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Yet again we see a Tale of Two Economies. One economy has a (real) plan. One economy has (real) growth. One economy acts proactively to address its problems.

Then there is the Other economy. It’s only “plan” is to lie about how bad things really are. Instead of economic growth, it has substituted much more borrowing – and handing free money to a banking crime syndicate, as fast as the bankers can shovel it into their vaults. It acts only reactively, belatedly cobbling together hopelessly inadequate bandaids to cover-up gaping (self-inflicted) economic wounds.

Readers should have no problem in identifying China as the first economy. The “other” economy could be the economy of any/every major Western nation. The rate of deterioration is the same in all of them, all that differs is how close to insolvency they were when the banker-plundering began.

The role of the Corporate Media is clearly defined. When its focus is on the West’s own economies, rotting with corruption, the cheerleaders are deployed. We get one chorus after another of “don’t worry, be happy”, as the propaganda machine assures us that our Leaders have the situation under control.

Conversely, when its gaze strays across the Pacific then the Chicken Littles are deployed. “The sky is falling” on China, we’re told again and again. We get a prime example of this from the UK’s propaganda-mouthpiece, The Telegraph. In drawing attention to what it claims is £800 billion in total, announced stimulus spending, it leads its article with the following hyperbole:

One Chinese province after another has stepped forward over the last fortnight to announce their plans, in what appears to be a propaganda effort to reassure the public that the economy is still on track...

When it comes to “propaganda” to “reassure the public that the economy is on the right track”, I would suggest to The Telegraph that it take off its rose-coloured glasses and have a look a little closer to home.

We have the UK government practicing the economic sadism which Europe calls “austerity”, where the more the UK government cuts spending the worse its deficits get. As a matter of simple logic/arithmetic; there is a 0% probability of this policy fixing the economy, and a 100% probability it will lead to bankruptcy (exactly as it did in Greece).

Indeed, UK austerity has been so self-destructive that as the government savagely cuts with its fiscal policy, we have the Bank of England simultaneously engaging in quantitative easing with monetary policy. The analogy is obvious. It’s like driving a car with one foot jamming the brake pedal to the floor, while the other foot jams the gas pedal to the floor.

Note that the UK’s dismal economic performance (and the dismal economic performance of all Western economies) comes despite permanent, near-zero interest rates. As I’ve observed in several previous commentaries, this is the economic equivalent of a defibrillator: a measure so extreme that it’s only intended to be used briefly – and only in the most dire emergencies.

Yet here we have the West’s ‘economic doctors’ perpetually frying all of these economies with this high-voltage emergency measure. Four, solid years of such reckless, mindless, shock-treatment has done nothing but bring all of these economies to the brink of total collapse (with Greece already past that point).

Across the Pacific, China has normal interest rates. While it recently cut interest rates for the second time in two months, that only brought China’s interest rate down to 6% -- higher than average, historical rates. China has to keep its rates this high, since in a global economy flooded with Western money-printing; its own economy immediately starts to over-heat if it takes interest rates below historical averages.

Understand that interest rates are an absolute, unequivocal indicator of the health of an economy. High interest rates indicate an economy which is strong enough to ‘apply the brakes’ to the capital inside that economy. Conversely, low interest rates indicate an economy which needs stimulus; where the economy is so anemic that attaching interest to capital is enough to drag the economy down all by itself.

Thus when we see permanent near-zero interest rates, the message is crystal-clear: we are looking at a dying economy. But don’t take my word for this. Simply look at the only nation in history to leave its interest rate at zero for decades, Japan. We’ve all seen the results achieved by that policy: a permanent zombie-economy, led by zombie-banks hiding vast amounts of bad debt – who can only escape their own oblivion by keeping interest rates at near-zero.

All at once we see not only confirmation that permanent, near-zero interest rates are a failed policy; but also confirmation that our own near-zero interest rates were never intended to fix our economies. Instead, they are merely a form of permanent financial triage – intended solely to prevent the West’s criminal, zombie-banks from instantly drowning in an ocean of their own fraudulent bad bets.

Note that even in The Telegraph’s piece of transparent propaganda that it’s impossible to hide the real story here:

…China’s export sector is suffering from anaemic demand from Europe and the United States. In the first seven months, exports rose 7.8pc, while imports rose 6.4pc, leaving China in danger of missing its 10pc target for trade growth this year… [emphasis mine]

While The Telegraph’s Chicken Little vainly struggles to incite hysteria over China’s economy, the facts leak out. China’s only “economic problem” is weakness in the West. Now the propaganda is fully on display.

We’re supposed to be “worried” because China’s strong, healthy, growing economy may miss its growth targets due to the economic weakness in the West – and most-notably the U.S. What is the prescription from the mouthpieces of the Corporate Media? We’re all supposed to take our money out of China’s strong, healthy, growing economy, and move it to a “safe haven.”

What is the supposed “safe haven” which the propaganda machine always places at the top of its list? U.S. Treasuries – the most overvalued paper ever produced by the Western banking cabal. With the U.S. already completely bankrupt, this makes the bonds themselves obviously worthless, since the debts can never be repaid. Yet despite this, Treasuries are priced at their highest level in history. At the same time, these bonds are denominated in U.S. dollars: a currency which by the definition of its own parameters is already worthless as well.

Note that the Corporate Media continues to peddle the myth that China’s economy is dependent upon exports to the dying economies of the West, despite a Harvard research paper which established that by 2008 China had already ended its export-dependence and become primarily a domestically-fueled economy. Meanwhile, the propaganda machine engages in yet another exercise in lying-with-numbers when it talks about the “declining growth rate” of China’s economy.

Here we have an economy which had (incredibly) achieved near double-digit economic growth, almost without interruption, for the better part of two decades. This massive, cumulative growth means that China’s entire economy has increased in size by several multiples over that period of time. Thus as an obvious matter of arithmetic China’s economy would grow as much (in absolute terms) today with a 3% growth rate as it did with 10% growth, more than a decade earlier. Even a 7% growth rate today would indicate a phenomenal rate of growth for an economy of this size.

In short, China’s economy continues to expand near or at its maximum growth potential; while the decay of the West’s already-insolvent economies accelerates. Simply, no sane investor would/should move a nickel of their money from East to West until the West’s hopelessly dysfunctional economies demonstrate some semblance of economic health by normalizing interest rates.

Conversely, as long as Western witch-doctors continue their suicidal near-zero “shock treatment”; we know that the only possible outcome is a permanent depression – as evidenced by Japan. And this multi-decade economic nightmare has absolutely no other goal than to rescue a criminal banking oligopoly from its own (well-deserved) bankruptcy.

While the banksters continue to arrogantly proclaim themselves “too big to fail”, Iceland has already shattered that myth. It purged its economy of this totally parasitic oligopoly, with even the IMF forced to admit that this restored health to Iceland’s economy. The bankers have booked us all seats on the “Titanic” – solely to pay for their lifeboats.

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written by Null, September 03, 2012

I agree Jeff that the Western economies are in terrible shape but I have to disagree that China is any better and that its recent economic growth is a result of any more virtuous management; in fact I’d say China’s in a worse position than the US is long term. There’s lots of reason to believe the Chinese authorities lie about their statistics just as much as America’s do. And I have to disagree that the words “healthy” and “growing” can be used together to describe any economy.

Not mentioned in the linked Harvard paper is any discussion of energy. Since about 95% of world energy supply comes from burning dead things that used to be alive, and since the world arguably burns about 5 times more dead things than the planet is capable of producing (the planet’s capacity to produce has actually gone down by 10% due to environmental degradation), then clearly any growth is going to soon be hitting some roadblocks, and arguably it already has in the last decade.

The irony is that despite everyone criticizing the US for importing half of its oil, China also imports well over half of its oil. The US is still the world’s third largest oil “producer”, after Russia and Saudi Arabia, but its gluttonous consumption of 1/5th of world production necessitates those huge imports.

China’s economy will not continue to grow because the energy and resources simply do not exist on this planet to support that level of activity. It has a much greater population than the US, with fewer resources to support that population. Most people still live off a few dollars a day. It is indeed dependent on exporting manufactured goods to pay for its imports of raw materials, just like the US used to do until it lost its manufacturing base (a result of currency manipulation on both sides of the Pacific to overvalue the dollar as well as undervalue Renminbi).

The US is still the world’s breadbasket, while China is paving over its agricultural land as fast as it can to build factories to export manufactured goods that soon few will have the wealth to buy. The US still has most of the world’s remaining coal supplies. While China is definitely pursuing alternative energy to a much greater extend than N America is, it’s still woefully inadequate to make up the difference for when oil runs out.

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written by Jeff Nielson, August 29, 2012

Jeff: the inference of your post is that we are at the global economic tipping point. Unfortunately, as the history of the financial oligarchs has shown over the past 300 years, the only Plan B is global war.

Apberusdisvet, I think I must have been an Ancient Greek in a past life, because I seem to share their fatalistic tendencies. On the one hand, I agree with you that almost certainly I and other commentators will FAIL. We will be UNABLE to warn enough people, soon enough, to prevent the war/revolution you predict.

On the other hand (like the Ancient Greeks) I refuse to stop TRYING even though it looks like our Fate is already carved in stone. As a species, we are NEVER going to advance to another level socially until we are able to TRANSITION out of bad government without the spasms of violence known as "war" or "revolution".

So as another cycle of Oppression nears its end (one way or another) we must retain our idealism and continue to struggle to avoid such a descent. One day we WILL be successful...

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written by apberusdisvet, August 29, 2012

Jeff: the inference of your post is that we are at the global economic tipping point. Unfortunately, as the history of the financial oligarchs has shown over the past 300 years, the only Plan B is global war.

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