Re: Warning from Warren Buffet

I made the same point to *Sandalistas* in Managua, Nicaragua in the middle of the 1980's and,  as liberal as they were,  they could not swallow the idea that American workers would one day be competing with the folks in working in Central American factories.  The prevailing and comforting notion at the time among Americans was that the government and big business held a long and unending view that Americans were all in it together and so American jobs were safe from low wage earners in foreign lands.  Ha.

China has a lot of what Ricardo called *comparative advantages*.   Most everything I buy seems to come from China,  but I am a bargain shopper...   There are ripples already running through the economy due to the trade deficit.   How many people know that the rate of inflation in September was reported to be 4.5% !   

As Wallerstein or Gunder Frank have already pointed out,  there is an international capitalist culture which is not bound by national sentiment.   China and Singapore are getting ready to put together a free trade pact.  Korea has concerns that if household debt isn't brought under control and the housing market slips they'll find themselves in the same leaky boat the Northern Europeans found themselves in during the 1990's...  and on it goes... boom / bust ...   

What is really appalling is the way random events are assigned specific values by way of impacting the stock exchange;  they attempt to weave together a convenient though unconvincing reality as we all go along our way.  The word on everyone's lips today is skepticism.