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On April 14 2015 08:02 JonnyBNoHo wrote:Show nested quote +On April 14 2015 07:45 WhiteDog wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I'm sorry Jonny, but you don't even seem to understand that capital investment is not the same as buying goods and services. When you buy capital, you gain capital income from it, so it does not balance anything. Chinese buying Italian and French industry means they will not only gain from exports, but also through the capital assets they own (assets that will give them part of the profit). Also labor intensive ? + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://s2.epi.org/files/2012/apple_iphone_cost.png.608) seriously? phil.ipp said germans huge trade balance surplus was only possible through low wages and would take a hit from minimum wage, i said that thats not likely as most manufacturing jobs for the export market pay pretty decent, and then you come in with 1 group of jobs from one sector compromising a tiny fraction of exports, somehow thinking that "some people in x get paid much too low wages" (which i ofc agree with) refutes "most people in x get paid decent wages" You said : - low wage are mostly services (which is wrong and I gave on exemple) - export oriented are decently paid (which is wrong and I gave one exemple). Not to mention services also play a huge role in the balance of trade even if they are not related to export sectors. Yes. Stop googling like a freshman and use your brain. I only google when I know I'm rght. Don't rage that much it's not good for you. You should be accustomed to being wrong at this point.
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On April 14 2015 08:08 WhiteDog wrote:Show nested quote +On April 14 2015 08:02 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On April 14 2015 07:45 WhiteDog wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I'm sorry Jonny, but you don't even seem to understand that capital investment is not the same as buying goods and services. When you buy capital, you gain capital income from it, so it does not balance anything. Chinese buying Italian and French industry means they will not only gain from exports, but also through the capital assets they own (assets that will give them part of the profit). Also labor intensive ? + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://s2.epi.org/files/2012/apple_iphone_cost.png.608) seriously? phil.ipp said germans huge trade balance surplus was only possible through low wages and would take a hit from minimum wage, i said that thats not likely as most manufacturing jobs for the export market pay pretty decent, and then you come in with 1 group of jobs from one sector compromising a tiny fraction of exports, somehow thinking that "some people in x get paid much too low wages" (which i ofc agree with) refutes "most people in x get paid decent wages" You said : - low wage are mostly services (which is wrong and I gave on exemple) - export oriented are decently paid (which is wrong and I gave one exemple). Not to mention services also play a huge role in the balance of trade even if they are not related to export sectors. Yes. Stop googling like a freshman and use your brain. I only google when I know I'm rght. Don't rage that much it's not good for you. You should be accustomed to being wrong at this point. You're viewing product creation very differently from how someone actually involved would. This is from a book on China's PRD region, and a part on its electronics industry:
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72070179/prd1%20%28320x260%29.jpg)
Hopefully you can read this OK, but what a business does is not 'make a product' as if it were as simple as buying a finished good. There are many steps to the process and each is often separated out and organized to fit its needs and purpose. From the above, almost everyone uses China for the manufacture and assembly work, but other related activities may not be done there. Apple is no different.
Now why China and not some other country is in part due to the dynamics of the electronics industry of which labor intensity, and labor cost is a part. To draw a comparison, Foxcon has revenues of $131B and GM has revenue of $156B. Foxcon employs 1.2 million workers, GM employs 0.2 million workers, or ~ 1/6 as many as Foxcon. So yes, electronics manufacture is labor intensive, and companies use low cost labor for those labor intensive industries.
It doesn't matter that an iPhone as a whole doesn't require much labor relative to its final retail price. The manufacturing part does, and that's the part that is done in China.
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On April 14 2015 07:32 WhiteDog wrote: Take Germany ; they have a huge trading surplus, both for goods and services AND capital / finance. What they gain from goods and services, instead of investing it growing their own demand, they invested in spanish or greek debt, and gained more money through those capital assets.
But it's a zero sum game at best because we're also the biggest risk carrier through all the stability mechanisms, and furthermore we lose these countries as future trading partners because their economy goes down the drain. To act like this is some kind of machiavellian plot as if we're gobbling up all the European countries by economic means is just ridiculous.
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Jonny I'm seeing this as an economist not a businessman, you're right about that. Intensive in labor mean labor cost take a high % of total costs. If we could cut the production in many pieces, all production process would be intensive in labor : you can say that this specific part of the production process is intensive in labor, but not that phone production is intensive in labor. And again, it's entirely irrelevant to my point, that was that delocalisation's goal is to decrease the cost of labor an improve competitiveness. Margin on iphone is almost 55 % - they could produce in the US and still make profit, they don't because their goal is the highest margin possible, not because they don't have the infrastructures to build up their products.
Nyxisto how does Germany bear the risk ? I'm not saying it's a machiavellian plot, it's the normal game of capitalism. We, the french, did it a lot during the colonialism, where we basically bought half the world (and we still participate, to a lesser extent). The british did it even better. It's almost entirely risk free, because the financial market are made this way, and because all european institutions are ready to support and bought back all assets that would lose too much value, as the last crisis proved us. Who's the country that suffered from Spain's drawbacks ? Not really Germany. But if your point is that it is not sustainable in the long run because you need to grow their demand for your export oriented economy I totally agree. It's not at all a strategy from Germany, it's just the normal evolution of a country oriented to export and who refuse to reinvest what it gained in growing it's demand : they're not going to sleep with their money, so they invest it in foreign assets.
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Small point about electronics in China: nowadays the labor costs in Shenzhen and Shanghai are starting to become comparable to the labor costs in parts of Europe and the trend is to continue to rise and for the manufacturing to become more automated. They will continue being a major manufacturing hub though because of network effects: you can source all electronics components, PCB manufacturing, injection molding of plastics, packaging all within the same few streets. The existence of this not only benefits Apple (they'd never practice 55% gross margin producing in the US) but a nascent industry of new hardware startups all over Europe and the US. Meanwhile the European electronics manufacturing industry had to become highly specialized and focus on high quality niches. We've had to adapt, but the situation is win-win.
EDIT: About the capital account, capital flows to another country do benefit that country. In cases where the currencies between the two countries are different, then the returns on those capital flows still are only good for buying goods of that same country. In the long run then, we can expect X to be = to M. In cases where both countries share the same currency then the balancing mechanism will be prices in the two countries. You're never at a position where one country simply 'takes away' from the other country, it's kind of like chemistry.
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Benefit maybe, but considering that the return on capital investment is usually higher than growth, it mostly benefit the capitalists, and it does not balance out the balance. You can continue to invoke chemistry, facts are still there. How can you explain china ? germany ? We don't see a tendancy toward balance, but an increase of disparities since the crisis... I know right, it's not chemistry, it's alchemy.
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It doesn't matter who it benefits more. It's not like China is getting filthy rich from the returns on T-Bills. In the end, they'll have to spend those dollars anyhow, so it's pointless to continue saving them forever. In fact, their trade surplus has gone down from the highs of the 00's.
The explanation for China's high trade surplus is complicated and last I checked there was still debate. Currency manipulation some claim, poor credit markets in China, high saving rates. In Germany I guess that the currency is way undervalued for them and the high savings rate explain their high surplus. They should try to correct it for the sake of stability in the EU and they can do it through fiscal policy and raising wages - again, no need for protectionism.
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"In the end, they'll have to spend those dollars anyhow, so it's pointless to continue saving them forever". No it's not : it lower their relatif exchange rate, and they don't save them, they invest them in foreign capital.
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Invest in foreign capital, get back foreign denominated monies. No point in investing and getting back the returns on that if you're not going to spend it. Trade surpluses lead to an appreciation of your currency, not depreciation.
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On April 14 2015 17:40 WhiteDog wrote: Benefit maybe, but considering that the return on capital investment is usually higher than growth, it mostly benefit the capitalists, and it does not balance out the balance. You can continue to invoke chemistry, facts are still there. How can you explain china ? germany ? We don't see a tendancy toward balance, but an increase of disparities since the crisis... I know right, it's not chemistry, it's alchemy. China is highly protectionist, closing off markets to foreign companies subsidising SOE's trough cheap bank funding and fixing the exchange rate. I don't see how you can use them as an argument that free trade causes their imbalance.
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On April 14 2015 19:45 RvB wrote:Show nested quote +On April 14 2015 17:40 WhiteDog wrote: Benefit maybe, but considering that the return on capital investment is usually higher than growth, it mostly benefit the capitalists, and it does not balance out the balance. You can continue to invoke chemistry, facts are still there. How can you explain china ? germany ? We don't see a tendancy toward balance, but an increase of disparities since the crisis... I know right, it's not chemistry, it's alchemy. China is highly protectionist, closing off markets to foreign companies subsidising SOE's trough cheap bank funding and fixing the exchange rate. I don't see how you can use them as an argument that free trade causes their imbalance.
everyone does this, china just does it more bluntly than everyone else.
"free market" is a concept for third world (africa) and weak (europe) countrys to let the big ones USA and China exploit their resources (africa) and draw as much money out of the country as possible (europe), with that money they buy afterwards, real estate, companys, or give big credits for political influence, or just buy every land they get their hands on, like china does in africa. In China its the State itself, in america its the "free" corporations, which then are bound by laws like Patriot Act or Export limitations (intel for example cant export chips to china, cause the US government just suddenly decided).
In the end its the same.
So what this basically means is, we allowed through free trade a US Company to get the biggest Chip producer in the world, and now we know, when the US government feels in any way threatened or maybe we want to build a bigger super computer than the NSA has, then they just stop selling chips. And Europe is from one day to another in the fucking stone age.
this game is so fucking obvious, its sad that many of you cant see that.
the idea of globalization, full free trade is a good idea if there would be ONE government for the whole world.
its obvious that the superpowers just abusing the system now to gain more and more influence.
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On April 14 2015 19:38 warding wrote: Invest in foreign capital, get back foreign denominated monies. No point in investing and getting back the returns on that if you're not going to spend it. Trade surpluses lead to an appreciation of your currency, not depreciation. Your point only have sense in the very long run. Trade surpluses lead to an appreciation of your currency YES, that is the mecanism that permit equilibrium, and not your rubbish about spending. The problem is, appreciation of currency is oftentime manipulated, and defined by intern questions (through the monetary policy of the central bank).
On April 14 2015 19:45 RvB wrote:Show nested quote +On April 14 2015 17:40 WhiteDog wrote: Benefit maybe, but considering that the return on capital investment is usually higher than growth, it mostly benefit the capitalists, and it does not balance out the balance. You can continue to invoke chemistry, facts are still there. How can you explain china ? germany ? We don't see a tendancy toward balance, but an increase of disparities since the crisis... I know right, it's not chemistry, it's alchemy. China is highly protectionist, closing off markets to foreign companies subsidising SOE's trough cheap bank funding and fixing the exchange rate. I don't see how you can use them as an argument that free trade causes their imbalance. Already adressed before. By the way : how do you think china sell all their goodies ? Thanks to low tariff....
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On April 14 2015 22:59 WhiteDog wrote:Show nested quote +On April 14 2015 19:45 RvB wrote:On April 14 2015 17:40 WhiteDog wrote: Benefit maybe, but considering that the return on capital investment is usually higher than growth, it mostly benefit the capitalists, and it does not balance out the balance. You can continue to invoke chemistry, facts are still there. How can you explain china ? germany ? We don't see a tendancy toward balance, but an increase of disparities since the crisis... I know right, it's not chemistry, it's alchemy. China is highly protectionist, closing off markets to foreign companies subsidising SOE's trough cheap bank funding and fixing the exchange rate. I don't see how you can use them as an argument that free trade causes their imbalance. Already adressed before. By the way : how do you think china sell all their goodies ? Thanks to low tariff.... Where did you adres it, can you quote it?
Obviously they want to sell their goods and don't restrict outgoing flows. That doesn't change the fact that they close of whole markets to foreign competitors. Tariffs isn't the only factor in protectionism.
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(Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron launched his party's pre-election policy manifesto on Tuesday, promising to deliver the "Conservative dream" of a home-owning democracy, where over 1 million more families could buy their homes cheaply.
With just three weeks before what is shaping up to be Britain's closest election since the 1970s, Cameron chose to largely abandon negative campaigning amid criticism the strategy was backfiring and focussed on what he could offer voters.
He made no mention of his rival, opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, and did not repeat a robust personal attack on his opponent's character made last week by Michael Fallon, his defence minister.
Instead, he held out the prospect of higher living standards after five years of austerity.
"The dream of a property-owning democracy is alive and we will help you fulfil it," Cameron told supporters at a technical college in the western English town of Swindon.
"We offer a good life for those willing to try because we're the party of working people," he said.
The election is about more than simply who will govern the $2.8 trillion economy: Cameron has promised a referendum on European Union membership while Scottish nationalists, who want Scotland's independence, are seeking a kingmaker role. src
(Reuters) - The German government said on Wednesday that it was unrealistic to expect euro zone countries to be able to pay out a new tranche of aid to Greece this month.
"We are negotiating with Greece at the moment. If there is a reform list, then the next step is a so-called Staff Level Agreement to make formal changes to the conditions of the aid programme. This is a complex process and no one in the Eurogroup expects this to be concluded by April 24," a finance ministry spokeswoman said.
"Once you have this Staff Level Agreement, then you have to have implementation. Greece would have to agree laws and at some point the institutions would conduct an implementation review and only on this basis could aid be paid out. If people are under the impression that aid could be paid out in April, I think this is wrong." src
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Ahh yes, Mr. Cameron, the classic, "ignore what caused the recent economic collapse" plan.
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The classic "FREE STUFF FOR EVERYONE" plan you mean? :p
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Actually there's a lot that should be done to reduce housing prices in the UK, and they are indeed a problem. Of course then there are economically sensible ways to do that, which would upset a whole lot of people who already own property, and shitty populist ways to do that which would probably not upset so many people but create market distortions that could fuck up the economy again.
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I'm sure there is. A lot of America's most expensive places actually have a lot of undeveloped land that just can't be developed because of some law or regulation.
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Why would you take high heels if you know you're going to jump on a desk ? Draghi fear is delicious tho.
On April 14 2015 23:47 RvB wrote:Show nested quote +On April 14 2015 22:59 WhiteDog wrote:On April 14 2015 19:45 RvB wrote:On April 14 2015 17:40 WhiteDog wrote: Benefit maybe, but considering that the return on capital investment is usually higher than growth, it mostly benefit the capitalists, and it does not balance out the balance. You can continue to invoke chemistry, facts are still there. How can you explain china ? germany ? We don't see a tendancy toward balance, but an increase of disparities since the crisis... I know right, it's not chemistry, it's alchemy. China is highly protectionist, closing off markets to foreign companies subsidising SOE's trough cheap bank funding and fixing the exchange rate. I don't see how you can use them as an argument that free trade causes their imbalance. Already adressed before. By the way : how do you think china sell all their goodies ? Thanks to low tariff.... Where did you adres it, can you quote it? Obviously they want to sell their goods and don't restrict outgoing flows. That doesn't change the fact that they close of whole markets to foreign competitors. Tariffs isn't the only factor in protectionism. Yeah and everybody is in China's situation : they all want to sell their good and not buy too much from others. China just does it in a more crude way, but they don't strictly go against any of the OMC directives (since obviously, they were condemned at some point and change their behavior). China is still very open to international trade, that the trade is not perfectly free is another matter (nothing is, that's the main problem).
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