They graduate four times as many engineers as we do.
They lavish generous tax breaks on tech firms.
They support local manufacturers.
They don't respect intellectual property.
They, of course, refers to China. And the gripes from Silicon Valley business leaders capture in stark and accurate terms the key underpinnings of the growing tech rivalry between the United States and China.
None of these things happened by accident. They happened because China has something that the United States lacks and badly needs: a national technology policy.
Inflation, as reported by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is understated by roughly 2.7% per year. This is due to recent redefinitions of the series as well as to flawed methodologies, particularly adjustments to price measures for quality changes. The concentration of this installment on the quality of government economic reports will be first on CPI series redefinition and the damages done to those dependent on accurate cost-of-living estimates, and on pending further redefinition and economic damage.
The CPI was designed to help businesses, individuals and the government adjust their financial planning and considerations for the impact of inflation. The CPI worked reasonably well for those purposes into the early-1990s. In recent years, however, the reporting system has succumbed to pressures from miscreant politicians, who were and are intent upon stealing income from social security recipients, without ever taking the issue of reduced entitlement payments before the public or Congress for approval.
The Bush administration said late Friday it'll re-impose quotas on 3 types of clothing imports from China, responding to domestic producers' pleas that a surge of imports was threatening thousands of U.S. jobs. It'll limit Chinese cotton trousers, shirts and underwear. Retailers say it'll raise prices for U.S. consumers. Global textile quotas were lifted on Jan. 1.
Unable to put the environment at the top of the nation's agenda, the modern green movement has come to a point of reckoning. And as a conservative counterrevolution makes sweeping policy changes, traditional environmentalists are wondering what went wrong.
