Lenin welcomed the corporate "useful idiots." He badly needed them to build the economy lest there be another revolution-- against him this time. When things were going well be planned to ask the "useful idiots", "Got any rope for sale?"
But Lenin died and when Stalin took over he rid the U.S.S.R. of the scary free market which had quickly grown to about half of the total economy. It scared the hell out of the commie ideologues.
Red China ain't that stupid. Deng studied NEP. Their commie ideologues and families are most of the billionaires.
.. but nevertheless the NEP end game is to take everything the useful idiots have and kick 'em out.
That will happen if for no other reason than there are 800 million or so very, very, very poor and very, very, very restless Chinese who need the money -- more than the useful idiots need money -- else the Chi-coms face revolution. That scares the hell out of billionaire Chi-com commie ideologues.
And lots of luck to American corporations getting Congress to give them TARP money to compensate -- there will be revolution here if they try it.
To WilliamofCarmichael: This is on my required reading list. Is it too late?
To Steel Wolf, ConservativeMind, Hillarys Gate Cult: Your stories are ringing in my ears! I’m sure we could talk for hours, and I would become even more depressed.
Back to weekend work. An old roadster pickup is calling for attention. It is from a better time... Later.