Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Can we hear them now?

Back when Dubya was first elected there was no end of things he was blamed for. Not that that has changed.

In particular, however, the Buchananites and their ilk were fond of blaming GWB for the PRC dumping timber, steel, and most anything else one can think of into the US economy and putting Murricans (and Canucks) out of work. The decline of the US steel industry, and Billy Joel's Allentown, preceded Dubya's first term by nearly two decades. The US lumber/softwood industry has been complaining since I can remember and the US-Canada softwood dispute has been going on as long as we've heard the plaintive refrains of Allentown. I vaguely seem to recall complaints that China was dumping cement into the US marketplace (if you want to read more than you ever thought possible and China and cement, go here).

I even heard the most rabid of these people blame California wildfires on Bush II. But I digress.

A coworker recently returned from the PRC. Among many observations he shared was one that one sure way to get rich would be to sell concrete in the PRC. EU Referendum tells us about China and coal and other economic news from China (the links, especially this one, are worth following). Bloomberg tells us about the effect of Chinese imports on copper prices. There are conflicting reports about how large a steel importer China is but she is certainly rising up the ranks and challenging the US, Germany, and Italy.

The US, Chinese, and Indian economies (among others no doubt) have been pretty much rocking and rolling for the past 5 years or so. Surely there's been no shortage of customers for cement, steel/iron, coal, and timber/lumber. Yet I don't recall hearing a peep from the doom & gloomers. Why haven't they been singing the Hallelujah Chorus?

5 comments:

Charlie Martin said...

Especially after Jonah Goldberg's book came out, I kind of hate to use the word "fascist", but Buchanan and Dobbs (among others) really do seem to me to be increasingly objectively fascist in the literal sense of being nationalistic and authoritarian. I'm not sure that good news serves their purpose, and I'm increasingly suspicious their purpose is malign.

Knucklehead said...

Their outlook is certainly malign. Whether outlook drives purpose or vice-versa is beyond my paygrade.

Rick Ballard said...

Nice piece, Knuck. I don't know about malign in the sense of intent. Deep ignorance and a mind frozen at 1950 could account for most of Buchanan, Dobbs and Paul's babbling. The outcome is certainly malign given that the idea of an Edenic gold backed economy of yore has about the same basis in reality as the progs dreams of perfect equality of outcomes.

MeaninglessHotAir said...

Seneca,

I can just about guarantee you that if you use the word "fascist" in any context you will immediately lose your audience. Why not simply say that they are "nationalistic and authoritarian", like, say, the Chinese government?

Charlie Martin said...

Well, in this case I figured this audience could handle the truth.