China set to overtake Japan as World's second largest economy

treliac

Malcolm. wrote: »

Maybe I should come back as a women, and have the protection of the coven.

You have our protection already. Stay as you are.....

Thrugelmir

Malcolm. wrote: »

I think political strategic barriers will come up to too much Chinese control, as they have in Oz.

Political barriers didn't stop control of many of the UK's utility companies passing abroad. .

Malcolm.

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Political barriers didn't stop control of many of the UK's utility companies passing abroad. .

I have to agree with you there. The UK opened up its utility companies before other countries, thus giving others countries businesses the opportunity to form efficiencies of scale not given to the UK.

Tony Blair gave many of them the green light, he's receiving his commission for many of the things he did now he's left the government.

Maybe you're right and I'm wrong. Politicians certainly don't always make decisions in the countries best interests.

Thrugelmir

Malcolm. wrote: »

I have to agree with you there. The UK opened up its utility companies before other countries, thus giving others countries businesses the opportunity to form efficiencies of scale not given to the UK.

Tony Blair gave many of them the green light, he's receiving his commission for many of the things he did now he's left the government.

Maybe you're right and I'm wrong. Politicians certainly don't always make decisions in the countries best interests.

From a business perspective. I also feel its an attitude towards investing. In the UK, in the main, we are focussed on short term gain. Quick profit. Whereas elsewhere in the world there's far more of a slow organic stance.

kabayiri

Thrugelmir wrote: »

From a business perspective. I also feel its an attitude towards investing. In the UK, in the main, we are focussed on short term gain. Quick profit. Whereas elsewhere in the world there's far more of a slow organic stance.

Never a truer word.

China has needed vast amounts of capital to develop these large manufacturing facilities, aided by a Finance industry in the West eager and greedy for short term profits.

It may prove to be short sighted.

It's always hard to discuss India and China here without being accused of racial or xenophobic undertones.

My view is a simple one. There are people elsewhere out to acquire my work and improve their life quality. It is in my interest to retain the work and thus revenue. I see them as economic competitors and will employ any and all means at my disposal. So would they.

globalds

Really the question is.

Why should Japan be 2nd.
Japan is a bit like Bolton or Charlton ..Played above it's game for a long time but has no God given right to hold the position.

marklv

Time for Uncle Sam to launch a pre-emptive nuke strike on the Chinese. Come on Obama, what are you waiting for! The yellow peril keeps growing.

epz_2

Malcolm. wrote: »

I have to agree with you there. The UK opened up its utility companies before other countries, thus giving others countries businesses the opportunity to form efficiencies of scale not given to the UK.

Tony Blair gave many of them the green light, he's receiving his commission for many of the things he did now he's left the government.

Maybe you're right and I'm wrong. Politicians certainly don't always make decisions in the countries best interests.

Who cares who own's the Power or water company, its not like you can just turn the power off(1). The important thing is the regulation that allows them to operate. If you look at what enron did, it was far worse than just an accounting fraud, it deliberately caused faults to raise its revenue. In the UK faults are punished as is lack of investment in various means so while they might be owned by the french or germans they are more advanced in many ways.

If I were China and wanted to hold a country hostage I would buy its banks. Not only is it a hell of a lot more centralised and easier take out, it would be more disruptive than a couple of hours in the dark. Imagine if nobody could get money out their cash machines for a couple of days. RBS had a mainframe fault for a couple of hours a few years back and it caused havok, made the news etc. Imagine some just backed up all the records to china, hit delete all local copies and zero'd all savings. It would take Billions out the economy at a key stroke.


(1) well you could if you shut down generation but that implies you can persuade people to deliberately sabotage the network which is very unlikely. Life's, possible manslaughter charges and their ability to work again would be at risk.

Thrugelmir

globalds wrote: »

Really the question is.

Why should Japan be 2nd.
Japan is a bit like Bolton or Charlton ..Played above it's game for a long time but has no God given right to hold the position.

Its ingrained in the culture.

Just as the British with their mix of Roman, Viking and Norman blood became adventurers. Culminating in the British Empire. That's where the wealth came from, the England we know today.

globalds

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Its ingrained in the culture.

Just as the British with their mix of Roman, Viking and Norman blood became adventurers. Culminating in the British Empire. That's where the wealth came from, the England we know today.

Seems a bit simplistic.

If culture alone was the case , then the world order would never change.

I will admit that if you look at Asian countries then Japan does seem , like the Swiss to have a society that desires order and quality.

Something that countries like Thailand or Malaysia never seem to be able to fully achieve

But if you look at the likes of Singapore , Hong Kong or Taiwan , Maybe they show more realistically the intentions or abilities of the Chinese.

Japan IMHO has had it's boom ..Not necessarily now in demise ....But normal growth rates or even a slow fall back looks like the future.