531–540 of 611 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Taiwan, which makes almost exactly the same claims as China Source? I've never heard of Taiwan claiming waters off the coasts of Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam as China does [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dash_line#/media/File:9_d...
The article you've linked to explains that Taiwan makes nearly the same claims as the PRC in the South China Sea. In fact, the famous "dashed-line" claims in the South China Sea were originally made by the Republic of China, before it was defeated by the Communists. This is a map from 1947, showing the ROC's eleven-dash line: [0]. The only difference that I know of between the claims of the ROC and the PRC is that th…
Taiwan doesn’t assert the claim [1]. There is sensitivity around explicitly abandoning it, as “changing the ROC’s historical claims would indicate—especially to Beijing—that the island democracy was abandoning its historical political identity and moving towards an inherently Taiwanese national identity, or even independence” [2]. To the degree Taipei has legitimately aligned with Beijing, it has been in the limited sense of arguing Taiwan is legally a real island, not an islet which cannot make any maritime claims [3][4].
[1] https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/07/15/2...
[2] https://globaltaiwan.org/2020/07/taiwans-delicate-balancing-...
[3] https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/201607120024
[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2016/03/23/how-ta...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, economic engagement with unfree countries got us south korea, Taiwan, probably more in eastern Europe: Albania comes to mind. Afaict disengagement only worked with south Africa.
There’s roughly three levels free vs unfree: 1. Democratic countries that mostly abide by international law and the rules-based order. 2. Non-democratic countries that also mostly abide by international law and the rules-based order, because they benefit from it more than not doing so. 3. Non-democratic countries that reject international law and the rules-based order. The US trades with #1 and #2, and was hoping to…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is not normal decoupling, we're in a full on economic war. I can see this as a response to USA banning China from accessing top chip technologies.
A decade or two too late, IMO. They haven't, nor ever likely will, respect IP yet believe the rest of the world will respect theirs.
Do they really?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Democracies aren’t beholden to the ego of an authoritarian. Free trade for free countries, and a tyrant tax for authoritarian regimes should be the norm if we want human centered capitalism. https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fiw&year=2023
[flagged]
There are other, more recent and more fitting examples you could choose if you want to use a specific politician.
You could also have used research that shows that people in general support or reject policies based on what party they think came up with them and not based on the (sometimes quite obvious ahead of time) consequences of those policies.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine you created a new currency in the US: FidoBucks. Not even a crypto but a regular currency you can print at your whim. Obviously nobody's really going to want your currency and it will have zero value. But now imagine, after some backdoor deals, you make it such that FidoBucks are literally the only currency accepted at gas stations. And not only that both those gas stations agree to spend any extra profits th…
Total worldwide production of oil is only ~90 million barrels/day and middle eastern production is a fraction of that. That’s not very significant compared to the total value of all USD in circulation. All FidoBucks in circulation might only be worth ~50 Billion in your example and depending on the velocity of money could actually be significantly less. People might start using it for other things, but it’s just as l…
Beyond that, this is all about international issues. Those gas stations are oil producing countries, and the people buying from them are countries. Being the person who can "print" the world reserve currency gives you immense geopolitical power, and an inability to economically fail regardless of how hard you try. When foreign currencies are no longer so closely tied to the USD, and demand for the USD declines, its international value will likely start to sharply decline, exactly as it did in 1971. But this time I don't really see anything we'll be able to cling onto.
[1] - https://www.dailyfx.com/usd-cad/link-between-canadian-dollar...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah we should quit doing that too, I don't think anyone but the political elite are in favor of being dependent on middle eastern countries
Will you complain when inflation is 500% by quitting Middle East oil and China's manufacturing?
We are causing a lot of trouble by shoveling money at bad countries run by bad people -- the Ukraine war wouldn't have happened if large (and important) parts of Europe 1) hadn't bought so much Russian gas and 2) made itself so dependent on the ability to keep buying it. This provided Putin with 1) the ability to wage war and 2) the feeling, bordering on certainty, that it was safe to do so.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The reason why the US doesn't like China is because the US dislikes the idea of being the #2 economy and losing control. This comment gets thrown around a lot but oversimplifies things. First, in the 90s, 2000s, and some of the 2010s ‘the US’ was China’s biggest cheerleader, investor, and supporter. Most US elites knew China would eventually become a bigger economy due to their 4x larger population, and were ok wit…
> Iraq was a travesty, and I have no idea what went on with Libya, or what is going on with Syria, for example. Beautifully spoken. Yet you still speak of peaceful, free and rules-based order.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Total worldwide production of oil is only ~90 million barrels/day and middle eastern production is a fraction of that. That’s not very significant compared to the total value of all USD in circulation. All FidoBucks in circulation might only be worth ~50 Billion in your example and depending on the velocity of money could actually be significantly less. People might start using it for other things, but it’s just as l…
First, the vast majority of all oil is traded in USD, not just the Mideast. As one example of the impact, take Canada. Their exchange rate against the USD is driven almost entirely by crude oil prices (of which they are a large exporter). The reason for this is that when oil prices are high they end up with a large supply of USD. And so the price of the Canadian dollar increases because, compared to the dollar, it's…
As to US Canada currency that relationship would be mathematically identical if oil was traded in Canadian dollars rather than USD with the exact same changes to each currency as oil’s value spiked. It’s a result of the balance of trade not the specific commodity being exchanged let alone the currency the transaction was valued in.
Oil happens to have high price volatility and significant value, but wood or maple syrup has similar effects though on a smaller individual scale.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whether china is good at the long game is the wrong question. They are obviously playing that game, they have even planned out the whole thing in "the 100 year marathon". The right question is if any of their democratic competitors are even in the game at all given their regular planned regime changes (elections) and multiple competing political parties. Even if china sucks at it, they win by default if there is no o…
I think it’s very important to point out here that historically speaking, no autocracy has ever outperformed the democratic West on any economic or military measure over the long term. There have been periods where it seemed like managed economies were on the rise (see even the USSR during the 1950s and 60s) but this growth tailed off due to, in many cases, serious unforced errors that the autocratic political system…