I’m a Canuck, as those who’ve met me know. Like others from the Great White North, I was raised on American network TV and popular culture. I understand American culture and my world view tends to be outward looking. Naturally, I observe the coming US election with some interest and curiosity. That said, I observe always as an outsider; I don’t take sides. I’ve noticed this isn’t always the case with some of my country-men/women.
A few of my American friends have “come out” to me and disclosed that they’re seriously considering McCain. They then told me they wouldn’t have told all Canadians their preferences, “eh.” Some Canadians seem more opinionated on US politics than Americans. Really? Is this true? For me, I believe if my friends have thought about it, then I respect their choices, their suffrage and their right to vote with their consciences. I say there are worse things in life than being a conservative.
I guess I simply don’t identify with the political parties of what is, for me, a foreign (albeit friendly) country. So, fellow Canucks: what gives?
As we are currently experiencing ala the global financial meltdown, the US government can have a far reaching impact on the lives of most people outside it’s borders, As such, it essentially ceases to be a purely domestic concern.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]As we are currently experiencing ala the global financial meltdown, the US government can have a far reaching impact on the lives of most people outside it’s borders, As such, it essentially ceases to be a purely domestic concern.
HG[/quote]
I see the economy-- command-style economies aside-- as largely beyond the control of the head of state of a given country, although s/he will traditionally take the fall for its poor performance. To that end, I don’t see the US president as “running” the economies of either the US or anywhere else.
You know what Trudeau said about sleeping next to an elephant.
Well, in the last couple of elections, the elephant shit the bed.
I’m interested in seeing that doesn’t happen again.
I’m interested in politics generally, not just in Canada or the US – it does much to shape our lives, expresses our aspirations, and hopefully empowers the marginalized; it also trips us up into war, financial, and social disasters – I understand why most people aren’t interested, but I’m not built that way. I’m also far, far more concerned with policy than party.
In theory, yes, but when the government of the world’s largest economy opts to print money in the form of a huge deficit, and allows the creation of various means to package and resell it’s country’s mortgage debt, which is then flushed through the global credit market. that theory no longer applies.
Now that works for me in an orgy, but, you know . . .
And how come no one has mentioned the war on everything? When the US doth smite, we are all smitten. They should really give us a percentage of the vote.
In theory, yes, but when the government of the world’s largest economy opts to print money in the form of a huge deficit, and allows the creation of various means to package and resell it’s country’s mortgage debt, which is then flushed through the global credit market. that theory no longer applies.
HG[/quote]
OT, I know, but your post made me recall a friend I had a while back. He decried the move away from the gold standard and had/(likely still has) no faith in modern currency. So, he regularly took his savings and bought gold-- actually, physically bought gold-- and ferreted it away in a safety deposit box for use in the future economic apocalypse. I always thought him to be a little eccentric and paranoid. Maybe he’ll laugh last.
Your friend is wise. Well, not if he put all his savings into gold, but a reasonable hedge is a very good idea. See for example statements by the infamous Doctor Gloom, Dr Marc Faber.
Sour grapes. We could all get off our arses and try to be “Number 1” instead. If American politics, economics, culture, etc. overwhelm or unduly influence our own, then it’s only because we have an inferior product and/or a lack of faith in ourselves. If people really didn’t want all the “crap” from America, then they could divest themselves of it, but that would require some effort on everyone else’s part. It’s much easier to complain about how evil/corrupt/bullying/culturally bereft America is.
It should be obvious to even the most casual observer that the US economy as the biggest in the world has a huge impact on everybody else.
Moreover, the US financial markets are at the center of the global financial systgem, IE if they go, we all go. As this is currently happening, most people be it in business or in finance are following what happens in the US with much more than a passing interest.
Back when I was working with Huang Guang Chen, it was so bloody easy to tell what way the TAIEX would go that day. All we needed to do was to look at the us indices - the r squared between TWSE and IXIC was 0.69? That’s influence you can believe in.
And also, the US is the destination for a very large bit of what China and Taiwan produce. That means that a clumsy president will directly lead to economic hardship here. Watch over the coming months as money gets scarce here and parents start to pull kids out of the cram schools, that will be caused by poor financial management on the part of the US govt.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Damned tootin’! We could all just positively affirm that vast debt issue away!
HG[/quote]
The problem you refer to goes back decades before the current administration’s tenure. To pin it all on Bush, as if he caused it all, shows a very dilettantish understanding of a complex problem, the roots of which go back several US presidents.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Damned tootin’! We could all just positively affirm that vast debt issue away!
HG[/quote]
Yeah, we could. On a personal level, non-Americans could show some financial responsibility. En masse, we’re equally as stupid and greedy. George Bush and co. didn’t make everyone else buy those plasma screens on credit or negatively gear their third and fourth negatively geared houses.
On a national level, we could all start by avoiding the U.S. as much as possible. Everyone wants to knock America off its pedestal, well fine then, make someone else number one. Get off the USD onto the Euro. Hell, get onto Reals, Roubles or Rupees for all I care. Stop trading with them. Whatever. There are ways and means, but we choose not to do them because of the short-term pain, yet that short-term pain goes on and on and on and becomes long-term pain. We’ll complain everytime something goes wrong with/in the U.S., yet we make few moves to actually uncouple the caboose.
I get sick of hearing how moral or how much everyone else has his shit together (but just keeps getting dragged down by the Evil Empire), when clearly, no one does, and more to the point, clearly, no one (save the really dodgy countries like Russia and China) has any intention of getting that way.
Only a select few can aspire to be a, “dilettant”.
Funny this topic should be brought up. Seems I remember having discussions in the early 2000’s about what would happen to the debt markets when certain classes of T-Bill dissapeared due to the national debt being paid down.
Lot of good a war and abolishion of the “death tax” did for us, eh?
What’s caused the current financial panic is basically a very poorly thought out risk spreading measure, IE CDS’s. There’s been numerous warnings about them recently, and the current US administration should have been on that one a fair bit earlier, however they choose not to.
The root of that was a US housing bubble, which in its entirity developed under Bush.
I think it’s fair to blame him for this, and it would take a shaky grasp on economics indeed to claim otherwise.
We may have been in for a recession anyways, however a financial panic is a bit of a deepener of any recession. Note that we got through the dot com bust with little damage to the financial system, we saw collapses of a big hedge fund in 1998, of Asian economies in 1997, and of the Mexican economy in 1994. None of that led to a systemic failure of the US financial system, due to sound regulation and a better understood risk profile.
All that was blown completely away by the current administration’s nearly maoistic insistence on politically reliable appointments instead of competent ones. Again, all this was known well in advance, with people raising the alarm about this 6-7 years ago. Plenty of time to act.
I am a bit confused by the number of complete ignorants making uninformed posts about issues like this one, betraying no understanding of how international trade and finance actually works.
Keep on willing away US influence before Bush and McSame does it for you.
It has everything to do with (not) willing away U.S. influence. Everyone loves to complain about the U.S., its crappy culture, etc. Yet I notice that there’s a McDonald’s on every street corner, kids listen to rap and watch American action movies, and hell, they even write and speak American English. If people didn’t support the U.S. at these levels, it wouldn’t have the influence it does.
