inibo

The National parties and their presidential candidates, with the Eastern Establishment assiduously fostering the process behind the scenes, moved closer together and nearly met in the center with almost identical candidates and platforms, although the process was concealed as much as possible, by the revival of obsolescent or meaningless war cries and slogans (often going back to the Civil War). … The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to the doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extreme shifts in policy. … Either party in office becomes in time corrupt, tired, unenterprising, and vigorless. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies. - Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (New York: Macmillan, 1966), pp. 1247-1248.

fraterseraphino

For one, although in trade statistics the Chinese export value for a unit of a 30GB video model in 2006 was about $150 (in other words for every iPod sold $150 went onto the Chinese exports ledger) Chinese producers really only “earned” around $4. China, you see, is really just the place where most of the other components that go inside the iPod are shipped and assembled. The remaining cash instead went to the US, Japan and a host of other countries (among which the UK is one) who made the parts that go inside. In other words, where the product is not necessarily where gets the lion’s share of the profits.

...

Due to the way trade statistics are compiled, these flows of cash back to the US are unlikely to show up in the trade balance. But when you work out the overall US balance of payments, it will show that cash has flowed back into the country as a direct result of the intellectual property Apple owns in the iPod. It is a cursory reminder that we don’t necessarily need to hammer steel and bash products together here in the UK in order to become a better-balanced manufacturer.

There was all sorts of hand-wringing that took place a few years ago when Dyson made the decision to relocate the manufacture of their products to Malaysia, but the same principles that apply to the iPod also apply to the Dyson products. It is highly likely that Britain gets a far greater share of the proceeds from every vacuum the company sells than either Malaysia or any of the other component manufacturers or assemblers.

... [T]rade statistics can mislead as much as inform. For every $299 iPod sold in the U.S., the politically volatile U.S. trade deficit with China increased by about $150 (the factory cost) plus the cost of shipping. Yet the value added to the product through assembly in China is at most a few dollars. Even if we included the direct labor involved in making various parts and components in China, it would still add only marginally to China’s share of the value.

By this same logic, if the iPod were assembled in the U.S., most of the corresponding $150 bilateral (US-China) trade deficit would disappear, but the overall U.S. trade deficit associated with each unit would only fall by a few dollars. ...

herne_in_ak

• 20:15 Watched "Run, Fat Boy, Run" today. I highly recommend it. Very funny, and sweet, but not in a treacly way. #