Ipsos numbers looked gamed to me. I know that where I am in Central Europe people do not have any confidence at all in the economy getting better. There are huge layoffs in manufacturing in Germany, huge layoffs in technology (mostly in the US but it trickles out to us in Europe). The hot war with Russia (Russia was one of our largest and most generous trade partners: cheap energy in, high priced machinery/cars, luxury goods out) and a slowly growing trade war with China mean huge inflation.

We no longer even let our farmers work properly or earn a good living (anyone who thinks farmers live high on the hog have never worked a farm).

In the comments Peter Pan notes:

I think the responses would be quite different if every participant in the poll was made aware and took account of the demographic cliff facing many of their nations.

Continue reading Confidence In The Global Economy survey looks trumped up at uncoy.

In a very scripted and sparsely attended “press conference” (nothing like the aggressive scrums the last administration faced), Joe Biden announced he would never allow China to overtake the United States:

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The next day Biden doubled own on his anti-China position. Apparently, he and Boris Johnson are taking on China’s Belt and Road initiative together:

there was full agreement. One of the things I suggested to do is — we talked about China and the competition they’re engaging in in the Belt and Road Initiative. And I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative coming from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world that, in fact, need help.

Here’s a map of what the $3.7 trillion Belt and Road initiative looks like.

There’s not a lot of roads there through the UK or the US.

Continue reading Biden and Boris Johnson take on China’s Belt & Road Initiative at uncoy.

Apparently the US have decided to play hardball with China. Huawei’s American subsidiary has been slapped with an export ban. Many Americans believe this will lead to a resurgence in US manufacturing. It seems to me that the industrial infrastructure for efficient manufacturing has been almost entirely lost. While there’s some basic assembly still in the US, the only physical products where the components are still made in America are overpriced military toys.

Some say workforce doesn’t matter:

There are skilled workers all over North America. They all have jobs as ‘Personal Support Workers’ for damaged Snowflakes and the Elderly. It takes most motivated workers about 2 days to learn ANY job! I was Team Leader at Freightliner. We called it ‘3 truck training’. If you couldn’t do the job in 30 mins, you got moved … or walked out.

Continue reading Will banning Chinese products rebuild American Manufacturing? at uncoy.