Economic Update: U.S. China Decoupling Myth

As a retired CFO with 20+ years experience in multinational subsidiaries in China, here are my views: China offers a 1.4 billion people market, with most of these people in middle class and no poor people below the United Nation definition of absolute poor (meaning purchasing power for most products). It is a market with only one written language ( a few dialects), one main culture (Han), and one set of laws and regulations. This means low overhead (for example, one HQ needed, one set of advertising/promotion needed, etc.) for companies. It has a political/judiciary system dominated by one party (pros and cons not discussed here), resulted in very low legal/police spending while enjoying one of the safest living environment, which is very important to businesses. China offers very good infrastructure and the best logistic system in the world. For a multinational business, the question is not decoupling or not, the question is how to deal with China so we can maximize profits.

I love this review, real, on point, and no nonsense. F*k the mainstream media. We need more intelligent, genuine, and honest people like Wolff.

Democracy is Free Assange

Prof. Wolff should be the guest on every mainstream news program in the country. He's one of the few willing to tell the truth about what is really happening instead of just regurgitating spin.

How do you decouple? Walmart has over 400 stores in China. Starbucks has 6,800 cafes. KFC has over 10,000 restaurants. McDonald's over 5,500 restaurants (and they are planning to open another 1,000 next year!). Burger King 1,528 outlets. Pizza Hut 3,200 restaurants (up 1,000 from last year!). Hilton 400 hotels (another 1,000 in the works). Sheraton 80 hotels. Marriott 448 hotels. Wyndham/Ramada 1,500 hotels. GM sells more Buicks and Cadillacs in China than in USA. John Deere sales centers are in EVERY PROVINCE of china! They have 15 service centers in Xinjiang alone! Their American-made computerized farming machines sell for up to US$500k ! China bought over 2,000 Boeing airplanes, at @ $200 million a pop? Not to mention Coca-Cola, Johnson&Johnson, Proctor and Gamble, Catapillar, Ford, they are all doing a booming business in China. Hollywood -- 25% of their profits come from China. (soon to be curbed) Oh I've forgotten to mention Disney, Yes Disney has TWO theme parks in China ! There are 40 Disney stores in China. Their flagship store in Shanghai is 54,000 square feet, the largest Disney Store anywhere in the World. Wait, there are more . . . the Tesla Giga Factory ! Morgan stanley Goldman Sachs Citi Blackrock AmericanExpress. U.S. mutual fund giant Vanguard is to close its Japan operations and move its Asia headquarters to Shanghai . . . . . .Have you been to a Formula One car race? They have been running it in Shanghai since 2004!

During the 2008 economic crisis, China saved the U.S. economy and millions of American families. The United States needs to be grateful to China

Another brilliant exposition by Prof. Wolff

A brilliant lesson in economics! Thank you again, Professor Richard Wolff!

Outstanding presentation. One of your best!

Thank You Professor, you are by far, the leading specialist in this complex subject, sharing your in depth knowledge with us, much appreciated, we are living through, a time,of historic change!

Thank you again, Professor Richard Wolff, for your expertise all these years and the books you have written . "History repeats itself, and that's one of the things wrong with history. The pursuit of truth shall set you free, even though you never catch up with it." Clarence Darrow Keep all of us straight. 😊 Your intelligence and wisdom through your education are greatly appreciated.

Wise statements based just on reality. Thank you.

Lure USA capitalists? Partly true, but it was more of the former badgering China to “Open up, open up - your cheap labor and huge market!”.

This is one of the few times I have completely agreed with the Professor.

An enlightening lecture for all concerned to pay attention to and to follow for peaceful co-existence in the present chaotic world !

Also watched Prof Wolff speaking at the Decoupling Conference in Adelaide, South Australia online on December 15, 2023. Wonderful speech indeed！

Marx was born into the post French Revolution firmament, that promised an end to feudalism. A very exciting time. Capitalism was seen as a revolutionary force that would put an end to feudalism, get rid of the inefficiency of economic rent & therefore end quite naturally in socialism, where everyone gets a fair shake. It was a dismal life for many, as Dickens can attest, battles would have to be fought, but progress was being made & the direction was clear & set. Real gains were made in employment, education, housing, sanitation, etc. Then it all went wrong. “If we don't get socialism, we will get the barbarians” - Rosa Luxemburg assassinated 1919. The barbarians she was talking about, were the elites of Financial Capitalism that rule over our lives to this day. Marx meticulously dissected & brought together all the post-revolutionary economists work, the Classical economists, from Smith to Ricardo, etc, in a single critique called Capital. Capital vol 1 is all people read - production & the surplus. Vol 2 & 3 talk about financial capitalism, interest, economic rent, monopoly rent, unearned income, explaining exactly our situation in the west today. Neoliberalism is Financial Capitalism, a return to neo-feudalism, where bankers' & billionaires rule every aspect of our lives. They were trying to rid themselves of the landed aristocracy, that did nothing & took everything, that existed in their time. We must try to rid ourselves of the oligarchs of corporate power, the financial neo-aristocrats, that exist in our times. Or be enslaved once again. The post Great Depression, post WW2 blip in socialism was caused by the elite's fear of communism. The west is the best had to have some basis in reality. FDR told the rich, either give up some of your wealth now, or risk a revolution & losing the lot later. That fear has now gone, organised resistance has been smashed & any pretence of a good life for the lower classes is no more. How did the industrial capitalism of Marx’s day, transform into the financial capitalism we have today? To make a complex understanding simple; the Robber Barons, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman, Morgan, etc, were born in the 1830’s and grew their wealth through the efficiencies brought by industrial capitalism. Over time they became monopolies, dictating price & concentrating their wealth to immense proportion. Carnegie was considered the richest man in America, with mountains of money that earned him much more than making steel. Monopoly pricing, investments & interest, in short unearned income, became their main source of wealth, so they used their money to promote their interests. Starting in the 1890’s a new Neoclassical economics was promoted hard, because it sanitised their obscene wealth. It was really an anti-classical economics, with cancerous growth requirements, that was & is unsustainable – but that's another story. The new economics protected their wealth because it declared no difference between earned & unearned income. This was the essential difference. The Robber Barons became the Neo-aristocracy of their time, building institutions, foundations, corrupting government, anything that served their interests. Rockefeller founded Chicago University, where the Chicago School later gave rise to Milton Freedman’s iteration of Neoliberal economics & Monetary Theory. This is how the transformation occurred, from an Industrial Capitalism that was on the road to socialism, to a Financial Capitalism that is on the road to Neo-Feudalism – a full circle, with their power now much enhanced by their ownership of digital technology, for the ultimate in mass control.

Agreed 100% . You have expressed cotemporary history 100% correctly professor . Thank you and great respect .

"Men living in democratic times have many passions, but most of their passions either end in the love of riches, or proceed from it. " Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)

Thank you for consistently providing top-tier analysis, which is always based on logical, well-informed, and insightful foundations.