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Today's Stories November 18, 2009 John Ross November 17, 2009 Mike Whitney Jayne Lyn Stahl Brian M. Downing Jonathan Cook Joanne Mariner Dean Baker Martha Rosenberg Danny Weil David Macaray Laura Flanders Walter Brasch November 16, 2009 Alan Nasser Jonathan Cook Mark Weisbrot Carol Miller Gary Leupp Harry Clark Ray McGovern Norman Solomon Ron Ridenour Norm Kent Brenda Norrell November 13-15, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Tariq Ali Douglas Lummis Vijay Prashad Carl Ginsburg Manuel García, Jr. Rannie Amiri Mary Lynn Cramer Fred Gardner Dave Lindorff Robert Jensen David Macaray Corporate Crime Reporter Ron Jacobs David Model John V. Walsh Jon Mitchell Stuart Easterling Dan Bacher Franklin Lamb Farzana Versey Charles R. Larson Saul Landau David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement
November 12, 2009 Robert Weissman Franklin Spinney Nadia Hijab Afshin Rattansi Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Belén Fernández Allan J. Lichtman Dave Lindorff Jayne Lyn Stahl November 11, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Mike Whitney Rev. Jesse Jackson Jeff Nygaard Stewart J. Lawrence James Ridgeway Eamonn McCann Michael Ortiz Hill Shepherd Bliss Walter Brasch November 10, 2009 Ellen Cantarow Dean Baker Rose Ann DeMoro Ramzy Baroud Peter Lee Dave Lindorff Roberto Rodriguez Winslow T. Wheeler Alan Farago Joseph Grosso November 9, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Linn Washington Carl Ginsburg Jeff Leys John A. Murphy John Halle Bouthaina Shaaban James Ridgeway Dave Lindorff David Macaray Stephen Fleischman Website of the Day November 6-8, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Mark Grueter Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Gareth Porter Mike Whitney James Bovard Dean Baker Robert Lawless Saul Landau Jayne Lyn Stahl Stephanie Westbrook M. Shahid Alam Marc Levy Franklin Lamb Ron Jacobs David Ker Thomson John V. Whitbeck Julien Mercille Rannie Amiri John Ross David Michael Green Carl Finamore Farzana Versey Missy Comley Beattie Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement November 5, 2009 Pam Martens Vijay Prashad Brian Gallagher Norman Solomon Nadia Hijab Joseph Shansky Andy Thayer Tracy Rosenberg Website of the Day November 4, 2009 Stan Cox Andy Worthington From Gitmo to Palau: Who are the Uighurs? Robert Weissman Susan Galleymore Ralph Nader Michael Leonardi Bitta Mistofi Robert Bryce Martha Rosenberg Dave Lindorff Website of the Day November 3, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Franklin C. Spinney Laura Carlsen Serge Halimi John Stanton Sophia Weeks Dave Lindorff November 2, 2009 Steven Higgs Ishmael Reed David Macaray Bouthaina Shaaban David Michael Green David Swanson Ellen Brown Adam Federman James McEnteer Stephen Fleischman Website of the Day October 30 - Nov. 1, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair / Carl Ginsburg Mike Whitney Joe Bageant Gareth Porter Saul Landau Anthony DiMaggio Dave Lindorff Rannie Amiri Niranjan Ramakrishnan Jayne Lyn Stahl Rev. William E. Alberts Alvaro Huerta Martha Rosenberg Binoy Kampmark Norm Kent Charles R. Larson Roth's "The Humbling:" Nothing Like a Novel From an Old Pro Ron Jacobs David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 29, 2009 Michael Neumann Mike Whitney Gary Leupp Conn Hallinan Marshall Auerback Laura Flanders Eamonn McCann David Macaray Mark Weisbrot Stephen Soldz Christopher Brauchli Website of the Day October 28, 2009 Moshe Adler Dave Lindorff Frank Joseph Smecker Alexandra Early M. Shahid Alam Vijay Prashad John Ross Franklin Lamb Gregory Travis Susan Galleymore Website of the Day October 27, 2009 Mike Whitney Patrick Cockburn Stewart J. Lawrence Alan Farago Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Bouthaina Shaaban Brian M. Downing Elections in Afghanistan, the Second Time Around Iain Boal Carl Finamore Jayne Lyn Stahl Website of the Day October 26, 2009 Bill Quigley / Paul Craig Roberts Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Michael Snedeker Shamus Cooke David Michael Green Martha Rosenberg Patrick Bond Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day
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A Recipe for More Lost Jobs at HomeObama's China JunketBy MIKE WHITNEY Barack Obama took Hu Jintao to task on Tuesday, scolding the dejected-looking Chinese leader at a press conference held in Beijing. Obama delivered one ferocious jab after another, claiming that China's dollar-peg has cost the US millions of high-paying manufacturing jobs while creating gigantic trade imbalances which have destabilized the global economy and thrust the world into a severe recession. Obama demanded that the Chinese government convert to market-oriented exchange rates immediately to preserve jobs in America and to end the de facto tariff that China applies to US goods through currency manipulation. Obama's sharply-worded statement left Hu gasping for air while the assembled members of the western press snapped to their feet in raucous applause. Okay, so it didn't really go down like that. The aforementioned "Obama-Jintao smackdown" never really took place; it's a fairy tale. The actual press conference was predictably bland and uneventful; another tedious exercise in international diplomacy. There were no fireworks or gaffes, nor was there any headway on any of the main issues; climate change, human rights, Iran or currency manipulation. Obama made a few perfunctory remarks about bilateral cooperation and the US's "strong commitment to a one-China policy", after which he was quickly transported to the Great Wall for a photo-op with the fawning media. The trip was a complete bust, in other words, it went exactly according to plan. American workers and union bosses were hoping that Obama would plead their case and demand an end to China's currency policy which pegs the renminbi to the dollar. The policy gives China a leg-up on US exports which ends up costing America jobs. But, apart from a mild rebuke about "market-oriented exchange rates"--which was approved by his Chinese hosts--Obama avoided the topic like the plague. The rock-star president showed no interest in sparring with his new friends to defend the interests of US workers, a growing number of who spend their days perusing the want-ads or standing in unemployment lines. The New York Times Helene Cooper, who accompanied Obama on his Asia junket, suggests that "China effectively stage-managed President Obama’s public appearances" and that "In a masterstroke, they shifted the public discussion from the global risks posed by Chinese currency policy." Right. While Cooper's faux-narrative creates a plausible excuse for Obama's negligence, its mostly nonsense. The reason Obama didn't make a fuss over the dollar peg is because it doesn't serve the interests of his constituents. As far as the big-money guys are concerned, the present system works just fine, so why rock-the-boat? If Obama was serious about saving American jobs, there's many ways he could remove China's finger from the scales. Economist Dean Baker explained one way this could be done in an article this week in Counterpunch:
Baker's remedy would be a boon to American manufacturing and put China on notice that US policymakers are serious about reducing the massive and destabilizing imbalances. Consider also, that all of the Fed's extraordinary actions to date have been aimed at generating inflation to weaken the dollar (to increase exports) and speed up the recovery. It's only logical that Obama would want to strengthen those policies by forcing China to abandon the dollar-peg. But that's just not the case. The administration shows no interest in pressuring China to reverse the present policy. Why? Economist Mark Weisbrot solves this mystery in another counterpunch article titled "The US must Solve its own Economic Problems". Weisbrot sums it up like this:
Weisbrot is clearly onto to something, but his analysis only tells half of the story. The truth is that Obama is just carrying on the work of George W. Bush and Henry Paulson. He's trying to pry open Chinese markets to US financial services. That's the real purpose of the visit. The lavish presidential excursion has nothing to do with human rights, climate change, or dollar/yuan rebalancing. That's all just public relations mumbo-jumbo. Congress is in on the fraud, too. They could end China's yuan hanky-panky in minute by applying trade sanctions. But they choose not to, because Congress is a fully-owned subsidiary of Wall Street. They dare not do anything that will offend their constituents. Here's how the system works: China sells the US cheap lead-based widgets, and then recycles the dollars into US Treasurys and dodgy financial products. This provides the gargantuan investment banks with a reliable flow of cheap capital to goose stocks and fatten the bottom line. Of course, the process does have it's shortcomings, like the fact that it crushes the domestic work-force, but that's how it was designed to work anyway. What economists call "unsustainable imbalances" are praised at the big brokerage houses as "windfall profits". The total destruction of the US labor movement is just an added perk for these well-heeled, flag-waving, uber-patriots. And here's another point of interest curious readers. This is an excerpt from an interview with Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach:
So, a large portion of China's industrial capacity is actually "China-based multinational corporations". In other words, US workers are actually competing head-to-head with US industries that are using sweatshop labor to enrich themselves while savaging the American middle class. Great. I wonder how many of these "industry leaders" affix the stars-n-stripes to their lapel each morning before they trundle off to work? This proves that the outsourcing of jobs, the off-shoring of businesses, and the "free trade" laws are mainly the work of cutthroat American corporatists not the "rascally Chinese" as the media would like everyone to believe. China is not destroying America; blue-blooded, brandy-guzzling, Harvard-educated Americans are. It's just good old fashioned class warfare. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's recent article in the Wall Street Journal, "The Road Ahead for Asia's Economies" explains in detail, the real US-China policy. Here's an excerpt:
In other words, more lowering of trade barriers, more lost jobs at home, more unemployment.
Summary: Geithner and Co. see the US economy languishing in a low-grade Depression for the foreseeable future. Thus, Wall Street is planning a major shift in its base-of-operations to Asia. This is the real reason behind Obama's trip to China. There's no truth to the rumor that US policymakers give a hoot about "currency manipulation" or the ongoing trouncing of the American worker. China's "dollar-peg" essentially serves the interests of the giant multinational corporations and Wall Street speculators who own the media, the courts, the congress, the White House and most of the country. Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com
Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter! Obama and Black America Ten months into Obama-time, the plight of black Americans is terrible. Yet overwhelmingly they rally behind the president. In a powerful report from the Deep South Kevin Alexander Gray asks the question: what should the black political agenda be? Mark Rudd counterposes “organizing” with “activism” and describes what it will take to build a movement. H. Bruce Franklin gives a chronology of the march into Afghanistan. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift:
"Powerful and shocking ..
Waiting for
Lightning
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