The Perils of Decoupling

India, China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, N. Africa, the Middle East and South America are slowly giving rise to become the engines of the global economy for the 21^st century. Perhaps it is only fitting that the past champions the US, the UK and greater Europe will be finding themselves taking a ticket like yesterday’s emerging economies and waiting in line for handouts, bailouts and the hopes of foreign joint ventures and capital investments from overseas.

The same raiders who dismantled a perfectly good phone company in the US (ole Ma Bell) and took Americans from a nation where “banks were banks” with safeguards of functioning regulations that worked and were in place, to a “greed gone wild”, overly diced and undisciplined, dysfunctional society are still with them. They are, for lack of a better term “American Corporate Fascists”. (Sorry, that was the kindest thing that came to mind.) They are responsible for the fall of many things, including the Republican Party! Unfortunately, no matter how well and how quickly the Obama administration sets the system right once again (and which I am convinced it will), the fact of the matter remains that “Corporate Fascism” has set the United States on a course no different than any country north of the Panama Canal.

Before I close on my final points here let me say that “I do actively invest in publicly-held companies” and I embrace the vehicle, structure and basic functions of “the Corporation”, it this “fascist thing” I have a problem with! The anatomy and characteristics of the beast in question has been so blindly infatuated with destroying the middle class, loop-holing sound law and expanding world domination that, hence “it” is now the only thing left to fuel an economic engine since in the aftermath of its wake what you’re left with is an enormously large pool of have-nots and basically no one left “to buy stuff”! For the purpose of example of just how out of control this monster is, I’ll share with you an example of how American Corporate Fascism is so rapacious that it's devouring its own economy (hence, itself).

I know a close associate who’s employed by a US company that was once on the “top 100 US companies to work for list” a number of years back. Currently the company has slashed wages 12%, completely scrapped the 401-k 100% company match for 5% of contributions, while at the same time allotted $750 million to change one single word in the entity’s name. At the same time, there have been policy changes. Employees are now met at the door to check their shoe color, the length of their socks and are asked to open their mouths to check for body-piercing. Furthermore, this corporate monster has completely put all its employees at a great disadvantage once inflation returns (and it will return with a vengeance this time). So now not only are its people just surviving with low morale, but they will not be buying anything now and they certainly won’t be able to under a hyper-inflationary environment. In essence, the monster just don’t get it; “you need people to feel good enough and get paid enough to buy stuff moron, or even towering fascist entities will fall like a Berlin wall!

Yes, as much as I hate to admit it, “decoupling” is well underway in the United States and even though it will always matter to the rest of the world, it will be to a lesser and lesser extent overtime. “A banana republic with missiles” will be about the kindest reference you can expect to America in the future. As hardworking, diligent and accurate President Obama and his administration are in fixing our current aftermath of the beast, the fact will remain beyond anyone’s reach “the United States is decoupling”, not only by a smaller degree to the world economically, but to a much greater degree in terms of social and domestic prosperity and forced austerity. If you're young enough to do something about it, learn both Mandarin and Hindi, Japanese and Cantonese or Arabic and Portuguese along with your English or you won’t have the necessary edge you need out of college. Allocate the bulk of your investments and savings in the countries mentioned at the opening of this letter while considering a major move to a country that doesn’t border on countries with cheaper labor and still has a sound quality of life to offer.

Comments

[kelm:]

You will get a lot of flack for this article but I liked it!

I have worked for many years at a major US corporation that is known world wide. I have seen nothing on Wall Street that is any different from the corporate culture at this large manufacturing concern. The destructive elements that have developed are rampant throughout corporate America. One disturbing way t manifests itself is a view on the part of the leadership that "I only have to keep this enterprise going until I retire". That short term thinking dooms everything as he leaders are not building forever.

As for the relationship to fascist ideology (and I encourage everyone to look up the definition), I wrote a piece on my site some weeks ago that draws a parallel between the denial that Wall Street is exhibiting and the holocaust.

www.murdockglobalinsig...

Mar 10 09:55 AM

[Tim Singleton:]

Well, I was with you until you expressed confidence in Obama.

You are right about the Republican party, though. Fascist collaboration with big business has been in play for decades and it did not start with Bush.

As for me, I plan to learn the langauges you mentioned and be buried in a foreign land before it is over with. The American experiment in a representative republic is dead. It was sold and betrayed in exchange for things like medicaid and beans in retirement. A true capitalist takes advantage of the situation, no matter the supposed form of government he finds himself under.

The government form that I believed I lived under, a representative republic, is a farce. I don't know but what it is been a farce during my entire lifetime.

America is a failed state for a couple of glaring reasons. 1)Promising more than they can ever deliver, 2)acting as though inflation is not a measurable, controllable thing, 3)not making the government live within ITS means...yes, it matters if you just print money, 4)refusing to get over the past. I am of mixed blood and if I can get over what was done to the Choctaw then blacks can bygod get over slavery and move on, and 5)embracing the bizzare belief that people somehow have a Constitutional right to healthcare and a home on other people's dime.

The Republican's are whores for business and the Democrats sell lies and stolen money to the poor in exchange for votes.

Good job.

Tim (capitalist-conservati... believer in a republic NOT the Republican Party, and defiant foe to those who want to force me to live under marxism no matter how pretty a face you want to put on it or how much felt lines the chains and that includes defying Obama through every means possible.)

Mar 10 11:17 AM

[samwise:]

I've learned Mandarin. Somehow getting paid 10 cents an hour while working 80 hours a week with no health benefits while makie Barbie Dolls didn't appeal to me. Now I deliver mail with a guranteed federal job and good free cash flow (thanks to you, by the way.) the "corportate fascists" seem surprisingly poor right now. how come all those greedy people don't have any money? Probably a story there, but none that I care to explore. more to the point, how come all those American farm boys in Iraq and Afghanistan who don't get paid a dime keep defending Paris from being razed to the ground by angry Muslims "living in the suburbs." Or was that London? Or Mumbai? Or Buenas Aires? Or Bali? Or Xian? Or Moscow? Or Madrid? Something tells me I missed a few. In any case, I wish I could agree with you that anarchy is the best alternative--still can't figure out how that defeats the corporate fascists, either I guess. Anywho, there's some guy with a beard who lives in a cave that is telling me otherwise and as an old grunge tune said, "there's no sex in your violence." How about you? Any sex in your violence Jean-Paul?

Mar 10 12:48 PM

[alphadominance:]

Great piece. Those at the top are so profoundly isolated from the experience of the common American that they fail to realize that the rest of us have less and less reason to maintain our end of the social contract. If hyperinflation commences we will have no reason to continue producing so the fat-cats can steal our productivity. Even today the incentives are poor for the majority of Americans. Two income families with poorer quality of life than the one income family of the 50's. The only thing we have left to give up to the rapacious corporate masters is child labor. Doubtless they wouldn't object in the slightest.

Mar 10 01:32 PM

[sr9web:]

The average shareholder will nver amass enough shares that selling options against them, here and there, will provide enough income to live. Simply put, unless corporations reinvent themselves around a high dividend model, owning shares is of no real benefit to a small investor. Better to save all your cash in the bank and buy a car wash, some coin-op laundries, a pizza shop or donut shop. That said, I trade and I'm in the market, but it's very tough sledding and frankly, the selection of companies you can "bank on" is very limited. Wall St. has done such a great job of helping to piss-away American wealth, that large numbers of investors are going to look to owning a small business instead of investing.

Mar 10 03:46 PM

[Carl Reed:]

Controversy is the mother of solution.

Apr 20 09:21 AM

[Dmseaman:]

Three cheers!!!!!!!!!!!
Though there is one more wave to ride still. DEFENSE! Sadly I have been unable to grasp the intricacies of a second language (Arabic is a tough one even while deployed to Iraq), but the intelligence field in particular is still a grand place. Cuts to the defense industry are sure to arise at some point, but try getting those cuts through Congress and they'll take your hand off. In particular the intelligence field is clearly a force multiplier these days, and since we overlooked it for two decades one can understand why the current administration is a strong supporter (on that note LMT is positioning themselves very well for the new cyber security command standing up soon, thats the new fight! Causes minimal blood shed but still with very large expenditures, perfect mix to keep up the those profits margins!)
I pray for our great country, if one loves his home you can't pick up and leave it for others to destroy, you stay and work at rebuilding it to the right place it deserves.


On Mar 10 11:17 AM Tim Singleton wrote:

> Well, I was with you until you expressed confidence in Obama.
>
> You are right about the Republican party, though. Fascist collaboration
> with big business has been in play for decades and it did not start
> with Bush.
>
> As for me, I plan to learn the langauges you mentioned and be buried
> in a foreign land before it is over with. The American experiment
> in a representative republic is dead. It was sold and betrayed in
> exchange for things like medicaid and beans in retirement. A true
> capitalist takes advantage of the situation, no matter the supposed
> form of government he finds himself under.
>
> The government form that I believed I lived under, a representative
> republic, is a farce. I don't know but what it is been a farce during
> my entire lifetime.
>
> America is a failed state for a couple of glaring reasons. 1)Promising
> more than they can ever deliver, 2)acting as though inflation is
> not a measurable, controllable thing, 3)not making the government
> live within ITS means...yes, it matters if you just print money,
> 4)refusing to get over the past. I am of mixed blood and if I can
> get over what was done to the Choctaw then blacks can bygod get over
> slavery and move on, and 5)embracing the bizzare belief that people
> somehow have a Constitutional right to healthcare and a home on other
> people's dime.
>
> The Republican's are whores for business and the Democrats sell lies
> and stolen money to the poor in exchange for votes.
>
> Good job.
>
> Tim (capitalist-conservati... believer in a republic NOT the Republican
> Party, and defiant foe to those who want to force me to live under
> marxism no matter how pretty a face you want to put on it or how
> much felt lines the chains and that includes defying Obama through
> every means possible.)

May 20 03:13 PM