Chinese conglomerate has promised to spend 2.6 billion dollars on Liberia's main iron ore mine in the biggest investment ever made in the African nation, Investment Minister Richard Tolbert told AFP on Saturday.
.
Tolbert said the China Union company had promised that within 12 months it will have built a one million tonne a year capacity refining factory at the Bong iron mines, about 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Monrovia.

Seems China is forging ahead with deals to shore up an iron ore supply that is going to be far cheaper than what they can get from Oz.

More very bad news for our big iron ore miners? I guess the Chinese are holding the whip handle.. :horse:

 

[numbercruncher]

Russians head back to nationalisation ? setting the pace ?

THEY bought country houses, superyachts and football clubs, but the era of the Russian oligarch may be drawing to aclose.

Details of the financial bailout being offered by the Kremlin toRussia's richest men have revealed that many could be stripped of power by next Christmas. The loans will last for one year only and will be collateralised against shares owned by the oligarchs.

Most are expected to struggle to repay the loans within a year, raising the possibility that the Kremlin is trying to engineer the renationalisation of the Russian economy.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,24838594-5018063,00.html


Isnt it fun to watch the debt fueled super-rich get spanked ? !

 

[tech/a]

Russians head back to nationalisation ? setting the pace ?




http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,24838594-5018063,00.html


Isn't it fun to watch the debt fueled super-rich get spanked ? !

Why?

I see it as amusing as watching some poor bastard lose their house!

Same thing different size chips.

But hey your probably more comfortable in a communist state where all is equal comrade

 

[numbercruncher]

Why?

I see it as amusing as watching some poor bastard lose their house!

Same thing different size chips.

But hey your probably more comfortable in a communist state where all is equal comrade

Because it was all debt fueled gambling young Tech .... they just kept borowing and doubling and gambling more and more and more until it crashed around their sorry ears .... unsustainable economics you see ...


A roof over someones head is a completely different kettle of fish and a necessity for survival ....

 

[chops_a_must]

Why?

I see it as amusing as watching some poor bastard lose their house!

Same thing different size chips.

But hey your probably more comfortable in a communist state where all is equal comrade

Considering most got their "wealth" through violence, theft, corruption, black mail etc. etc. I can see no reason why it isn't funny.

But hey... I probably wont have much sympathy for anyone that loses their property over the next few years either, and I doubt many young people will.

 

[numbercruncher]

But hey... I probably wont have much sympathy for anyone that loses their property over the next few years either, and I doubt many young people will.

Very good point Chops !


The 95pc of ipod owning Gen-Ys who wernt stoopid enough to buy overpriced boxes will do very nicely one would summise.

 

[chops_a_must]

It's just a lot have had rents increased 400% or so, whilst not having a meaningful increase in earnings themselves.

They've seen people get wealthy, increasingly greedy and ask for more, on the back of them. A lot have had appalling landlords kicking them out at a moments notice. Not exactly lending itself to sympathetic treatment in return.

 

[Julia]

Considering most got their "wealth" through violence, theft, corruption, black mail etc. etc. I can see no reason why it isn't funny.

Did they really? Perhaps you could explain how you reached this conclusion?

But hey... I probably wont have much sympathy for anyone that loses their property over the next few years either, and I doubt many young people will.

Given that an increasing number of people will lose their jobs in the next few years, it's likely they will indeed lose their houses.
What is it about this that gives you so much pleasure?

 

[chops_a_must]

Did they really? Perhaps you could explain how you reached this conclusion?

Heard of the Russian mafia?

A lot of property owners in Russia have acquired them burning people's houses down, where the Russian law states that if a property is burnt down, the land is no longer owned by the occupants. Just one example.

Given that an increasing number of people will lose their jobs in the next few years, it's likely they will indeed lose their houses.
What is it about this that gives you so much pleasure?

Opportunity Julia.

At the expense of those that knew nothing of risk.

 

[Aussiejeff]

Agence France-Presse

From correspondents in Washington

January 03, 2009 08:10am

THE US steel industry is reportedly in collapse and looking for a massive government investment program of up to $US1 trillion ($1.42 trillion) to stimulate demand.

Output of steel has plunged 50 per cent since September as construction and car production have fallen sharply amid a US recession and the global credit crunch, The New York Times reports.

Industry executives are pleading for a huge public infrastructure investment program - of up to $US1 trillion over two years - under president-elect Barack Obama's proposed stimulus plan, the newspaper says.

It quotes Daniel DiMicco, chairman and chief executive of the Nucor Corporation, a giant steel maker. "What we are asking is that our government deal with the worst economic slowdown in our lifetime through a recovery program that has in every provision a 'buy America' clause," he said.

"Buy America" bailout provisos? Just a tad protectionist?

 

[GumbyLearner]

Protectionism - The Platform's of both Scullin and Hoover.

Well raised point AJ about the US Steel industry.

Its funny who do the Titans of US industry blame now,
the steelworkers of the US, UAW etc....

Or the underpaid workers in China and the deals that these same US industry Titans made with their commie overlord employers

http://www.gulfshipper.com/news/article.asp?sid=2024&ltype=customs

 

[Aussiejeff]

From your article Gumby....

Looking ahead, Phelps said final numbers for U.S. steel imports for November 2008 could be as high as they were in October, because those orders were placed last June through August when no one foresaw the extent of the global economic downturn. Now, new orders for foreign shipments are way down, he said, because demand from manufacturers who use steel is weak.

What does that mean for steel imports? Phelps expects a big falloff in imports in January, and probably an even bigger drop in February. “It is hard to be optimistic,” he said. If any optimism returns to the steel market by January, it won’t show up in import statistics until at least April.

Unfortunately, that lag time is what is fooling Mr & Mrs Average Aussie into thinking "Huh? What recession".

How much of OUR Lil' Bleedin' Ozzie GDP depends on feeding The Great Steel Monsters around the globe - who are suddenly stricken gravely ill by some strange, incurable Ponzivirus and now heading for a comatose state?

aj