Bankrupt System Drawing Asia In

The bankrupt London and Wall St system is doing its best to draw Asia in, to loot and steal some more. Such seems to be the main concern of Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs, Energy and Environment Robert Hormats, Hillary Clinton's point-man on economic policy. In a speech Saturday to students at Johns Hopkins SAIS on the development of the Asia Pacific region, Hormats, a former CEO for Goldman-Sachs, indicated that his greatest concern was that countries like China, which had been so successful economically with its "state-directed capitalism," while the Transatlantic "free market system" economies were falling apart, might serve as models for other economies in Asia. In his opinion it was the economic growth of countries like China and India that had increased their overall power, rather than any change on the military or political arena. The formation of the BRICS was an indication of this newly found influence. But it was not fear of China becoming "hegemonic" as a nation in the region that was paramount for him, but rather the influence of their economic system, which he labeled "state-directed capitalism" which represented a real threat. "If we have paralysis in the political decision-making here," Hormats warned, "this affects the way the world views our model as compared to state-directed capitalism. This also relates to what the global system will look like in the future." "The post- World War II system is being questioned," he warned. His solution was to get as many countries as possible to embrace as quickly as possible the free-market system. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), bilateral free trade agreements, pursuing broader free trade within APEC, US- ASEAN trade liberalization, all of these were necessary to win terrain in this battle of the systems. "We have to reach out to those who are like minded," he said. Similarly, however, with China itself. "Parts of the global system they don't want to embrace. They want exceptions to the free market. They want to maintain their competitive advantages. If we are assertive on these issues, we'll have a more fruitful result in negotiating with them over reaching their own goals." But to do that, he said, "we'll have to de