Middle East Focus: Voodoo Economics: Germany Fears the American ‘Chinese’ Fate………

Arabia Deserta

Voodoo Economics: Germany Fears the American ‘Chinese’ Fate………

“The Dangers of Germany's Dependence on China. Germany largely has China to thank for its current economic upswing, given the Asian powerhouse's demand for German machine tools and other such products. But many German industrialists are asking themselves how long the symbiotic relationship can go on, given Beijing's ambition to become a high-tech economy itself…….. Germany, more than most other Western industrialized countries, is currently tying its economic well-being to China's recovery. Trade with Beijing is the most important driving force behind the current German upswing. It also explains why economists also foresee a bright future for the German economy in the medium term. With its luxury cars, machine tools and power plant turbines, German industry offers precisely the products the giant East Asian country desperately wants or needs. But the jubilant mood at German industrial giants like Siemens and BASF has recently been somewhat marred by worried questions. What is the significance of the Chinese starting to compete in more and more high-tech markets? What will be the consequences if the fates of entire industrial sectors are decided in the back rooms of Beijing's party bureaucracy in the future?.............”

The Germans are still major exporters of manufactured goods, and they seem to want to keep it that way. America is no longer a major exporter of manufactured goods: its corporations have outsourced most of its industrial production to places like India, China, and other Asian countries. America is now a major importer, the biggest importer, of manufactured goods. Industries that supported a prosperous middle class for decades are mostly no more. The American middle class has been weakened over the past thirty years and is now seriously threatened, but American corporations have mostly done well, tyvm, with their operations overseas. The age of globalization has not been kind to American labor oand to the American middle class. This decline in midle class prosperity is now reflected in a decline in US position compared to other nations in terms of education (high school graduation and college enrollment).
Unlike a generation ago, corporate well-being is not reflected in a general economic well-being on Main Street. It is more likely reflected in opening and expanding their production plants and business centers in places like Bangalore, Shangghai and other towns in Asia.
The simple fact is that the Germans have given a priority to protecting their local jobs, while cor[porate political pressure, backed by political money, in the USA has favored their corporate interests.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com