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Bill Clinton and American Financiers Armed China

mattstoller.substack.com

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Re: Bill Clinton and American Financiers Armed China

#3
> For instance, during the Obama administration, Mack McLarty - President Bill Clinton’s first chief of staff - made $300 million in luxury auto dealers in China after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff helped broker an introduction to key Chinese leaders.

Conflict of interests doesn't begin to describe it...

Re: Bill Clinton and American Financiers Armed China

#4

Glad this subject is starting to see light. China's totalitarian rise is due to America's own internal corruption, political deadlock, and inability to grasp reality.

I waiver back and forth between thinking that this was just institutional naivete or an intentional graft based on the thought that "China will surpass us eventually ... so how do we profit?" held by a lot of Elites at the time (and probably today).

Re: Bill Clinton and American Financiers Armed China

#5

Glad this subject is starting to see light. China's totalitarian rise is due to America's own internal corruption, political deadlock, and inability to grasp reality.

Greed. Western greed. Need for more power and money without doing hard work. Arrogance and thinking that their position is somehow special because of their culture, where freedom of speech has been actually shown to be bullshit. The same sort of tools that China is criticized for using are slowly creeping into the Western countries as well... etc. etc. You can write a book about it.

Re: Bill Clinton and American Financiers Armed China

#6

Glad this subject is starting to see light. China's totalitarian rise is due to America's own internal corruption, political deadlock, and inability to grasp reality.

I waiver back and forth between thinking that this was just institutional naivete or an intentional graft based on the thought that "China will surpass us eventually ... so how do we profit?" held by a lot of Elites at the time (and probably today).

China will surpass us? How does a country which was in China's position during Nixon's time we're talking about a country of farmers, create such thoughts. No the prevailing thought was that if we bring China in line with our power structure their elites and their children will join us at the top and help us exploit their population so that we can continue to make untold amounts of profit. Unfortunately, China's elites decided against that dream.

Re: Bill Clinton and American Financiers Armed China

#9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I waiver back and forth between thinking that this was just institutional naivete or an intentional graft based on the thought that "China will surpass us eventually ... so how do we profit?" held by a lot of Elites at the time (and probably today).

China will surpass us? How does a country which was in China's position during Nixon's time we're talking about a country of farmers, create such thoughts. No the prevailing thought was that if we bring China in line with our power structure their elites and their children will join us at the top and help us exploit their population so that we can continue to make untold amounts of profit. Unfortunately, China's elit…

During Nixon's time, maybe. But that hasn't been the tone for a while. Today it's "market of a billion people" this, "incredible growth curve" that (even if people suspected or even knew it was all BS). There was certainly a vein of neoliberal thought that went the way you are going, where the more their market opens up the more they "democratize".

>China's elites decided against that dream

For them I think it was much more a nightmare than a dream.

Re: Bill Clinton and American Financiers Armed China

#10
It was MFN classification and the fast tracking into the WTO that enabled this result: hollowing out of American manufacturing, wage stagnation for blue collar workers resulting in economic instability which in turn had an effect on health and substance abuse. And of course “wage gap” everyone laments.

People like bringing up good old Ronald Reagan, who had faults and was simplistic about the economy, but Clinton (as mr Perot presciently warmed us) truly did drive the stake through the blue collar workers back and left them where we are today, moribund looking for salvation.

Yes, mr Clinton, you did it. It was done eloquently and with the backing of neoliberal elites, and the then mainstream media. The sophisticated approach is why he doesn’t get the vilification Reagan does amongst the working class. But it’s long deserved.

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