Anglo-Protestant principles as cherished by the late Huntington

The late Prof. Samuel P. Huntington,the author of his famous "The Clash of Civilizations" cherished his principles of hard work, honesty, fair play, courage,loyalty and patriotism as Editor Fareed Zakaria pointed out in his article published by the Washington Post January 5, 2009 on page A11. I enjoyed reading such masterpiece. Sam Huntington was a political scientist for all seasons! I do concur.

It occurs to me that Confucianism embodies the above aphorism(zouyouming) , motto(geyan),or maxim(zhenyan) in the same vein as Christianity. Confucianism may be the forerunner of Christianity and there is the link,not clash of civilization of the East and the West apropos of Confucianism in terms of Christianity. Such work may be traced at the Library of Congress online catalog: " Political Philosophy of Mencius" www.loc.gov for reference. Moreover,the late Thomas Merton, a famous Christian, published an article in 1962 entitled "Christian culture needs Oriental Wisdom i.e. the wisdom of Confucianism. Food for thought as simile for readers.

On the same page A11 re Washington Post, January 5, 2009: -

Robert J. Samuelson wrote: "What the United States needs is export-led growth. Just as large US trade deficits signified American overspending, large trade surpluses in China, Japan and other Asian countries signified their oversaving. In China, consumption spending is 35% of GDP, notes economist Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute. That is half the American level." In US,consumption sector occupies roughly 2/3 of GDP. American Model is or may not be the Model of all Models.(sic)

It should be clearly known that the lifestyle of the people with tradition and custom must be taken into consideration. It would be grossly incorrect to use the American way as the model for folks in other nations. Purchasing Power Parity leaves much room to be desired for making comparisons re standard of living of peoples in nations. I published an article to such effect in the Atlantic Economic Journal in 1970s with the view of the same rationale as published by Lawrence Summers' in the 1990s.

"The future of the US economy would require other societies reduce their oversaving and reliance on exports." Samuelson said. But in the Total Spending equation: C+I+G+F : F occupies only 20% of Aggregate Demand if such estimate is not too far off. Oversaving of undersaving may be disputed by the behavior of the folks in nations. China is boosting domestic demand with the reduced exports nowadays encountering global financial crisis.

Francis Shieh a.k.a. Xie Shihao, an independent astute observer or otherwise? The blogger is learning Sino-Amerian Economics from contemporary events.

Monday,January 5, 2009 at 10.36 a.m.