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February 5, 2008
"Commulism Series" - Part 6
By Brock Novak
The (new) term is "Commulism" (Communism fueled by Capitalism), one NEVER before mentioned or annunciated in either the public or political lexicon. Here is Part 6 of a comprehensive, integrated 10 part article "Commulism Series"; providing an Analysis, Assessment and Commulism Response Framework on this, the most significant threat to long term U.S. national and economic security.
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Analyst's Opening Statement:
The (new) term is “COMMULISM” (COMMUNISM fueled by CAPITALISM), one never before mentioned or annunciated in either the public or political lexicon. Here is Part 5 of a comprehensive, integrated 10 part article “Commulism Series”; providing an Analysis, Assessment and Commulism Response Framework on this, the most significant threat to long term U.S. national and economic security.This 10 Part "Commulism Series" was seven months in development. Considering how fast data changes, the Analyst has strived to keep current the volumes of relevant data throughout, recognizing there may be a few data points that might not be absolutely current at publishing date, particularly during these past few weeks of highly volatile financial market activity. However, the threat assessment, core themes and Counter-Manual (Framework) Guidelines remain fully supported, and not sensitive to the day to day data fluctuations.
Also, the Analyst views (and intends) this document to be a vehicle to provoke public debate on the theme article issue and that the White House/DOD/State Department et al to read this, "acknowledge" the threat, and revise the following proposed "Commulism Response Framework" accordingly. The ideas presented are aggressive, if not unconventional in some areas, as they must be given the seriousness of the threat. They are provocative, for the sole purpose of sparking that much needed, yet currently absent public and government debate, in the vital interests of collective U.S. national and economic security.
Finally, it would indeed be refreshing to hear one of the 2008 Presidential hopefuls in either party or a soon to launch Independent, move beyond petty badmouthing of the other candidates. Instead, having them prudently focus on something of substance both the American people and themselves have yet to recognize and mention, but promptly need to become aware and understand. It is an issue/term/moniker ("Commulism") NEVER media et al mentioned. Who on the campaign trail is ready to broach and champion an issue which dwarfs other issues in terms of future U.S. national/economic security impact, yet has never been mentioned in the public or campaign lexicon?----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Part 1: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_brock_no_080125_u_s__economic_securi.htm concluded with the integrated "5 Pillar Superpower (Commulism) Sustainability Framework" to support the core ideology - Communism:
Economic/Military/Social/Technology/Partnerships
Note: For the visual, see the illustrative Commulism 5 Pillar Structure Chart at the end of article (note included in all 10 Parts). The columned look was chosen to denote the insidious nature of Commulism, by capturing the underlying Communist ideology intent to displace Democracy.
Part 2: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_brock_no_080126__22commulism_series_22__.htm provided the first half of the analysis and assessment of the first of the 5 Commulism Pillars - "Economic".
Part 3: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_brock_no_080127__22commulism_series_22__.htm completed the Commulism "Economic Pillar" analysis and assesment with "What's the Endgame?"
Part 4: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_brock_no_080130_part_4____22commulism_.htm provided analysis and assessment of the next three Commulism Pillars - Military, Social Order and Technology.
Part 5: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_brock_no_080202__22commulism_series_22__.htm provided an analysis and assesment of the fifth and final Commulism Pillar – Strategic Partnerships (and Polarities).
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Part 6: Having analyzed and assessed the 5 Pillars of Commulism, Part 6 moves into the action plan, the “What to Do” about each Pillar - The Commulism Response Framework (CRF). It leads with “U.S./WEAST Awareness”, followed by the first part of the Economic Pillar - Counters. Parts 7 and 8 will then complete the Economic Pillar.
WHAT TO DO:
What should the U.S. and WEAST be doing to mitigate and/or thwart this pending Commulism induced economic (and military) train wreck?
Answer: Awareness and (tangible) Action.
This article then offers the U.S. and WEAST a 6 Step "Commulism Response Framework (CRF)" or “Counter-Commulism Framework (CCF)” to do just that.
Commulism Response Framework (CRF) - Objective: The CRF/CCF is built upon the premise that if any or all of the 5 Commulism Pillars can be removed or substantively weakened, Commulism will stifle and/or topple. Here then is a baseline plan for the White House/DOD/State Department to enact and build upon to “attack each of the 5 Commulism Pillars” to make that happen.
That Framework, outlined below, leads off with the AWARENESS issue, followed by sequential categorical action (counter) steps addressing/attacking each Pillar in the Commulism 5 Pillar Structure Model:
Economic/Military/Social/Technology/Partnerships
1) U.S./WEAST AWARENESS:
A) (Formally) Acknowledge what’s happening – To the point, the term “COMMULISM” (COMMUnism fueled by CapitaLISM) has NEVER even been annunciated by the public, media or political establishments.
Recognize Communism is indeed not dead. Rather, it is alive and well, having virulently and vibrantly evolved, noting ALL the intents and complexities of the new Commulist agenda and game plan.
B) Corporations/Politicians/Individuals Recognize and Avoid Chinese PR Exploitation Opportunities (e.g. recent Warren Buffett China visit) – The State Department to develop Q&A and appearance protocols/briefings for key public and private sector leaders.
This means all major political, financial and corporate leaders should be thoroughly briefed as to what to expect when visiting China or speaking on China. That is to recognize and be aware that whatever they say may be leveraged to China’s (and Commulism) benefit, and correspondingly potentially detrimental to U.S./WEST national security. A simple go/no-go test before answering or agreeing to appear at any public event should be enacted – “Can the Chinese PR machine benefit from this answer or this appearance?” If the answer is yes, that response and/or appearance should be prudently reconsidered and/or declined.
Analyst Notes:
a) A great opportunity here for one of the many Presidential candidates in either party or Independents like Mike Bloomberg, to emerge from the pack by being the first to publicly and substantively recognize, broach and actually annunciate the (term) “Commulism” issue to the American people.
The “court of (U.S.) public opinion” needs to be all over this. Unfortunately, it’s yet to convene. It’s time for one of these Presidential candidates to drop the gavel and put court in session.
b) Part of the awareness problem is the U.S. government being totally bogged down and distracted in Iraq. It’s important it get out of those weeds and begin taking an elevated look at the overall global geo-political situation and clearly identify where the major threats are and will be coming from. In doing so, the U.S. will then see the biggest threat to its national security is economic survival, i.e. superpower China and its rise. That ending the Iraq conflict, coupled with a refocus instead on China and redirection of the annual $100 billion Iraq budget to invest in thwarting Commulism, is an absolute imperative.
Many demand the U.S. get out of Iraq, yet offer nothing in the way of ideas or plans to consider, debate and act upon. Therefore, considering that prudently and promptly addressing the Iraq problem helps the U.S. begin to recognize and address the Commulism threat by quickly changing the U.S. geo-political focus to where it should be - China, a concerted effort to identify a sensible and honorable Iraq Exit Strategy Plan for consideration and debate should be mounted. The Republican Surge is not the long term answer nor is the Democrats arbitrary withdrawal timeline. A real, comprehensive solution is needed.
The point here is to put pressure on the U.S. government to substantively seek out new Iraq Exit Strategy alternatives, thereby helping expedite its shift in focus to Commulism. The current 2 “Party Plans” are built upon respective political partisanship and therefore not created in a free thinking “what’s best for the country” approach. The specifics of any new plan are not the purpose of this article. However, challenging the U.S. government and security community to open up and aggressively seek out thoughtful alternatives for consideration from all corners of strategic thinking is – and the need to do it FAST.
2) ECONOMIC:
A) Counters - Investment/Debt De-Linkage (i.e. Financial Disengagement/Decoupling)
In conjunction with "Awareness", re-think and transform U.S. and WEAST’s China economic investment immersion and debt selling strategy:
1) Paring Down/Disengagement:
Begin thoughtful and disciplined paring down, disengagement and/or de-linkage from both investment (manufacturing/corporate/supply chain) in China and Treasury selling U.S. debt to China, even if it incurs additional and painful near-term cost. In other words, a revolutionary diversification effort is required on all these fronts. This also includes beginning to treat the export of investment, banking and economic et al expertise in all respects with the same sensitivity and “need to know” security access that might analogously be afforded key military information.
Analyst Note: Specifically, a brief yet targeted thought to provoke debate on mitigating the debt situation. In addition to both paring down its exposure vis-à-vis accelerated purchase back at slight premium if necessary, and the Treasury more aggressively seeking other customer countries with different intent (investment versus control) for future debt selling, another action is recommended. As a defensive measure when China begins its bullying “concession demanding mode”, the U.S. might in advance consider (creating) an innovative “sale/leaseback” (or other derivative) approach. If (when) triggered (conditions/terms TBD), shifts the debt to a 99 year lease like arrangement, removing the short term China leveraging opportunity. Link this conditionally to NTR status. See section C (Part 8) to come.
On de-linkage of supply chain (risk), the Analyst uses Wal-Mart as case in point. In fact consider it a proxy for all U.S./WEAST strategically significant supply chain risk. One need only go (and the Analyst challenges each reader of this article to do so), to any Wal-Mart (or Target et al) as this Analyst went to several, and indiscriminately look at 20 different categorical items in each different store. The Analyst did just that, noting in each case, “at least” 15-16 or more of them noting on the label, “Made in China”, arguably then 75-80% plus of inventory. The good news however, at least Titleist golf balls are still “Made in U.S.A”. The question though - for how much longer?
Questions to address: What that all says is that U.S. and WEAST consumer product “demand” is satisfied for all intents and purposes almost exclusively with China “supply”. Imagine if China decided to leverage that stranglehold at some future point. How would the typical consumer handle going into a Wal-Mart and finding the shelves bare or prices skyrocketing overnight? What contingency plans exist now to address this huge vulnerability/exposure? What actions to address and counter the relentless off-shoring of the U.S. manufacturing base?
2) Create a (real) Exon-Florio “country involvement” condition and more stringent evaluation parameters – see coming Part 10 - Section 5 (Technology/Intelligence) for greater detail.
Hint - FINSA is fundamentally flawed. Find out why and how to fix in Part 10.
This condition is triggered whenever there is activity by the Chinese (and/or Russian) government(s). Given the significance of China’s underlying global economic agenda and the associated national security risks posed to the U.S. economy, the U.S. government should promptly be made aware anytime the Chinese (or any other Commulist) government in any way vis-à-vis use of one of its in house agency (state owned) companies (tentacles) attempts to partly own or invest, purchase or joint venture with any U.S. company or entity. CFIUS will immediately make this a priority review and employ standards more stringent than non-state owned entity involved transactions. The standards should be of a nature that more often than not will negate the transaction in the interests of direct or derivative national/economic security.
3) Create a joint and integrated (collusionary) U.S./WEAST “Advanced Monetary Policy (AMP)”. Alternatively call it the “Counter-Commulism Monetary Policy (CCMP)”.
The key here is that in the emerging Cold War II, the U.S. and WEAST will have much more defensive (and offensive) leverage working collectively in tandem together, rather than each acting on their own. Commulism would prefer the latter in sympathy with the benefits it derives from its adversarial “divide and conquer” approach.
CCMP Policy Making Board - The mechanism to create that coordinated, actionable monetary policy will be a policy making committee structured not unlike the UN Security Council with the CCMP governing board initially comprising senior policy making officials from the Big 3 - Federal Reserve, European Central Bank (ECB) and the Japanese Central Bank. Then build out the rest of the committee (council) infrastructure with remaining WEAST constituents.
In effect, CCMP becomes the next evolution of G7 (G8 ex Russia), as G7 moves from 7 individual entities to one integrated one, at least as respects monetary policy.
This effort will require rethinking and new ways of conducting business by all parties. It will be based on an understanding that the way to succeed against Commulist economic policies is to focus on the collective inflation and growth aspects/effects of the “group” (U.S. and WEAST collectively), rather than country by country’s “individual” situation. This is based on the principle that when it comes to competing with Commulism “in the long run”, what’s good for the whole is better for the individual parts (countries). See coming NATO article.
A quick comment specifically as respects the U.S. contribution to CCMP. The longstanding separation between “church and state” (i.e. the Fed and Treasury) no longer makes sense. They must each change behavior and work collaboratively together against a common external threat which undermines both growth and inflation. This broader CCMP blueprint will adapt and align the policies of all U.S. agencies as well as it would do the same for WEAST government agencies, using China and the “Commulist” Block as the new threat basis, just as the military will do with its “to be developed” Flex-Plex integrated Cold War II doctrine, reflecting both superpower v superpower and superpower v terror sub-doctrines.
Note: This broader global discipline and approach to monetary policy has the added benefit of obviating the temptation for future Greenspanian-like rate pendulum swings, which lead to unhealthy boom and bust economic volatility. That new stability will produce fewer economic vulnerabilities (e.g. housing and credit crisis) and in doing so create a better and more stable economic counter-balance to Commulism over the long haul.
Bottom line: Unlike the first Cold War where the military threat was the Soviet Union and the economic threat was U.S. and WEAST’s own potential bungling of the economy, there now exists an environment where the military and economic threat is the same, Commulism, and those two policies (monetary/economic and military) should accordingly be jointly aligned.
Coming Next: “Commulism Series” – Part 7.
This is the second of the 3 Economic Pillar sections (part of the Commulism Response Framework), and addresses the "Commulism (economic) Impact Factors" - Bernanke Strategy, Oil, Gold, and Rate Cuts.
The cleverest of all, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously...Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go
- Oscar Wilde
The situation is what it is...so deal with it...and then as General Patton inspiringly told his tankers...ADVANCE!!
- Brock Novak