0:20

Welcome, friends, to another edition

0:22

of Economic Update, a

0:24

weekly program devoted to the economic

0:26

dimensions of our lives and those

0:28

of our children. I'm

0:30

your host, Richard Wolff. I

0:33

want to remind you as usual that

0:35

our volunteer, Charlie Fabian, is

0:37

ready and willing to receive your

0:40

emails with whatever suggestions, documents, topics

0:42

you would like to have us

0:45

consider for the design of this

0:47

program in the months and years

0:49

ahead. You can reach him

0:52

by email at charlie.info

0:58

438@gmail.com. Once again,

1:00

charlie.info 438@gmail.com. Today's

1:07

program is especially interesting, I

1:09

think. It will

1:11

have its first half around three

1:14

topics—the exploding global market

1:16

in Chinese electric

1:18

vehicles and what that's

1:20

about, the class

1:23

struggle between employers and employees,

1:25

which never stops, but has

1:27

now got a new area

1:29

for struggle that's between working

1:31

at home, working remotely, and

1:33

working in the office or

1:35

at the work site. And

1:37

finally, the revelations by

1:40

the Reuters News Service in

1:42

England of a

1:44

program by the American military to

1:47

persuade people not to get

1:50

vaxxed against COVID,

1:53

spending your and my tax dollars

1:55

to do that, in

1:57

the Philippines because they were

2:00

using Chinese vaccines.

2:03

The same government that was

2:05

pushing vaccines on Americans

2:08

was pushing the opposite way

2:11

in the Philippines. Something

2:13

to think about. In the

2:15

second half, we're going to have a special

2:17

guest. Her name

2:19

is Kristin Gonzalez. She's

2:22

a socialist, and she's

2:24

also the senator from the

2:26

59th district of New York

2:28

State, the youngest woman ever

2:31

to be elected to the New

2:33

York State Senate. And she'll

2:35

be our guest, and we'll have interesting things

2:38

to share with us. So let's

2:40

get started. For

2:43

the first time in history, in the

2:45

year just ended, 2023, Chinese cars, that is cars

2:52

produced by a Chinese producer,

2:55

sold more cars around the

2:57

world than all

2:59

U.S. brands combined.

3:02

Chinese car sales

3:05

13.4, both

3:07

fossil fuel and electric, U.S.

3:10

brands worldwide 11.9 million. Why

3:15

do I bring this up? Because

3:18

it is evidence of the changing

3:20

world economy, which is a central

3:22

topic of this program and always

3:25

has been. The

3:27

role of the United States,

3:30

which was once the absolutely

3:32

dominating force in the

3:34

global economy, keeps shrinking,

3:38

while that of China keeps

3:40

rising. And

3:42

you know, we have become used to for

3:44

the last century and a half

3:48

that there's one industry that's kind of

3:50

a marker for

3:52

the importance any country

3:54

has, and that

3:56

industry is the automobile industry. It

4:00

got its start in the Western

4:02

European and North American

4:04

markets, which were the

4:07

overwhelmingly dominant economic players

4:09

in the world economy

4:12

when automobile production became

4:14

an important industry. And

4:18

that continued until another

4:21

country figured out a way to

4:23

become a powerhouse in the world,

4:25

and the automobile was for them

4:28

the key. That's

4:31

Japan, as you all know, when

4:34

Toyota and Nissan and all

4:36

the others began to muscle

4:39

out the former dominance

4:41

of GM, Ford, Chrysler, and

4:44

so forth. And

4:46

now there is a new player who's

4:49

in the process of muscling Europe,

4:53

America, and Japan out

4:56

of the way as it becomes

4:59

the dominant player. And

5:01

the number one brand you might want to get to know,

5:03

BYD. They

5:08

produce the dominant,

5:10

they are the dominant automobile producer

5:14

in China. Okay.

5:18

Not only are the Chinese

5:21

producing globally competitive

5:23

cars, but they are

5:25

especially competitive, as I have

5:27

noted before, in the electric

5:29

automobile and the electric truck,

5:32

which is likely the wave

5:35

of the future in private

5:37

vehicles. There

5:39

they are so dominant, even

5:41

more than they are in the gasoline

5:44

powered vehicle, that

5:46

the United States and Europe, trying

5:48

desperately to hold on in

5:50

the face of this competition, have

5:53

now levied enormous tariffs, 48% in

5:55

Europe, 100% in the United States.

6:00

here in the United States against

6:02

China. And you know the Chinese

6:04

have reacted, and their

6:07

reaction teaches us another lesson. The

6:10

Chinese have focused on selling cars

6:12

in the rest of the world. Asia,

6:16

Africa, Latin America,

6:19

that's where they're putting their energy,

6:21

and they're becoming the dominant automobile

6:24

producer. And sooner

6:26

or later, industries

6:29

in North America and Western

6:31

Europe and Japan are

6:35

going to suffer competitively in

6:37

the world because they're having

6:39

to buy automobiles and trucks

6:41

at the high protected price

6:44

given their tariffs. And

6:46

they're not going to be able to

6:48

compete successfully with companies in Asia, Africa,

6:51

and Latin America that can get cars

6:53

and trucks that

6:55

are better in quality and

6:57

cheaper in price. It won't

6:59

survive. It never does historically.

7:02

What the Chinese automobile reality

7:05

has already become is

7:08

a mechanism for

7:10

economically isolating the

7:12

United States and Europe. It's not

7:14

just anymore a question of those

7:17

parts of the world no longer

7:19

having the dominance they had in

7:21

the previous two or three centuries.

7:24

They've lost that dominance already.

7:28

What's happening now by

7:30

their protective defensive reaction

7:33

is that they're becoming the

7:35

isolated part, and

7:37

that will wreak havoc on the

7:39

standards of living of those

7:41

parts of the world that try to play

7:43

that game. You'd be

7:45

far better off working something

7:48

out with China to

7:50

share the world economy before

7:53

you lose the capacity to

7:56

be a partner in such a

7:58

sharing. vaccines

14:00

from the United States bought

14:04

the less expensive Chinese vaccines,

14:06

as many countries did. I

14:10

don't know what happened in others,

14:12

but thanks to Reuters, we know

14:14

that the United States military used

14:16

your taxes and mine to

14:20

fight against COVID vaccinations.

14:22

That's the US military

14:24

whose boss... ...

14:28

whose boss... ...

14:31

was arguing that Americans have to get vaccines,

14:34

was imposing vaccines on large

14:36

numbers of Americans. Imagine

14:39

it. That's how the

14:41

Cold War mentality, which

14:44

Reuters says cost the lives

14:46

of how many Filipinos subjected

14:49

them to the disease and

14:52

raises the whole question. What

14:54

is the behavior of the United States?

14:58

And everyone in the Philippines

15:00

now knows this story. This

15:03

is a very serious

15:05

expose. Stay

15:08

with us. We've come to the end of the first half.

15:11

We're going to have a fascinating interview

15:13

with Kristin Gonzalez when

15:15

we return. Friends,

15:20

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15:23

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15:25

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