Free Republic

Feb 12, 2005 SPEAKING FREELY Betting on the next Lenovo By George Zhibin Gu Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing. December 2004 will be remembered as a time when a faceless Chinese company, Lenovo, suddenly took the global stage. The bluest of blue-chip multinationals, IBM, got out of its personal computer business by selling out to Lenovo, making the faceless company the third-biggest global PC player. So are there other Chinese brands that could take the world by storm? A rising...

OP-ED COLUMNIST I hate to be the bearer of good news, because only pessimists are regarded as intellectually serious, but we're in the 11th month of the most prosperous year in human history. Last week, the World Bank released a report showing that global growth "accelerated sharply" this year to a rate of about 4 percent. Best of all, the poorer nations are leading the way. Some rich countries, like the U.S. and Japan, are doing well, but the developing world is leading this economic surge. Developing countries are seeing their economies expand by 6.1 percent this year - an...

Last week I was joined at lunch by an Indian gentleman who had recently retired from a senior position at a semiconductor company of national repute in the United States. Much of his work in the last decade was in establishing production facilities for his company in China; not surprisingly, he displayed very intimate knowledge of the government and the industry in China, and how the two work in tandem to make China prosperous. Of Indian descent that he is, he kept bringing comparisons with the subcontinent into his conversation, and seemed to a have reached a conclusion, like most...

One area that I believe is a HUGE market inefficency is in the valuation of firms. We leave the valuation of firms to the owners, but there are more American stakeholders/beneficiaries of American firms and industries than merely the owners. The value to owners of a firm is the value of the discounted future cashflows of the firm. If the owner can sell for more than the discounted future cashflows, he is better off to do so and invest the money elsewhere. However, the value to all America stakeholders is quite different. Not only do the owners benefit, but so...

=DJ DATA SNAP: US Trade Deficit Widens Despite Strong Exports .======================================================! .International Trade !Surprise: No ! . Oct Sept !Trend: Stable ! . Deficit: $41.77B $41.34Br !At High Level ! . Exports: $87.96B $85.72Br !Consensus: ! . Imports: $129.73B $127.06Br !$41.8 Bln ! .======================================================! By Elizabeth Price Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. trade deficit widened in October, despite strong growth in exports that indicated the global economy is picking up. The U.S. deficit in international trade of goods and services rose to $41.77 billion from a revised $41.34 billion in September, the Commerce Department said Friday. The...

There are two major problems facing the United States today about which Congress is doing almost nothing. It's not that Congress doesn't know about them; everyone who watches television knows about them. It's just that Congress is paralyzed by the politics of these issues – the loss of American jobs overseas, and the flood of illegal immigrants into the US. Mexico is not the sole source of either of these problems. But it is at the top of both lists and can serve as an example for the other nations. A brief clip I saw on network television about twenty-five...

UPDATE - Record imports widen U.S. trade gap in September Thursday November 13, 8:57 am ET WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit widened in September to $41.3 billion, as the strengthening U.S. economy propelled imports from China and the rest of the world to record levels, the government said on Thursday. The trade gap was slightly larger than the mid-point estimate of $40.5 billion from analysts surveyed before the report. The deficit widened for the first time in six months as surging imports outstripped the biggest increase in exports in over three years, the Commerce Department said....

Last week I drove down Possumtrot Road, deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's in Yancey County, one of the most rural and least populated of North Carolina's 100 counties. Possumtrot Road is at an altitude of about 2,800 feet, but it is lined on both sides with rich bottom land. Much of that land lies fallow; many of the barns are falling to wrack and ruin. And thereon hangs a tale. First, a touch of geology. The Blue Ridge is the southern section of the Appalachian Chain, formed about 250 million years ago when the tectonic plate that is...

DATA SNAP: US Trade Deficit Expands As Imports Rise ======================================================! International Trade !Surprise: Yes ! . July June !Trend: Deficit! . Deficit: $40.32B $40.04B ! Rises ! . Exports: $86.15B $84.46B !Consensus: ! . Imports: $126.47B $124.49B !$41.0 Bln ! ======================================================! WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. trade deficit widened in July as purchases of foreign goods and services climbed to their second highest level on record. The U.S. deficit in international trade of goods and services rose to $40.32 billion from a revised $40.04 billion in June, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Analysts were expecting a larger deficit figure for July....

<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The economy of the 12-nation euro zone shrank in the second quarter of this year for the first time since the final quarter of 2001, but it's expected to gradually recover in coming months, reports showed Tuesday.</p>

DATA SNAP: US Trade Deficit Unexpectedly Narrows in June . ======================================================! International Trade !Surprise: Yes ! . June May !Trend: Deficit! . Deficit: $39.55B $41.48B ! Narrows ! . Exports: $84.62B $82.68B !Consensus: ! . Imports: $124.17B $124.16B !$41.80 Bln ! ======================================================! By Jeff Bater Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in June as exports climbed to their highest level in two years while imports remained flat. The U.S. deficit in international trade of goods and services narrowed to $39.55 billion from a revised $41.48 billion in May, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Analysts had...

The October 14 issue of Business Week featured an excerpt from a new book filled with old sophistries: The Politics of Fortune: A New Agenda for Business Leaders, by Jeffrey E. Garten (to be published by Harvard Business School Press). Garten is dean of the Yale School of Management and was Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade in the first Clinton Administration. Appearing just before Congress took up a resolution to give President George W. Bush authority to use military force against the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the article was titled, "A Foreign Policy Harmful to Business?" Garten's...

OK, so you don't care about the trade deficit. Maybe you buy the argument, most recently made by Undersecretary of the Treasury John Taylor, that it's a sign of America's economic strength, of our longstanding ability to grow faster than our trading partners. Maybe you're impressed by the growth of the U.S. economy and its manufacturing sector during the 1990s, when both boomed even as trade deficits skyrocketed. And maybe you think that the dollar's role as anchor of the world economy will let us run ever higher deficits forever. But here's another measure of America's trade performance that should...

President Bush has just sent his post-9/11 version of The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (NSS) to Congress. It is a very activist document that lays out what might properly be called the Bush Doctrine. The NSS proclaims: "We must be prepared to stop rogue states and their terrorist clients before they are able to threaten or use weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the United States and our allies and friends." These measures include "proactive counterproliferation efforts" that will "ensure that we can prevail in any conflict with WMD-armed adversaries." America will not wait to...

Unlike the four-man U.S. "peace" delegation that just visited Iraq, I'm not into giving helpful advice to Saddam Hussein (other than "Surrender yourself to U.S. Marshalls immediately!"). But if I was, I'd tell him to join the World Trade Organization and use its combination of anti-American politics and unthinking free trade extremism to stay in power and continue his arms buildup. Saddam would have no trouble getting in - lots of ruthless, dangerous dictatorships belong. And he'd gain virtual immunity from U.S. military and even economic power. The UN sanctions? He could have them declared to be discriminatory trade barriers....

When President George W. Bush went to the United Nations to make the case for military action against Iraq, there was no hint that he was asking permission from the U.N. for the United States to act in its own perceived national interests. Just before the president's appearance, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had argued against unilateral U.S. action, warning, "Every government that is committed to the rule of law at home must be committed also to the rule of law abroad." Annan's attempt to arrogate to the U.N. the authority to govern international law was ignored by President Bush, as...

Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, as they sang in 'Fiddler on the Roof.' Signs are growing more and more common that the economic establishment -- including even the national media -- are starting to get it on U.S. globalization policy. Although editorial writers remain stubborn holdouts, government officials, economists, and reporters are regularly acknowledging major arguments made for years by globalization critics -- especially we in the economic nationalist camp. Take trade deficits. Globalization cheerleaders still deride the notion that trade deficits of any size could weaken the American economy. Some even continue to insist that these imbalances are...

REDISTRIBUTION: THE U.N., TRADE AND CONFLICT From August 26 through September 4, over 4,000 official delegates and over 3,000 activists from 'non-government organizations'(NGOs) will meet at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. They will be joined at the end of the conference by the heads of state from 100 countries. It is being billed as the largest event the U.N. has ever staged, meant to tackle the largest problem the modern world has ever faced: economic development. Yet the entire venture can be summed up in one word: redistribution. That is one good reason for President...

Now that President Bush has won blank-check fast track trade authority, largely to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, he's providing a preview of his negotiating strategy. Domestic businesses and their workers should brace for a big hit. Despite its endless propaganda about Latin America's promising export markets, the administration's real intent seems to be giving the region unreciprocated access to the U.S. market. Exhibit Number One is Argentina. On August 28, the President announced that, rather than give Argentina another financial bailout, the United States would grant an immediate $126 million in trade benefits to that destitute...

President George W. Bush's economic forum in Waco, Texas brings to mind a similar conference held by the then newly elected (but not yet sworn in) president, Bill Clinton, in Little Rock, Arkansas in December, 1992. Both gatherings featured a mix of businessmen, academic economists and labor leaders, seeking ways to speed up the country's recovery from a recession. Clinton had run his 1992 election campaign on the theme that the American economy was in the worst shape in fifty years. In actuality, recovery from the mild 1990 downturn had already started by mid-1991, but it had been too slow...