China’s economy sees record growth after Covid-19 pandemic slump

 

China’s economy sees record growth after Covid-19 pandemic slump

16 Apr, 2021 07:50

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FILE PHOTO © Pixabay / Yung-pin Pao

The Chinese economy has shaken off the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis, expanding at a record pace of 18.3% in the first three months of 2021 compared to a year ago.

The figures for the country’s economic performance were published by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday. The over 18-percent surge became the best quarterly growth since at least 1992 when quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) records began. The results were largely in line with the expectations of economists polled by Bloomberg, who predicted GDP would jump by 18.5%. However, some expected China's economic output would be even higher, with analysts polled by Reuters predicting a 19% increase.

NL -- LARRY ROMANOFF -- De mythe van de Amerikaanse Competitieve Overmacht

   

 

De mythe van de Amerikaanse Competitieve Overmacht

 Door Larry Romanoff, 23 januari, 2021

ENGLISH  NEDERLANDS

 De Amerikanen scheppen onophoudelijk op over hun concurrentievermogen en de wonderen van hun roofzuchtige Kapitalistische systeem, maar bij nader onderzoek blijken deze beweringen meestal ondoordacht chauvinisme te zijn waarbij historische ongelukken in religie worden omgezet. Als we de feiten onderzoeken, zijn de Amerikaanse bedrijven zelden bijzonder concurrerend geweest. Er is meer dan overvloedig bewijs dat hun inspanningen meestal gericht zijn op het verzekeren van een asymmetrisch speelveld dat hen in staat stelde de confrontatie met echte concurrentie te vermijden. En voor een zeer groot deel zijn grote Amerikaanse bedrijven succesvol geweest, niet door enig concurrentievoordeel, maar door druk en dreigementen die uitgingen van het Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken en het leger.

 Xerox was ooit bijna de enige fabrikant van fotokopieerapparaten ter wereld. Kodak was ooit bijna de enige fabrikant ter wereld van camera's en fotofilm; waar zijn Xerox en Kodak vandaag? Meer recent was Motorola de belangrijkste fabrikant van mobiele telefoons; waar is Motorola vandaag? Het Amerikaanse RCA Victor was een van de grootste producenten van TV-toestellen ter wereld. Waar kunt u vandaag een RCA TV-toestel kopen? Waar zijn de grote Pan Am World Airways en Continental Airlines? Waar zijn E.F. Hutton, General Foods, RCA, DEC, Compaq? Waar zijn American Motors, Bethlehem Steel, Polaroid camera's, en zovele anderen? Weg, omdat ze niet om konden gaan met effectieve concurrentie.

Paul Volcker’s Long Shadow. History of the Federal Reserve. Eliminating the Gold Standard

Paul Volcker’s Long Shadow. History of the Federal Reserve. Eliminating the Gold Standard

By Ellen Brown

Global Research, December 13, 2019

Region: USA

Theme: Economy

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called Paul Volcker “the most effective chairman in the history of the Federal Reserve.” But while Volcker, who passed away Dec. 8 at age 92, probably did have the greatest historical impact of any Fed chairman, his legacy is, at best, controversial.

“He restored credibility to the Federal Reserve at a time it had been greatly diminished,” wrote his biographer, William Silber. Volcker’s policies led to what was called “the New Keynesian revolution,” putting the Fed in charge of controlling the amount of money available to consumers and businesses by manipulating the federal funds rate (the interest rate at which banks borrow from each other). All this was because Volcker’s “shock therapy” of the early 1980s – raising the federal funds rate to an unheard of 20% – was credited with reversing the stagflation of the 1970s. But did it? Or was something else going on?

Less discussed was Volcker’s role at the behest of President Richard Nixon in taking the dollar off the gold standard, which he called “the single most important event of his career.” He evidently intended for another form of stable exchange system to replace the Bretton Woods system it destroyed, but that did not happen. Instead, freeing the dollar from gold unleashed an unaccountable central banking system that went wild printing money for the benefit of private Wall Street and London financial interests.