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0 sats \ 26 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 22h \ parent \ on: The New York Times Trump Attack Hits Ross Too Politics_And_Law
China is already far more important and valuable to NZ exporters and consumers than the US.
We produce a large portion of the dairy exports globally and China pays the best price for them and multiple other food and textiles we export- as opposed to the USA that blocks export of many NZ products/commodities to protect US farmers from a free market.
Do not delude yourself that the US is an open and free market- it is not..it is rife with protectionism and farm subsidies.
NZ and China have had a Free Trade Agreement since 2008- successive US governments have refused to negotiate a free trade agreement with NZ because trade protection lobbies within the US are so powerful.
The TPPPA was hoping to include the US but the US opted out, leaving Canada, NZ, Australia and Japan to join with most S.E.Asian nations in this major regional FTA.
China is now aligning with the TPPPA.
China is much more able to embrace free trade because it has a competitive manufacturing economy while the USA does not.
The 'free market' USA is a sick joke- the USA is not interested in free trade and cannot cope with free trade as shown by its repeated rejection of bilateral and multilateral ftas.
Even now USA is reneging on the FTAs it has demanding they be renegotiated in its favour...thats not free trade that's is a dying hegemony trying to bully itself a better deal and fend off insolvency.
Can you sell $7T USTs before Christmas? Good luck with that Uncle Sam.
Yes the US will be less influential as the consequences of its crony capitalism and loss of U$D extraordinary privilege impact.
International trade agreements aren't a priority for me. I'm talking about maintaining a free market that respects property rights domestically. For all it's flaws, the US does have a much freer market within its borders than most countries. Taxes are lower, the courts are far more respectful of free speech, and the current leadership is probably the second most Bitcoin-friendly regime on earth. We're only getting called a rogue state by jealous nocoiners. Their opinion doesn't matter.
If every other country and half of this one all desperately want to be communist state-worshippers, that's largely outside of our control. They're only hurting themselves. The important thing for the capitalist side is that we carve out at least one sliver of the planet where private ownership of Bitcoin is permitted. That's all we need to claim a high quality of life for ourselves.
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The problem as I see it is that the US has enjoyed its extraordinary privilege for so long that US has lost sight of what real wealth creation is.
It is not the parasitic rentseeking financialisation that the US has dominated since the 1980s and it is not the ceaseless squandering of fiat reserve currency issuance to fund massive military budgets and massive and chronic trade and fiscal deficits.
The USA is facing insolvency- the collapse of demand for the USTs that were once the most desirable forms of liquidity globally- because you cannot operate chronic deficits indefinitely.
The US productive economy is in a dire state due in large part to the corrupting influence of its extraordinary privilege due to its hegemony of global financial markets- but that hegemony is in decline- globally central banks now hold more gold than USTs.
Retreat from its role as global super power to that of a regional power is quite a logical and viable option and one that Trump does seem to be adopting.
Bitcoin certainly has a valid role in preserving wealth as USD declines and China is increasingly the centre of global trade and trade payments.
I suspect Trump is adopting a similar strategy to what Britain did as it declined- building tax havens real and virtual and seeking to retain as much wealth independent of the rising mercantile empire of China. Bitcoin is an obvious part of such a strategy being free of dependence upon any nation state or centralised authority- but Bitcoin is unlikely to be the major currency used for trade payments- that is much more likely to be the Chinese Yuan because they now dominate global trade.
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I don't know what makes you think chronic deficits are a strategic error unique to US policymakers. The reason any government issues fiat in the first place is to run a chronic deficit.
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And that now results in US debt servicing now exceeding military spending.
If UST 10 year price now goes over 5% USA is facing insolvency.
Not sure what makes you think that is a good place to be.
Fiat is not there to enable chronic deficits- it can enable investment in productive infrastructure and capacity- as China mostly uses it- but USA and the corrupt bankster controlled neoliberalised west has squandered fiat debt capital issuance and leverage upon non productive parasitic asset price pumping for decades - that is voodoo economics self destruction 101.
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No it can't. Fiat currencies only go in one direction, to zero. That's why neither of us has any interest in holding dollars or yuan over BTC.
When the CCP "invests" in infrastructure, that money is being sourced from somewhere else, no different from the US fiat system. You're assuming the CCP is spending it more efficiently than whoever they took it from. They aren't.
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Yes they tend toward zero but on the way down they can either be used to build a stronger more wealthy economy (and fight wars) or wasted in pointless ways such as allowing non productive asset price speculation which only enriches bankers and speculators.
China has and is using its fiat leverage in a wealth creating manner, just as the west once did.
Governments play a crucial role in building and eroding the wealth of nations...depending upon how well or poorly functioning they are.
Sure I hold a good portion of my liquid wealth in sats because its a better bet than dollars, but dollars and because my government and most western governments have so abused their fiat monetary levers I don't want to be part of that however fiat still dominates MoE and so some must be held.
Bitcoin gave us the option to opt out of the corrupt neoliberal bankster capture and control of our governments and monetary system, but Bitcoin may not be able to save us from the decline of western hegemony overall that the banksters have in large part caused.
Bitcoin is a protest and an alternative and a model for a better system, but is it the whole solution to the decline of western civilisation- I am not sure it is or can be.
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But why would you assume the fiat system is going to drag on when it now has serious competition in the form of Bitcoin? There was no viable alternative to fiat for international payments in the last century. There is now.
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It seems probable that the role of governments will remain central to wealth creation and I dont see China surrendering the power that fiat money gives them to Bitcoin.
I dont see the west doing that either.
It could happen but seems highly unlikely.