{"id":24338,"date":"2022-12-01T21:57:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T05:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=24338"},"modified":"2022-12-01T21:57:29","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T05:57:29","slug":"how-americas-laying-the-foundations-for-worldwide-economic-leadership-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/12\/01\/how-americas-laying-the-foundations-for-worldwide-economic-leadership-again\/","title":{"rendered":"HOW AMERICA\u2019S LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS FOR WORLDWIDE ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP \u2014 AGAIN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"umair<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

umair haque<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nov 30, 2022 (medium.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Nobody\u2019s Looking, America\u2019s Quietly Transforming its Economy \u2014 And the World\u2019s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
Image Credit: Council on Foreign Relations<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Right about now, something fascinating\u2019s happening to the world economy. It\u2019s changing before our eyes. And that\u2019s a Big Deal, because for most of our lives, well\u2026it hasn\u2019t<\/em>. It\u2019s emerging from the ashes of neoliberalism \u2014 whose consequences has been stagnating and then declining incomes in much of the world, especially the rich world, fueling a wave of fascism. That\u2019s unlikely enough \u2014 but what\u2019s even more surprising is that at the heart of this transformation is America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right about now, most Americans, I\u2019d bet, don\u2019t quite know it \u2014 but a foundation is being laid for another era of American dominance and prosperity. If everything goes according to plan, something like the 1950s \u2014 a golden era, at least if you were lucky enough to be in the right social group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How so? What am I talking about? What\u2026new foundation for a new era of dominance and prosperity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider how freaked out, well, Europe and Canada are right now. About what America\u2019s doing. Positively. That\u2019s a change, huh? It\u2019s a huge one, a tectonic shift \u2014 because for most of our adult lives, it\u2019s America who\u2019s been a fading laggard next to Canada and Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what are Canada and Europe so worried about? Don\u2019t take it from me, take it from them. \u201cWe\u2019ve tipped into a new globalization<\/a>,\u201d French finance minister Bruno Le Maire recently said. \u201cChina tipped into this globalization a long time ago with massive state aid exclusively reserved for Chinese products. Right before our eyes, the U.S. has tipped into this new globalization to develop its industrial capacity on U.S. soil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Canada fears<\/a> that America\u2019s green industrial policy will come at the expense of its own. America\u2019s $370 billion investment in green industry dwarfs Canada\u2019s own investments in low-carbon industry. Officials in Ottawa told Bloomberg that their country simply \u2018can\u2019t afford to go dollar-for-dollar with the U.S.\u2019 in subsidizing nascent green firms and technologies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Did you get all that? It\u2019s funny, in a way, to see Canada and Europe a little bit freaked out by what America\u2019s doing well<\/em>. When was the last time that happened? Now. Why<\/em>, precisely, are they so worried?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re afraid of <\/strong>Bidenomics<\/strong><\/a>. You see, Bidenomics gets\u2026not a bad rap\u2026it gets no rap.<\/strong> But there it is, actually changing the global economy<\/em>.<\/strong> Like I said, that\u2019s a Big Deal. It\u2019s funny, too, that while Europe\u2019s finance ministers quake in their boots and Canada\u2019s government shudders, in America, Bidenomics gets next to no\u2026coverage\u2026credit\u2026mention\u2026in America. But it should<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s going on here is this. When America decides to flex its economic muscle, few countries in the world have much of a hope of matching it. And what Bidenomics is doing, now, is something genuinely a little revolutionary. On the ground, it\u2019s a plan to make America a global economic leader again<\/em>. Let me put that even more precisely, so you really get how revolutionary Bidenomics is \u2014 to the point that Europe and Canada are beginning to quietly freak out about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember why America had a golden age economically in the 1950s? No, I emphatically don\u2019t mean culturally or socially or in terms of the complicated issues of race and democracy. Just\u2026economically<\/a>. It happened because, back then, America was a net exporter<\/em>. It exported stuff around the world that it became famous for \u2014 from cars to appliances to lightbulbs and beyond. As a little boy, in the Third World, my grandfather\u2019s prized possession was a classic 1950s American car. Those days were what established America\u2019s position in the world as we know it today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when did America stop being a net exporter? in 1971. There\u2019s another thing that happened that year \u2014 exactly \u2014 too. American <\/em><\/strong>incomes began to flatline<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> That\u2019s not a coincidence. It\u2019s a relationship. As it shifted to being a society that imported more than it exported, America\u2019s industrial base, too, and all those stable, lifelong, middle-slash-working class industrial jobs began to disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That <\/mark>trend accelerated<\/a><\/mark> through the 1990s, and by 2010 or so, the American middle class was, for the first time in history, a minority.<\/mark> And that had centrally to do with the fact that America had become a society of consumers, more than producers, really \u2014 but that, too, can hardly be one where incomes rise steadily, because, well, what are you really making <\/em>to offer the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This single mega-trend is perhaps the <\/em>true cause of America\u2019s decline.<\/strong> As America declined, as the middle class vanished, as the working class fell into penury \u2014 in a classic repeat of the 1930s, as Keynes predicted<\/a>, fascism, in the form of Trumpism, surged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, that\u2019s a little oversimplified \u2014 but only a little. There\u2019s plenty of truth to it, even if the details are to be shaded in with social and cultural issues, like how Reagan appealed to a sense of nostalgia and so forth. The point, though, is that American decline is centrally, fundamentally, about going from a net exporter in the 1950s, to a net importer in the 1970s, slowly at first, and by the 2010s, basically importing everything Americans needed to live from China, made of Russian and Saudi oil and gas, basically. Not good<\/em>, for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bidenomics is a plan to turn all that on its head<\/em>. <\/strong>Let me say that again slightly differently, because both parts are important: Bidenomics is a plan <\/em>to turn all that on its head. Why do both parts matter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s go back to the ashes of neoliberalism<\/a>. What does neoliberalism say? Nations shouldn\u2019t have plans<\/em>. Instead, the \u201cfree market\u201d should decide everything \u2014 what gets invested in, how much, for how long, and so forth. Sounds great in theory \u2014 doesn\u2019t work very well in practice, especially in an age like now, where we have civilization scale threats like climate change. The \u201cfree market\u201d wants its money back in less than a decade \u2014 meanwhile, we need to build basic systems that last another century or two, for food, water, agriculture, energy, healthcare, education, and so on. Good luck doing all that in a three year time horizon, with the lowest bidder trying to squeeze a penny wherever they can. It doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And more to the point, it hasn\u2019t <\/em>worked. While \u201cthe free market\u201d \u2014 which just means hedge funds and banks at this point, basically \u2014 was supposed to \u201creinvent\u201d the American economy every few years since the 1970s\u2026what actually happened? Outside of Manhattan and San Francisco, America\u2019s economic might began to atrophy in stunning, shocking ways. It\u2019s once roaring industrial towns and cities became derelict war zones, basically, from Detroit to Baltimore. The idea that you didn\u2019t need to have a plan \u2014 that a nation having a plan for its own future was a bad thing \u2014 that was a huge mistake. Because of course meanwhile, nations who did have plans, like South Korea (electronics) and Taiwan and Singapore (microchips) and China (consumer goods), skyrocketed to fortune and dominance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s utterly shocking to Europe and Canada is that\u2026bizarrely\u2026in a weird through-the-looking-glass moment\u2026for the first time in modern history\u2026it\u2019s America\u2026out of the blue\u2026<\/em>who has a plan\u2026<\/em>a national industrial strategy\u2026<\/em>while even they <\/em>don\u2019t.<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>That plan is as simple as it is excellent. Make America a net exporter again. Of things the world needs, critically. Beginning with two big ones, microchips, the smaller one, and the really big one \u2014 clean energy and manufacturing. Get that right, and the entire world will beat a path to America\u2019s doors \u2014 just like it did in the 1950s. Its mighty industrial cities might roar once again \u2014 like they did back then, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a Big Deal. A huge one, really, which is why Canada and Europe are so freaked out about it. Now let me put all that more concisely, and come to the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bidenomics is starting a New Global Race to the Top. Now that America\u2019s putting huge investments into making stuff the world needs, and positioning itself to become a net exporter again \u2014 like clean energy, green manufacturing, microchips \u2014 those who wish to stay competitive with it, like Europe and Canada, have to pony up, too<\/em>. America just raised the stakes dramatically<\/em>. Biden\u2019s out there doing the kinds of things only America, really, can do \u2014 putting half a trillion dollars into investing in the stuff above, bang, just like that \u2014 and now Europe looks feeble and slow by comparison. Canada, meanwhile, being that much smaller an economy, is complaining that it can\u2019t keep up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that\u2019s an eminently good thing<\/em>. It\u2019s long overdue that the world has something like an Arms Race for Clean Energy and Green Manufacturing and Reinventing Basic Civilizational Systems Which All Depend on Them. We\u2019ve been slacking on reinveinting all these fundamentals as a civilization, precisely because major players like America haven\u2019t been leading<\/em>. But now America\u2019s back, and it\u2019s leading with a vengeance. It\u2019s saying to the world: here\u2019s what we can do. Ante up, if you want to stay in this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make that concrete, now Europe is going to have to dramatically increase investment, too, in all the above \u2014 if it wants to stay competitive. <\/strong>That\u2019s an excellent thing, because of course, right about now, we need a huge wave of investment in exactly all this, clean, green, energy, manufacturing, every basic system, from food to water to electricity to medicine which all depend on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Race to the Top to invent the post-industrial economy of the 21st century? Awesome. It\u2019s exactly what the world needs. And America\u2019s kicking it off. That\u2019s a double freak out moment for Europe and Canada, because, well America\u2019s not supposed to do stuff like this. It\u2019s supposed to\u2026the laggard. They\u2019re supposed to be visionaries. Not anymore. <\/em>Things are now changing. The global economy is at an inflection point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Bidenomics goes on to succeed, and really does make America a net exporter of things like chips and clean, green manufacturing and energy? The 21st century will belong to America.<\/strong> I don\u2019t say that lightly. The entire world needs this stuff \u2014 not just because it\u2019s clean, but because it\u2019s cheap. Renewable energy? Basically free<\/em>. If you can sell that to the world, well, you\u2019re going to enjoy an era of dominance and prosperity like the 1950s, maybe only squared, because you\u2019ll be the one basically rebuilding the planet\u2019s failing systems, one country at a time. The stakes are that big<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s really why Europe\u2019s freaking out, and Canada\u2019s joining it. Nobody much in the halls of power anywhere has thought the 21st century might belong to America. America was written off long ago, perhaps even before Trumpism, as a has-been. The comeback, therefore, is shocking, out of the blue. America\u2019s got a plan for dominance and prosperity\u2026an American Century\u2026exporting the basics systems the world needs to survive an age of extinction and climate catastrophe\u2026not just a <\/em>plan, but a really good one? Now they\u2019re going to need to up their game, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me add one final note. None of this is, as Europe and Canada are beginning to claim, \u201cprotectionist.\u201d <\/strong>America\u2019s not planning to protect<\/em> these nascent industries \u2014 it\u2019s building them precisely so they can supply<\/a> the world stuff it needs, the whole world. That\u2019s not protectionism. Nor is subsidizing this stuff 1930s era one upmanship either. This isn\u2019t like subsidizing something useless, like, I don\u2019t know, hedge funds \u2014 this is investing in public goods, because of course every dollar America spends on this goes on to benefit the whole world. Things like \u201ca planet we can all live on\u201d are, wait for it, public goods \u2014 we should all want them, because they benefit us all. That\u2019s a technical point, but one worth considering perhaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unheard, unsung story of Bidenomics. Don\u2019t cry for it, though. Americans might not know it\u2019s changing the world. But Europe and Canada \u2014 and the entire globe\u2019s halls of power \u2014 are hearing its message loud and clear.<\/strong> America just raised the stakes. Ante up, or bow out. This is a Race to the Top, of building a post-industrial future, which revitalizes our working class and middle class and cities and towns, too \u2014 not to the dismal bottom anymore, of making things cheap, careless, and indifferent to their toxic side effects. That\u2019s<\/em> what tomorrow\u2019s global economy is really about. Warm up\u2019s over. Game on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Umair
November 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

umair haque Nov 30, 2022 (medium.com) While Nobody\u2019s Looking, America\u2019s Quietly Transforming its Economy \u2014 And the World\u2019s Right about now, something fascinating\u2019s happening to the world economy. It\u2019s changing before our eyes. And that\u2019s a Big Deal, because for most of our lives, well\u2026it hasn\u2019t. It\u2019s emerging from the… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24339,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338\/revisions\/24339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}