Now the GOP demonizes the Chinese. Who's next?

Ah, here’s another xenophobic stab in the heart of democracy by the so-called conservative right - huge foundations that don’t think twice about ‘giving away’ $30 million annually in the pursuit of:

“The overall objective of the Bradley Foundation, however, is to return the U.S. — and the world — to the days before governments began to regulate Big Business, before corporations were forced to make concessions to an organized labor force. In other words, laissez-faire capitalism: capitalism with the gloves off.

“To further this objective, Bradley supports the organizations and individuals that promote the deregulation of business, the rollback of virtually all social welfare programs, and the privitization of government services. As a result, the list of Bradley grant recipients reads like a Who’s Who of the U.S. Right … Heritage Foundation … Madison Center for Educational Affairs … American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, literary home for such racist authors as Charles Murray (The Bell Curve) and Dinesh D’Souza (The End of Racism), former conservative officeholders Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp and William J. Bennett, and arch-conservative jurists Robert H. Bork and Antonin Scalia….

“Other Bradley grantees include … Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace; and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation” … Potomac Foundation and Encounter Books. [2]

This is from SourceWatch.org.

The Bradley Foundation is just one of the financial backers of Citizens Against Government Waste - which they ought to call: ‘Billionaire Citizens Against Sharing with the Little People’.

The ‘waste’ these ‘citizens’ are against is any sort of regulation by the government that would protect the average person - those without corporate jets and who don’t sit on corporate boards - against the abuses that seem to crop up each and every time the government and the electorate take their eyes off the ball.

‘Taking our eyes off the ball’ happens when we get distracted by pointless foreign wars, concerned about whom gays marry, the ‘floods’ of drug crazed Mexicans pouring across our borders to mow the lawns and wash dishes, or the poor trying to get health care.

What this ad doesn’t bother to mention is that the very same mechanisms we are using to dig our way out of a Bush and Company caused recession have been used by the Chinese for they very same reasons.

There are some important points that so-called conservatives always fail to mention in regard to the debt that the Chinese hold:

1- Yes, about 70% of the debt they hold is in America. So what? Does anybody remember back in the 70’s and 80’s we were horribly concerned that the Japanese were doing the same thing? What happened to that bogey-man? Japan fell into a terrible recession and we started buying their debt. Additionally, if the Chinese really were to push and de-value our currency, we couldn’t pay them back. That wouldn’t exactly be in their best interests, now would it?

2- The United States holds massive amounts of debt from the entire world. If China calls our debt that would move us to call in the huge debts which places like Europe owe us. It would cause a massive, crippling worldwide financial collapse. Again, not exactly in the best interest of China or anybody else.

3- If you hold Treasury notes, you are financing the Chinese debt. Don’t like Chinese debt, don’t buy Treasury Notes. The biggest holder of U.S. Treasury Notes is the U. S. Governement itself. That’s how we pay for all the nice things that we can’t afford right now - you know, roads, dams, the power grid, research, development programs. The taxes you pay in are essentially for the day to day operating expenses of our nation. For the really big things, we finance it - rather like you buying a car or a house.

So instead of getting sucked into the irrational fears of ‘the debt’, indebtedness and the equally irrational xenophobia vis a vis the Chinese, here’s a suggestion - learn how world financial markets work. Then you can sleep better at night, the agenda-driven right wing billionaires notwithstanding.

So, there’s your macro economics lesson for today.

No need to thank me. Well, other than reading and recommending my blog.

-maven