Factories in China move inland

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-19/china-s-factories-turn-to-yangtze-river-to-escape-coastal-wage-inflation.html

Mainly looking for cheaper labor. I suspect wages will rise much faster inland than they did in the coastal area, as the coastal area could bring in low-wage workers from the inland provinces.

Its not going to be very fun when prices keep going up in China, but US customers keep pressing for lower prices. Sure, the factories can move even further inland, but eventually they will run out of "cheap" Chinese labor.

Next stop: Vietnam? Myanmar? Bangladesh? Ethiopia?

Timeline

French Revolution - Monarchies aghast at Republicanism

Napoleonic Wars - Napoleon beats Prussians like a drum...eventually loses to them.

1848..????

1870 Prussians get their revenge, take back some "German" provinces that Napoleon had stripped from "Germany"

1914 WW I - Germany loses said provinces back to France.

1939 WW II - Germany attempts to regain said provinces.


I think there is a strong case that WW II basically stems from the French Revolution/Napoleon.

Barney Frank

Mr. "roll the dice" on housing now says Fannie and Freddie should be shuttered.

In the Fox Business interview, Frank also was critical of public policy that promoted homeownership at any cost. He also said the federal government should not be a "backstop" in guaranteeing mortgages.

"There were people in this society who for economic and, frankly, social reasons can't and shouldn't be homeowners," Frank said. "I think we should, particularly, stop this assumption that you put everybody into homeownership."

HOLY SHIT. Did he just say that there are some poor folks who should be denied loans and be gently led over to the craigslist rental ads?

Barney Frank is now more right-wing than George. W. Bush on this issue. I don't know what Barney Frank will do when it turns out that rejecting people's loans on purely economic criteria looks sort of racist, but he will worry about that after re-election I suppose.

But actually its not that bad. He still wants to subsidize housing, just make it explicit, and he also wants to subsidize rents. (Not like we already do that via Section 8 housing, but whatever.

Poland: 2 - Communism: 1

I have been reading European history lately. Did you know the Communists in Russia made a military attempt in 1920 to bring the wonders of socialism to all of Europe via Germany via Poland?

After a lot of touch and go, the Reds lost the war.

Yeah, Stalin made up for that a bit in '39 and then in 45' but one of those counts as a draw.

1989 makes it 2-1. This from a country that was once obliterated by Germany, Austria, and Russia,

Apparently the lesson should be not to forget Poland.*

*Hey, is this applicable in a trivial pursuit sort of way to 2000-2010?

Yahoo Headlines

McDonald's pulls 12M cadmium-tainted Shrek glasses

Nothing new here...

"...forcing the burger giant to recall 12 million of the cheap U.S.-made collectibles while dramatically expanding contamination concerns about the toxic metal beyond imported children's jewelry."

MADE IN THE U.S.A. SPLUTTTTTER W.T.F. - Someone better get China on the horn and get them to start lowering their god damn prices.

Yahoo Finance Headlines

Foxconn worker dies in China; 10th in a year

So, there is a Chinese company called Foxconn (disclosure: never heard of it before) that has had 10 workers die this year. Apparently they make Ipods, so of course they get massive attention.

10 worker death seems like a lot. But then you read that this company has 300,000 employees.

So, is it the "sweatshop" conditions, or more likely that 300,000 workers probably includes some crazies and even more lovelorn young Chinese workers who handily have access to a tall building at work. Considering China has high suicide rates, I doubt its FoxConn or the Ipods they make that is causing the problem. I could be wrong though.

Change You Can Believe In

In the United States, 3rd parties do not perform well electorally because their platforms that are popular are often simply appropriated by one or both of the major parties.

No to raising state taxes. No to borrowing to close historic budget deficits. Yes to capping state spending. Yes to capping local property tax hikes. Yes to freezing the salaries of state workers. Yes to trimming "benefits and pensions that are out of line with economic reality." Yes to charter schools. Yes to slashing by 20% a state government that has, by XXXXXXX's count, 1,000 agencies. Yes to nonpartisan redistricting and full financial disclosure.

So, which Republican candidate running for Governor of a major Blue state has this platform?

Andrew Cuomo- Democrat.

If this is what he thinks he needs to do to win in New York, it seems to me that at least some of the Democrats have read the tea leaves and decided to embrace some of the Tea Party platforms.

He may also have decided its the tipping point where trying to run on "everything is OK, how about some more money for schools and policemen paid for with a few new taxes" will not work anymore. (On the GOP side it would be "everything is OK, except we need to keep the Gay down and cut some taxes.)

Let's see who else follows the Christie route. I wonder who will do it in California?

My suggested slogan for these people would be:

"State employees need to sacrifice some of their pay and pension benefits. It's for the children."