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Special Report

Stern Idiocy

By on 12.2.11 @ 6:09AM

A leading Obamaite union man would impose the Chinese model on his own country — and he’s hardly alone.

The professional left in America and their chattering-class useful idiots have followed a consistent pattern for a century: sympathizing with tyranny in their musings over how to implement policies fueled by jealousy and an undying fear of economic liberty.

There has hardly been a better example in recent years than Andy Stern’s Wall Street Journal December 1st op-ed entitled “China’s Superior Economic Model.” In his article, Stern approvingly quotes Intel Corporation co-founder and former CEO Andy Grove who stated in a 2010  Business Week article that there is “emerging evidence that while free markets beat planned economies, there may be room for a modification that is even better.”

Before getting to the details of why Mr. Stern, until recently the head of the Service Employees International Union — which spent at least $27 million to help Barack Obama get elected in 2008 — is wrong in almost every detail, can I take you back more than two decades to the “Japanese Miracle” (and American near-panic) of the 1980s?

As someone who was studying economics in college in the mid-1980s, I endured countless comments about how American corporations’ narrow focus on “next quarter’s earnings” (as if that were true) was congenitally inferior to the longer-term view supposedly taken by Japanese companies.

Over the next several years, the Japanese bought Rockefeller Center (from my alma mater, Columbia University), CBS Records (purchased, renamed, and still owned by Sony), and the famed Pebble Beach golf course.

Harvard professor Ezra Vogel published (actually in 1979) a book called Japan As Number One: Lessons for America, in which he argues, as a reviewer for the Economist magazine put it, “that the United States should give itself a political and cultural heart transplant. A more competitive America, he says, needs a much stronger government, an elite civil service composed of ‘the ablest young people of their generation’ and a White House staffed by these new mandarins.” Not surprisingly, given the natural human impulse toward ego-boosting, Professor Vogel’s Harvard web page (which makes no mention of his ever having studied economics) notes that the book “remains the all-time best-seller in Japan of non-fiction by a Western author.” (Whether this points to Vogel’s ego or the egos of Japanese readers I shall leave to your determination.)

In 1995, the Mitsubishi Group, which had purchased Rockefeller Center, forced the project into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, losing nearly two billion dollars for their efforts. And a few years later, as Golf Digest’s Mark Seal put it, when Peter Ueberroth put together a group to buy Pebble Beach for less than the Japanese had paid for it, the deal “bankrupted a Japanese boom-time golden boy, and, most recently, sent an army of Japanese bankers back home with little to show for their seven years of superlative stewardship but their good names.”

Since then, Japan has turned in not just one but two “lost decades” with its persistent near-zero interest rates frequently being described as “pushing on a string.” According to a recent Heritage Foundation study, “In 2010, the Japanese economy looks to have been smaller than it was in 1992, an incredibly poor result. It is not just a matter of a decline in output; it is also a remarkable decline in total wealth. In 1991, excluding micro-states like Luxembourg, Japan was the fourth-richest country in the world as measured by GDP per capita. In 2010, it was no longer in the top 20, was below the OECD average, and would have likely fallen further but for Europe’s own economic troubles.”

So when you hear people — especially non-economists with political agendas — long for the statism that characterizes most of America’s economic competitors, listen with great skepticism.

Now, back to the two Andys.

As you read Mr. Grove’s article from which Stern gathers inspiration, it is worth noting Grove’s political bent: A search of Andy Grove’s political donations shows a distinct left-leaning bias. Other than small donations to the presidential campaigns of John McCain and Rudy Giuliani during the 2008 cycle , his only contribution to a Republican in the past decade was to Arlen “I lost my last election as a Democrat” Specter. (The McCain and Giuliani donations combined were less than Grove’s gift to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.)

Grove argued that America is good at startups but bad at scaling up and thus bad at allowing a new technology company to jump from a few guys in a garage to something that employs hundreds or thousands of people. Yet he makes no attempt other than looking at labor costs to determine the cause of this problem and instead simply assumes that since China creates more technology manufacturing jobs than American does, it must be the fact that China’s government is more involved than the U.S. government in a “strategic role setting the priorities and arraying the forces and organization (necessary for job creation).”

Could it instead be the massive regulatory burden imposed on manufacturing companies and the uncertainties created by our government, such as whether Barack Obama will get his wish and cause “electricity rates [to] necessarily skyrocket”? And if all that weren’t bad enough, who would risk any business growth that might subject management to dealing with unions and the true tyrants at Obama’s National Labor Relations Board? Really, if you were going to start a business that would be likely to hire a thousand or ten thousand workers, wouldn’t you go out of your way to avoid people exactly like Andy Stern?

Grove, refusing to understand how the global market works rather than how he wants it to work, then turns to the left’s cure-all: he calls for “an extra tax on the product of offshored labor” and adds, “If the result is a trade war, treat it like other wars — fight to win.”

But Andy Grove forgets that wars come at great cost, even to victors — which it is far from certain we would be despite Mr. Grove’s tough talk.

Page: 1 2  

About the Author

Ross Kaminsky is a self-employed trader and investor and is a senior fellow of the Heartland Institute. He is the host of The Ross Kaminsky Show on Denver’s NewsRadio 850 KOA at 11 AM on most Sundays. You can reach Ross by e-mail at rossputin(at)rossputin(dot)com.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (149) |

c. j. acworth| 12.2.11 @ 6:32AM

So, Mr. Stern, tell us about the state of organized labor in China. How many union representatives did you speak with? How easy is it to form a union in China? For instance, how much time must pass between announcement of intent to hold an election, and the actual election, so labor and management can both have their say, pro and con? I guess the wonderful Chicom government must have all sorts of pro-union regulations in place, and really try to encourage power centers that they don't directly control, don't they, bein' as they're so forward-lookin' and all. Right? Mr. Stern?

coal carrier| 12.2.11 @ 7:20AM

Let’s say that it is the late 60’s and you just graduated from college. You head out looking for a job and you come upon a position with a well-known company. The job you are seeking requires a security clearance through a government agency because the company is developing technology vital to national security.

You apply for this position and the company hires you. However you can not work in the secured area until you pass the security background check. In some cases this process can take 3 to 4 months to complete.

One day you are called to the security office to discuss their findings. You are told that you were denied the necessary security clearance for this position so you are terminated. What? Why?

You are told that when you were attending college you joined Andy Stern’s radical group SDS. You participated in subversive activities that were directed at the overthrow of the United States Government. The radical Marxist socialist views of the SDS were not acceptable in 1966. A lot has changed in 45 years.

This is the same Andy Stern. The difference is that Andy Stern is now invited to the White House regularly by another radical. All the while being protected by the United States Government.

Andy Stern, while being an officer in SEIU, said-“we know who you are, we know how you voted, we know where you live”. Is this someone who should be invited into the Oval Office? I think not.

Wake-up America, the subversives are solidly embedded in our government.

Purpleguy| 12.2.11 @ 3:08PM

Give me a break - your associating a 45 year old involvement in SDS with a president who was, what, 8 years old then? You want radical, look at Newt Gingrich with his "eliminate child labor laws" or approval of the healthcare mandate or Cap & Trade, or 3 women for every married man.

Quartermaster| 12.2.11 @ 5:55PM

Purpleguy, the village idiot, is back!

race_to_the_bottom| 12.4.11 @ 2:12PM

Purpleguy is an idiot ONLY if Newt did NOT call for an end to child labor laws and is NOT on his third wife, while he has been courting the so-called "family values" crowd.

On the other hand, if what PG says is true, then calling him an idiot is idiotic!

coal carrier| 12.3.11 @ 7:04AM

You totally missed the point Pg, as usual. The views of Andy Stern are the same today as they were in 1966. The only difference is now he is involved in making decisions that will affect the financial stability of this nation. To him, the demands of the Tea Party of smaller government lower taxes and liberty for the common citizen in a radical viewpoint.

And another thing. I will never give you Marxists a break!

race_to_the_bottom| 12.4.11 @ 2:17PM

Which decisions has Stern been involved in? Keeping the wars going? Extending the tax cuts for the rich? Keeping the Patriot Act? Scuttling labors agenda? Big one, that. Creating an insurance company friendly health care reform? Not prosecuting the crooks in the Bush administration? Persecuting antiwar activists?

Yeah, I would guess that is a Marxist agenda.

Jim| 12.5.11 @ 1:03PM

So the passage of time is all that matters? Has Stern "repented" of any of what he did / said then? I suppose you'd forgive John Wayne Gacy if he murdered long enough ago. What is it about libs and not thinking? Is there a spleen where your brain should be?

Zak Klemmer| 12.3.11 @ 1:58PM

The betrayal of America goes back to the "Progressives" [sic] of Woodrow Wilson, et.al. This is merely the passing of one generation to the next.

Mike D.| 12.2.11 @ 8:10AM

Jeez, unions don't seem to do well with Communists do they? All these marxist lovers seem to gloss over that point. When the power consolidation phase is initiated, the useful idiots are the first ones on the train to the gulags. So this is where we are at, the communists big moment in US history and we know how they roll. Its Thunderdome for them, and as Dr. Dealgood said: "I know you can't break the rules, there aren't any"

Mike D.| 12.2.11 @ 8:20AM

Maybe its time for our "cultural revolution" to weed out those won't get with the program huh Andy?

kurt in s.l.c.| 12.2.11 @ 11:03AM

And what they will say is what the hard Left ALWAYS says when their policies fail.(think Paul Krugman)." We didn't go far enough."

Mike D.| 12.2.11 @ 11:34AM

Yep, the only solution is more of the solution.

Teaghan| 12.2.11 @ 12:10PM

And obama needs another term to finish what he started.

race_to_the_bottom| 12.4.11 @ 2:31PM

No, no! That is what the RIGHT is saying. "Thirty years of tax cuts for the rich and capital, deregulation, union busting, and wage cuts have created the GREAT PROSPERITY."

Right. Just check out our "alabaster cities gleaming". You know,like Newark, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Youngstown, etc. Got rid of all those unions there, so they can be prosperous!
Way to go, Reaganites; its MORNING IN AMERICA!
It is ONLY because we need more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, less power for unions, more wage cuts, more deregulation that the country is in such sad shape. All we need is a national sales tax, no inheritance tax, a ban on unions, and privatizing every possible public function and everything will be fine!

Nick| 12.4.11 @ 5:52PM

Race to the bottom, is what you get when you vote democrat. You are an ignorant Useful Idiot.

All of those cities, especially Detroit, were destroyed by democrat mayors.

Banning unions would be a great start, though!

old white guy| 12.2.11 @ 1:51PM

there are so many words that can be said about the article i think i will simplify. socialism bad capitalism good. unfortunately we will have to physically fight these a-holes face to face, in the street. real courage will be required.

Anthony M| 12.2.11 @ 9:25PM

Unfortunately, the young white guys are a bunch of sissified pencilnecks who are so afraid of offending someone, somewhere that they will display courage only when it comes to signing petitions for homosexual marriage. The overwhelming majority of American youths look like the "brave" hordes at occupy Wall Street. If the Visigoths were still around they'd be licking their chops.

W| 12.3.11 @ 9:14AM

It is no surprise that Stern would approve of the China system of top down control with no democracy. That is the way his union and most international unions are run. Decisions are made by the president and his lackeys at the top. The elections at the local level usually involve one slate of candidates who win. There is little if any democracy in unions. That is the system that Stern is familiar and comfortable with.

emo| 12.6.11 @ 5:21PM

The left believes in Utopia. To achieve Utopia, we need to have a class, unencumbered by ugly realities such as elections, checks and balances and the whims of the serfs. This is why the intellectual left has fawned over the likes of Hitler (pre June 1941), Stalin, Mao, Castro, Chavez.

Michael Tomlinson| 12.2.11 @ 6:37AM

Barack Obama lamented he didn't have the dictatorial power of the Chinese leader. Since he and his cronies are so enamored with China why don't they move there?

Teaghan| 12.2.11 @ 12:10PM

Moochelle wouldn't have room for her arugula garden.

Kenny| 12.2.11 @ 7:00AM

Wonder what those two clowns will say when China's economy crashes and burns.

Mike D.| 12.2.11 @ 8:11AM

Probably the same thing they'll say when ours crashes and burns.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 9:31AM

Mike D.,

Yup! We didn't try hard enough. We didn't have the right person on the job. We needed just a little more simulus. The rich didn't pay their fair share.

It's always a problem of the circumstance, never the plan.

Jim Nichols| 12.2.11 @ 10:06AM

And we didn't bail out nearly enough financial institutions so their multi-millionaire execs could continue their gluttonous, "Job-Creatin" spending at Tiffanys and for the purchasing of politicians to set policies that would seem to justify their fat-*ss existence.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 12:25PM

Jim Nichols,

I don't think you'll find any argument from the conservatives here.

race_to_the_bottom| 12.4.11 @ 10:22PM

Won't happen. There is no Wall Street in China; just a great wall. The major banks are state owned. So is the land. The "real estate boom" is all on public land. Ha ha, real estate moguls, you only have a 70 year lease, then anything built on it is public property.Goldman Sachs does not run the treasury. Retired officials don't get rich being lobbyists to screw the public. Oh, and the top 8 guys who run the country are not lawyers, they are scientists and engineers.

John Navratil| 12.5.11 @ 10:27AM

race_to_the_bottom,

Right!!! Tell me you're making this stuff up as you go along.

No one, certainly at this time these were in university, chose their course of study. From the "Great Leap Forward", and especially after Mao consolidate his power during the "Cultural Revolution", Mao chose.
You can get the bio's from china.org.cn and find all these engineers who spent the first five years working in this water conservancy or that geology ministry as engineers, but every one has been a party apparatchik since, at the latest, the early 80's. Retired officials are usually buried, not infrequently after having been shot.

PS: Xi Jinping (from bio) "graduated from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Tsinghua University, majoring in Marxist theory and ideological education. With an on-the-job postgraduate education. Doctor of Laws (LLD)." I suppose we need one ideologically pure soul to keep those engineers directed.

martin j smith| 12.2.11 @ 7:11AM

This is exactly why supposedly our side ( Ross you hearin this ? ) should be more critical of Socialist smearing campaigns, be less karping of our candidates and focus a message to the American people about who these Socialists or should I say Communists are and the danger they pose. In other words stop supporting Communist Propaganda against our own candidates.

old white guy| 12.2.11 @ 1:55PM

commie, yes. i guess it is time to stop using the socialist word because these guys are commies.

Ken (Old Texican)| 12.2.11 @ 7:13AM

Ross,
Stern is not an idiot. He is a tyrant wannabe.

chuck| 12.2.11 @ 8:17AM

Absolutely, people who wish to amass power do so because they intend to use it. So it is critical that you do your due diligence before you allow anyone to rise to a position of power. Obama is the best example. His past was completely ignored by a fawning media, who allowed him to get by with "hope and change", when the question needed to be, what kind of change? And demand a real answer, not this BS "change you can believe in".

race_to_the_bottom| 12.4.11 @ 10:24PM

The only thing you have to know about Obama is that he was groomed by Wall Street for his current role. All the other crap, community organizer, etc, was just BS to hoodwink gullible liberals.

Timothy L. Pennell| 12.2.11 @ 11:00AM

Absolutely. Ken. These people know EXACTLY what they're doing. You THINK that they're stupid, at your own peril.
Stop confusing "Stupid", with EVIL.

DRed| 12.2.11 @ 11:32AM

I never thought you were evil, Timmy.

old white guy| 12.2.11 @ 1:56PM

evil, they sure are.

Timothy L. Pennell| 12.2.11 @ 3:19PM

That's okay. I never thought I gave a S**T what you say.
I still don't.

Claypoole| 12.3.11 @ 12:11PM

Yes, just like everyone of any consequence in the entire Obama administration. We are being ruled by fiat--and where are our legislative and judicial branches?

John Navratil| 12.4.11 @ 8:36AM

Claypoole,

I think you will find the House at work and the Senate as obstructionists. The courts cannot interject, merely respond to actual litigation by actually damaged parties with standing to sue.

The executive branch runs the country. The more the Congress empowers the executive through establishment of departments and enabling legislation, the larger the government and the greater control by the executive. If the Obama administration isn't an argument for getting rid of departments, what is?

race_to_the_bottom| 12.4.11 @ 10:31PM

When did you guys walk into this movie? You think all the crap started with Obama? Get real. Don't you remember how things were run under Republicans starting with Reagan, aka, Ignoramus the first, all the way up to Bush the younger? They staffed the entire government with corporate lobbyists who rewrote reports of scientists? Remember all the nobel scientists who accused the Bushites of this. It was well known; all over the press.

Wayne| 12.2.11 @ 7:16AM

These idiots somehow assume they would maintain a status is such a culture. Since in a communist society the individual has no rights (because there is no Creator to provide them), a Micheal Moore may have to dig ditches and Andy Stern might be working rice paddies. The last thing a communist government would want are them involved in their affairs.
I would much rather be poor and free than rich, and have a government who owns me. That is what Stern is proposing. He wants to eliminate all our choices, including stifling his ideas. However if he wanted came to pass, he also would be stifled. Mr. Stern, don't even think of inflicting your stupidity on the rest of us. We are already getting bankrupt by the POTUS you sleep with.

race_to_the_bottom| 12.4.11 @ 10:38PM

"He wants to eliminate all our choices"

Choices?! What choices? This is a fairy tale version they USED to teach in civics, before we eliminated such classes to provide tax cuts to people who really do have choices. Most people don't have any real choices. Maybe you, Paris Hilton, and a thin upper crust, have choices, but most people, no.

JAWilson| 12.2.11 @ 7:28AM

If Stern were to be an honest union guy, he would be trying to establish union representation in China for all the poor souls that are being abused for almost free labor. Now that would be something to see. Of course Stern would be jailed and shot for being a subversive.

Kade| 12.2.11 @ 7:31AM

The root cause of China becoming an economic superpower while the U.S. declines is that we have given them our manufacturing base along with good paying jobs for cheap labor. A high school kid could see that we are rebuilding a communist dictatorship (militarily too) while decimating our America. In the long run it is suicidal.

This globalist policy is not conservative but libertarian and is at the root of our economic demise. Our once great nation is no longer a sovereign and independent country but is now subservient to foreign powers (especially China) so that even lowly Greece can bring another economic collapse. Now the monopoly-printing Bernanke (American taxpayer) is bailing socialist Europe, yet economic globalism is good for America and conservative -- yeah, right.

The real solution is to forbid U.S. countries from outsourcing our industry and jobs and then selling those goods back to naïve Americans -- quite unbelievable. Short of that enact a stiff import tax as the Founders advocated. These wise patriots knew more then 100 pointy-head economists today. They knew that protectionism was conservatism for they wanted at all cost to protect their beloved America to remain independent and free, and not to be held hostage to foreign powers.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 8:37AM

Kade,

Think past the first step. So you have protected a job, today. Unfortunately, you have just raised the price on goods. The person who was not affected by your protectionism now has less to buy for his money and reallocates. Perhaps he skips going out to dinner or to a movie or waits another year to replace the car.

Your protection has a ripple effect which is never seen and for which no votes are gained or lost. Only the economy suffers.

Consider the alternative. Let's just raise the minimum wage to something that will put everyone solidly in the middle class. Let's just jack it up to $25/hr. Surely this is a good thing. A work-a-day Joe making $50K per year would be able to pay taxes, buy a new car, afford to upgrade to a better house. What could go wrong? I'll start by firing my yard-man. He won't mind, because he's making $25/hour, right?

A. C. Santore| 12.2.11 @ 9:00AM

John, you sound a bit like an ivory towerist there.

In order to affect the economy by "raising the minimum wage to something that will put everyone solidly in the middle class," you need to do that for people who are working for a living.

Minor point, I'm sure. :-)

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 9:24AM

A. C. Santore,

That IS the point (see last sentence).

Many point to cheap Chinese goods or cheap Mexican labor as usurpers of American jobs. It's an attractive proposition, but how many uneducated Mexican or Chinese are working as nurses or office managers. We are talking about menial and entry-level jobs here. The very jobs which are priced away by labor laws (kid's aren't stocking the supermarket after school), unions (that's their purpose), and the minimum wage. Kade's labor protection is just the second jaw of the vise.

If you protect someone's job, you CAN put him to work, but always at an incremental cost which exceeds its value. It would be cheaper for all to put that person to work at the clearing rate and add a welfare payment.

race_to_the_bottom| 12.4.11 @ 10:52PM

Wrong! When you produce domestically, you not only keep the wages here, but more importantly you keep the value added by manufacturing. All economists going back a couple of centuries knew this. This simply means that a worker in manufacturing creates value which is a multiple of his wages which can then create employment at decent wages for the non-productive sector of society. Everybody is richer. You cannot have a prosperous society without manufacturing. Period. Guess what. The scientists and engineers who run China know this very well; The lawyers and financiers who run the US don't, or if they do, they don't give a damn. Why should they? They make money on money, not by real production. The financial sector takes 40% of corporate profits. It is an albatross around the neck of the economy. This is the crux of our economic crisis.

John Navratil| 12.5.11 @ 10:06AM

race_to_the_bottom,

Perhaps you should review stolper-samuelson before you shout "Wrong!". At the very least, they were economists which directly refutes your bold assertion that "All economists going back a couple of centuries knew this."

As to the financial sector taking 40% of corporate profits, let me ask why anyone should send a check to a financial services worker? Could it be that they see some value in the service? You could easily say the same thing about Lebron James. Has he manufactured anything? For that matter, does the doctor manufacture anything? Your auto mechanic? The person who washes you car? These are all services. Are these in the non-productive sector to which you refer?

I benefit when you protect my wages, but you don't if you have to hire me. It's as simple as that.

Stormzeye| 12.2.11 @ 8:40AM

We have consciously allowed China to manufacture the cheap plastic junk sold by Walmart in order to create economic prosperity there and the importation of cheap goods here, to the benefit of the masses in both countries. The jury is still out on the relative benefits of that policy.
I would rather see Americans building, servicing, exporting and innovating more high technology (robotic manufacturing, nano-tech, materials engineering, pharmaceuticals, medical instruments, etc.) and leave the rubber dog shit and entertainment gizmos to China. A better educated American is our best bet for the future. Unfortunately the Teacher Unions seem to be in the way.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 9:29AM

Stormzeye,

I think the jury has voted with it's dollars, already.

George S| 12.2.11 @ 8:48AM

You got your cause and effect all wrong. If employers were free to negotiate wages and benefits without a federal government putting an NLRB minefield in their way, that would get the jobs back from China. But those jobs would need a place to work, and as long as the EPA prevents people from digging into the ground, we'll never build the factories or extract the energy needed to operate them.

People want the cheap products -- where they are made is irrelevant as long as the price is right. Only difference is China encourages low cost manufacturing while the US has layers of bureaucracies that make it so expensive and time consuming that it is just not economically feasible. Wal-Mart is only Wal-Mart because of prices, not the merchandise. Stop Chinese products and Wal-Mart goes empty because people will not pay the prices associated with the cost of doing business with the federal bureaucracy.

BTW, the Founders never favored trade wars or protectionism. Trade and commerce were an advantage of having a Union. The Congress was specifically delegated the power to prevent such trade wars among the States.

DRed| 12.2.11 @ 9:16AM

People in China are willing to work for a couple dollars a day. Those jobs aren't coming back, no matter how many taxes and regulations we get rid of.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 9:26AM

DRed,

Bingo! It's the same reason there are no more dairy farms on Manhattan.

Curtis Rasmussen| 12.2.11 @ 3:46PM

The jobs can come back. The income per Capita in China is much lower than here, meaning that China cannot collect enough taxes to service their debt, even if it's a fraction of the US debt.

Add in the costly mistakes made by a command and control government, such as brand new ghost cities where no one wants to live, potentially leading to a real estate bubble burst, and you have a house of cards ready to collapse.

The Author uses Japan from the 90's as an example. Where is Japan now?

mistermoose| 12.2.11 @ 7:39PM

So, what would happen if we actually did have a real trade war with China? If we stopped buying their stuff for a year, would it result in social upheaval in China as a couple hundred million workers are thrown out of their manufacturing jobs? Whose system would collapse first, theirs or ours?

Curtis Rasmussen| 12.2.11 @ 9:55PM

Trade wars would lead to job losses in both countries. A trade war will not happen, in my opinion, because China is the biggest international investor in US treasuries, giving them undue political influence over our government. We're basically buying the rope to hang ourselves by consuming a bunch of cheap crap from China.

Who will prevail? I wish I had a crystal ball.

Merlin| 12.3.11 @ 11:57AM

In order to trade with China, we have to produce something they want. Or have our government borrow money from them so we can continue to buy from them. Had our Best and Brightest not borrowed the money (11% of the 15 trillion owed to China?), we would by necessity be producing things that were of value to others, including the Chinese.

Production is wealth.

race_to_the_bottom| 12.5.11 @ 12:14AM

We actually had some experience with that. China's exports to the US declined by 12% from 2008 to 2009. Total exports declined by about 6% of GDP. The Chinese were ready. Anybody with a brain could see that the whole house of cards was going to collapse. China increased investment by about the same amount. China's economy hit bottom in the first quarter of '09 just over 6%, but the heavy investment package saved the economy AND saved the economies of their trading partners in Asia. China is now expanding its internal market through large minimum wage increases as well as increases in the social wage.

Genrylee| 12.5.11 @ 8:59AM

"Globalism" is the brainchild of the so-called liberal "Progressives", not the "Libertarians". The "pointy head economists", as you call them, all live in a fantasy world of their own construct. They confuse their "models" with reality and desperately need to re-visit Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations". A 50/50 "sell it here, make it here" policy might help solve the cheap labor problem in the short term.

Timothy L. Pennell| 12.2.11 @ 7:32AM

All that picture needs, is a little square black moustache. Don't you agree?

I saw a Movie, where an Evil Machine was attempting to Destroy the World. It was a Science Fiction, and it was set in the Far off Future. The Great Machine (it was Enormous) Attacked the Forces of Freedom and Liberty. It lashed out, and Destroyed everything in it's path, leaving Death and Despair, in it's wake. All seemed lost.
But, then, the Forces of Good fought back. They rose up against the Machine that sought to Destroy their way of life. and enslave them, forever. They fought desperately, and valiantly, until finally, the Great Evil Machine was destroyed. It's pieces pushed in to a CAVE, and sealed away. The price of Freedom was high. The number of the Dead, beyond description. But the PEOPLE prevailed.

And, as the people Celebrated what they had achieved, the picture on the screen changes to the CAVE. Dark and Quiet. Then, a small spark can be seen. Then another. Then a tiny light goes on, atop the mangled Machine. Seconds later it stirs, and in the isolation of its Dark Prison, slowly, methodically, it begins to REBUILD.

Evil doesn't die. It can be Defeated, but it will ALWAYS return. If it takes a THOUSAND YEARS, it will return.

There's something WRONG with people who want CONTROL over their Fellow Man. Something terribly wrong. CHRIST said: "Do unto others, as you have them do unto you." I see nothing of CHRIST'S teachings, in the Democrat Party. Nothing that he preached, do I see on the LEFT. I see nothing ff Moses, or Buddha, or any Religion that preaches a Fealty to a Just and Merciful GOD.

I see ISLAM. I see the word that Islam translates to: SUBMIT. I see Hitler's SS, and Mao's Re-Education Camps. I see Stalin's Gulags, and Pol Pot's Killing Fields. I see Castro's Prisons filled with Political Prisoners, and the people of Africa, starving by the Thousands.

How many have Died, in the Quest for a Worker's Paradise? How many Dead, is too many, when you're seeking to make your PERFECT WORLD?
Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, Mugabe, Khomeini, Ahmadinejad, Assad, Hamas, Hezbollah.
How many MILLIONS have to Die, this time around? Or, the next time. Or, the next?

There's nothing new under the sun. What Andy Stern wants, has been done before. From Caligula to Khomeini. He wants to Rule the World. He knows what the record is on that deal. It's been tried for 8 MILLENIA, and it always ends the same way. Death, Poverty, Disease, and more Death.

Obama, Stern, everyone of their kind, believe that this can be done. That, they can Control the Machine. "We are the ones we've been waiting for." They believe that. And, they will try.

"I'm gonna need another Term to FINISH THE JOB."
Indeed. And, if he does Finish his Job, and they can Enslave the People, they will rejoice. THE PEOPLE will have their Perfect World. The World that they have Created for them. The one in THEIR IMAGE. A World with Secret Police, and Re-education Camps. A World with Gulags and Killing Fields. A World where Everyone has the same. They all have NOTHING

Eventually,the people will Rise up. The Government Forces will seek to put them down. Millions will Die. Freedom will return to the world of Men.

But, somewhere in the darkness. Sealed away from the sight of Men of good will. There will be a stirring. And then, a spark. And then the Great Machine will begin its' rebuilding. One more time.

Mike D.| 12.2.11 @ 8:15AM

Tim, and all these things repeat themselves because history repeats itself due to the ignorance of those who refuse to learn its lessons OR those who willingly alter or bury it so that those who need to learn never do. Both are rife in this society.

A.J.| 12.2.11 @ 9:03AM

And one more kind, maybe the most dangerous, are those who know history and have enough hubris to think they can repeat the failures of the past and get different results. Take a wild guess who fits that catagory!

chuck| 12.2.11 @ 8:27AM

Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, Mugabe, Khomeini, Ahmadinejad, Assad, Hamas, Hezbollah.

The truly sad thing is most kids don't know, or even really care who any of these people are, let alone what they did, or the millions that died as the result of their "vision". The government schools are too busy teaching self esteem, condom use, political correctness, gay pride, and the greatness of "the one" Barack Hussein Obama, mmm mmm mmm. History is completely ignored.

The liberals have taken over the education system, and its destructive effects are just beginning to show.

Teachers and government employees make up the majority of union workers.

Mike D.| 12.2.11 @ 8:34AM

The "educators" have done their work well. Now is the moment they have waited for and they are not going to let it go astray.

Nancy in NC| 12.2.11 @ 8:50AM

A recent poll found that 50% of those polled believed that the quote: "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" came from of our founding documents. The present generation has been robbed of their heritage by those intent on destroying liberty. Is it too late to save it for those greedy little bast****?

Mimi| 12.2.11 @ 8:55AM

Tim...A remarkable Post...All so true.
We must armor ourselves to face the onslaught of LIES, the TWISTS of TRUTH from the DEMOCRATIC PARTY !
The destruction of a major American political Party is on the edge of being destroyed from within...They stand at the abyss....And we all thought the COMMIE way was gone.
Prepare patriots...suit up we have a NATION to save!!!

Ken (Old Texican)| 12.2.11 @ 9:22AM

Timothy,
perhaps your best post EVER, and that is saying a lot.
God bless
www.americaalonesaidno.com
(ya gotta' have it in your memory banks.

Anthony| 12.2.11 @ 7:37AM

Yet the Left screams bloody murder when you refer to Obozo and his inner circle as Marxists. Stern, Friedman, Obozo and the rest of the elite left have never moved away from their '60s utopian love affair with totalitarian states.
I've said it before, but it never ceases to amaze me, how the children of Woodstock Nation became such hardcore statists.
Peace & Love has morphed into Listen and Obey.

hardcard| 12.2.11 @ 8:05AM

Idiot maybe, communist for sure. uncle joe biden also likes the chi/coms social policies , like the forced abortions (1 child per) and religious persecution.

Mike D.| 12.2.11 @ 8:18AM

The revolution always begans as a pattern of lies and coersion, then becomes force and violence when enough power and strength have been concentrated.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.2.11 @ 8:20AM

Well, Mr. Ross, this was one of your better articles.

However, I think you miss the gist of the left's preoccupation with government model's like China.

There is no U.S. Constitution in China. There are no individual liberties.

This is why the left gravitates towards and adores the China model.

If the left could operate like China they could turn abortion into a government sanctioned program and turn up the output and do so with little trouble and effort.

They could seize your paycheck and wealth and there would not be much you could do about it.

The destruction of the U.S. Constitution is the end game for the left and if Obamacare is declared constituional by the Supreme Court, perhaps it's not an idle dream.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 8:49AM

Bill Hussein O'Stalin,

Spot on!

Let me add a glimmer of hope with respect, specifically, to China. Have you had any dealings with native Chinese in this country? The ones I've met are distinctively Chinese. The older are more collectivist in their views. However, all are interested in bettering themselves and none are interested in going back to China. The pull is for greater freedom and, like in the old USSR, the change of government is too cumbersome for its continued survival without a return to the sort of repression which, for so long, characterized the regime. The demographics of aging are not working to the favor of the Chinese (or for that matter, the Russians).

Now, if we can just keep the U.S. from turning into an authoritarian regime.... we have our work cut out for us.

JP| 12.2.11 @ 8:31AM

China's 2 advantages are population and wage controls. Without the cheap labor, China is no-where. Like Japan of old, China on a per capita basis produces much and consumes less. The depressed wages allow the CHICOM leaders to pocket a windfall, which is used to buy up natural resources, foreign debt, or stick in the bank.

Yet, China does not innovate. And while China surpassed Japan GDP wise, China has 5 times as many workers. China's productivity is surprisingly low.

The average worker in China works 6 days a week, 2 hours a day. People like Groves and Stern love thier view from the top. They would never consider for day taking a view from the middle or bottom.

Stormzeye| 12.2.11 @ 8:51AM

Neither China nor Japan have had an original thought in the arts or sciences since the 16th century. Their cultures embrace materialism and expediency and as such their people can only serve as tools of the state regardless of what type of autocracy rules them. Their innovators seem to thrive only after they emigrate...just like Communist refugee, Andy Grove.

John C.| 12.2.11 @ 8:46AM

It is not just the Left who likes China but the right does in spades. All the GOP presidential hopefuls are pro-China, even Flip Romney despite professing otherwise. Newt especially is an International socialist. Trump is the only ones that sees that China ripping us off big time.

Con Chef (NB) | 12.2.11 @ 8:49AM

Please, Mr. Stern. Go to China & work your magic. And take your idiot KoolAid drinkers with you. And when some of them get blown apart in one of the weekly coal mine explosions they have there, tell us how well the protestors for mine safety fare if they dare to have a demonstration about it.

Maybe Anderson Cooper & the rest of the Mao lovers can get pictures of the tank tread mashed bodies & find a way to whitewash THAT too.

"I don't care what becomes of Russia. To hell with it. All this is only the road to a World Revolution."...Lenin

"While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom, there can be no State."...Lenin

"It would be the greatest mistake, certainly, to think that concessions mean peace. Nothing of the kind. Concessions are nothing but a new form of war."...Lenin

This would be how leftists define "bi-partisanship." The more one side conceeds, the more the other side will want. This is legislative warfare by getting the one side to appease the other's whims. By so conceeding, the one side can totally debunk the protestations of the other, for those opposing have already compromised their principles to begin with. It's all downhill from there. As a counterpoint to Lenin & an explanation of this method, I offer this:

"If he yields it from fear, it is for the purpose of avoiding a war, and he will rarely escape from that; for he to whom he has from cowardice conceeded the one thing will not be satisfied, but will want to take other things from him, and his arrogance is increased as his esteem for the Prince is lessened."...Machiavelli, The Discourses

Yes, folks. We may not all be Leninists, but we're SURROUNDED by it. Click my handle to read the second post on my blog about how Lenin is the ORIGINAL PLAYBOOK for Alinsky.

Nancy in NC| 12.2.11 @ 8:58AM

Excellent post and excellent blog at Townhall. I know there are a number of us that see what is happening, but we are scattered and have no organization. It seem impossible to wake up enough Americans to what is happening. Sometimes I believe they deserve the fate that is awaiting them. They will believe the promises of the modern Antony and walk willingly to the chopping block, too intent on receiving their freebies.

Con Chef (NB) | 12.2.11 @ 9:34AM

Thank you, Ms. Nancy. Well, as I said in my first post on the blog, it remains up to us to carry on as our Founders did, & NOT end up sharing the fates of Demosthenes, as we would if we listened to the Paulites on foreign policy, or Cicero, if we continue on the domestic path we're on now.

Stormzeye| 12.2.11 @ 10:12AM

Great posts NB. "The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know." - Harry S Truman

Con Chef (NB) | 12.2.11 @ 10:53AM

Thank you, my friend!

Stefan Stackhouse| 12.2.11 @ 8:54AM

Yeah, I wondered if the OWS mob had given the WSJ editor something to knock him out, and then slipped this in while he was unconscious. It would seem to be the most logical explanation for the presence of this statist, socialist claptrap in the pages of the premier capitalist newspaper in the world.

Nancy in NC| 12.2.11 @ 9:00AM

I am grateful for the WSJ for publishing Andy Stern's diatribe. Most that read the WSJ will see it for the farce that it is. It's important to know how our enemies think, and perhaps some will see something that has passed them by previously.

Mimi| 12.2.11 @ 9:05AM

The WSJ did us all a favor...they exposed the ENEMY for what he is. Yea....a MUSTACHE is needed in the picture!

Ryan| 12.2.11 @ 8:57AM

There IS something to be said for corporatist short-sightedness (which is where we got TARP, bailouts, and stimulus) and Japanese long-term planning (which worked well up until the early 80s, when they got greedy and the Japanese pride and their own version of corporatism/corruption took over).

martin j smith| 12.2.11 @ 9:02AM

But is the Republican Party capable of handling a campaign against a coalition of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thugs? Or, will they want to lead us to be nicy nicy and the primrose path to hell ? In other words, will the Republican Party ride a campaign against this ideology or try to ignore it and make it only Obama. The second option will be a disaster in my view.

Mimi| 12.2.11 @ 9:08AM

The pendulum must be WRENCHED....Hopefully some firebrands will emerge....We do have to FIGHT for our country!

John C.| 12.2.11 @ 9:21AM

Since when did off shoring American labor and moving entire factories (nurtured and bred by middle-class Americans) to China count as trade anyway? Trade is supposed to be just a movement of goods?

These anti-American sweetheart trade scams started in full force with Lefty Clinton /Gore’s NAFTA and now the GOP and right wing pundits embrace this malarkey. Alas, we are the laughing stock of the world and headed to Third World status.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 10:01AM

John C.

Why were any colonies founded? Would the world be better off today if North America had been left untouched?

Dagny Taggert| 12.2.11 @ 9:22AM

Great article Ross. As far as "plans" go for economies, I think Mike Tyson said it best:

"Everyone has a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth."

Petronius| 12.2.11 @ 9:24AM

The sad fact is most people would welcome a state controlled economy because they refuse to compete, to think, or even consider the end result so long as they believe that result will be Fair, and their neighbors will not have a penny more in their pockets than themselves. Capitalism is despised not just because those who run large businesses accumulate great wealth but because it also produces casualties. After two decades of social promotion through schools that taught nothing of the real world, such a possibility is considered beyond the pale as these young sheeple are so well conditioned to a life without any kind of pain. They were hugged and drugged and told they'd never get mugged. Until now the immaturity of the majority of our population has been a pathetic display of buffoonery ranging from America's Funniest Home Videos to the Darwin Awards. Well the ants are emerging from their colony and when their demands are not met nor their appetites for what their betters have sated, the ensuing mayhem will be anything but amusing. They voted once for Obama wishing he would fulfill or sanction their desire for plunder. And with His public pronouncements of sympathy, they wait in expectation of being unleashed upon the unsuspecting suburbanites who allowed all this to happen right under their noses these past 50 years. The Maya may have predicted Doomsday in 2012. They had no clue it would be for us.

William L. Gensert| 12.2.11 @ 9:34AM

First, the Russians were going to bury us. Then, The Japanese were going to bury us. Now, the Chinese are going to bury us. After all, there is not enough state control of the economy.
Continued American exceptionalism has always been a function of economic freedom. Geniuses like Obama and Stern may not believe this, but then, we are just not as smart as they are.

Anthony| 12.2.11 @ 1:26PM

William, none of your aforementioned countries will bury America; however, Obozo might. Mission accomplished!!!

squalis| 12.2.11 @ 9:50AM

"Grove argued that America is good at startups but bad at scaling up and thus bad at allowing a new technology company to jump from a few guys in a garage to something that employs hundreds or thousands of people."

Would we know the name of Bill Gates if Obama was President 1980-1988?

Jim Nichols| 12.2.11 @ 9:53AM

This article is simply fodder for fools. The fact that the capitalist systems around the world are collapsing under their OWN obese affluence and greed seems to somehow escape the author.

Ryan| 12.2.11 @ 12:27PM

Name a capitalist system collapsing, and I'll name the socialist program dragging it under.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 12:34PM

Jim Nichols,

Like capitalist (everyone works for the government) Greece? Portugal is a bastion of the free market. Italy, perhaps? There isn't a capitalist state in Europe. The strongest economy is social-democrat and has had generations of high unemployment.

Perhaps your examples of success are, like the Sterns, China. What is it you call what they are doing? It wasn't "The Great Leap Forward".

Tell us where you would like to call home? What system rocks you? You get extra credit if you have actually lived where you think you would like to.

I'm disgusted with what the U.S. is becoming and praying for a return to unfettered capitalism and freedom - and that means kill the crony-capitalism. I have live overseas and can move to England, Germany, the Czech Republic or somewhere in South America if I like. So far, I don't like.

Clint| 12.2.11 @ 9:59AM

China Hitting The Wall.

“Construction is 60-plus percent of GDP, compared to exports of 5,” said Chanos, who is the founder and president of Kynikos Associates.

“When construction is 60 percent of your economy, and you are building lots of things that people don’t need, the state may let this get out of control,” he said. “It’s hard to manage this type of bubble.”

Chanos predicted that America would fare better, should the China bubble burst, because the US doesn’t export as heavily to China as do Europe, other countries in Asia and Latin America. "

Drunken Sailor| 12.2.11 @ 2:25PM

I don't often agree with you Clint (hell, this may be the first) but when your right, your right.

China's construction of "Ghost Towns"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....erted.html
http://articles.businessinside.....ome-prices

Indiana Alex| 12.2.11 @ 10:01AM

Let me see if I understand this. In order to improve our economic situation we should re-enact Smoot Hawley? Although back then the goal was to protect farmers rather than low skilled labor.

It seems that many armchair, and even "professional" economists believe that the biggest problem in our economy is that we don't have enough manufacturing jobs, which seems to mean that our economy doesn't have enough low skilled jobs that pay above market wages. Am I understanding this correctly?

So, if we raise tarriffs enough, we will then have enough low skilled jobs that pay...

I think it's more important for us to realize that our economy has changed, just as it has several times in the past due to technology changes, world events, or sheer innovation.

The focus should be on how to create the kind of incentives that encourage investment. It takes little imagination to understand why one may choose not to risk capital when the tax premium on the return is over 50%.

(Don't give me this bs DNC, Moveon, ACORN, etc. fax job about taxes being lower than they've been in* yada yada yada, taxes are scheduled to go up after 2012 due to legislation, Obamacare includes new taxes and there is hardly a liberal democrat in DC that isn't so completely blind that they believe they can bide time on the deficit by, what? - more taxes)

Also, if we really want to keep jobs from being outsourced, perhaps we can take some lessons from the medical device companies that are fleeing the company over provisions in Obamacare.

*I still have yet to see the nonsense that produced this well parroted talking point, but for it to be true I would think there would have to be some majorly cherry picked data, or a lot of consideration of the net negative tax burden associated with much of the workforce

John C.| 12.2.11 @ 10:43AM

Economic globalism is really International socialism and should be crystal clear to any patriotic conservative watching Helicopter Ben now bail out socialist Europe without a whimper from the GOP or the GOP talk radio guys.

Yes, we need to eliminate unnecessary regulations and push for a lower flat tax for all. In addition, we need to eliminate public unions, but allow private unions yet ensuring competition with right to work states.

In short, we need to elect leaders that make America competitive Within Our Borders Under Our Laws like the Founders intended. By allowing liberal multi-national companies, with absolutely no loyalty to America, to offshore our vital industry, technology and jobs and send then these goods back to unemployed Americans is anti-American and suicidal.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 11:29AM

John C.,

I fully support your call for competitiveness. I acknowledge that protection can raise real wages for the protected, but at the cost of goods produced (See Stolper-Samuelson). It is precisely why multi-national companies move those jobs overseas.

We had full employment just a few years ago (even with, as some estimated, 5% of the workforce as illegals) and will again. The problem was, and will always be, framed by the marginally employable. So you raise the minimum wage and, predictably, jobs are lost and move overseas.

So now you wish to enact tariffs or other trade restrictions to "balance" the market (See Smoot-Hawley). It's only fair, one argues, that everyone else pay "just a few dollars more" for goods in order to protect the American worker. How does this differ, in effect, from socialism? I think you have your initial premise completely backwards.

DRed| 12.2.11 @ 10:58AM

So how many of you brave defenders of liberty even took the small step of contacting your representatives to protest unsupervised executive detention of American citizens?

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 11:31AM

DRed,

I read the bill and chose not to contact my Representatives.

DRed| 12.2.11 @ 11:44AM

You trust that the government will only go after the bad people to keep you safe?

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 12:12PM

DRed,

No I don't! The writing IS subject to abuse. Detention by the military isn't required, but the counter-position is that is it possible once the determination is made that the detainee is a member or working for Al Qaeda. The principal thrust of this bill is that an American on U.S. soil at war with the U.S. is subject to military detention. With this, I have no argument. Perhaps, they should be summarily executed?

DRed| 12.2.11 @ 12:30PM

Right, Al Qaeda, or some organization affiliated with Al Qaeda. Can that determination be reviewed? Nope. The principal thrust of this bill is that the executive alone gets to determine who is allegedly at war with the U.S. and is subject to indefinite detention. We might as well bring back the Star Chamber while we're at it.

So, if you don't trust the government the government with this power, why do you want to give it to them? I don't understand how people who cry tyranny at the mention of a slight increase in taxes have no problem at all with subjecting their liberty to the whim of the same executive they think is an anti-American communist muslim.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 12:41PM

DRed,

I didn't notice a suspension of Habeus Corpus in the legislation. Posse Commitatus can be argued, although the limitations are specific.

I have never trusted any government - period. But I don't find bogey-men in every scrivening of the legislature, either.

Your statement that the executive, alone, makes the determination is not supported by the legislation. Working from memory here, the legislation requires a proposal submitted to Congress which (more arch writing) determines the process by which those making the determination are to be determined. What the Hell, it came from McCain.

DRed| 12.2.11 @ 1:28PM

Yes, Congress must be notified. But here's the thing-Congress can't do anything about it. All the law requires is that the executive branch notify Congress and provide some sort of justification for their action. You really think that would be difficult to do? It's not like anyone can challenge the veracity of what the executive branch is saying.

Habeas corpus is used when a prisoner has been unlawfully detained. If this bill is made law, the government can argue that they've been detained lawfully.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 2:47PM

DRed,

I just can't get worked up over this. We detained and executed Herbert Hans Haupt, an American-German dual citizen by military tribunal in 1942. He was arrested in Chicago. It don't think it was wrong then and I don't think it is now.

We have mechanisms established by Congress which are allowed to detain and execute Americans already. Their final judgements, ultimately, cannot be appealed. They are called courts. These differ only in that the military is part of the executive branch.

We'll just have to disagree on the degree to which we see the Constitution being shredded.

DRed| 12.2.11 @ 3:26PM

You simply don't get it. Hans Haupt's case is irrelevant. There are no courts here. This law allows American citizens should be held indefinitely in a military prison without ever being charged with a crime, merely because the president says so.

DRed| 12.2.11 @ 3:27PM

Ignore that should. That shouldn't be a to.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 4:04PM

Perhaps you are right and I don't get it. That isn't my reading of it and I am not a lawyer. The laws are the province of Congress and the Supreme Court gets to review them. They didn't have a problem with Haupt, but somehow everyone is getting all "constitutional" about Gitmo as if POW camps were ever an issue.

It would be a very weak Constitution, indeed, if a mistep on the part of Congress allowed the executive to become a king or a dictator.

Some formalization appears to be needed. An argument has been made that a formal declaration of war with Al Qaeda was in order - as if we didn't know. But it is helpful, when the rules are unclear, to clarify them. I respect your opinion that there is danger here, but respectfully disagree.

OLDRAY| 12.2.11 @ 11:52AM

Excellent article. Stern and Friedman have learned nothing from history. Both are stupid ,frozen in time. The programs they advocate have destroyed millions of people. Most people understand this.

Reaganite Republican | 12.2.11 @ 12:18PM

Andy Stern= LOL

Funnier than Howard Stern, imo

Uh, just fyi, Chinese workers aren't paid all that well, Andy- nothing like you slovenly, greedy union palookas are accustomed to, and they're expected to WORK.

To the best of my knowledge that and currency manip is what their whole economic/export model is built on... and they said Palin never read the newspaper

Peter| 12.2.11 @ 12:45PM

What this article fails to note, and what Stern simply does not recognize, is how China, and Japan for that matter, got where it is and is able to continue doing what it does in terms of planning. It is the beneficiary of Western technology, management expertise, education, capital and market access. The West has given China everything. What it hasn't been given it has stolen. There is no real Chinese miracle other than the gifts we in the West have bestowed upon it. No wonder Donald Trump finds good reason to say the Chinese are laughing at us all the way to the bank.

megapotamus| 12.2.11 @ 3:11PM

And not a few purloined patents but the biggest thing by far is market access. If it weren't for America's prosperity those who are behind us in development and wealth would certainly be closer to our own position but far worse off than they are materially. American fields feed and largely clothe the world. American drugs treat the world. American companies furnish the world even if much of the manufacturing is overseas. What goes for the world goes double for China although they certainly have many valid grievances against our fiscal policies, but then don't we all?

megapotamus| 12.2.11 @ 3:13PM

Most key, perhaps, is that American capital goods are doing much of the work around the world. Slow down America and you slow down everyone and I don't think even the Liberals fail to realize that whatever else they may be doing, the Democrats' polcies are slowing us down to say the least.

The Knife| 12.2.11 @ 12:45PM

More progressives being caught having fascist envy. Obama, Tom Friedman and now Andy Stern. What they really admire is how well the government can shake down businesses. The guys that pay this cost are the dollar a day workers. This is a perfect system for the government 1 percenters.

Ted Peters| 12.2.11 @ 1:01PM

I have to wonder if the head of China's SEIU shares Mr. Stern's glowing opinion of that nation's economic policies? But then agains maybe he does, since Communuist leaders have always lived like Wall Street hedge fund managers in their own countries.

John C.| 12.2.11 @ 1:17PM

The liberal free traders always pull out the Smoot Hawley canard. Our trade policies are now in control of the WTO (think U. N. of trade) with their thousands of anti-American lawyers and foreign lobbyists and the last thing they care about is Main Street America.

The cheap goods at Wal-Mart are not that cheap anymore and millions of Americans are out of work because of it. Meanwhile, communist China builds up its ICBMs pointed at American cities at an alarming rate with our trade money and manufacturing capability.

We are being sold out by one-world Internationalists like Mitt, Newt, and so-called conservative pundits. Protecting one’s country and sovereignty (protectionism) is conservatism—Dubai Ports Rush and company have it completely backwards.

John Navratil| 12.2.11 @ 2:51PM

John C.,

You made this point before. If you have some facts to back up your claims, I'm all ears (eyes). I have done you the service of creating an argument and backing it up. You are free to disagree, but your simple disagreement is worthless.

Please afford your principles and boycott all Chinese goods.

Joe Roberts| 12.2.11 @ 1:54PM

The thing I find so ironic about Andy Stern's fawning praise of China is this: there are no labor unions in China. So he is seriously advocating an economic model that does not allow for workers to be represented by unions ? amazing.

Rob| 12.2.11 @ 2:03PM

Does SEIU differ on ANY public policy issue from the Communist Party USA?

Drunken Sailor| 12.2.11 @ 2:30PM

Only in the color of their shirts.

Stan Redmond| 12.2.11 @ 2:58PM

Stern, Obama, and their sycophants LOVE the idea of a communist tyranny. They think they will be the chosen few who will be on top. They will NEVER have to live under their own rules. That's for us little people.

megapotamus| 12.2.11 @ 3:05PM

Nik Kristof also went on the Orient Express recently. Curious how yesterday's peaceniks see so much appeal in the militarization of the country. And that is what all this nonesense amounts to. Stern is a dangerous, dangerous character. He aspires towards a Red Chinese life for you and me so long as he and his ilk are sitting in the big chairs and long cars. I have some links I would like to share but somehow, even though Nigerian spammers proliferate here, the AmSpec security system will never let me do so. Oh well. If anyone is interested in a few articles I have done on these matters, drop me a line.

DatsunMark| 12.2.11 @ 3:48PM

If it weren't for AMD, Intel would be a fat floundering Fanny Mae for semi-conductors. Grove admires China's command over labor costs and limiting competition.
China's prosperity is based on slave labor and stealing copywrite property of others. There may be a day a slave revolution takes over China and their labor will be compensated at market rates but until then we benefit by low prices for their products. So keep buying Chinese and get their population mad at those who *have* (government and special elite) and free themselves from tyrany.

Anon| 12.2.11 @ 4:40PM

This is precisely it. Without massive, and probably unwise, technology transfers, from the U.S. or from the U.S. via Europe, there would be NO discussion about China. We'd still be on "Asian tigers" or complaining about serious protectionist policies in India, another large Asian country with deep structural defects. The "Chinese miracle" is mostly a sham. We should stop giving them things, though. They're collectively as smart as anyone, and if you give away enough know-how, eventually the recipient will figure out how to make their own stuff.

Michael J Kubat | 12.2.11 @ 6:53PM

This is a "disease" that afflicts everyone, not just professional community organizers like Andy Stern who live and breathe Marxism-Leninism. As a young student at the University of Washington in 1969 or 1970, I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by the Nobel Prize winner George Wald. I was on tenterhooks, hoping to hear words of scientific wisdom. But I was sorely disappointed. The great man was on his way to China to scope out what seemed to him to be a superior system. Mind you, this was at the tail end of the Great Cultural Revolution, and anyone who had studied China at all had to have had a clear idea of what that particular upheaval was all about, how much destruction it had caused and how many millions of victims it had claimed.

"If they've found a better way," Dr. Wald had told us in a superior kind of way, "We owe it to ourselves at least to check it out." (paraphrase)

Then came the applause, long and intense; while I, a recent Iron Curtain refugee (1965), was gagging silently...

Trish| 12.2.11 @ 7:08PM

Marxist of a totalitarian feather flock together.

POST American| 12.2.11 @ 9:20PM

"--Understand, among the American
Indians, the very act of counting was
reckoned a sadistic act."
-D H Lawrence
(letters)

"---And David 'counted' the tribes."
-Scripture

Even as we discover such figures as
Alan Grenspan are advocating opening
the borders for MASS immigration from
India and China to bring in engineers
and cheapen the wage pool.

Remember, 'Free Trade', which is always
linked to EUGENICS at the service of the
interests of a tiny, Global, USURY enriched,
EEL-eat ---by its very nature DESTROYS
cultures and sovereignty.

Remember, 'Globalism' calls for the
'FREE movement of goods and labor
ACROSS borders.'

(BTW---NEVER suggested we demand
the 'developing world' pay decent wages
or ban child labor!)

BEHOLD the legacy. The destruction of
Chine via opium, and later bankster introduced
'Markism'. The introduction of African slavery
in the Americas. The destruction of Africa.
The enclosure of the British landscape, the
destruction of the yeoman, the MASS relocations
into filthy, deadly industrial centers, and
eventual economic desolation. ---And the
NEVER ending 'social engineering' that
covers the full-spectrum from degradation
of the individual and family via 'promise-askew-'IT'--he'
to 'a--BORE--shun' and 'SOD--dummie' promotion,
to elimination of the old and 'unfit'
----to full-blown, broad day-light
EUGENICS and GENOCIDE 'age--endas'.

THINK about the implications as you
take in what's unfolding ALL around you.

"Did you just hear me?
----THIS IS TREASON."
-ALEX JONES

---------------HUAC/ Nuremberg 2012----------------

------------------Keep thinking, and DON'T STOP.

bluecollarbytes| 12.3.11 @ 10:26AM

The Soviet Union (Russia) was also heralded for its 'successes', especially socially, by liberal dreamers and hard-core ideologues.

In all their talk they don't mention 'freedoms' or 'liberties' or individual rights. China is disproving the notion that capitalism can't mix with tyrannical govt run by the elites.

Ed| 12.3.11 @ 10:39AM

In recent weeks, the WSJ has published op-eds by Austan Goolsbee and Andrew Stern in their editorial pages. Both of these men were, and are, senior Obama advisors. Why would the WSJ do this? I am reminded of Lenin's comment that "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them".

Like Alinsky's Rules, it cuts both ways.

Oldefarte| 12.3.11 @ 2:45PM

Ross' typically outstanding editorial skirts IMO the target of the destructiveness of labor unions. Previously, same prevented labor abuses within the industrial revolution, but today numerous laws/regulations prevent similar occurrances [and unions are unnecessary therefore]. The sole reason why China's/India's etc economies grow greater than that of the US is the latter's labor unions that extrapolate wage rate far above their market component create a cost/expense advantage to the former's non-labor union wage scales. If labor unions were to be outlawed/eliminated, the US's manufacturing base would return with a vengence, along with the well-paying jobs associated with same. Want to grow our economy? Then outlaw labor unions [and also increase domestic offshore oil drilling in triplicate]!!!!!!!!!!

Timely Renewed | 12.3.11 @ 5:48PM

The only sure way to prevent the further leftist imposition of Chinese-style government imperialism in the US is to restore the original constitutional limits on the federal government. Given how deeply entrenched are the Washington special interests which support the New Deal federal leviathan and the Supreme Court decisions which enable it, constitutional amendments restating those original limits seem to be the only recourse. Of course, Congress will never initiate such amendments. Therefore we must eliminate the current cumbersome and unnecessary convention requirement that effectively prevents the states from initiating constitutional amendments. Then grassroots patriots on the state level can effect amendments to the Constitution restoring the limits on the federal government without going through Washington. See http://www.timelyrenewed.com.

ReasonableViews | 12.3.11 @ 9:47PM

Excellent article. Let me add that the United States has not maintained the highest standard of living of any large nation for well over a century because the Federal Government is particularly good at playing venture capitalist. When it fosters an environment that gives start up companies a chance to succeed, Washington D.C. is our friend. When it allows a few large financial institutions to control access to capital, it is not. http://bit.ly/rU3xRl

POST American| 12.3.11 @ 10:52PM

"Globalism, 'Free Trade', TREASON
and EUGENICS are ALWAYS intertwined.
--------ALWAYS."

--USURY created the very term 'CAP--IT--ALL--ism',
and created, lavishly funded, directed
and planted BOTH 'Marksism' an 'SO---SHELL
---ism'.

The SHELL is CON--troll with the
end being CON-tainment and annihilation.

THINK a moment about the implications
for everything from individuality to
scripture and GOD.

You continue to argue from these
suckered, laid on terms and
-----GET NOWHERE.

DROP those terms --and stick with the nature
and cause of FREE ENTERPRISE,
our Bill of Rights, Constitution
and sovereignty.

AS the just passed 'SICK--cure--'IT'---he'
Act SECTION 1031 is calling for seizures,
tortures and 'disappearances' as a 'tool'
of American 'SICK-CURE 'IT'-he'
policy ------DO GET A CLUE.

Since the days of their ever BEE-loved
PLAY--dough, back in old Greece
---the game remains the SAME.

-----------------WE are the 'ITs'------------------

PLAY-dough's very word.

DO DO DO get a CLUE.

REALLY

Richard Baker| 12.4.11 @ 7:14AM

Stern is a Communist "useful idiot" who reserves the right to live like a king along with his ilk while the rest of us wallow along. In the old Soviet Union, his type would be the nomenklatura. Someone should ask this putz what is his net worth.

martin j smith| 12.4.11 @ 7:53AM

Let me offer an anecdote which illustrate the "Socialist" types have for their fellow citizens.

The scenario takes place at a "Holiday Party" for a group involved in let us say for " Nature Studies"
( I will refrain from identifying the exact group ). Most if not all of these folks are into Darwin as G-D and " Climate Change" etc. You know the type- Academics and wannabees. They had a quiz based on certain items labeled placed on a display table. Adults and children participated--the kids ranged in age from 8-15 more or less. There was to be one winner for a "grand prize"( a fair amount for child, a pittance for a grown up ). So out of all the contestants ten people got all the questions correct and a winner was chosen. But in Socialism how can there be only one winner, when you will have a bunch of cry babies complaining. And sure enough at least 2 or three cry babies complained about the questions, the answers whatever. Here is what happened. In some cases other answers were allowed and in other cases, family members actually gave the "prize" to a child in order to placate their anger. So, Socialism has not stopped competition nor does it lead to a desire for equality. Human nature takes over.

Stern and his ilk are liars and I believe his views should be exposed for what they are. And would say the OWS are just like the children who cried because they did not win the prize. They want the wealth but not for you.

shipley130| 12.4.11 @ 3:48PM

It's time to bring back the issue of communism in this country and take it up to the highest level of justice. Before Obama gets anymore criminals appointed to the SCOTUS.

danshanteal| 12.4.11 @ 5:33PM

RIGHT ON, BROTHER. ANDY STERN IS A JERK. WE SAW THE STIMULUS FAIL AND NOW HE'S IN ACADEMIA WITH HIS HEAD UP HIS BEHIND. LET'S HOPE HE KEEPS IT THERE.

POST American| 12.4.11 @ 10:19PM

----------------BOTTOMLESS LINE--------------------

NDAA Section 1031 providing for the siezure
of Americans abroad and AT HOME, torture
and 'disappearance' ---passed in Congress.

The ONLY other country to have ever
had such a law ON THE BOOKS ---in history?

-------------------NORTH KOREA----------------------

"Did you just hear me?
--------------THIS IS TREASON."
-ALEX JONES

----------------------And so it is.

---------------HUAC/ Nuremberg 2012----------------

Guantes de vinilo | 12.5.11 @ 5:09PM

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Gasas | 12.5.11 @ 5:10PM

Excellent post however I was wondering if you could write a
little more on this topic
http://www.gasas.com.es/
Gasas

POST American| 12.6.11 @ 3:02AM

---------------BEYOND BOTTOMLESS----------------

BTW ---speaking of USURY, RED China and
YOU-genics ----DO CHECK OUT the latest
from Globalist collapsed Brtiain

-------------------'DEATH Pathways'-------------------

A national health service program to slowly
starve the old, and fading, ----to DEATH.

RED China 'model' indeed.

Further reports on 'trend setting' Britain:
utilizing the heat from crematoriums for
the power grid. They call it DEAD HEAT.

CHECK IT OUT

AGAIN, understand, for the love of GOD,
UNDERSTAND ---

------------------USURY is EUGENICS----------------

---------------------EUGENICS is YOU---genocide.

A FINAL BLAST from the past.

"In the death camps, the bitterest lament
you'd hear was --'WHY DID WE DO NOTHING
WHEN WE COULD? ---WHY?! ----WHY??!!"

---------------------WHY????

SO---------------------STOP ADAPTING!

-----------------------------STAND UP!!

wedding dresses | 12.6.11 @ 3:32AM

A national health service program to slowly
starve the old, and fading, ----to DEATH.

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