Writing the Rules for a New World

The future belongs to those who would do more for humanity. Mr. Zakaria is looking for ways to improve the world. He may be wrong in his assessment, at least he is not hidding behind a petit conservatism or autarcy. Whether we like it or not, the world is changing and the real challenge is if we are prepared to meet or wait till we are forced to comply. In this case, we loose too much and become what the former Russia has witnessed.

Where is this post-American world, Mr. Zakaria? Over the summer, I read in another publication that emerging markets such as China and India would weather the impending downturn in the American economy. When the bubble burst, Russia crowed that it made up one pole of the new world financial axis. Now there are riots in China because workers aren't being paid and Russia closes its financial markets for days at a time. For years the rest of the world, and indeed our own president-elect, has condenmed American consumerism. We buy too much. We drive too much. We eat too much. Well, now the world is looking for Americans to start spending again. I find it amazing how the rest of the world is so quick to consign America to irrelevance until the rest of the world needs a few boots on the ground or plasma tvs purchased.

Get ready for many more articles like this one which proclaim the need for a "New World Order." All of these artiicles will have one thing in common. They will decry the "old order" of the United States and western Europe as the villians in every coming world economic crisis (while the "developing" nations are the good and blameless sheep). Yessirree, all of the world's problems are due to those bad folks in the U.S. and western Europe. I'll sleep a lot better tonight knowing that.

This is my first comment on this site, but the remarks by 3ey434344 are so off base that they cannot be left to stand. First, Zakaria is a fresh voice in the political and economic world. His articles are always straight to the point and ACCURATE. Before someone calls a person a traitor it would be nice if they had just a small amount of factual accuracy. The Fed is not foreign owened. Check www.usagold.com/federalreserve.html about this persistant lie.

I am shocked by the comments I've seen so far. To me, theynappear to be written by those, and they are many - let's call a spare a spare - from the neocon conservative Republicans - who still see or want to see the USA (by the way, why do you all keep calling us "America", Canada is also iAmerica and Mexico, too - we are the United States" and are part of America!) as the biggest and the baddest and thus we make all the rules and don't need to listen to anybody. All of you nbeed to read Friedman's "The World Is Flat"!! You still don't get where this world is heading and do not understand or belive in Globalization. Fareed Zakaria, just like Thomas Frtiedman, are brilliant men. If only Fareed had been born in the USA (I don't think that was the case), he's make a great president becuase he understands what's happening, not the 3 of you who have just commented!!

I don't even know where to start disagree with this article. The whole thing from A-Z is a monumental CFR inspired rant and lie agaisnt national sovereignty. First off, the U.S. DOES NOT have a capitalist system, the U.S. has a centrally planned economy via the Federal Reserve Bank, which is controlled by and owned by England. We will defeat the NWO and traitors like YOU Mr. Zakaria and you will be tried for adding and comforting the enemy! Traitor!! Google "Loose Change" Prisonplanet dot com

A global economy spurs global intermingling across all normal political boundaries with no process of oversight or regulation. The new reality is that governments, or even groups of governments, don't have the power they once had over global dealings across multiple political boundaries day in and day out in our global economy. To pretend that the USA can set the agenda for others ignores this new reality.

The authority of world courts is ignored by countries when they don't agree with the decisions made, and just as sovereign governments ignore world courts so do businesses ignore the rules and laws of nations as they play fast and loose to take advantage of every opportunity available in the global marketplace.

All the countries that Mr. Zakaria would like to see inherit the world will have to stop being Third World Countries before they can do it. The only thing he has proven thus far is that???much like the rest of the world???he would love to see America fail. He needs to tweak his misinformation a bit more ???

Yes, 9-11 did happen before the Iraq issue but 9-11 was conjured up by the CIA, FBI and Bush in order to get into Iraq along with the so called WMD which were never found because he never had any. The only WMD Saddam had was that he was going to sell his Oil fr Euro's instead of the American dollar and of course Bush was not going to let that happen.

All the countries that Mr. Zakaria would like to see inherit the world will have to stop being Third World Countries before they can do it. The only thing he has proven thus far is that???much like the rest of the world???he would love to see America fail. He needs to tweak his misinformation a bit more ???

Fareed, I think you are a little too dismissive of the UN.
Granted the UN needs extensive reorganizing; but once accomplished, it can become the organization into which this vital new architecture can be established. This UN reorganization will require a serious rethinking of national sovereignty. A system of supranational checks and balaces with adequate separation and division of powers will be necessary to ensure that this reorganization and redefinition of national sovereignty is acceptable to all nations.

Could Fareed have written all this a year ago? Especially the part about recognizing that regulation isn't such a bad thing. Or acknowledging that the economy used to go through more severe bubbles, panics and busts before the 1930s, and that government intervention makes the difference in lessening the pain today. My, my, my.

The part he missed, though, is that globalization as practiced so far has concentrated wealth to unacceptable levels. Just as nationally we had an unhealthy concentration in the "robber barons" (Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, etc.) of the early industrial age, now globally we have a similar process that is borderless. So we have vast majorities globally just struggling to get by, and only a very few with very large amounts of capital seeking return. They could put it in job-creating investments to make and sell products to mass markets, but where are the mass markets?

If you're a company like Nike, for example, your U.S. consumers aren't going to pay $100 for your shoes anymore and may not even be able to pay $50. What about selling to Asian consumers? Good luck with that. Most don't have the means to pay more than about $10 for footwear (if that), and even if they do, they're likely too frugal to be willing to do it. For every truly "global" company like McDonald's or Coke there are many more that are just producing in cheap countries and selling in richer ones. It's unsustainable.

So, if job-creating investment isn't feasible, what is? BUBBLES! Markets become like casinos. The bubble investor's refrain: "But (tech stocks, real estate, insert next bubble here) is the only thing making a return right now!" Those few with capital are just playing against each other.

We already know the way out: putting more money and power into the hands of working people and creating a much bigger middle class. A modern version of what Henry Ford did. Workers need more leverage to get their fair share of productivity gains. If unions aren't the way there then those who don't think so should have to show something that is, because what has been done so far sure isn't working.

What we are seeing is the ultimate destiny of humanism. We can build our towers as high as we can, but they will always fall. The two ends of a humanist society are either centralization (statism - what Bush recently, and now Obama will likely push us towards), or anarchy. Anarchy will come as soon as the people realize that the government is not their savior. And eventually we will see living with ourselves as our gods for the foolishness that it is.

FAREED IS PERFECTLY RIGHT BUT IF CHINA BECOMES A BIGGER FINANCIAL POWER THEN THE WORLD AND INDIA SURELY IS IN DANGER.

VARON B K SHARMA

I'm glad to see Fareed state that regulation is not socialism, and that the goal is to raise the standard of living for all. Perhaps now that Democrats are back in power, we can escape some conservative misperceptions.

A major problem is the THEORY that a free market corrects itself, but this has never been proven???yet conservatives have been marching about chanting the chant for years. Big Business started this lie, because it serves them very well. Just as communism fails because of greed, so does capitalism. Corporate America's goal is only profit, which often is opposite the common good. The answer, as alluded to in the article, is a hybrid in which there is capitalism, but with regulation. And balance--not just ensuring competition, etc.--but also labor that has power.

However, I won't agree with liberals in regard to open borders and free movement of labor/peoples. Where this is concerned, there must be government control to prevent disease, imbalance in the melting pot (i.e., assimilation), etc. But most of all, we need a fair market where sweat shops, child labor, and illegal labor are no more. To raise the standard of living for all, workers need proper compensation/benefits, work conditions, etc. And where there is a living wage (not minimum wage), the economy thrives for business as well!

BTW, Stevie Wonder is a supporter of Obama.

thechiphitsthefan

some thoughts on today's world.
thechiphitsthefan

some thoughts on today's world.
thechiphitsthefan

some thoughts on today's world.
http://thechiphitsthefan.blogspot.com/



Thursday, January 1, 2009
Dear Barack,
"Your name is big brother
You say that you're watching me on the tele,
Seeing me go nowhere,
Your name is big brother,
You say that you're tired of me protesting,
Children dying everyday,
My name is nobody
But I can't wait to see your face inside my door

Your name is big brother
You say that you got me all in your notebook,
Writing it down everyday,
Your name is I'll see ya,
I'll change if you vote me in as the pres,
The President of your soul
I live in the ghetto,
You just come to visit me 'round election time

I live in the ghetto,
Someday I will move on my feet to the other side,
My name is secluded,
we live in a house the size of a matchbox,
Roaches live with us wall to wall,

You've killed all our leaders,
I don't even have to do nothin' to you
You'll cause your own country to fall"

- Stevie Wonder



I know you like Stevie Mr. President,
(I do as well)
Please help us move "Our" feet to the other side.....

Thanks Man...


Regards,

C.
Posted by thechiphitsthefan at Thursday, January 01, 2009

From the earliest writings all the way up to yesterday, we see that human activity is essentially a big power struggle among people that never ends. There are always rich and poor, strong suppressing weak, and endless struggles to get to the top of the heap that one sees as the heap to get to the top of. It's impossible to manage very much. It's not due to change in my life. Maybe in yours. Who knows?