This morning Guru seemed a bit apprehensive. He is concerned about global readiness for democracies around the world, especially for the United States. It is obvious that authoritarian governments like China, Saudi-Arabia, the ‘Stans in south Asia and mob governments like Russia and Turkey – all can move more quickly than democracy while disregarding human rights and truly collaborative economics.
On the other hand, many democracies, especially in South America and nations around the Pacific Rim are at the edge of economic failure, some even facing national bankruptcy. Many democracies are in worse social condition than the US appears to be as riots and government distrust encourage populism.
These democratic nations are waiting for the United States to create an economic solution that will restore democracy as the way to a sound existence.
Taiwan has been in the news recently as a democratic nation under increasing threat of a Chinese military invasion. Taiwan is a firm ally of the US and is a gem to be owned because they are the largest producer of microchips in the world. If the reader has kept up with real news (hard to find) they know there is a global shortage of microchips which likely will grow larger as the world adapts to artificial intelligence.
Recently there was a meeting of many democracies in Copenhagen. Bravely in defiance of Chinese storm clouds, Taiwan has addressed the issue of democratic unity head-on. From the Politico Newsletter:
TAIWAN — WE MUST COLLABORATE TO UPHOLD RULES-BASED ORDER: President Tsai told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit this morning that she is looking forward to Biden’s summit for democracy (a clear sign she expects to be invited), and urged the EU to “restart negotiation on a bilateral investment agreement” with her country, in light of the collapse of a draft EU-China investment agreement.
“Taiwan’s response to Covid-19 shows how pandemics can be contained without curtailing democratic freedoms … we are determined never to surrender these freedoms,” Tsai said, adding “it is imperative that we collaborate to secure our supply chains and safeguard the global economic order.”
The United States is not prepared to step up to its role as the democratic leader of world democracies. Unfortunately, the moment is fleeting; autocracies do not wait and are destructive in the process.
The news that is marketed in the US [Yes, marketed, a thorn in mariner’s side – news is a public service and should not be a profit center] is all about 1980 Reagan economics; pundits are using words similar to supply and demand, runaway inflation, keep corporate and private equity taxes low, and stop paying a dole to pandemic victims because they won’t come back to work – but don’t raise the minimum wage. All these arguments are virtually irrelevant in today’s economic circumstances and reek of political attitudes that long ago became inadequate.
In a recent post mariner expressed joy about a move by the Biden administration to visit Guatemala to see if the US could help that nation restructure its failing government and somehow generate a GDP for its citizens – an alternative solution to separating children from parents. This gesture is a form of supply chain dependency where democratic nations bond together and share an economic partnership rather than depending on twentieth century trade negotiations. Jeff Bezos understands this concept. Amazon is a business that depends on many businesses sharing a common outlet, that is to say, a supply chain.
Internationally, the US needs to be more like Amazon.
Ancient Mariner