Foreclosures of the Rich and Famous
I am up to my ears in marking seeing as it is the end of the semester, but I wanted to post this piece about the increase in foreclosures of multi-million dollar properties in the U.S. I have been ranting about the excessive “Is-the-recession-over-yet? Is-the-recession-over-yet?” banter that comes out of the mouths of most journalists and politicians these days, especially when it seems to be contributing to the same excesses that led to the creation of all the financial bubbles in the first place. And, so, this little tidbit from my lunch-time reading. It comes from the Wall Street Journal (and I read it just after reading a pesimistic piece by Nouriel Roubini who, by the way, was one of the few taht predicted this recent financail meltdown):
it is intresting since the market for such houses is relatively small but likely indicates the extent of the ‘Great Recession’ as it would indeed take time for people who could afford such houses to feel the ripple effects of the bubble bursting (since those in higher income brackets usually have more resources to fall on that those in sub-prime categories). Anyway, I wonder if Robin Leach will do a show on this?
Economic Warfare: The U.S. vs. Toyota (Japan)
Even though I am not at all knowledgeable about autos or the auto industry, I have been baffled as to why the woes plaguing Toyota have been so prominently featured in media coverage and taken up so stridently by politicians in the U.S. and even in Canada. At first, I thought it might just be a way of distracting public attention away from the economy and increasing public/government debt, especially the role that politicians have played in the whole mess (mostly thought negligence, deficit spending and deregulation). But I also think there are deeper forces at work, and it must surely revolve around the politics of the bailout and how this related to economic competition between countries; that is, economic warfare.
Economic warfare is not as exotic as it might sounds. Even though the Soviet Union is no more, the Cold War has reheated up again and some of the goings-on in countries like the Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan are combinations of geo-politics and economic competition between Russia and the U.S.
Consequently, I am, more and more, convinced that what is going on with Toyota is really a veiled attempt to destroy the number one Japanese automaker, at least in the North American market. With all of the bailouts, North American governments have invested billions of public dollars into a doomed industry. Politicians probably know that and the fear is that the North American auto companies might not, even when backed by billions of tax-payer dollars, be able to compete with the imports. So, the odd over-reaction on the part of U.S. politicians to the Toyota recalls and alleged cover up is probably best seen in this context. In the past, politicians and government regulators have often turned a blind eye toward automakers and recalls. Just think about the whole, sordid history of the SUV and rollovers during the past two decades. Thousands of people died in North America as a result of the design of the SUV and its tendency to roll over (in the sense that a light truck chassis, which was the basis for the SUV, is inherently unstable and not at all suited for normal city or highway driving). (For more on this see: Rollover: The Hidden History of the SUV at PBS Frontline or Keith Bradsher’s book, High and Mighty: SUVs – The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got that Way (2002).) But politicians and regulating agencies in the U.S. bent over backward to protect the auto industry–especially the U.S. automakers–because the SUV was a cash cow for GM, Ford, et al. And, it isn’t like Bush or Obama have heralded in a new era of tough regulation or anything like that.
So, it would appear that there is much more going on with respect to Toyota. With Japan still trying to recover from their ‘lost decade’ and the U.S. economy in shambles–especially since billions of public money was poured in the that giant cash-hole that is the U.S. auto industry–it makes sense that the unusual adversarial stance taken by U.S. politicians toward Toyota might be a veiled attempt to destroy the market share of that company in North America. By extension, that is economic warfare and I am not alone in thinking that way. For more, search for “Toyota Economic Warfare” on your favorite search engine or you can start here:
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Our inability to see the truth or reality
Perhaps it is that I have been sick and working too much lately but I am tired. Tired, that is, of our inability to see just what the hell is going on in the world. Tigger’s dead Dad speaks to him in a friggin Nike commercial and all is well in golf-and-money land as the Hero is a philanderer no more… “all is forgiven”… at least according to all the Viagra-munching geriatrics who think golf is a sport. Moron journalists (I should insert ‘so-called’ in there) spot a speck of dust floating in the air and proudly pronounce: “This is just another sign that the global recession might be over.” (Translation: “I have no clue what the hell is going on and no idea what anything means… I’m a TV news-reader!”) People who would not be able to change the battery in their laptop (“arn’t laptops disposable?”) are pronouncing that Steve Jobs’ latest boutique techno-gadget is a “game-changer” that is going to revolutionize the world. (Well, that might be true if by “revolutionize” they mean it will change even more computer users into mindless mass-consumers who do nothing but download farting apps and repeat whatever marketing slogan they heard in the latest Apple ad, convinced that buying crap online is THE epitome of “using technology.”) (On another side-note, a question for the tech-industry: if you turn all technology users into mass consumers, who are you going to hire in the future to create the next generation of branded, mass-consumer gadgets? A fart-app-downloader will not have the knowledge to program or engineer your next device. Or are you planning to rely on Chinese and Indian labour?)
Grrrr… I shouldn’t be so harsh. BUt I just get so riled when it is so easy to see that the world is facing such extreme probelms and all we can think about is the return of some golfer and how we still live in La-La-Credit-Bubble-Land and how some mass consumer device is going to save the friggin world.
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