Economics in all fields of endeavor with interesting thoughts

Washington Post, April 18, 2009 on pages A1 Headline,A12:

Psychologists Helped Guide Interrogations: Ethicists outraged over psychologists' work in secret prisons. Frank Donaghue, chief executive of Physicians for Human Rights, an international advocacy group made up of physicians opposed to torture. "All psychologists and physicians found to be involved in the torture of detainees must lose their license and never be allowed to practice again."

The American Psychological Association has condemned any participation by its members in interrogations involving torture, but critics of the organization faulted it for failing to censure members involved in harsh interrogations.

Page A14: Patricia Former wrote to the Editor: The United States is beholden to China for trade and for covering America's debt.

Page A8: President Obama said: "I think it is important to recognize, given historical suspicions, that the US policy should not be inteference in other countries." Cf. "Remaking China Policy" by economist Richard Moorsteen of the RAND Corporation,published by Harvard University Press in 1971 with a vision of former President Bush's visit in China today for a conference as per the Radio Broadcast and the visit by President Obama to China in the Fall this year

In March 2009 issue of Armed Forces Journal,Loren Thompson published "America's Economic Decline": -

The problem is not just a severe cyclical downturn caused by excesses in the housing market. The economy is undergoing a more profound, secular erosion that has resulted in it giving up a little more of its share of global output every year in this decade, in much the same way that General Motors and Ford have gradually yielded share in the domestic auto market. When the current decade began, America generated nearly a third of world output. By the time it ends,America will claim barely a quarter. Optimists such as Fareed Zakaria of NEWSWEEK describe this trend as the rise of the rest,but it might just as easily be called the decline of the West,especially America.

Thomas Fingar,predicted that the international system would be transformed over the next 15 years in much the say way that it was remade after World War II. But unlike during the Cold War,when America rose to unrivaled supremacy, Fingar's study predicted it would be China that had the most influence on global politics and economics in the years ahead. The US would probably remain the single most powerful nation in the near term,Fingar concluded,but in relative terms,China would be rising fast, and America would be declining. "Every 60 years the world revolves" as the Chinese saying goes! "Liu shi nian feng shui luan liu zhuan" in Pin Yin sytem of romanization. Cf."A Glimpse of the Chinese Language" available free of charge via pdf format at www.rand.org for reference.

Let us look at the empirical evidence in the days to come as witnesses of such transformation re globalization apropos of political economy in the 21st century.

Former Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Altman rendered a similar verdict in Foreign Affairs keyed to the credit market collapse. Altman warned that the unfolding financial crisis is a major geopolitical setback for the United States in Europe, and predicted it would accelerate trends that are shifting the world's center of gravity away from the United States. He too saw China as a rising power poised to capitalize on America's decline.

In BoAu,Hainan Province,the Asian leaders are having a significant conference to such effect. I watched Phoenix TV in Hong Kong with up-to-date information of on-going happenings in Asia to be reflected in the world.

According to "Duowei Times,"March 27, 2009 issue on page A3: New York University Economics Professor Robini published an article in the FORBES magazine pointing out the danger of financial crisis as a nation of cheaters("Pianzi" in Pin Yin with fraud.(sic) Such drastic hyperbole needs to be re-assessed in light of globalization and the role of USA as a leading nation in world affairs. "The King has no cloths on but we are still swimming with naked bodies. Look at the mirror,we are all cheaters to some ways in different degrees" Such humorous analogy is to be laughed off. Laughter begets longevity so we can all become centenarians. Hehehahahoho all the way for good health as sine qua non in economic wellbeing.

Francis Shieh aka Xie Shihao,a graduate student from China in 1947 studying all shapes and forms of the subject of economics in USA and China, sharing knowledge with online readers of Sino-American Economics in global context.

Saturday,April 18, 2009 at 10.20 a.m. in USA.