The Yanks are lousy shots

<VBG> In this case the tit is a metaphor for "oil well"...

 

Oh, but it has. Not in the traditional, invade, subjegate, steal all
resources and leave type of empire. It has had, possibly, the first
economic empire. Many countries are (were) tied almost completely to the
USA and would be (would have been) stuffed without it.

My own view is that China has now seen what America acheived. Power and
control without the need to go to war. Control the manufacture of goods and
basically you control the world, through the economy. Could you imagine the
effect if China just decided to stop selling any goods to America? China is
making something like 80% of ALL the world's manufactured goods.

*DING!*

 

Cornfield if you want to be a little more topical.

 

Anyway of downloading that as an MP3 or podcast?

 

Bar the bits they took from the natives, the Mexicans and Hawaiians,
no. You could then add Panama, the Phillipines, Cuba, ...

 

Tied to that largely forged, cocaine impregnated, worthless piece of
green paper known globally as The Dollar you mean? Or rather that
wholly artificial concept the Petrodollar. Dead and gone innit and the
power and influence with it.

The gradual (not so gradual these days either) erosion of simple
usefulness that the petrodollar provided as a common means of exchange
and the power which accrued to the printers from it can be dated to that
day only a few years back when Opec decided the future lay with the Euro
and whatever it is the Chinese trade in.

I don't think they have seen it so much as had it handed to them on a
plate through the process of their own rapid industrialisation and the
realisation what the merkins have to offer by way of markets to sell
into is at best transient.

There was a meeting a few months back where the Chinese got foreign and
trade representatives from *every* nation in Africa (bar one) to attend
and discuss what mutual benefits they could all achieve from co-
operation. No mean trick that one and not a "protected for their own
interests" oil well in sight, just plain old common sense and cross
table bartering.

If historical precedents are anything to go by then the US will implode
in not so many years and just disintegrate into so many small warring
states and there will be no market for the Chinese to sell into.

 

It won't. My opinion and of more learned minds. Political, legal,
demographic and infrastructural reasons. Similar to why India will not be a
rival either.

 

You understanding of the world is so shallow and stilted it makes me smile!

BTW you make it sound like you think being run by a new world order
controlled by China is a nice idea.

 

"It's not your oil, it's OUR oil"
Seems like a decent argument to me!

 

Apart from them, yes.

 

Heh I like the South American corn debates. Chav's recent comments made me
chuckle.

 

Just about.

So we're agreed then, sort of.

The good old "UK" hasn't disintegrated into war.

 

I like him .... can we keep him dad ?

 

At least I can make someone smile. So who is in line to take over the
mantle? Nothing lasts forever.

Not particularly.

 

Capital no longer suffers national boundaries but in a world awash with
monetary wealth Britain, USA (and Germany) have a huge proportion of it. Who
do you think the major investors in China might be?

 

No we fucking ain't. This is ukrm don't forget.

 

I'm very aware of who is investing in China. China is also now being asked
to not keep it's currency artificially low on the money markets as it is
making it such a desirable place to invest. I personally think China knows
exactly what it is doing.

 

It has the temporary advantage of being a dictatorship, of raping their own
environment and using its population as virtual slaves with low wages and
little H&S protection. China is just the latest in line of countries used
thus by global capital. As it matures it will go the way of the others but
like India it will be held down by a massive rural underclass it can never
assimilate.

Compare it's future more to Brazil or Mexico perhaps.

If we were moral democracies we would not manufacture there or buy its
products.