Norman Podhoretz's WSJ article of 14 November '05

[Griff]

Originally Posted by 9th Engineer

The country with the strongest industry rules that market. Period. No handicaps. What are your thoughts on Japan flooding our market with cars and electronics while keeping their country virtually closed to our own exports?

Two general groups are preventing your scenario from coming about. Basically farmers north of the equator and bankers/manufacturers south of the equator oppose the idea of free market competition. In the US it is government subsidies for sugar wheat etc.. while in Europe it is subsidies for ag plus import tariffs. In the third world corrupt local banks know they are not able to compete and fledgling industries prefer protection to competition. Third world farmers can't compete with subsidized grains and are expected to do it with inferior equipment. It is harder to sell the idea of our banks getting screwed but the effect of their being blocked from the third world is that banking remains corrupt and capital accumulation is only possible for the oligarches.