David Sirota: Is America Too Corrupt to Keep Up?

[marmar]

from truthdig:




Is America Too Corrupt to Keep Up?

Posted on Jan 21, 2011
By David Sirota


A sovereign nation investing its wealth in its domestic economy seems like a no-brainer, especially during a global recession. But in this crazy age of American politics, even that has become a controversial notion.

This is the subtext of a dispute that simmered beneath the pomp and circumstance of this week’s U.S.-China summit. As The New York Times previously reported, the Obama administration is calling on the World Trade Organization to use its power to halt the Chinese government’s wind-energy fund specifically because the money is “contingent on ... manufacturers using parts made in China rather than foreign-made components.” The program, along with the Chinese regime’s broader domestic procurement requirements for wind farms, have helped the Chinese wind industry capture almost half of the global market for turbines.

Setting aside the bilateral wrangling over WTO arcana, China’s industrial policy success carries a basic lesson: When a nation couples public spending with incentives that encourage domestic corporate investment, an economy tends to grow its own wealth-building industries. That’s simple enough to understand, right?

Evidently, not within our own government. As “Buy China” policies now economically supercharge the world’s most populous nation, the White House and congressional Republicans have opposed many of the very “Buy America” proposals that might help us keep up—and that obstruction has come at a steep price. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/is_america_too_corrupt_to_keep_up_20110121/

[leveymg]

1. Trade War, anyone? Let's go buy some nice "fresh food" at Wal*Mart and support the visiting team.

Right, Michelle?