Skip to comments.
Four Obvious Signs Of Asia’s Rise Over The West
Zero Hedge ^
| 04/03/2012
| Simon Black
Posted on 04/03/2012 8:16:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Submitted by Simon Black from Sovereign Man
Four Obvious Signs Of Asias Rise Over The West
Six centuries ago, when London and Paris were irrelevant, plague-infested backwaters, and New York City wasnt even on the map, the greatest city in the world was Nanjing the capital of the Great Ming.
At the time, Nanjing was not only the most populous city on the planet, it was also the pinnacle of civilization. Art, science, technology, and commerce flourished in the Ming Dynastys liberalized economy, which constituted a full 31% of global GDP at the time.
(By comparison, the US economy is roughly 25% of global GDP today
)
Taxes were low, the currency was strong, and overseas trade thrived. For a time, Nanjing truly was the center of the world.
Over the next several hundred years, the tide shifted. The Ming Dynasty fell, and power was transferred further west to the Ottoman Empire, and eventually to Europe which had finally emerged from the Dark Ages as the most advanced civilization on Earth.
Pointless crusades and inquisitions gave way to a surge in medical, technological, and scientific breakthroughs. By the late 17th century, western civilization had asserted its primacy in the global pecking order.
This phenomenon has lasted for several hundred years now
but as history has shown repeatedly, power centers frequently shift. The world is now witnessing yet another transition of power, this time from west to east, as the US-led western hierarchy suffocates within its own debt-laden Keynesian fiat bubble.
Most westerners refuse to believe it. They cant envision an era in which the west doesnt lead the world
in everything. And yet, that time is already upon us. Perhaps nowhere is this more pronounced than in finance:
1) Hong Kong, from whence I write this missive, has been home to the most public offerings in the world ever since overtaking New York in 2009. In 2010, more than $57 billion was raised in Hong Kong IPOs, roughly twice as much as New York.
From Italian luxury house Prada to the luggage maker Samsonite to Swiss metals house Glencore to the US handbag maker Coach, big names have been attracted to Hong Kong. Rovio, the creator of the popular Angry Birds game, is expected to list in Hong Kong as well.
Whereas it was once the obvious choice to list in the US (or London), Hong Kong has now become the best option for most businesses seeking public capital.
2) According to the Financial Times Banker intelligence unit, Singapore leads every other major financial center in the world in financial sector foreign investment.
The top three, in fact, are Singapore, Dubai, and Hong Kong. Singapore receives more financial sector foreign investment than New York, London, Frankfurt, and Switzerland combined.
Money goes where it is treated best
and the market is telling us that Singapore is the right destination.
3) According to a new study from the Inter-American Dialogue, China is now dominating emerging market development finance, especially in Latin America.
In the past, countries like Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela went to the World Bank and IMF when they needed money. But now these vestigial organizations of the old western hierarchy are becoming a sideshow to Chinese financial muscle.
The study shows that, since 2005, Chinese banks have loaned more money and made more loan commitments to Latin America than the World Bank and International Development Bank combined
and theyre doing it at higher interest rates.
Why? Because developing nations have figured out that when you take the World Banks money, you have to put up with them telling you how to run your government. Chinese bank loans dont come with political strings attached.
Its extraordinary that this is happening in the USs backyard.
4) The most obvious sign of Asias rise is the perhaps now forgone conclusion of Chinas currency becoming a new global reserve option to compete with the dollar and euro.
Every month it seems, there is a new move to loosen Chinas once-strict currency controls and open up new central bank currency swaps, renminbi (RMB)-denominated futures contracts in Chinese exchanges, the introduction of RMB accounts at non-Chinese banks, non-Chinese companies issuing bonds in RMB, etc.
In fact, if you want to mark your calendar on the day the West concedes to Asia, it will be when the US government begins issuing Treasury securities denominated in renminbi.
None of this means that North America and Europe are falling off the edge of the earth. What it does mean is that the old system is being reset, and the rules being rewritten.
Its not the first time in history that such a shift has occurred, and it wont be the last. This change is nothing to fear
merely something to accept, embrace, and prepare for.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: asia; west
To: SeekAndFind
Vietnam is moving to the right of us with its economic policies
To: SeekAndFind
A reminder to “free trade” drinkers:
Galts Gulch is fiction.
Wang now operates the factories... so there’s nothing to move to the Gulch even if it did exist.
America first. Bring it back. All of it.
To: SeekAndFind
When Mexicans start sailing for China in makeshift rafts THEN we’ll know we’re screwed.
4
posted on
04/03/2012 8:24:40 PM PDT
by
Impy
(Don't call me red.)
To: Impy
No we’re well and truly screwed already.
Making jokes about the danger facing America, only distracts attention, and delays fixing the catastrophe that un-American globalist “free traders” have wrought upon our nation.
It’s not funny at all.
America first.
/rant
To: SeekAndFind
Show me a democratic country that has reversed its disastrous course without a major and violent political upheaval. Even with one, Argentina could not do it!
To: Cringing Negativism Network
Free trade (ie not TAXING imports) is not our problem. Neither are jokes.
7
posted on
04/03/2012 8:45:22 PM PDT
by
Impy
(Don't call me red.)
To: SeekAndFind
Who won the cold war?...
Its like I slid into another dimension...
America had everything going for it than WHAM..
The motor blew up... flat tires.. and black paint all over the windshield..
You might think some international cabal moved Americas manufacturing base all the way to India and China..
Maybe they DID!??.
Not while america was asleep but because america was DRUGGED,...
Higher than the Mad Hatter.. drunker than the mouse.. creepier than the Cheshire Cat..
If not by illegal drugs then by legal ones..
Booze, pot, opiates, ritalin, coke, crack and givernment checks..
America is eye rollin, droolin, gaw-gaw...
8
posted on
04/03/2012 9:23:50 PM PDT
by
hosepipe
(This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole...)
To: Impy
I’d say not taxing imports, and not protecting our markets, is a very big part of our problem.
It’s working very well for China.
Which does both.
China is profoundly protectionist.
As are most Asian countries.
Japan. Korea. Taiwan. You think you can just sell American exported goods to any of them?
Wake the heck up people.
We’re like the sl_t of the entire world, giving it all away for free. Yes, America is a trade sl_t.
Time to say “no”. Have some self respect!
For once in our giving it away, lives.
“No”.
I know it’s hard. Try it once ... “No”.
Pay a tariff.
A big tariff to start, until we get this mess turned around.
America first.
To: SeekAndFind
Chasing slave labor will only bring us to ruin in the end, contrary to the short term profits the moneychangers see today. In the long term, building companies inside of our own borders will be more profitable in the long run.
10
posted on
04/03/2012 9:36:07 PM PDT
by
factoryrat
(We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
To: Cringing Negativism Network; GOPsterinMA; fieldmarshaldj
That last thing we need is more taxes. Taxes will be passed on the consumer.
Our problems are unions, taxes, regulations, unions, taxes, stupid children because of horrible union-run public schools, and unions. We had a depression once, it was made much worse by the knee-jerk passage of a new tariff bill.
If domestic manufacturers are concerned about competing with cheaper foreign goods they need to either
A)Make better stuff to justifty the higher cost
B)Make the products cheaper, like by getting rid of union labor
the answer is not C) Have the goverment tax their competitors for them.
11
posted on
04/03/2012 9:44:16 PM PDT
by
Impy
(Don't call me red.)
To: Impy
Tariffs are not taxes.
Tariffs, IMPORT TARIFFS are the way America operated originally funded the federal government.
When we were becoming a global manufacturing, military and technological superpower.
To: Revolting cat!
The United States reversed the disastrous course of the 60’s and 70’s in the 80’s. Didn’t go far enough though and we have slipped back. But if things look bad now, we had 10% unemployment, 14% inflation, 70% top tax rate, a demoralized military, and a mortal threat from the USSR back then. It only took a few years of Reagan to bounce back. Unfortunately I don’t see a Reagan around to help..
13
posted on
04/03/2012 10:11:15 PM PDT
by
Wayne07
To: Cringing Negativism Network
Tariffs are not taxes.Yeah they are. Why don't you look the words up in the dictionary.
IMPORT TARIFFS are the way America operated originally funded the federal government.
Not anymore. And the current tax burden is plenty high enough thank you very much. Those bastards shouldn't get another dime.
I can't believe I'm arguing with a conservative that wants to take MORE money from the American consumer (to whom the cost of your new tax WILL be passed on) and give it to the federal goverment to waste. Brilliant!
And what happens when manufacturers decide to make goods even more expensive? You raise your tariff again to keep it all "fair".
Would cars be covered under your tariff that's "not a tax"? Trying to help the UAW?
14
posted on
04/03/2012 10:13:40 PM PDT
by
Impy
(Don't call me red.)
To: Cringing Negativism Network
High import tariffs will immediately wipe out half the small businesses in America, who rely on low-cost imports to achieve any profit margin at all. Not a single tariff advocate ever considers this angle, bedazzled as they are by illusions of the gleaming factories and middle-class workers of the 1950's springing back to life. But businesses are built on today's realities, not yesterday's fantasies. Make a change as drastic as imposing high tariffs and more disruption will result than came from off-shoring in the first place.
On the other hand, the tariffs might create a few dues-paying union factory jobs at Chrysler.
Sounds like a win-win for the Obama Administration. :)
15
posted on
04/03/2012 10:31:06 PM PDT
by
Mr. Jeeves
(CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
To: SeekAndFind
The first, most obvious and prominent sign: Obama.
That the nation would elect him, and that he would - despite everything that’s happened in the past three years - maintain nearly fifty percent popularity, signals the decline of America into a second-rate, socialist entity with diminishing influence in world affairs and diminishing respect in the eyes of the many other nations around the world.
It’s happened. It’s over. It’s in the history books. There’s no going back. Fuggedaboudit.
To: SeekAndFind
Nanjing was never the "pinnacle of civilization".
And today, most asian ciites are roach and rat infested holes with little evidence of any cultural or artistic sense. These absurd myths that westerners peddle about asia: that asia is some mysterious land of high civilization, predating the west and outstripping the west today, are laughed at by those who have been to China, India etc and know those tales are false, just like the fairytales of chinese 3-digit IQ and the fairytales about chinese kung-fu masters.
17
posted on
04/04/2012 8:49:16 AM PDT
by
Ethan Clive Osgoode
(<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson