As a retired CFO with 20+ years experience in multinational subsidiaries in China, here are my views: China offers a 1.4 billion people market, with most of these people in middle class and no poor people below the United Nation definition of absolute poor (meaning purchasing power for most products). It is a market with only one written language ( a few dialects), one main culture (Han), and one set of laws and regulations. This means low overhead (for example, one HQ needed, one set of advertising/promotion needed, etc.) for companies. It has a political/judiciary system dominated by one party (pros and cons not discussed here), resulted in very low legal/police spending while enjoying one of the safest living environment, which is very important to businesses. China offers very good infrastructure and the best logistic system in the world. For a multinational business, the question is not decoupling or not, the question is how to deal with China so we can maximize profits.
Prof. Wolff should be the guest on every mainstream news program in the country. He's one of the few willing to tell the truth about what is really happening instead of just regurgitating spin.
Kumar is here too. Do you even understand economics, Kumar? H-Inglish is not enough to understand what prof. Wolff is telling. And Mumbai-Dharavi is still not a city in any Western country.
Ok, that's a little exaggerated. It's not 'THE TRUTH', just his view on things. Other people may have different views, and their views could also be true.
How do you decouple? Walmart has over 400 stores in China. Starbucks has 6,800 cafes. KFC has over 10,000 restaurants. McDonald's over 5,500 restaurants (and they are planning to open another 1,000 next year!). Burger King 1,528 outlets. Pizza Hut 3,200 restaurants (up 1,000 from last year!). Hilton 400 hotels (another 1,000 in the works). Sheraton 80 hotels. Marriott 448 hotels. Wyndham/Ramada 1,500 hotels. GM sells more Buicks and Cadillacs in China than in USA. John Deere sales centers are in EVERY PROVINCE of china! They have 15 service centers in Xinjiang alone! Their American-made computerized farming machines sell for up to US$500k ! China bought over 2,000 Boeing airplanes, at @ $200 million a pop? Not to mention Coca-Cola, Johnson&Johnson, Proctor and Gamble, Catapillar, Ford, they are all doing a booming business in China. Hollywood -- 25% of their profits come from China. (soon to be curbed) Oh I've forgotten to mention Disney, Yes Disney has TWO theme parks in China ! There are 40 Disney stores in China. Their flagship store in Shanghai is 54,000 square feet, the largest Disney Store anywhere in the World. Wait, there are more . . . the Tesla Giga Factory ! Morgan stanley Goldman Sachs Citi Blackrock AmericanExpress. U.S. mutual fund giant Vanguard is to close its Japan operations and move its Asia headquarters to Shanghai . . . . . .Have you been to a Formula One car race? They have been running it in Shanghai since 2004!
Sell to China for a nominal $1 for each company's business in China. Done deal. For example, Star Bucks Coffee will become the patriotic "Five Stars Coffee", Disney's Theme Park will become the "Mulan Park" ...
@@4-SeasonNaturethis would be awesome! Hehehe I hope the Americans do it, it would be fantastic! I love to see the faces of the dumb and dumber when everything goes exactly opposite of what they think it will be 😂 PLEASE, I BEG you, please tell all those companies to sell it for $1 and leave China, please please please. Best of the best, cream of the crop, America #1, yeah baby!! 😂😂😂
As we saw in Russia, Walmart, Starbucks, KFC, McDs, BK, Pizza Hut, Hilton, Sheraton, etc. are ALL replaceable by domestic brands and operators. As we saw with Boeing being frozen out of the Chinese market as of a few years ago, Deere, Cat and Buick are completely unnecessary. Boeing is an important example. After the 737 Max crashes, China refused to certify and refused delivery of Boeing 737 aircraft. As of today, China now has their own Comac C919 narrow body aircraft in production, with a global order book. Between Comac, Airbus and Embraer, there will never be another Boeing sale in China. China can complete decouple from American aviation technology at any time, which is why the LEAP engines were ultimately approved for export on the C919.
Even for europe, LV, dior, chanel, gucci sells more in china than any other country, bmw, audi, mercedes sells more cars in china than US, middle east and africa combined, china is the biggest contributor to tourism in europe and whole world, one move by xi jingping and western economy will be in shambles.
Thank You Professor, you are by far, the leading specialist in this complex subject, sharing your in depth knowledge with us, much appreciated, we are living through, a time,of historic change!
Thank you again, Professor Richard Wolff, for your expertise all these years and the books you have written . "History repeats itself, and that's one of the things wrong with history. The pursuit of truth shall set you free, even though you never catch up with it." Clarence Darrow Keep all of us straight. 😊 Your intelligence and wisdom through your education are greatly appreciated.
There is absolutely no decoupling between the United States and China at present. We have sent our manufacturing there and we are dependent upon their capitalist manufacturing capabilities and their cheap labor. They are dependent on our manufacturing for their increased standard of living from a desperately famine ridden country to the second most powerful nation on earth.. but what a price China has paid! That shifting of manufscturing to another nation was a big mistake that China isn't going to replicate as it becomes more capitalist, and more authoritarian/nationalist. They aren't going to tie their economy to anyone else. That's one, but only one smart move. Should we decouple? I wish we never put our workforce at such a disadvantage for the benefit of a few rich families, corporations and individuals. But it may be too late now to put it all right again with American labor producing good quality goods for the world and American labor thriving with secure jobs in union organized workplaces. Now we seem to be stuck with a dictatorial and aggressive jerk hell bent on destroying the American economy so his country can replicate every disaster our capitalists and politicians have done before them. But at the same time they are determined to keep our jobs there. Professor Wolff, Xi is just another politician who thinks he's so smart but is ego driven and fond of personal power demanding absolute loyalty like another similar, though less smart American authoritarian jerk. I am not enamored of Xi. I think he and his capitalist friends are doing to Chinese labor what all my capitalist bosses did to me. I survived the overwork...barely. I survived the abuse...resentfully. I got older and poorer and I feel so sorry for the Chinese people, who though they are doing better they aren't allowed to think what they might have if only they could stop long enough to think about what democracy and a free elections for really caring politicians could be like. We dont have that leisure and neither do they. We workers are all in the same boat working for wages and ruled by employers who live entirely different lives and think of us as tools to use for money making, not as real human beings capable of problem solving and independent thought. We workers are ruled by preselected candidates and are never given the opportunity to be autonomous and live democratically in our work and in our communities and nationally too. That's what capitalism does to workers. That is what autocracy does to everyone except that one big guy who thinks he's so smart but who blames others whenever he screws up. And that guy is never ever content to stay within national borders and mind his own business. Here and in China those big guys who think they know the best thing to do in every situation keep seeking more wealth, power and military might. It's downright frightening. The world is in deep trouble now with the international rise of autocracy. The little guy is in for a hard time and that goes for workers in China and right here if autocracy is allowed to flourish. Capitalism leads to concentrated wealth and China is going down a well trodden path we have raced down before them. In tandem we are going straight to hell! Once again I plead for socialism combined with democracy. I plead for a better deal for workers. I plead for a better life for me, my kids and everyone like us. I plead for peace.
@@cheri238 Channeling Rodney King "Can't we all just get along?" doesn't qualify as "wisdom" or an understanding of history...as history's answer to that question has been a resounding NO!!!!! But his recent and extended conversation with Michael Hudson pretty much exposes any claim to "wisdom" he might have as fraudulent. But feel free to get back to me after you have watched it... YT search for...Is China’s Economy Collapsing? Economic War! Michael Hudson & Richard D. Wolff
Not exactly true. It's true that China took the opportunity to purchase an enormous amount of US sovereign debt but it's not clear that had any effect on the US economy's solvency so a case can't be made that China "saved" the US economy. The Fed is a bit mysterious to this day what it did with all the bad financial instruments that existed at the time from junk quality bundled financial packages to non-performing real estate loans. All that is publicly known is that the Fed allowed the Trustees the Fed enlisted to manage those assets to manage them "off the books," ie to do double bookkeeping and keep those bad assets separate from the managing company's own operations. We also know that it took 8 years until about 2016 for the US economy to fully recover from the Financial Meltdown of 2008. But what does this recovery really mean? In any case, it's not like China didn't benefit greatly from its purchase of US sovereign debt. China had a big pile of cash profits, more than it knew what to do with. But those were the years before Xi became President of China in 2012 and ever since he took office the Chinese have been selling all that US debt China had accumulated to where today, China is suspected to be bankrupt as a nation although it keeps finding Dollars somewhere to keep China afloat (The Chinese currency is not accepted in mot of the world). So, did China really save the US economy in 2008? Probably not because there's no reasonable scenario that suggests the US economy would have collapsed or been in worse trouble without China buying US sovereign debt. China just took advantage of the situation and made some money.
@@tonysu8860lol America literally begged china to print money to save them. China didn’t want to print at all, they preferred the consolidation method and getting rid of the failed banks, just like China does in their own country. You think China “took advantage” of American debt? How about you “take advantage” of China debt then? Come come, show the world how to “take advantage” we all wait for your brilliance 😂 dumb and dumber
@@johnsmith-cw3wo No, china wasn’t forced to allow western capital into China. China allowed them; westerners can’t force their way in like in the century of humiliation.
Correct, no one forced China to open up. I said “badgering, pestering” china to open up. China allowed them to enter on China’s terms. Westerners can’t force their way in, like during the hundred years of humiliation. Those days are over.
"Men living in democratic times have many passions, but most of their passions either end in the love of riches, or proceed from it. " Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)
Very well explained, Professor Richard Wolff. I always make time to listen to all your videos, some lecturing, some explaining, and some were 'food for thoughts', and whatever they are, it is always very informative and educational for those who aren't educated in economics. Tqvm
Prof Wolff, the decoupling and de-risking is very real and is happening, except it is the opposite to what most people think. There is clear effort on the Chinese side to de-risk and decoupled, and make the entire supply chain domestic. They don't talk about it, but is certainly doing it. For example, thanks the the US policies, Huawei's newest flagship phone is almost completely devoid of any US and western components. Qualcomm has been decoupled from Huawei's supply chain. Same also goes for their AI and cloud computing industries. US banned the sale of Nvidia flagship chips, and what Nvidia can sell to the Chinese is less powerful than what Huawei makes, so the Chinese industries turns to domestic suppliers to de-risk from further US interference . Even their transport industry, Chinese high speed train and electric cars are product of de-risking from imported fossil fuel. The question for the politicians in the West is are they actually prepared for the decoupling that they preach.
Yes and no. China has been focussing on the domestic economy for quite a few years now because of the trade war unleashed by Trump. China is seeking to be self sufficient in key strategic sectors. China's domestic market is huge and China has begun to grow its economy based on domestic consumption instead of mainly depending on exports. Thus China has implemented the "Dual Circulation" strategy - domestic demand and exports powering its economy. So, yes, China has "de-risked" from the western markets. It can survive and do quite well if cut off completed from the western markets. But it will continue to trade and invest where it is welcomed. Hence, dual circulation. If shoves comes to blows, the Chinese economy can survive, but the western economies may not. On top of this, China and Russia are powering the BRICS countries. The original BRICS 5 are already bigger than the G7 economies in purchasing power parity terms. With the additional 5 countries, BRICS++ will be much bigger than G7. China and Russia are strategic partners and their economies are complementary. China's message to the US and EU - go on, make my day - decouple and see what happens. (Hint: EU has already seen what happened when they decouple from Russia.)
The hidden messages of ideological decoupling of US from China is to transform China in an "Argentina" type of an economy, in a 'perpetuum mobile' capitalistic nightmare of poverty, misery or economic crisis degeneration, or politic instability. The powerful people behind the ideological buffoons, Biden and Trump, want to transform China economy in the "Argentina economy model" or in any other banana republic from Africa or South America, full of civil wars, looting from factions of extremists, mobsters or IMF, world bank.
Exactly right! China is rapidly de-risking by completely decoupling from American technology and advanced Western imports. The Huawei Mate 60 is a triumph of Chinese technology, with every single component manufactured in China. Aside from the SK Hynix memory made in Wuxi, everything was designed in China - and Huawei can replace SK Hynix memory in a heartbeat and pull Google Android via HarmonyOS Next. Within the next couple of years, we'll see Xiaomi, Oppo and the rest move to sanction-proof domestic supply chains as well, running Chinese OS without Google Android, either. Google is going to lose a LOT of royalty, ad & store money LOL. Chinese HSR is entirely domestic as well, incorporating generational advances over the older German & Japanese technology transferred during the initial buildout. Chinese EVs lead the world with batteries that outperform every alternative. When Chinese electric transport is essentially powered by renewable energy, their only use of fossil fuel will be for international shipping. Plus, China essentially leads BRICS and has a vast network of friendly BRI trade partners around the world, essentially the entire Global South as the G77+China. China's ability to decouple from the West should not be underestimated, and grows stronger every year.
West is not ready, Buick and cadillac sells more cars in china than US, china is the biggest market for apple outside US, starbucks, kfc and mcdonalds biggest market is also china outside US, tesla biggest market is also china outside US, luxury goods like LV, chanel, dior, gucci biggest market is china, bmw, audi, mercedes, vw, biggest market is also china, world's biggest contributor to world tourism is also china, one move by xi jingping and the economy of west will be in shambles.
Even when the US buys from other nations like Mexico or Vietnam, they are still buying from china. Because the factories they buy from are very often Chinese owned or at the minimum they use Chinese components. This way China can sell to the US, without needing to worry about US tariffs on China.
I don't know if it's possible to anger the neocons more than they will be by this very rational presentation but let's have a go. Prof Wolff, how about a visit to China to see first hand what's going on there - feeling the pulse first hand so to speak. Henry Kissinger did it! We need someone of your eminence to jolt more us into thinking clearly about our relationship with China. Decoupling and war are not answers. Thanks again for your great presentation. See you in Shanghai!
Additionally, the U.S. government does not dictate what independent, multinational corporations can or will do. Politicians may offer a "decoupling" public policy, but businesses will do what they do
Uh the US government certainly can dictate these things--ever hear of national security letters? Room 641A? The dollar? The U.S. is still an empire that maintains the "rules-based internstional order."
Marx was born into the post French Revolution firmament, that promised an end to feudalism. A very exciting time. Capitalism was seen as a revolutionary force that would put an end to feudalism, get rid of the inefficiency of economic rent & therefore end quite naturally in socialism, where everyone gets a fair shake. It was a dismal life for many, as Dickens can attest, battles would have to be fought, but progress was being made & the direction was clear & set. Real gains were made in employment, education, housing, sanitation, etc. Then it all went wrong. “If we don't get socialism, we will get the barbarians” - Rosa Luxemburg assassinated 1919. The barbarians she was talking about, were the elites of Financial Capitalism that rule over our lives to this day. Marx meticulously dissected & brought together all the post-revolutionary economists work, the Classical economists, from Smith to Ricardo, etc, in a single critique called Capital. Capital vol 1 is all people read - production & the surplus. Vol 2 & 3 talk about financial capitalism, interest, economic rent, monopoly rent, unearned income, explaining exactly our situation in the west today. Neoliberalism is Financial Capitalism, a return to neo-feudalism, where bankers' & billionaires rule every aspect of our lives. They were trying to rid themselves of the landed aristocracy, that did nothing & took everything, that existed in their time. We must try to rid ourselves of the oligarchs of corporate power, the financial neo-aristocrats, that exist in our times. Or be enslaved once again. The post Great Depression, post WW2 blip in socialism was caused by the elite's fear of communism. The west is the best had to have some basis in reality. FDR told the rich, either give up some of your wealth now, or risk a revolution & losing the lot later. That fear has now gone, organised resistance has been smashed & any pretence of a good life for the lower classes is no more. How did the industrial capitalism of Marx’s day, transform into the financial capitalism we have today? To make a complex understanding simple; the Robber Barons, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman, Morgan, etc, were born in the 1830’s and grew their wealth through the efficiencies brought by industrial capitalism. Over time they became monopolies, dictating price & concentrating their wealth to immense proportion. Carnegie was considered the richest man in America, with mountains of money that earned him much more than making steel. Monopoly pricing, investments & interest, in short unearned income, became their main source of wealth, so they used their money to promote their interests. Starting in the 1890’s a new Neoclassical economics was promoted hard, because it sanitised their obscene wealth. It was really an anti-classical economics, with cancerous growth requirements, that was & is unsustainable - but that's another story. The new economics protected their wealth because it declared no difference between earned & unearned income. This was the essential difference. The Robber Barons became the Neo-aristocracy of their time, building institutions, foundations, corrupting government, anything that served their interests. Rockefeller founded Chicago University, where the Chicago School later gave rise to Milton Freedman’s iteration of Neoliberal economics & Monetary Theory. This is how the transformation occurred, from an Industrial Capitalism that was on the road to socialism, to a Financial Capitalism that is on the road to Neo-Feudalism - a full circle, with their power now much enhanced by their ownership of digital technology, for the ultimate in mass control.
We can see that the authoritarian nature of market economies is driving conflict, and how individual interests corrupt community interests over time. This is why market economies are such a useful tool for those at the top of civilized hierarchies. A market economy provides a lever into every person's life through their wallet. Civilization itself is an authoritarian process and it has developed various social tools to leverage control into the hands of a few. Market economies are one of the best tools authoritarians have to institute control over the public.
Talking about decoupling, here's a controversial suggestion: the world is to be divided into two main blocks, with one block is still being led by the US, together with its vassal states in Europe (almost the entire Europe), few of its pet dog states in Asia (Japan and South Korea, maybe Philippines, presumably being kicked out from ASEAN), few of its vassal states in North & South America and some of its slave states in Carribbean, and the other block being led by China and Russia, together with the global South and developing countries in Asia, Africa, Middle East and South America. The population ratio between the two blocks roughly 25% to 75%, and the resources ratio maybe 30% to 70%. Let's see which block would be sustainable in the long run. The third world and developing countries have long hated the arrogant politicians from the developed countries who are still having the outdated colonialism mindset of plundering of the nation wealth as well as lectures and threats imposed on them by the Western world. Enough is enough!
China released its ten-year plan, Made in China 2025, in 2015 after realizing the writing was already on the wall. The strategy aimed to modernize China's industrial base by rapidly expanding ten high-tech industries. The most prominent ones include advanced robotics and artificial intelligence, next-generation information technology (IT) and telecommunications, and electric cars and other new energy vehicles. Chinese officials were first concerned about international fallout, but as soon as the decoupling became a formal US policy during the Trump and then the Biden administrations, their concerns were validated.
Thank You Professor Wolff for your insight. The politics sucks but but the clarity of economics unfortunately shows a bleak picture by a country run by LAWYERS always looking for an angle lol.
Kumar's, so when will Brag-Rhat replace the PRC as the manufacturer of the world? Brag-Rhat, the 1 that is ranked 111th on the hunger-index of 125 countries.
One correction: Rare earth is not only found in China. For sure the deposit of it in China is big, but there are also many countries having quite a lot of it including the USA. Just that next to having the biggest output/export of Rare earth, China also having the best processing technology of it that most of the world's big consumers can't live without. As a matter of fact, China is also the biggest importer of Rare earth.
True, Rare Earth Metals are NOT rare at all, they’re found everywhere on Earth. But they are rarely found together in large enough quantities to justify a dig, let alone extracting & separating (processing) is very labor intensive. So it only makes economic sense (cost-benefit) to survey, excavate, extract, transport, refine AKA ‘process’ this ore in China because 1 Kg of finished ore costs less than the selling market price. If it was ‘processed’ in Canada or Switzerland or even Chile it would cost 5-10 times more than the selling price.
According to google search they "produce" about 70 percent of the world's rare earth metals. So he was generalizing. Apparently the US was importing about 80 percent of it's rare earth usage, but has reduced that down to about 74%.
Unless Walmart wants to start stocking F35's or Lowes n HD want to start sellin B2's on Lowes Advantage card, then obviously the US has no other alternative but to be completely dependent on China, completely dependent on Mexico, India, Taiwan, Nam yada yada for everything Not WMD related. Even if DC had the guts to decouple (which they obviously don't), who's gonna do the work?? All the factories are padlocked and rusting in the sun, the millions of workers that were layed off are all now on the dole, so who's gonna man the lathes n welders?
The US wouldn't dare to decouple although they had been talking about their intent previously. They must have analyse and found they couldn't, or they would have done so to their advantage.
The Chinese went through four fold periods of total loot of the treasury by the rich and colonialists and on the fifth round Mao decided no more of this loot named 'a century of humiliation' by empowering a party that will have the supreme authority to decide what's good so China will never again be stripped of its wealth by the foreigners. Mao devised the cultural revolution that gave the party the authority to a win-win deal with the west, so cheap labor and a 1.4 billion people's market instead of technology transfer and investment from the west. The west wisely agreed and now it is China and the whole world will reap the fruit of equilateral distribution of limited global wealth, for the prosperity of all, as Putin is bent on destroying neoliberal globalists, with only two obstacles, Ukraine and Israel.
So, in the first part he demonstrates that the 'decoupling' policy is a myth because US is actually making a lot of business with China, then in the conclusion he calls for the US to abandon the decoupling policy and come to terms, make business with China. All good. Also, he blames Capitalism to have transformed China in the second greatest economy on the planet (aka, "become rich") and that, from me tone he used, it is a bad thing. Maybe bad if you don't like other people becoming as rich as you. Still all good. I like a rich China. What I don't like is a dictatorial China. Hopefully that will change too.
Great as usual. Can you discuss the post office scandal in the UK in one of your coming episodes? This is a stark example of how capitalism and privatisation is ruining lives and enriching only those at the top.
Nice conclusion! Edward Baptist* described cotton in the 19th century as oil in the 20th. (*he wrote the book "The Half Never Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism")
It's just sabotage, containment and suppression. The U.S. is trying to subjugate China to keep it from becoming the World's number one nation, with the strongest economy and control of the world system.
Amazing Professor: Wolf, you are the voice of sanity in a crazy world, your insightful knowledge is perfect, I now finally understand why Profit driven captilism is bad ❤🙏☺️.
I believe 30% of Chinese GDP is made up from the Public Sector. Highest in the world. Solong as the CPC maintains control of their economy, no problems
A question: if the Chinese exports to Europe and US dropped in 2023, and their housing market collapsed (here I am quoting mainstream media), how come they had a growth of 5,5% ? I would be interested to hear about this topic, could it be that Chinese economy is transforming?
Because a chunk of China's export to US and EU are now shipping to SEA countries and mexico and other places, got slapped on a "made in XXX label" or assembled there with parts 100% came from China, then shipped to the US and EU with higher cost because of that, to save face for their politicians so they can keep fooling their public. This can be easily verified by checking China's global export list in 2022 and 2023: although the numbers to US and EU fell, the export to SEA countries, middle east and south America countries, and most importantly Mexican, had grown in huge numbers. The SEA are the middle man to EU and NA, and mexican is for the US mainly
furthermore, China's huge internal market is now switching to domestic brands in a rapid pace, from low end all the way to highest end products. This means a big chunk of money paid to those expensive German, Japanese, and US products now stayed with domestic companies for more R&D, domestic coorperate puchases, and salaries that eventually goes back into the domestic econony. In simple words, China's econony has been transforming into high surplus industry based and high end service based, instead of low end manufacturing in the past, while their export keeps growing, just not to the west that's all. This last bit is the fact that you will never see in western media, because that would contratict what they's been feeding their public in the past
Protectionism is a necessary part of a sound industrial policy. It doesn't do much on its own. But it has been part of every industrialisation strategy of every country in the world which has industrialised since the British Industrial Revolution. It was key to the building of the US economy in the 19th century, to be able to develop globally competitive industries on US soil which had the capital intensivity and the economies of scale to be able to compete with the existing British industries which dominated the world market, which is to say had been able to supply most of the demand for manufactured goods of the entire world. It was the paradoxical benefit of the global blockade of the Soviet Union from october 1917 onwards, that it protected the Soviet Union's infant industries from being destroyed by capitalist competition. A benefit which has been provided again by the US-led sanctions regime against Russia since 2022, although the imperialists began sanctioning Russia years before, giving Russia the warning and the guidance about the need to pursue import-substitution and diversification of the Russian economy. The balance of trade is incredibly important for every country, because trade deficits drain capital out of the country, impoverish the people, and create a vicious cycle where businesses cannot thrive and people cannot find jobs with living wages and they therefore emigrate to find those things in the countries which are bbenefitting from trade surpluses, further weakening the economy and extending recession. Fetishizing trade in general, which liberal econoics does, misses this point, and only counts the size of the trade flow, and says "how marvellous that trade is up and capital is increasing at a global level". Socialists cannot ignore the redistribution of wealth and income involved, the enriching of certain countries and regions at the expense of the others. Trade is not an intrinsic or absolute good. That is fetishism. Likewise with globalisation as the reduction of trade barriers and the increase of total trade and nominal growth. The details are more important, because it is in the details that the labouring classes are impacted negatively. Globalisation worsens regional and international inequality, entrenches imperialism and provokes nationalism and international conflict over this very matter of the balance of trade and who get stuck with chronic trade deficits.
Hello, Dr Wolff. Can you take up a suggestion to make a video on the topic of power analysis? Is it a graph, a structure, or an investigation like a journalist goes to uncover? Thank you for your work.
Richard Wolff is a wise and honest man. Your analysis is accurate. Unfortunately your hope at the end is very hard to accomplish with people like John Mearsheimer who relentlessly advocates to "contain China".
USA living standards and infrastructures do not match its high per capita income because a big portion goes to pay for tax, wars, interest expenses, military complex, expensive medical, legal and accounting services which do not add to the quality of life. Consequently USA infrastructures are outdated and its home ownership rate is only 66% compared to China 90%. And Americans could afford to eat out less and travel less than Chinese. USA system is also unsustainable with debts hitting usd 34 trillion plus usd 9 trillion printed money, and with debts still increasing at usd 2 trillion a year. This comes at a time when the world is fast losing confidence in the banana usd.
No, rare earth is NOT found only in China. What China had developed is the technology to process the rare earth and the flexible environmental protection enforcement that allowed such technology to develop.
When Trump imposed 25% tariff on many Chinese made products, it scared the shit out of many Chinese exporters. It turned out later that even with 25% tariff, Chinese products are still the most competitive, US consumers just have to pay more. The tariff money is a good resource to fund Ukraine though. BTW, those apparels and shoes in Walmart are not made in China anymore. This happened before the tariff thing as even China's labor cost is not competitive on these low valued added staff...
I am still listening to this episode, but wish to ask: is it not quite possible that China will be able to produce all its own raw materials and everything else and not need us at all?
They certainly will now we've pushed Russia into their arms. Russia and Africa are "resource superpowers", extremely rich in natural resources, and now both are being aligned with China, entirely so in the case of Russia which was Europe's number 1 supplier of essential natural resources
yeah. It's not USA decoupling with China, it's USA that pushes China to decouple with USA instead right now. We have literally fed up with the ignorant arrogance of USA. And we will do it by de-dollarization, which is the first and also the final step.
In the past, China was more worried about whether raw material supplier countries could continue to maintain normal trade relations with China. Thanks to the United States, in order to weaken Russia, the comedians who control Ukraine took advantage of Russia's inability to accept Ukraine's national security bottom line in joining NATO, forcing Russia to launch a war against Ukraine. The Western sanctions on Russia have completely pushed Russia into the embrace of China. You may not know that Russia and Putin himself have always wanted to reconcile with Europe and join the EU, and they are also very wary of China. This is also the reason why Russia’s Siberian region has not tried to integrate into China’s economic circle for decades. The hostility of the EU and the United States towards Russia made Russia see the reality clearly and began to actively deepen cooperation with China and integrate into the Chinese economic circle. This will provide China with a stable supply of energy, food and raw materials for decades to come.
I love this review, real, on point, and no nonsense. F*k the mainstream media. We need more intelligent, genuine, and honest people like Wolff.
Long overdue?
❤well said
As a retired CFO with 20+ years experience in multinational subsidiaries in China, here are my views: China offers a 1.4 billion people market, with most of these people in middle class and no poor people below the United Nation definition of absolute poor (meaning purchasing power for most products). It is a market with only one written language ( a few dialects), one main culture (Han), and one set of laws and regulations. This means low overhead (for example, one HQ needed, one set of advertising/promotion needed, etc.) for companies. It has a political/judiciary system dominated by one party (pros and cons not discussed here), resulted in very low legal/police spending while enjoying one of the safest living environment, which is very important to businesses. China offers very good infrastructure and the best logistic system in the world. For a multinational business, the question is not decoupling or not, the question is how to deal with China so we can maximize profits.
Brutally honest...😎😎😃
Imma copy this.
Try to walk in New York or Shanghai at nights everybody will agree The latter is safer
❤Thank you very much for your information ; experience and INSIGHT.
Very good summary...
Democracy is Free Assange
Prof. Wolff should be the guest on every mainstream news program in the country. He's one of the few willing to tell the truth about what is really happening instead of just regurgitating spin.
That would never happen.
And that is exactly why he is not allowed on Corporate Media, same with Chris Hedges or even Sam Seder
Kumar is here too.
Do you even understand economics, Kumar?
H-Inglish is not enough to understand what prof. Wolff is telling.
And Mumbai-Dharavi is still not a city in any Western country.
@@bargdaffy1535 well it's because they're leftist and they vouch for communism and socialism which is pure demonic evil in the United States.
Ok, that's a little exaggerated. It's not 'THE TRUTH', just his view on things. Other people may have different views, and their views could also be true.
Outstanding presentation. One of your best!
Another brilliant exposition by Prof. Wolff
How do you decouple?
Walmart has over 400 stores in China. Starbucks has 6,800 cafes. KFC has over 10,000 restaurants. McDonald's over 5,500 restaurants (and they are planning to open another 1,000 next year!). Burger King 1,528 outlets. Pizza Hut 3,200 restaurants (up 1,000 from last year!). Hilton 400 hotels (another 1,000 in the works). Sheraton 80 hotels. Marriott 448 hotels. Wyndham/Ramada 1,500 hotels. GM sells more Buicks and Cadillacs in China than in USA.
John Deere sales centers are in EVERY PROVINCE of china! They have 15 service centers in Xinjiang alone! Their American-made computerized farming machines sell for up to US$500k !
China bought over 2,000 Boeing airplanes, at @ $200 million a pop?
Not to mention Coca-Cola, Johnson&Johnson, Proctor and Gamble, Catapillar, Ford, they are all doing a booming business in China. Hollywood -- 25% of their profits come from China. (soon to be curbed)
Oh I've forgotten to mention Disney, Yes Disney has TWO theme parks in China ! There are 40 Disney stores in China. Their flagship store in Shanghai is 54,000 square feet, the largest Disney Store anywhere in the World. Wait, there are more . . . the Tesla Giga Factory ! Morgan stanley Goldman Sachs Citi Blackrock AmericanExpress. U.S. mutual fund giant Vanguard is to close its Japan operations and move its Asia headquarters to Shanghai . . . . . .Have you been to a Formula One car race? They have been running it in Shanghai since 2004!
Like they did in Russia
Sell to China for a nominal $1 for each company's business in China. Done deal.
For example, Star Bucks Coffee will become the patriotic "Five Stars Coffee", Disney's Theme Park will become the "Mulan Park" ...
@@4-SeasonNaturethis would be awesome! Hehehe I hope the Americans do it, it would be fantastic! I love to see the faces of the dumb and dumber when everything goes exactly opposite of what they think it will be 😂 PLEASE, I BEG you, please tell all those companies to sell it for $1 and leave China, please please please. Best of the best, cream of the crop, America #1, yeah baby!! 😂😂😂
As we saw in Russia, Walmart, Starbucks, KFC, McDs, BK, Pizza Hut, Hilton, Sheraton, etc. are ALL replaceable by domestic brands and operators. As we saw with Boeing being frozen out of the Chinese market as of a few years ago, Deere, Cat and Buick are completely unnecessary.
Boeing is an important example. After the 737 Max crashes, China refused to certify and refused delivery of Boeing 737 aircraft. As of today, China now has their own Comac C919 narrow body aircraft in production, with a global order book. Between Comac, Airbus and Embraer, there will never be another Boeing sale in China. China can complete decouple from American aviation technology at any time, which is why the LEAP engines were ultimately approved for export on the C919.
Even for europe, LV, dior, chanel, gucci sells more in china than any other country, bmw, audi, mercedes sells more cars in china than US, middle east and africa combined, china is the biggest contributor to tourism in europe and whole world, one move by xi jingping and western economy will be in shambles.
Thank You Professor, you are by far, the leading specialist in this complex subject, sharing your in depth knowledge with us, much appreciated, we are living through, a time,of historic change!
A brilliant lesson in economics! Thank you again, Professor Richard Wolff!
IMPRESSIVE 👍👍👍👍👍!!!
At Other Moments, Prof WOLFF made me LAUGH with his funny way of presentation.
😂😂😂😂😂
For Prof. WOLFF 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 ....
Wise statements based just on reality. Thank you.
Thank you again, Professor Richard Wolff, for your expertise all these years and the books you have written .
"History repeats itself, and that's one of the things wrong with history.
The pursuit of truth shall set you free, even though you never catch up with it."
Clarence Darrow
Keep all of us straight. 😊
Your intelligence and wisdom through your education are greatly appreciated.
There is absolutely no decoupling between the United States and China at present. We have sent our manufacturing there and we are dependent upon their capitalist manufacturing capabilities and their cheap labor. They are dependent on our manufacturing for their increased standard of living from a desperately famine ridden country to the second most powerful nation on earth.. but what a price China has paid! That shifting of manufscturing to another nation was a big mistake that China isn't going to replicate as it becomes more capitalist, and more authoritarian/nationalist. They aren't going to tie their economy to anyone else. That's one, but only one smart move.
Should we decouple? I wish we never put our workforce at such a disadvantage for the benefit of a few rich families, corporations and individuals. But it may be too late now to put it all right again with American labor producing good quality goods for the world and American labor thriving with secure jobs in union organized workplaces. Now we seem to be stuck with a dictatorial and aggressive jerk hell bent on destroying the American economy so his country can replicate every disaster our capitalists and politicians have done before them. But at the same time they are determined to keep our jobs there.
Professor Wolff, Xi is just another politician who thinks he's so smart but is ego driven and fond of personal power demanding absolute loyalty like another similar, though less smart American authoritarian jerk. I am not enamored of Xi. I think he and his capitalist friends are doing to Chinese labor what all my capitalist bosses did to me. I survived the overwork...barely. I survived the abuse...resentfully. I got older and poorer and I feel so sorry for the Chinese people, who though they are doing better they aren't allowed to think what they might have if only they could stop long enough to think about what democracy and a free elections for really caring politicians could be like. We dont have that leisure and neither do they. We workers are all in the same boat working for wages and ruled by employers who live entirely different lives and think of us as tools to use for money making, not as real human beings capable of problem solving and independent thought. We workers are ruled by preselected candidates and are never given the opportunity to be autonomous and live democratically in our work and in our communities and nationally too. That's what capitalism does to workers. That is what autocracy does to everyone except that one big guy who thinks he's so smart but who blames others whenever he screws up. And that guy is never ever content to stay within national borders and mind his own business. Here and in China those big guys who think they know the best thing to do in every situation keep seeking more wealth, power and military might. It's downright frightening.
The world is in deep trouble now with the international rise of autocracy. The little guy is in for a hard time and that goes for workers in China and right here if autocracy is allowed to flourish. Capitalism leads to concentrated wealth and China is going down a well trodden path we have raced down before them. In tandem we are going straight to hell!
Once again I plead for socialism combined with democracy. I plead for a better deal for workers. I plead for a better life for me, my kids and everyone like us. I plead for peace.
It's too bad that his "wisdom" is a rejection of that "education".
@@jgalt308
Not you again. Lol
@@cheri238 Channeling Rodney King "Can't we all just get along?" doesn't qualify as
"wisdom" or an understanding of history...as history's answer
to that question has been a resounding NO!!!!!
But his recent and extended conversation with Michael Hudson pretty much exposes
any claim to "wisdom" he might have as fraudulent.
But feel free to get back to me after you have watched it...
YT search for...Is China’s Economy Collapsing? Economic War! Michael Hudson & Richard D. Wolff
Wow, D@W just censored Wolff to protect him from himself and Michael Hudson.
This is one of the few times I have completely agreed with the Professor.
An enlightening lecture for all concerned to pay attention to and to follow for peaceful co-existence in the present chaotic world !
GRATITUDE AND EMANCE …
RESPECT TOWARDS THIS
WONDERFUL PROFESSOR,
I ALWAYS LEARN SOMETHING
NEW EACH n EVERY EPISODE.
🎯🙏🇨🇦
Prof. Wolff is consistently outstanding. What fresh and important views he succinctly provides.
Also watched Prof Wolff speaking at the Decoupling Conference in Adelaide, South Australia online on December 15, 2023. Wonderful speech indeed！
I always learn so much from Pr. Wolff.
Agreed 100% . You have expressed cotemporary history 100% correctly professor . Thank you and great respect .
And all that without knowing what capitalism is...or any actual history.
Thank you for consistently providing top-tier analysis, which is always based on logical, well-informed, and insightful foundations.
Professor Wolff is the best describing and explaining economic and politics in a clear and easy to understand way.
Getting things wrong is always easy...
You are the best !!!
Great! This is a very important educational lesson about what is happening NOW! Thank you Rick and Shane!
During the 2008 economic crisis, China saved the U.S. economy and millions of American families. The United States needs to be grateful to China
Not exactly true.
It's true that China took the opportunity to purchase an enormous amount of US sovereign debt but it's not clear that had any effect on the US economy's solvency so a case can't be made that China "saved" the US economy. The Fed is a bit mysterious to this day what it did with all the bad financial instruments that existed at the time from junk quality bundled financial packages to non-performing real estate loans. All that is publicly known is that the Fed allowed the Trustees the Fed enlisted to manage those assets to manage them "off the books," ie to do double bookkeeping and keep those bad assets separate from the managing company's own operations.
We also know that it took 8 years until about 2016 for the US economy to fully recover from the Financial Meltdown of 2008. But what does this recovery really mean?
In any case, it's not like China didn't benefit greatly from its purchase of US sovereign debt. China had a big pile of cash profits, more than it knew what to do with. But those were the years before Xi became President of China in 2012 and ever since he took office the Chinese have been selling all that US debt China had accumulated to where today, China is suspected to be bankrupt as a nation although it keeps finding Dollars somewhere to keep China afloat (The Chinese currency is not accepted in mot of the world).
So, did China really save the US economy in 2008?
Probably not because there's no reasonable scenario that suggests the US economy would have collapsed or been in worse trouble without China buying US sovereign debt.
China just took advantage of the situation and made some money.
🥳🤡🐒 that a full of BS analysis. 🥳🤡🐒🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌‼️
@@tonysu8860I would have agreed with you but for the last two sentences.
yeah you are correct there brother@@4-SeasonNature
@@tonysu8860lol America literally begged china to print money to save them. China didn’t want to print at all, they preferred the consolidation method and getting rid of the failed banks, just like China does in their own country. You think China “took advantage” of American debt? How about you “take advantage” of China debt then? Come come, show the world how to “take advantage” we all wait for your brilliance 😂 dumb and dumber
Lure USA capitalists? Partly true, but it was more of the former badgering China to “Open up, open up - your cheap labor and huge market!”.
no one force China... also they opened up as much as they wanted at one point in time.
@@johnsmith-cw3wo No, china wasn’t forced to allow western capital into China. China allowed them; westerners can’t force their way in like in the century of humiliation.
Correct, no one forced China to open up. I said “badgering, pestering” china to open up. China allowed them to enter on China’s terms. Westerners can’t force their way in, like during the hundred years of humiliation. Those days are over.
"Men living in democratic times have many passions, but most of their passions either end in the love of riches, or proceed from it. " Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)
Democratic times are done
@@Notfunnysam Yeah we should have dictators like Xi lead the world.
Best wishes from Manchester Old England great show everybody keep up the good work ❤️☺️
Very well explained, Professor Richard Wolff.
I always make time to listen to all your videos, some lecturing, some explaining, and some were 'food for thoughts', and whatever they are, it is always very informative and educational for those who aren't educated in economics. Tqvm
Prof Wolff, the decoupling and de-risking is very real and is happening, except it is the opposite to what most people think.
There is clear effort on the Chinese side to de-risk and decoupled, and make the entire supply chain domestic. They don't talk about it, but is certainly doing it.
For example, thanks the the US policies, Huawei's newest flagship phone is almost completely devoid of any US and western components. Qualcomm has been decoupled from Huawei's supply chain.
Same also goes for their AI and cloud computing industries. US banned the sale of Nvidia flagship chips, and what Nvidia can sell to the Chinese is less powerful than what Huawei makes, so the Chinese industries turns to domestic suppliers to de-risk from further US interference .
Even their transport industry, Chinese high speed train and electric cars are product of de-risking from imported fossil fuel.
The question for the politicians in the West is are they actually prepared for the decoupling that they preach.
Yes and no. China has been focussing on the domestic economy for quite a few years now because of the trade war unleashed by Trump. China is seeking to be self sufficient in key strategic sectors. China's domestic market is huge and China has begun to grow its economy based on domestic consumption instead of mainly depending on exports. Thus China has implemented the "Dual Circulation" strategy - domestic demand and exports powering its economy.
So, yes, China has "de-risked" from the western markets. It can survive and do quite well if cut off completed from the western markets. But it will continue to trade and invest where it is welcomed. Hence, dual circulation. If shoves comes to blows, the Chinese economy can survive, but the western economies may not.
On top of this, China and Russia are powering the BRICS countries. The original BRICS 5 are already bigger than the G7 economies in purchasing power parity terms. With the additional 5 countries, BRICS++ will be much bigger than G7.
China and Russia are strategic partners and their economies are complementary.
China's message to the US and EU - go on, make my day - decouple and see what happens. (Hint: EU has already seen what happened when they decouple from Russia.)
The hidden messages of ideological decoupling of US from China is to transform China in an "Argentina" type of an economy, in a 'perpetuum mobile' capitalistic nightmare of poverty, misery or economic crisis degeneration, or politic instability. The powerful people behind the ideological buffoons, Biden and Trump, want to transform China economy in the "Argentina economy model" or in any other banana republic from Africa or South America, full of civil wars, looting from factions of extremists, mobsters or IMF, world bank.
@@PhiloSurferyou are right, In terms of natural resources supply and demand both China and Russia are superbly complimentary.
Exactly right! China is rapidly de-risking by completely decoupling from American technology and advanced Western imports.
The Huawei Mate 60 is a triumph of Chinese technology, with every single component manufactured in China. Aside from the SK Hynix memory made in Wuxi, everything was designed in China - and Huawei can replace SK Hynix memory in a heartbeat and pull Google Android via HarmonyOS Next. Within the next couple of years, we'll see Xiaomi, Oppo and the rest move to sanction-proof domestic supply chains as well, running Chinese OS without Google Android, either. Google is going to lose a LOT of royalty, ad & store money LOL.
Chinese HSR is entirely domestic as well, incorporating generational advances over the older German & Japanese technology transferred during the initial buildout. Chinese EVs lead the world with batteries that outperform every alternative. When Chinese electric transport is essentially powered by renewable energy, their only use of fossil fuel will be for international shipping.
Plus, China essentially leads BRICS and has a vast network of friendly BRI trade partners around the world, essentially the entire Global South as the G77+China. China's ability to decouple from the West should not be underestimated, and grows stronger every year.
West is not ready, Buick and cadillac sells more cars in china than US, china is the biggest market for apple outside US, starbucks, kfc and mcdonalds biggest market is also china outside US, tesla biggest market is also china outside US, luxury goods like LV, chanel, dior, gucci biggest market is china, bmw, audi, mercedes, vw, biggest market is also china, world's biggest contributor to world tourism is also china, one move by xi jingping and the economy of west will be in shambles.
Thank you so much for a such insightful analysis.
Even when the US buys from other nations like Mexico or Vietnam, they are still buying from china. Because the factories they buy from are very often Chinese owned or at the minimum they use Chinese components.
This way China can sell to the US, without needing to worry about US tariffs on China.
True, and the US is paying more for the intermediaries lengthening supply chains for minimal value added.
In bangladesh they have factories, country gets credit, in essence they helped build it.
I don't know if it's possible to anger the neocons more than they will be by this very rational presentation but let's have a go. Prof Wolff, how about a visit to China to see first hand what's going on there - feeling the pulse first hand so to speak. Henry Kissinger did it! We need someone of your eminence to jolt more us into thinking clearly about our relationship with China. Decoupling and war are not answers. Thanks again for your great presentation. See you in Shanghai!
Lookung forward to Mr Wollf in 2024 for sharing his true professional and unbiased knowledge . happy New Year Sir .
Marxism is the very definition of bias.
I am very impressed with this explanation to decoupling the truth from the myth. Thank you.
Additionally, the U.S. government does not dictate what independent, multinational corporations can or will do. Politicians may offer a "decoupling" public policy, but businesses will do what they do
Uh the US government certainly can dictate these things--ever hear of national security letters? Room 641A? The dollar? The U.S. is still an empire that maintains the "rules-based internstional order."
Marx was born into the post French Revolution firmament, that promised an end to feudalism. A very exciting time. Capitalism was seen as a revolutionary force that would put an end to feudalism, get rid of the inefficiency of economic rent & therefore end quite naturally in socialism, where everyone gets a fair shake. It was a dismal life for many, as Dickens can attest, battles would have to be fought, but progress was being made & the direction was clear & set. Real gains were made in employment, education, housing, sanitation, etc. Then it all went wrong. “If we don't get socialism, we will get the barbarians” - Rosa Luxemburg assassinated 1919. The barbarians she was talking about, were the elites of Financial Capitalism that rule over our lives to this day.
Marx meticulously dissected & brought together all the post-revolutionary economists work, the Classical economists, from Smith to Ricardo, etc, in a single critique called Capital. Capital vol 1 is all people read - production & the surplus. Vol 2 & 3 talk about financial capitalism, interest, economic rent, monopoly rent, unearned income, explaining exactly our situation in the west today. Neoliberalism is Financial Capitalism, a return to neo-feudalism, where bankers' & billionaires rule every aspect of our lives. They were trying to rid themselves of the landed aristocracy, that did nothing & took everything, that existed in their time. We must try to rid ourselves of the oligarchs of corporate power, the financial neo-aristocrats, that exist in our times. Or be enslaved once again.
The post Great Depression, post WW2 blip in socialism was caused by the elite's fear of communism. The west is the best had to have some basis in reality. FDR told the rich, either give up some of your wealth now, or risk a revolution & losing the lot later. That fear has now gone, organised resistance has been smashed & any pretence of a good life for the lower classes is no more.
How did the industrial capitalism of Marx’s day, transform into the financial capitalism we have today? To make a complex understanding simple; the Robber Barons, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman, Morgan, etc, were born in the 1830’s and grew their wealth through the efficiencies brought by industrial capitalism. Over time they became monopolies, dictating price & concentrating their wealth to immense proportion. Carnegie was considered the richest man in America, with mountains of money that earned him much more than making steel. Monopoly pricing, investments & interest, in short unearned income, became their main source of wealth, so they used their money to promote their interests. Starting in the 1890’s a new Neoclassical economics was promoted hard, because it sanitised their obscene wealth. It was really an anti-classical economics, with cancerous growth requirements, that was & is unsustainable - but that's another story. The new economics protected their wealth because it declared no difference between earned & unearned income. This was the essential difference. The Robber Barons became the Neo-aristocracy of their time, building institutions, foundations, corrupting government, anything that served their interests. Rockefeller founded Chicago University, where the Chicago School later gave rise to Milton Freedman’s iteration of Neoliberal economics & Monetary Theory. This is how the transformation occurred, from an Industrial Capitalism that was on the road to socialism, to a Financial Capitalism that is on the road to Neo-Feudalism - a full circle, with their power now much enhanced by their ownership of digital technology, for the ultimate in mass control.
We can see that the authoritarian nature of market economies is driving conflict, and how individual interests corrupt community interests over time. This is why market economies are such a useful tool for those at the top of civilized hierarchies. A market economy provides a lever into every person's life through their wallet.
Civilization itself is an authoritarian process and it has developed various social tools to leverage control into the hands of a few. Market economies are one of the best tools authoritarians have to institute control over the public.
True. The state came into existence to exercise control over the masses on behalf of the elite few. @@blogintonblakley2708
Talking about decoupling, here's a controversial suggestion: the world is to be divided into two main blocks, with one block is still being led by the US, together with its vassal states in Europe (almost the entire Europe), few of its pet dog states in Asia (Japan and South Korea, maybe Philippines, presumably being kicked out from ASEAN), few of its vassal states in North & South America and some of its slave states in Carribbean, and the other block being led by China and Russia, together with the global South and developing countries in Asia, Africa, Middle East and South America. The population ratio between the two blocks roughly 25% to 75%, and the resources ratio maybe 30% to 70%. Let's see which block would be sustainable in the long run. The third world and developing countries have long hated the arrogant politicians from the developed countries who are still having the outdated colonialism mindset of plundering of the nation wealth as well as lectures and threats imposed on them by the Western world. Enough is enough!
The US will win 🇺🇲
All that prosperity in those so-called "vassal" states; what a tragedy.
love your conclusion, live and let live!!
Thank you, Richard.
Excellent segment professor. Good morning, wish you a good day.
China released its ten-year plan, Made in China 2025, in 2015 after realizing the writing was already on the wall. The strategy aimed to modernize China's industrial base by rapidly expanding ten high-tech industries. The most prominent ones include advanced robotics and artificial intelligence, next-generation information technology (IT) and telecommunications, and electric cars and other new energy vehicles. Chinese officials were first concerned about international fallout, but as soon as the decoupling became a formal US policy during the Trump and then the Biden administrations, their concerns were validated.
Excellent , informative with none of the vitriol. Thank you.
The best best you have presented to us. thank you for educating us
Thank You Professor Wolf for doing a great job. We appreciate it very much.
love the wisdom of Prof. Wolff ❤
Thank you, Professor Wolff!!
This old man here is full of knowlege,he knows what we need ,he cares about the future of his children's children and above all hes full of wisdom❤
Thank You Professor Wolff for your insight. The politics sucks but but the clarity of economics unfortunately shows a bleak picture by a country run by LAWYERS always looking for an angle lol.
❤Thank you very much for this wonderful lesson and teaching Professor.
Kumar's, so when will Brag-Rhat replace the PRC as the manufacturer of the world?
Brag-Rhat, the 1 that is ranked 111th on the hunger-index of 125 countries.
Mr wolf absolutely brilliant because you are brilliant thank you so much for your wisdom
The capitalists made their bed, now their children are going to have to sleep in it
Not their children, our children will pay the price.
you talk so well and well informed thankyou for sharing Sir.
They want to have capitalism without its ill consequences!
I’d like to hear Professor Wolf’s opinion on the tech industry in Ireland, past, present and future 😅
Thank you Pro. Wolf. Good job.
Bravo .thank you so much.
Brilliant analysis, and easy to grasp. Everything Wolff says is exactly right and his conclusion is spot on.
One correction: Rare earth is not only found in China. For sure the deposit of it in China is big, but there are also many countries having quite a lot of it including the USA.
Just that next to having the biggest output/export of Rare earth, China also having the best processing technology of it that most of the world's big consumers can't live without.
As a matter of fact, China is also the biggest importer of Rare earth.
True, Rare Earth Metals are NOT rare at all, they’re found everywhere on Earth. But they are rarely found together in large enough quantities to justify a dig, let alone extracting & separating (processing) is very labor intensive. So it only makes economic sense (cost-benefit) to survey, excavate, extract, transport, refine AKA ‘process’ this ore in China because 1 Kg of finished ore costs less than the selling market price. If it was ‘processed’ in Canada or Switzerland or even Chile it would cost 5-10 times more than the selling price.
According to google search they "produce" about 70 percent of the world's rare earth metals. So he was generalizing. Apparently the US was importing about 80 percent of it's rare earth usage, but has reduced that down to about 74%.
Good to have you back, Rick
Thank you Dr. Wolff
Very well put Prof, especially the point you raise on superiority complex...
Unless Walmart wants to start stocking F35's or Lowes n HD want to start sellin B2's on Lowes Advantage card, then obviously the US has no other alternative but to be completely dependent on China, completely dependent on Mexico, India, Taiwan, Nam yada yada for everything Not WMD related. Even if DC had the guts to decouple (which they obviously don't), who's gonna do the work?? All the factories are padlocked and rusting in the sun, the millions of workers that were layed off are all now on the dole, so who's gonna man the lathes n welders?
Repair and rebuild the factories. Put people to work- there is no "dole" in the US and people want to work. FDR did it.
The US wouldn't dare to decouple although they had been talking about their intent previously. They must have analyse and found they couldn't, or they would have done so to their advantage.
Always a great lesson.
The Chinese went through four fold periods of total loot of the treasury by the rich and colonialists and on the fifth round Mao decided no more of this loot named 'a century of humiliation' by empowering a party that will have the supreme authority to decide what's good so China will never again be stripped of its wealth by the foreigners. Mao devised the cultural revolution that gave the party the authority to a win-win deal with the west, so cheap labor and a 1.4 billion people's market instead of technology transfer and investment from the west. The west wisely agreed and now it is China and the whole world will reap the fruit of equilateral distribution of limited global wealth, for the prosperity of all, as Putin is bent on destroying neoliberal globalists, with only two obstacles, Ukraine and Israel.
So, in the first part he demonstrates that the 'decoupling' policy is a myth because US is actually making a lot of business with China, then in the conclusion he calls for the US to abandon the decoupling policy and come to terms, make business with China.
All good.
Also, he blames Capitalism to have transformed China in the second greatest economy on the planet (aka, "become rich") and that, from me tone he used, it is a bad thing. Maybe bad if you don't like other people becoming as rich as you.
Still all good.
I like a rich China. What I don't like is a dictatorial China. Hopefully that will change too.
Great as usual.
Can you discuss the post office scandal in the UK in one of your coming episodes?
This is a stark example of how capitalism and privatisation is ruining lives and enriching only those at the top.
Nice conclusion! Edward Baptist* described cotton in the 19th century as oil in the 20th. (*he wrote the book "The Half Never Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism")
I LOVE THIS TOPIC!
We're living through the second season of "The Red Scare Show" and we have a new villain.
Richard :
Tks., much appreciative.
Great insight from Professor Wolff. Thank you!
Bravo, bravo !
Best video on this subject to date. 🇨🇦🙏
Thx for sharing
Can someone recommend a must-read book by Dr. Wolff?
Professor Wolf is coping really bad.
@@TacticalMayo COPE
@@meowzic I don't have to 🤣
@@meowzic I don't have to 🤣
Have a veggie-curry and go sleep to dream, Kumar.
In essence, is decoupling, derisking and small yard high fence the same? How is it being administered?
It's just sabotage, containment and suppression. The U.S. is trying to subjugate China to keep it from becoming the World's number one nation, with the strongest economy and control of the world system.
Thank you. So clear and full of common sense.
Amazing Professor: Wolf, you are the voice of sanity in a crazy world, your insightful knowledge is perfect, I now finally understand why Profit driven captilism is bad ❤🙏☺️.
温哥华老唐：讲得太好了。简洁，透彻。佩服
如果你玩过《civilization》这款游戏，你一定就能明白，当你想要在贸易上与一个国家decoupling ，那意味着下一步是什么。
This was lit 🔥 love prof wolfee!
Thankyou so very much Dr. Wolff
I believe 30% of Chinese GDP is made up from the Public Sector. Highest in the world. Solong as the CPC maintains control of their economy, no problems
A question: if the Chinese exports to Europe and US dropped in 2023, and their housing market collapsed (here I am quoting mainstream media), how come they had a growth of 5,5% ? I would be interested to hear about this topic, could it be that Chinese economy is transforming?
Because a chunk of China's export to US and EU are now shipping to SEA countries and mexico and other places, got slapped on a "made in XXX label" or assembled there with parts 100% came from China, then shipped to the US and EU with higher cost because of that, to save face for their politicians so they can keep fooling their public.
This can be easily verified by checking China's global export list in 2022 and 2023: although the numbers to US and EU fell, the export to SEA countries, middle east and south America countries, and most importantly Mexican, had grown in huge numbers. The SEA are the middle man to EU and NA, and mexican is for the US mainly
furthermore, China's huge internal market is now switching to domestic brands in a rapid pace, from low end all the way to highest end products. This means a big chunk of money paid to those expensive German, Japanese, and US products now stayed with domestic companies for more R&D, domestic coorperate puchases, and salaries that eventually goes back into the domestic econony.
In simple words, China's econony has been transforming into high surplus industry based and high end service based, instead of low end manufacturing in the past, while their export keeps growing, just not to the west that's all.
This last bit is the fact that you will never see in western media, because that would contratict what they's been feeding their public in the past
Excellent as usual
Protectionism is a necessary part of a sound industrial policy. It doesn't do much on its own. But it has been part of every industrialisation strategy of every country in the world which has industrialised since the British Industrial Revolution. It was key to the building of the US economy in the 19th century, to be able to develop globally competitive industries on US soil which had the capital intensivity and the economies of scale to be able to compete with the existing British industries which dominated the world market, which is to say had been able to supply most of the demand for manufactured goods of the entire world. It was the paradoxical benefit of the global blockade of the Soviet Union from october 1917 onwards, that it protected the Soviet Union's infant industries from being destroyed by capitalist competition. A benefit which has been provided again by the US-led sanctions regime against Russia since 2022, although the imperialists began sanctioning Russia years before, giving Russia the warning and the guidance about the need to pursue import-substitution and diversification of the Russian economy.
The balance of trade is incredibly important for every country, because trade deficits drain capital out of the country, impoverish the people, and create a vicious cycle where businesses cannot thrive and people cannot find jobs with living wages and they therefore emigrate to find those things in the countries which are bbenefitting from trade surpluses, further weakening the economy and extending recession. Fetishizing trade in general, which liberal econoics does, misses this point, and only counts the size of the trade flow, and says "how marvellous that trade is up and capital is increasing at a global level". Socialists cannot ignore the redistribution of wealth and income involved, the enriching of certain countries and regions at the expense of the others. Trade is not an intrinsic or absolute good. That is fetishism. Likewise with globalisation as the reduction of trade barriers and the increase of total trade and nominal growth. The details are more important, because it is in the details that the labouring classes are impacted negatively. Globalisation worsens regional and international inequality, entrenches imperialism and provokes nationalism and international conflict over this very matter of the balance of trade and who get stuck with chronic trade deficits.
Hello, Dr Wolff.
Can you take up a suggestion to make a video on the topic of power analysis? Is it a graph, a structure, or an investigation like a journalist goes to uncover? Thank you for your work.
Another great video. 👍
Kudos to Professor Wolff!
Richard Wolff is a wise and honest man. Your analysis is accurate. Unfortunately your hope at the end is very hard to accomplish with people like John Mearsheimer who relentlessly advocates to "contain China".
Thanks Prof. Wolff
USA living standards and infrastructures do not match its high per capita income because a big portion goes to pay for tax, wars, interest expenses, military complex, expensive medical, legal and accounting services which do not add to the quality of life.
Consequently USA infrastructures are outdated and its home ownership rate is only 66% compared to China 90%. And Americans could afford to eat out less and travel less than Chinese.
USA system is also unsustainable with debts hitting usd 34 trillion plus usd 9 trillion printed money, and with debts still increasing at usd 2 trillion a year. This comes at a time when the world is fast losing confidence in the banana usd.
No, rare earth is NOT found only in China. What China had developed is the technology to process the rare earth and the flexible environmental protection enforcement that allowed such technology to develop.
Very deep and interesting analysis, thanks 👍
Thanks!!
When Trump imposed 25% tariff on many Chinese made products, it scared the shit out of many Chinese exporters. It turned out later that even with 25% tariff, Chinese products are still the most competitive, US consumers just have to pay more. The tariff money is a good resource to fund Ukraine though. BTW, those apparels and shoes in Walmart are not made in China anymore. This happened before the tariff thing as even China's labor cost is not competitive on these low valued added staff...
I am still listening to this episode, but wish to ask: is it not quite possible that China will be able to produce all its own raw materials and everything else and not need us at all?
That's exactly what China has been saying for 8 years that they will do. This is part of the reason for the decoupling/de-risking, to save ourselves.
The same has been true of Russia. The sanctions have forced them into self-reliance and they are stronger for them.
They certainly will now we've pushed Russia into their arms. Russia and Africa are "resource superpowers", extremely rich in natural resources, and now both are being aligned with China, entirely so in the case of Russia which was Europe's number 1 supplier of essential natural resources
yeah. It's not USA decoupling with China, it's USA that pushes China to decouple with USA instead right now. We have literally fed up with the ignorant arrogance of USA. And we will do it by de-dollarization, which is the first and also the final step.
In the past, China was more worried about whether raw material supplier countries could continue to maintain normal trade relations with China. Thanks to the United States, in order to weaken Russia, the comedians who control Ukraine took advantage of Russia's inability to accept Ukraine's national security bottom line in joining NATO, forcing Russia to launch a war against Ukraine. The Western sanctions on Russia have completely pushed Russia into the embrace of China. You may not know that Russia and Putin himself have always wanted to reconcile with Europe and join the EU, and they are also very wary of China. This is also the reason why Russia’s Siberian region has not tried to integrate into China’s economic circle for decades. The hostility of the EU and the United States towards Russia made Russia see the reality clearly and began to actively deepen cooperation with China and integrate into the Chinese economic circle. This will provide China with a stable supply of energy, food and raw materials for decades to come.
Professor Wolf, thank you for your great and sensible discussions on the world economy.❤❤❤❤
Thank you 🌎 ✊️ 🗽 🌹