Raymond Inquires as to China Tariff on US Autos

I read this today and was just curious of what your thoughts are..

I personally don’t know what to think but 21% is a bit excessive..

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-gets-revenge-obama-tariff-u-autos-213747820.html

Raymond

When I was buying from China in the late 1970s, duties on Chinese goods started at 50% and commonly ran to 100%, and sometimes 150%.  China trade grew anyway.  The USA government offered to the Chinese to reduce the duties if they would “liberalize” their economy.

This is a skirmish.  Mexican avocados are not permitted in USA to protect California avocado growers from competition.  So Mexico looked down the list of USA ag exports to Mexico, and found USA apples were the same size market in Mexico as Mexican avocados are in the USA.  So Mexico retaliated by banning apple imports (USA exports) into Mexico.  It is how the game is played.

In China it is import cars vs export tires.  China is more free market than capitalist. The trick of capitalism is to condemn people to slavery by making their debts so onerous they are stuck working for you for life.  Haiti is poor because its debts cannot ever be repaid.  The Haiti elite are Harvard educated individuals who work with their cohort they met at Harvard.  This cohot controls the commanding heights in Haiti.  These people keep the outflow constant, and their people oppressed, and in turn they are protected by, ultimately, the US Military. 

The heart of the game is debt, and debt service (usury, or what we commonly call interest).  We promise a country that we will build them a dam and modernize their country through electrification, on credit.  We overbuild, and the electrification does not modernize the country.  The debts are rolled over, and the usury (interest we call it) is payable in perpetuity.  Haiti cannot ever get out from under what they “owe” the French.  The elite in these countries are all trained at the best western universities, and they are linked to the leaders in the dominant countries.

The plan was to enslave China for USA capitalists.  Communists know that game.  There is a counter to the game, and China is running it (free markets).  Further, China is too big to swallow.  These little trade disputes grow into wars.

The capitalists overplayed their hand, and their system is failing.  USA citizens will suffer, but it does not matter to the powers that be, because they would rather rule over hell than be a grocery clerk in heaven.  They will keep us in hell where they can rule.

This is not only done to foreigners, but to USA citizens: the mortgage debts are meant to enslave, and student loans cannot be bankrupted, a guaranteed slavery of our best and brightest.  But there is a way out of both problems: join the US Military.  Banks cannot foreclose on active duty military, students loans are paid by the military if you join. Coincidence?

If we want to be free, consider interest agreements like gambling debts: they have no standing in law.  No court will listen to a claim for a gambling debt.  When no court will listen to a claim for interest payments (usury), then the abusive system comes tumbling down. There is nothing that cannot be financed without usury, so we can easily afford to get rid of it.  But usury promises gratification now for payment later.  it is an easy sell.

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Jeremy Checks In With Money Visualized

This might help you wrap your brain around what and where is money, or what is called money...

http://xkcd.com/980/

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Banking & Why Neither Left Nor Right Has a Solution

Why neither the left nor right will ever address our problems:

View this excellent 20 minute video on banking, and see how it works.  Then ponder this:  you can see the evil of Wall Street in practice, but the practice funds both the left and the right.  Neither is going to vote or regulate themselves out of existence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyyaE3DIxhc&feature=player_embedded

Watch the follow up video, the plot thickens and it gets even better.    His conclusion is we can have all we have without the mischief of fractional reserve banking.  Perzactly!

Capitalism, or communism for that matter, or any ism, is simply a set of practices that gets codified in law.  Those laws we call “positive” or statutory, as opposed to common law or convention out of practice.  People clamor to systems that offer security in trade for freedom.  None of us has the right to make such a trade, but most people do.  No one has the right, but everyone has the power to do so.

Natural law points to a set of practices that leads to peace and prosperity, but the paradox is that it has no structure, no command post, no commanding heights.  This offends those infected with libido dominandi, and their minions who fear having to defend themselves.  Between these two stand the vast swathe of humanity, those who demand to be oppressed and those who with sheer contempt oblige.

it’s a false dilemma to think in terms of choosing either left or right.  That is no choice at all.  The choice is slavery or freedom.  One aspect of slavery is violent domination.   One reason USA lasted so long is it always had an escape option, a safety valve for those who prefer freedom.  We can decline to serve in the military, we can be not subject to federal taxes, we can act pro se in court, we can own guns, so many options.

But the powers that be made their big play under covr of Obama.  The president can have a list of people he wants killed, a secret list, formed in secret, by secret people.  That will not be undone, the next president will have it too, and she’ll use it.  And the military can arrest anyone they want and disappear them, like in some South Americn country.

What goes around comes around, and those horrors over the last several decades were all bought and paid for by USA taxpayers.  Now those horrors will come home to USA.  But the difference is the safety valves are no longer necessary.  The president can murder anyone he wants and he has.  Now there is no reason to tolerate, or offer a safety valve, to any citizen.  As Stalin said, “no man, no problem.”  

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Labor and Outsourcing

Here again Dr.North explains a bit of history:

The main strategy was this: companies build new plants in southern states, which had "right to work" laws. (These should be called "right to bid" laws.) They also moved plants off-shore to nations in which trade unions are weak or non-existent. Then they exported these goods back into the United States at low prices, forcing out of business companies that were saddled with trade union contracts and the NLRB.

Now all this is very true, but I doubt it is significant.  The component cost of labor of virtually anything imported is less than 5%.  Labor costs simply to not rise to the level of being a factor in international trade.

There are two other commonly cited aspects to outsourcing, yet people miss, and they are tax avoidance and money laundering. Tax avoidance is the motivation, money laundering is the means.

Take a USA auto maker who is earning 100 million profit in USA, taxable at 35%.  Now say Big Car, which also imports cars, does not care to pay this tax, (and why should they?)  Anyway, what they do is jack up the price from the maker overseas on the next 500,000 cars by $200 each, and then that $100 million cost in USA eliminates the profits in USA, and at the same time the $100 million ends up as “profits” to the maker overseas.  Voila!  No profit in USA, no taxes.

Now the government i well aware of this scam, so it is illegal.  When the cars come into the USA, importers must declare if the supplier is related in any way to the importer, ‘related transaction.”  So, legal fictions are employed to make these companies not related. No, but the directors of this corporation are directors of that corporation too.  And money is fungible, and what would have been mulcted to the use of uncle Sam is now directed to where the capitalists would most like it to go.

Now, when they get this wrong, and do turn a loss, not to worry, the taxpayers will bail them out. Or experience inflation, which is another means of corporate bailout.

How to solve the problem?  Get rid of IPR and subsidies which both protect the abusive big business.  eliminate the incentive to avoid taxes and launder money by getting rid of the taxes.  Then we will see a renaissance in small business introduction and innovation, and we can move up and beyond.

As it stands now, there is nothing being done that can help the economy recover.

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Apple Price Comparison APP Salvation for Small Business

As you know small business competes on design, not price.  We work the specialty part of the market, introducing innovations.  Our designs command premium prices because there is no alternative, and we vend to early adopters.

Now comes Apple with an APP that allows people to scan the barcode to find the same item at a lower price elsewhere or on Amazon.com.  Well that APP will demonstrate the best price is on the item the customer is looking at, at that moment, in fact it is the only price.

We already know if you compete on price against Walmart you die, and your business should die if you do so.  Small business is specialty competition, not price competition.

If I was a specialty retailer, I'd put a sign in the store  that said some thing like "if you can find a better price on Amazon.com, we'll meet it here and now, and you save the shipping costs, here and now!"

In this way you turn Amazon.com's advantage into YOUR advantage.  Business is fun and easy when you know how it works.  Technology has changed nothing except lowered the cost and widened the access to information.

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OWS Shuts Down the Ports!

Occupy Wall Street is a wholly owned subsidiary of Geo Soros, which explains going after trade in goods.  The problem is not that business trades in goods, but that Wall Street trades in funny money.  The problem is not people buy radios, but that they buy it on credit which Wall Street can abuse with credit creation.  Barking up the wrong tree...  Ultimately, OWS sees no alternative to government, so ultimately they will submit to whatever they are told to do.  March there!  Kill these people.  Now live on nothing!

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Usury and Environmental Degradation

I've made the argument that property rights protect the environment, but here is an Islamic financier suggesting usury destroys the environment too...

Hence Michael Lipton's example of a hypothetical plantation farmer who faces a choice of land use. He can farm his trees on a sustainable basis and produce 1000 units in profit annually for ever. Or he can move to intensive farming and produce 1250 units of profit annually for twenty years, after which his land turns to desert. With interest rates of more than 9% per annum, a standard discounted cash flow analysis recommends that the farmer chooses the intensive option. Unfortunately, this 'killing of the golden goose' is not confined to theory. The world's top deforesting nations are among its most indebted partly because saving trees is less of a priority than servicing international debt.

...

Unfortunately, a powerful commercial logic called financial leverage is preventing change in these matters. The business model of most modern corporations is to borrow money at a rate of interest that is below the rate of return earned when investing that money. For example, by borrowing £100 at 5% and investing it in a one year project that yields 20%, the executive manager can earn £15 for his firm. And the banker will earn £5 of interest on his newly created money. It is a rather cosy symbiosis, but its logical consequence is that firms will grow increasingly large over time. Instead of borrowing £100 in order to make £15 of profit, why not borrow £100 million and make £15 million of profit instead?

Now that is interesting, and seems plausible.  And when you leverage it with concentrated borrowing power, then you gt abusive big business (big is not necessarily bad...)

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Drones

USA has been threatening Iran.  China is backing Iran, with Russia. A USA drone lands in Iran and is captured.  USA has a base near the Seychelles.  China wants refueling and resupplying in the Indian Ocean for its Navy. A USA drone lands at the airport in Seychelles.

China has no bases overseas.  China buys what they want.  For the USA base in Diego Garcia, some 2000 inhabitants were forcibly removed in 1971 (not 1871).  Those drones appear to be hacked and taken over.  This would demonstrate a balance of power that factors China, if USA does not have a technology advantage.

Any innovation, once introduced, becomes standard.  China is behaving as USA once behaved, when we were peaceful and prosperous.  We need to bring our troops home and re-new freedom here.

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Visiting Hong Kong & Freedom

To get to Hong Kong it is likely you will buy a ticket from an airline and fly into Kai Tak Airport, which is publicly traded corporation.  All transportation in Hong Kong is either private or corporate for-profit private business.  Your invitation to the airport, where luggage carts are free, is your airline ticket.  Passing immigration and customs is astonishingly easy, and the welcome very generous. From there you can take the Metro or Busses or taxis or limousines to the cities, where of course you pay for your ride. What is your destination?  A hotel?  A friends house?  In any event, you will pay some property owner, or be the guest of a property owner.

After that you will eat at restaurants, visit museums, do business at offices, all be means of and with private property owners.  There really is not contact with government to speak of.

But then the people of Hong Kong have little contact with government.  The currency, what we call money, is put out by three private companies.  The payment card, the Octopus which accounts for about US$12 million in small purchases everyday is a private payment means.  As long as you do not push force or fraud, you are likely never to encounter the government, except a the post office, but even then, most mail is now in private hands.

Charities are wildly oversubscribed, and the people of Hong Kong are overwhelmingly generous when disaster strikes elsewhere.

Less than half of Hong Kong citizens pay any tax whatsoever, and the rest pay someone between zero and the 16% maximum rate, which extremely few pay.  Yet Hong Kong is remarkably safe, and food and health care and housing and schooling are cheap and plentiful.  The government runs such a surplus, it invests the money in publicly traded companies, for a rainy day. There is none of the deficit spending, since there is no sense that government should solve all problems. Business solves problems. Hong Kong people can leave anytime.  The government does maintain some sports facilities, gardens and even some public housing which it is selling off, but otherwise it is a laissez faire dreamland.

Hong Kong was formed at the same time as the United States by the same enlightenment Scotsmen who formed the United States. The USA changed, Hong Kong remained remarkably constant.  Will Rogers said invest in land, it is the only thing they are not making more of.  Except in Hong Kong, where they make more land constantly.  And build straight up at a rate rarely matched elsewhere.  With property rights, and a weak government with little ability to do public domain, Hong Kong remains remarkably unchanged, except what goes on underground, straight up and on new land.  Since 1977, Hong Kong is the least changed place I've ever visited.

At the same time, the per capita income matches USA and exceeds their previous masters, the UK.  And As USA declines, HK continues to improve.  It has everything the world has to offer, at a wide array of prices.  You can get anything you need, and likely you can afford it.  It is a most polyglot country, with extremely diverse people working side by side.  It is more panarchy than anarchy, you'll find free marketers, communists, capitalists, Buddhists, Moslems, Christians all working side by side in peaceful cooperation.

People say less government leads to Somalia.  No, less government leads to Hong Kong.  Notice how the visitor depends on the goodwill of property owners ever step of the way in Hong Kong.  Should you decline to pay, your option is to leave.  There is no US-style welfare in Hong Kong, although plenty of charity.  But for people who do not care to produce, the charitable thing is to send them back home.  Note: if you manage to make it to Hong Kong, you must produce or go home.  If you manage to make it to USA, you are guaranteed welfare.  Relatively speaking, Hong Kong has open borders and no welfare.  USA has open borders and welfare.  USA is closing its borders.  It need only eliminate welfare, and respect property rights, especially those in other countries.  Perhaps then there would not be so much immigration.  This is more just.

Another feature of free markets is that the mega-welfare queens have no opportunity to indirectly mulct from the society in which they reside. Hong Kong is the only place where WalMart has failed.  On the other hand, Apple is booming in Hong Kong.  WalMart depends on WelFare.  Apple depends on customers.

It has some oddities: the only gambling permitted is horse racing, and the profits go to charity.  Chinese people are strictly limited access to Hong Kong.  How strange!  It is under the aegis of the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China.  Wow!  If a "public servant" cannot explain how he came by his assets, he can be prosecuted, at any time, whether while working or after retirement.  It's the law.  www.hkma.gov.hk/media/eng/doc/.../code_of_conduct_eng.pdf

Someone asked me how come I don't move to Hong Kong?  Why should I?  This is my country, not the criminals who make war and bail out banks and torture and murder citizens and spy on me and search me in airports.  The judges, the politicians, the cops, the welfare queen big business captains. They are the ones who have to leave, not me.  Why would I leave.  They can go.  Then USA will improve.

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I Cook

6 oz. Couscous (North African Pasta)

2 oz. oil

T minced garlic

1/2 diced onion

6 oz can of coconut milk

1 T curry powder

1 lb. shelled, deveined shrimp (any kind).

Bring 12 oz of water to a boil in lidded pan and add the couscous.  Let return to boil and take off the heat and set aside. Do not stir.

In medium skillet at medium high heat sauté onions and garlic in any oil or fat until brown. Stir in coconut milk. As the coconut milk begins to bubble stir in curry powder.  Let that start to boil and stir in shrimp.  Stir shrimp until it turns pink, which is likely less than 90 seconds, or if the shrimp is precooked maybe 30 seconds to heat through. Turn off the heat.

Curry spiciness increases with time and heat, so don’t be fooled by an early taste of the curry.  Give the curry time to ripen in the pan, taste toward the end of the process.  if it is not spicy enough, then add more to taste, again, giving time before you check.

This is such a simple dish, you can throw in other spices and ingredients, like caraway seeds and sliced olives. Look through your fridge and spice rack to see what will give contrast to the bright yellow of the curry, like dill or black pepper, or both.  Parsley garnish is nice.  This is a great basic dish upon which you can be creative.  The three basic ingredients are couscous, coconut milk and curry; you can swap any meat or fish for the shrimp, or even make it vegetarian.

The couscous is ready when it looks like a porridge and the water has been absorbed, usually no more than five minutes.

A glass custard cup is about 6 oz, so if you use that to measure the dry couscous, it makes a nice form for the cooked couscous.  In any event mound the couscous between four bowls or plates and divide up the shrimp curry over the couscous.

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