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November 3, 2005

Argentineans to tell Bush a thing or two, Thurs., Nov. 3, 2005, 1:52 PM

President Bush will be arriving in Argentina in about 4 hours. I expect the locals will be telling him a thing or two about economic realities in their part of the world.

He'll hear about unemployment that is close to +15 pct. And he'll be told that Consumer Price Inflation has grown from +6.1 pct in 2004 to +10.3 pct, as reported in September.

And from Argentina, he'll be off globetrotting, where the same story is going to be told. He ultimately arrives at the new OK Corral, which happens to be Beijing, where things Western are not held so dear.

That's another way of saying, it's a place they don't mind messing with Texas, which a country of nuclear weapons, long-range missiles, spy satellites, and 300 million soldiers-in-waiting, gets to do. Believe me, the belt buckles in Beijing are as big as in Houston. They just, in Eastern tradition, politely refrain from flashing them.

And thinking of China, I wonder if George is bringing along Laura to lecture his hosts for their dismal 86 pct female literacy rate, when 95 pct of the males in China can read and write?

If so, that would be kind of like Chris Cox of the SEC last month lecturing his hosts in Beijing about the American expertise in IPO's, unknowing that Shanghai outstrips the corporate finance production of NYC. It didn't go over too well.

But back to economics, I find it completely nonsensical that VIP's in Washington and TH's in NYC can spout their current garbage about inflation being no problem, mon", when the world is in desperate straits. It ought to be a case of fool me once and shame on you, but fool me twice, thrice and more, then shame on me.

Anyway, perhaps the leaders of America think the USA is an island, and not part of a greater world?

You want to ship your operating plants to China and India, and lay off the local employees, then be prepared to import inflation, to a local consumer who is having increasing trouble making ends meet.

Your profit bonuses sure look good, but I hope you leave some of the cash for your children and grandchildren, because they are sure going to need it. Either that or ship them off to school and jobs in China and India, because they're going to need some kind of help in the future.

And about all those employee pension plans you have been screwing over; save some of those current bonuses for a rainy day when your very few future employees have to carry an increasing burden for a growing number of retirees and forced-to-retire employees.

Honestly, I just don't get it. CEO's and Boards of Directors are supposed to be visionaries. So why are they so occupied in planning for next quarter's bonus?

Maybe they ought to go along with the President's entourage as he gets to meet hostile Main Streeter's everywhere.

Except maybe China, where politeness is the order of the day.

Posted by Posted by Bill Cara on November 3, 2005 01:52:19 PM | Category: Economics

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