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Jack Ma Accuses The US Of Spending $14 Trillion On War Instead Of Its People
zero hedge ^ | Jan 22, 2017 8:18 PM | Tyler Durden

Posted on 01/23/2017 1:26:44 AM PST by vannrox

In a CNBC clip, which slipped between the cracks last week,  Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who has been busy trying to get into Donald Trump's "circle of trust", spoke in Davos and blamed the problems of the United States on the United States itself, as a country which has spent trillions of dollars to wage war, instead of investing in infrastructure and its own people.

Asked by Andrew Ross Sorkin about Trump's decision to impose new tariffs on Chinese imports to protect domestic American manufacturers, Ma said blaming China for any economic issues in the U.S. is misguided. If America is looking to blame anyone, Ma said, it should blame itself.

"It's not that other countries steal jobs from you guys," Ma said. "It's your strategy. Distribute the money and things in a proper way."

According to Ma, the US wasted over $14 trillion in fighting wars over the past 30 years rather than investing in infrastructure at home. Ma named this as the main reason that the US economy is weakening.

Ma was not the only critic of the costly U.S. policies of waging war against terrorism and other enemies outside the homeland, however, the Alibaba founder said this was the reason America's economic growth had weakened, not China's supposed theft of jobs. In fact, Ma called outsourcing a "wonderful" and "perfect" strategy.

"The American multinational companies made millions and millions of dollars from globalization," Ma said. "The past 30 years, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, they've made tens of millions — the profits they've made are much more than the four Chinese banks put together. ... But where did the money go?"

One answer: a couple of offshore bank accounts, or - now that Rothschild is managing Nevada tax havens - onshore.

He added that the U.S. is not distributing or investing its money properly, and that's why many people in the country feel wracked with economic anxiety. Ma added that too much money flows to Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Instead, the country should be helping the Midwest, and Americans "not good in schooling," too.

 At least in theory, much of this forms the basis of Trump's policies. 

"You're supposed to spend money on your own people," Ma said. "Not everybody can pass Harvard, like me." In a previous interview, CNBC said that Ma said he had been rejected by Harvard 10 times. Along those lines, Ma stressed that globalization is a good thing, but it, too, "should be inclusive," with the spoils not just going to the wealthy few.

"The world needs new leadership, but the new leadership is about working together," Ma said. "As a business person, I want the world to share the prosperity together."



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: china; economy; ma; trump
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Jackie Ma is right. In 2014, Obama GAVE South Africa 7 Billion dollars to help and improve their energy resources. What did the USA get in return? What?

What did your city, town, or country get in return for the hundreds of billions of US dollars spent in destroying Iraq, and Libya? Tell me.. What did you get? New roads, hospitals, schools, college tuition for your children? New bridges? New factories? What?

All the money that Obama "invested" in Muslim outreach...what did that benefit YOU? How did YOU (personally benefit)? How?


1 posted on 01/23/2017 1:26:45 AM PST by vannrox
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To: vannrox

With all due respect to Mr. Ma, China is VERY protectionist.

Extremely closed country.

They are built to export. Not to import. They do not import enough, that is what Trump is saying, and you know it is true.

China needs to import. Until they do, they need to be treated as the closed export-driven country they are.

When they open their own markets, then fine.

They are NOT open now.


2 posted on 01/23/2017 1:31:45 AM PST by cba123 ( Toi la nguoi My. Toi bay gio o Viet Nam.)
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To: vannrox
"...over the past 30 years..."

Obama was President for 8 of those years.
3 posted on 01/23/2017 1:33:12 AM PST by rollo tomasi (Working hard to pay for deadbeats and corrupt politicians.)
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To: vannrox

Isn’t Jack Ma one of the richest men on Earth? Then who cares if he went to Harvard?


4 posted on 01/23/2017 1:33:18 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: vannrox

A well furnished home is of little good if you have no way to stop it from being plucked clean by outsiders.


5 posted on 01/23/2017 1:39:31 AM PST by Bogey78O (We had a good run. Coulda been great still.)
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To: cba123

Alibaba founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma smiles before his IPO roadshow at a hotel in Hong Kong on Sept. 15.(Photo: Vincent Yu, AP)

BEIJING — China's richest man celebrated his 50th birthday last week in the United States and expects his company will last twice as long, plus two years.

Revealing his ambition — and a love of numbers common in China — Jack Ma says Alibaba will last 102 years so the Internet empire he founded in 1999 can span three centuries.

Under Ma's maverick leadership, the 15-year-old firm has already bridged a period of extraordinary change in global trade and the Chinese economy. In a nation with little e-commerce but plenty of Communist Party bureaucrats, he raised a still-growing giant whose U.S. initial public offering, which will start trading under the BABA ticker Friday, is the largest in history.

REJECTED BY KFC

His rags-to-riches journey is just as spectacular. A scrawny Ma, just over 5 feet tall, was rejected by KFC and other employers in his hometown of Hangzhou in east China. He believed in the Internet's business potential when few other Chinese did. Outlandish ideas earned him the nickname "Crazy Jack Ma." No one thinks he's mad now, even when dressing in wild wigs and lipstick for his annual meeting where he serenades a stadium full of Alibaba employees.

Ma's readiness to make fun of himself, and speak his mind, stands in contrast to China's often conservative corporate barons. Charismatic and energetic, this former teacher has become an inspiration to millions across China. He flunked at math but loved English, and countless books and DVDs sell his business lessons in every airport lounge.

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Ma — whose net worth is $21.9 billion,according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — now stars in the coming-out party for China's private sector onto the world stage. He praises and uses Western management techniques but also quotes regularly from Chairman Mao Zedong. He is a fan of China's kung fu novels and made those legends part of his company's culture. He travels the world with a tai chi trainer.

Jack Ma, whose Chinese name is Ma Yun, was born in 1964 into a markedly different China. Communist Party campaigns dominated daily life. His parents performed a type of musical storytelling that was banned during Mao's devastating Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976.

Ma's grandfather, a local official under the Nationalist Party that Mao defeated, was persecuted as an enemy of the Communist revolution. Ma and his relatives all suffered at that time, wrote Chinese author Zhang Yongsheng in a 2009 biography.

AMERICA'S MARKETS: Wall Street rallying cry: I want my BABA

AMERICA'S MARKETS: Alibaba IPO steamrolling these tech stocks

Like most Chinese parents back then, Ma's father beat him growing up. But there were childhood pleasures, too. He liked collecting and fighting crickets, an ancient pastime that Mao also banned. Ma developed an expert ear, able to distinguish the type and size of cricket just by the sound, his friend and personal assistant at Alibaba, Chen Wei, wrote in his 2013 book on Ma.

168491991

 (Photo: Peter Parks, AFP/Getty Images)

Starting at age 12, Ma says he awoke at 5 a.m. to walk or bicycle to Hangzhou's main hotel so he could practice his English with foreign tourists, who started trickling into the country after Mao's death in 1976. He did this for nine years and acted as a free tour guide to many, befriended several and later visited one family in Australia.

Those experiences opened his eyes. "I realized what they told me was quite different from what I had learned in school or heard from my parents," Ma told Xiao-Ping Chen, a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, in an interview published last year.

MA MEETS THE INTERNET

After twice failing the national college entrance exams, Ma entered what he called "Hangzhou's worst college." Graduating in 1988, Ma married his college sweetheart and taught English at a local college for five years, earning $15 a month. During that time, he also applied for, and failed to land, jobs at a local KFC, a hotel and the city police.

Determined to enter business, Ma set up a translation company, but he still had to peddle goods on the street to get by. He traveled to the United States in 1995 as a translator to help a Chinese firm recover a payment. The attempt failed, and the American who owed money pulled a gun on him, Ma says. But a friend in Seattle showed Ma the Internet, and an idea began brewing.

Ma noticed there was not a single online listing for "China" and "beer," unlike those that popped up for American and German beer. He returned to China and set up a listing site that he later sold to the government. After working in Beijing for an Internet firm under the Ministry of Commerce, Ma returned home to Hangzhou to pursue his dream.

ALIBABA FOUNDED

With the help of more than a dozen friends who pooled their resources — just $60,000 — he founded Alibaba, a business-to-business online platform. The company now makes more profit than rivals Amazon.com and e-Bay combined, as China's burgeoning middle class are big spenders online, and small companies rely on Alibaba and its online payment system.

Lin Liwen, 25, delivers a box of party goods.

 (Photo: Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY)

Ma seized opportunities as China was transforming into a market economy. At the time, the Internet was first being promoted, and small, private businesses struggled to get loans and had to compete against government-protected state firms, said economist Feng Pengcheng, director of the China Research Center for Capital Management at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

"The business model Ma Yun created in China suited the Chinese market. It might be a failure in the U.S. market, but it's so successful in China," Feng said. "What's more, Ma Yun is good at cooperating with other talents. His company culture and his personal charm attracted employees, and his slogans are uplifting," he said.

“ His hobbies are still tai chi and kung fu novels.”Chen Wei, Ma's personal assistant

For a billionaire so outspoken on company and business issues, Ma says little about his family and manages to keep his private life quiet and scandal-free. Ma and his wife Zhang Ying have a son, an undergrad at the University of California-Berkeley, where Ma had audited classes. A black-and-white photo of a young Ma with his older brother and younger sister went viral this month in China's cyberspace, as many people were unaware their richest citizen even had siblings.

"Ma Yun's lifestyle is very simple and modest. His hobbies are still tai chi and kung fu novels," Chen, his friend and assistant, said last week from Boston, while accompanying Ma on Alibaba's U.S. roadshow before the IPO.

"I don't think he has changed much, he is still that old style. After the IPO, I am sure his lifestyle will be simpler. He won't change," Chen said. In his book, being published in English this month, Chen said Ma enjoys meditation in the mountains, playing poker with friends and writing his own kung fu fiction. By Ma's own account, he believes in both Buddhism and Taoism, and follows many tenets of Confucianism.

'OPPOSITE OF STUFFY'

"My father said if you were born 30 years ago, you'd probably be in a prison, because the ideas you have are so dangerous," Ma told Charlie Rose in a 2011 TV interview. Despite such bravado for a Western audience, Ma has always been careful in China to avoid statements and actions that could jeopardize his business.

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If China ever did permit open elections, Ma could become a popular candidate for top office, said Duncan Clark, a Brit who is a Beijing-based technology consultant. "He is the opposite of stuffy and canned. He's funny, creative and a compelling speaker. I often thought he has another career in stand-up comedy," he said.

Ma resigned last year as Alibaba's CEO, but he clearly remains in charge as the firm's executive chairman. He has hinted at exploring more "cultural" pursuits, such as film-making, education and environmental protection.

"One issue facing China is that people's wallets are bulging, but their heads are empty," he told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post last year. Ma also promises more philanthropy, including what may be China's largest charity foundation. Expect to hear plenty more from maverick Ma.

6 posted on 01/23/2017 1:45:20 AM PST by vannrox (The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
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To: vannrox

Very impressive.

I have been to China. I know the country, at least I did. Somewhat. I have not been there in quite a while now.

China is great. I really enjoyed working there. That was back when it first opened to the outside world, very early.

But China doesn’t import.

It just doesn’t import. That is a problem, and nobody has said to China “hey, you need to import things from America”.

Nobody.

Everyone is busy “cashing in”, but nobody is saying China needs to buy things also.

That is becoming a huge problem.

Trump gets that. He seems to be the first American president who does.

Ever.


7 posted on 01/23/2017 1:54:05 AM PST by cba123 ( Toi la nguoi My. Toi bay gio o Viet Nam.)
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To: vannrox

I think Trump has already pointed this out.


8 posted on 01/23/2017 2:09:02 AM PST by Fhios
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To: vannrox

$14 trillion in war in the last 30 years.

That’s only $50,000 for every man woman and child in the country.


9 posted on 01/23/2017 2:16:08 AM PST by Timpanagos1
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To: cba123

I live in China. I have been here for at least the last 15 years. China imports. You should see all the Harley Davidson motorcycles in Shanghai...

Most Chicken is imported from the USA. Much of the imported rice comes from Arkansas.

You are correct, China could import more, but to import you need to have an export market. Not too many things get exported out the USA, except for planes and food it seems. Why is this so...?


10 posted on 01/23/2017 2:20:04 AM PST by vannrox (The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
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To: cba123; vannrox
The numbers aren't a secret, China imports a ton from the US. > 100 billion. The problem is that they export 4 times that to the US.

The U.S. trade deficit with China was $367 billion in 2015 This is a new record, up slightly from last year's record of $343 billion. The trade deficit exists because U.S. exports to China were only $116.2 billion while imports from China hit a new record of $483.9 billion.
https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-china-trade-deficit-causes-effects-and-solutions-3306277
11 posted on 01/23/2017 2:30:40 AM PST by Wayne07
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To: vannrox
Since WW-II ended the US has used military spending as a primary driver for our economy, figuring that if something works, you stick with it.

One problem is that if you go on building for WW-IV, WW-V, WW-VI etc. long enough, sooner or later, it's gonna happen.....

12 posted on 01/23/2017 3:05:15 AM PST by ganeemead
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To: ganeemead
One could argue that if you keep building for WW IV (etc)...it's gonna' happen.

How would we even begin to number the wars? One could argue that this is WW III. German bankers and elites are finally meeting some (not effective enough) resistance to their takeover of Europe. Globalist forces hellbent to control land and resources have decimated the Mideast. Following your logic, until spending is shifted from machines to blow things up to improving infrastructure and quality of life, we're getting what the global elite are paying for.

13 posted on 01/23/2017 3:34:07 AM PST by grania
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To: ganeemead

Wars are born of weakness, not strength. The post WWI treaties limited American naval strength and provided an opening for the Japanese, who largely ignored the limitations the treaty placed on the Japanese navy.

The big issue is not the size of our military, rather it is that we allow companies like Lockheed to use programs like the F35 as an ATM for extracting money from the American taxpayer.


14 posted on 01/23/2017 3:35:44 AM PST by hopespringseternal
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To: vannrox

Roussef in Brazile did the same, giving to Iran and Cuba and Venezuela it nothing to the Brazillians she promised to help... suckers. All leftists are foreign sponsored traitors


15 posted on 01/23/2017 3:55:49 AM PST by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: cba123
But China doesn’t import.

It just doesn’t import. That is a problem, and nobody has said to China “hey, you need to import things from America”.

Exactly why the British started sending Opium to China. Exactly what caused the Opium wars and the subsequent collapse of China.

They don't play well with others, probably because they consider the rest of us inferior.

16 posted on 01/23/2017 3:59:31 AM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: vannrox

He has the chinese version of Quentin Tarantino face. He is one, homely dude


17 posted on 01/23/2017 4:01:03 AM PST by brucedickinson
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To: vannrox

Well he has a partial point here, the entire Iraq fiasco was a complete waste of money and more important American Lives. It accomplished nothing as far as I can see except further destabilize an already unstable region.


18 posted on 01/23/2017 4:03:07 AM PST by wyowolf (Be ware when the preachers take over the Republican party...)
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To: cba123

With all due respect to Mr. Ma, China is VERY protectionist.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Agreed. So is japan.

Hey Jack, “ Its fried rice , you plick!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mGUCj3LTFM


19 posted on 01/23/2017 4:04:44 AM PST by Candor7 ( Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: vannrox

You’ve been here since 1998, you live in China, and you claim that China doesn’t export much to the US?

What???


20 posted on 01/23/2017 4:39:32 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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