China will get all the technology they can into the country, then nationalize al la the Arabs and oil. This fits with their history.

(…)

I now don’t think they will have to; they’ll just buy it all with our own money.

(…)

Let us not forget China is still a 100% communist country that is playing the capitalist game against us.

I don’t think that’s an accurate accounting of things. If this attitude takes hold here, we’re even more fucked because such cries have no recourse to change current conditions and, in fact, blame Chinese for what is 100% our own homegrown black hole… nobody to blame but ourselves.

Quick explanation:

* Work/labor we offshored there greatly accelerated in late ’90’s. We had opportunities to set international standards on labor/conditions/work hrs etc., and repub congress ignored them entirely w/”anti capitalism” type rehtoric. (NOTE: Pelosi was among voices advocating this stuff @ the time).

* Chinese labor received pennies on the $$. And it wasn’t just prison labor: NIKE workers in 2000 couldn’t buy a pair of shoes they made w/entire year’s salary. Similar poverty pay across the board. Yet under these conditions, these workers still saved while US citizens and treasury consumed everything in sight.

* When Chinese Treasury had enough to begin domestic financed development, they did in big way. Accellerating at breakneck speed since early 2000’s, they’ve done so in huge fashion across all sectors: tech, energy development, infrastructure, education & more. Again, all fueled by $$ they saved working @ near slave wages.

* Chinese investment here… treasuries, F&F bonds etc. all done by rules of the game that US set. It was these purchases (also Japan/Russia etc.) that financed our spending/consuming/housing binge. Again, that sure as hell isn’t their fault, it’s ours.

* Their contracts w/GM (and other) auto makers explicitly defined roles and ownership from beginning: in short, GM was given huge training role w/understood minority ownership in those early Chinese auto efforts. It was spelled out from beginning: GM etc. was being paid to teach them how to do it, not to get majority piece of the pie infinitum. They avoided the subsequent nationalization stuff ME oil producers had to go through right up front.

* Chinese have been buying huge volumes of US tech companies on open market for years now, though it’s gone largely unnoticed. From their quickly improving Space program, to world class manufacturing & whole lot of other stuff, they bought this stuff right here in USA fair & square.

* Perhaps most ominous, their holdings (much larger that what McCain said on stump… at minimum $2.2t and likely twice that) are all obligations we have to them, fair and square. Aside from fact we’re flat ass broke, just servicing debt on these things is mammoth obligation, let alone actually paying it back: eg. our economy has been sold off for short term profit while US was snoring.

Given rules of the global economy, China has not only played by the rules but been far less predatory than we (IMF) have been. That they have the cash to buy GM… well, that’s how this stuff works people. It’s the religion WS, repubs, Bill Clinton and all the rest have been preaching for some time now. And if you read Asian financial pages, I can assure you they have approximately -0- sympathy for our predicament. Chinese return on investment for their massive US Treasuries is negative… they’ve lost money.

Given conditions under which we prospered and spent while they lived barely minimally and saved, not much to argue w/there AFAIC.

I China calls in their Treasuries alone (not to mention F&F) we are immediately in default… we don’t have it to pay. We will, officially be a 3rd world country.

And lest it’s out of view, the US Auto mfg purchase by China scenario has also been going on in finance: Singapore, Malaysia, China have huge stakes in a number of our financial institutions, all done along the way to current mess as these guys tried to keep their fuckups quiet by selling a bit more of their sole. The GM scenario Marcy describes only the latest episode, and not much different than the previous.

Rove’s advice to Obama in WSJ. Too funny

There is also a thorny local controversy. Should the new president replace U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who prosecuted Mr. Obama’s fund-raising patron, Tony Rezko, and is investigating high-profile Democrats?
Karl Rove WSJ 11/20/08

And I’m sure that Alabama Dick will be whining if a SIAC-owned GM starts importing Chevy Celtas from Brazil and selling them at loss-leader prices, and the noble Southron non-union labour at those home-state plants feels the squeeze. And then a further squeeze comes from Chinese-sourced Chevys. Oh, sure, they’ll keep a few boutique ops in the US to make genwine ‘Vettes, but it’ll be more like Jaguar, Bentley and Aston Martin.

(The one smart thing Michael Ledeen ever said is that modern China is best appreciated as an example of a ‘mature fascist state’ — i.e. what Franco’s Spain might have looked like with an heir that respected the father, or Mussolini’s Italy without the whole war thing.)

My top scenario, though, is that Holden gets snarfed by an Asian maker, Vauxhall-Opel gets nabbed by a Euro — possible a Frenchie, or a joint acquisition — and the LAAM and NA ops go to China.

Napolitano To DHS; Skeletor Buried

She’s not gonna be AG (for now), but bmaz was always supportive of Janet heading DHS as a good second option.