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China Unseats US As Global Investment Leader In Financial Technology: Report (fortune.com)
Paul Fernhout writes: China has unseated North America as the global investment leader in financial technology, or "fintech," according to Citigroup's latest report on "digital disruption." The researchers attribute the power shift to the rise of what they term "Chinese dragons," an industry term for the biggest upstarts in Asia. Think of Ant Financial, the payments spinout of Alibaba, as well as Lu.com, JD Finance, and Qufenqi, emerging eastern juggernauts that are generally less familiar to consumers in the west. China accounted for more than half of all fintech investments globally in the first nine months of last year, the report said. Specifically in terms of venture capital, the country more than doubled its worldwide share of the investment category, rising to 46% of the global total versus just 19% the same period in 2015. The U.S., meanwhile, sunk to 41% of the global total from 56% during the same period in 2015, putting it behind China.
We are going to put tariffs on imports? That will not help the economy. It won't help anyone.
Products will get more expensive for people who have money and incomes today. If we forcefully bring manufacturing jobs back here, it means that workers and business owners have to pay extra for goods due to the salaries of the workers in those jobs.
I mean, we have 90 million people not working today of which only about 20 million can probably work -- maybe even less. The rest are either too young, students, disabled, or old.
So we are going to put that 20 million to work, by paying $10 for a screwdriver instead of $5? By paying $300 for a phone that may cost only $200 today?
From the perspective of an income earner isn't that worse than being taxed and having a portion of the tax go towards welfare for the unemployed?
The advantage of giving someone welfare over paying them to do unnecessary work is that the person on welfare would have time to learn new skills plus you lose the overhead costs. And yes if someone or something else can do my work more efficiently then my work is by definition unnecessary.
Yes.. You are addicted to cheap consumer goods.
Right now that means a proportion of the money you spend hours to China.. And a big lump goes to offshore tax havens for the corps.. But at least their domestic share price goes up..
However.. Very soon those goods will be designed owned and build by purely Chinese companies. Then much more of what you spend will leave the country.. forever.
So.. you can either give up on your cheap consumer goods of wave goodbye to your economy.
It's really that simple. China is already out spending America on r&d. It's people are more success hungry. They have less invested in a nice safe middle class existence. They are going to innovate and produce you in to the dirt.
In exactly the same way the us did to Europe back in the day.
Your choices are few and difficult.
You know that TPP was not about america but the mega multinational corporations, right?
It would contain the SOPA/PIPA shit, an shady tribunal that would allow the mega corporations to sue countries for "loss of potential profits" among other many, many fun things.
Exactly. China has spent the last several decades making friends in the developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America, before going on the charm offensive in particularly Europe. I work for a global organisation, and have colleagues from Pakistan, who can't stop heaping praise on China, and you can understand why. America, they say, comes in and behave like colonial masters, ordering them about, whereas China help them achieve things they need and which they take pride in - like a big highway from China to Pakistan, apparently, and a large seaport (if I remember correctly). Yes, everybody does understand that this also serves China's interests, but that is sort of obvious, isn't it?
The point is - China are in a good position to take over from America, not just in APAC, but more or less globally; and probably in a much less threatening way than the US. A few years of Trump will help China enormously - when I talked to my Chinese acquaintances about Trump before the election, they all hoped that he would be elected - and it was not because they thought he will "make America great again". Brexit is another thing that they are quite happy about - it weakens both EU and UK, so they will be more open to making deals with China.
Yep, and what does the world see of the USA.... bombs being dropped on other countries, mass shootings, government officials telling us all how the USA has a big stick, how the various LEOs ignore the laws and spy on their own people, how the police seem to shoot and kill with impunity.
America is looking more and more like a bully trying to force policies that are solely in favour of America on the rest of the world.
And then you elect a pathological liar to lead your country making it look more and more that the US can not be trusted.
So of course China looks like a more reasonable option, and no matter how much "alternative truth" gets spewed, China either is or soon will be the worlds biggest economy and as far as international exporters are concerned its also the country with the largest consumer growth potential, making it even MORE important to trade with China.
The US is a highly protectionist economy, in comparison China is relatively free.
Asia accounts for 60% of the worlds population, the USA 4%.
And yes, the US will get caught meddling in the politics of Asian countries as the US tries to sow discord in Asia to try and blunt China's growing influence.
By igniting a trade war you mean competing and not just massively importing (defacto not competing and bolstering China's economy)?
China is not a signatory to the TPP, the whole point of the TPP was to include the US and exclude China, giving the US preferential access into those markets. No deal, then no preferential access.
Who cares about the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia markets which are pathetically small for goods that the US would even consider exporting?
Anybody who wants influence in SE Asia cares about access to those markets and the influence that trade relationships get you. The recent events in the South china sea demonstrates why the Philippines are important strategically.
Except, it's a non-fungible choice.
The US has led the free world for 70+ years, and is taken for granted by its allies and even the neutrals - the US military protects them, so they can spend $ on butter not guns (and then out-compete US industries). The US taxpayer's checkbook funds their social spending so they can complain freely about what a shithole America is.
We're spending $billions on foreign aid...that we have to BORROW FROM CHINA. That's like taking out a mortgage so you can continue making donations to United Way.
I've always been an internationalist, moreso than most of my peers but even I recognize that while of course there is enlightened self-interest in foreign aid, we've built a culture of world-addiction to American sacrifice. We're done spending blood and treasure to try to drag some shathole country into the 20th century, to say nothing of the 21st. ISIS is a problem? Yep, maybe fix your own country instead of fleeing to a nicer place. You're overwhelmed with troublesome refugees? Maybe a coast guard or even some semblance of border security is YOUR problem, we're not taking any of them.
No, I would say instead that a few years of China will help the US enormously
-Styopa
And the majority of us still do, apart from a few Soros-funded sockpuppet accounts. Fuck TPP, the entire world (except a few fat cats) is better off without it.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
One major emphasis of the TPP was expanding US copyright and patent "protection" internationally, provisions which large-corporate globalists desperately wanted. All sorts of copyright terms would be extended, generic drugs would be more expensive and harder to get. Go ahead and support Hollywood and Big Pharma now that Trump was the one to kill it. Had Clinton or Sanders been the newly elected president to kill it, we would be hearing from a different set of critics.
Now that really pisses me off. USA has destabilised the region in first place. You break it - you buy it. But instead you insist that they are not your problem.
That is why I say "fuck you and the horse you rode on in".
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap