America’s Terminal Decline – by Stephen Lendman

Black Buzz News Service
Mound Bayou, Mississippi
April 29, 2011
BBNS


What distinguished experts long knew (timetables aside), the IMF just recognized, saying China’s economy will surpass America’s in 2016. If so, it will signal an end to the “Age of America,” and no wonder after decades of heedless profligacy. More on that below.

The IMF’s 2011 World Economic Outlook shows China overtaking America in five years based on purchasing power parity (PPP) – a criterion for an appropriate exchange rate between currencies as measured by the cost of a representative basket of goods in one country v. another.

IMF’s 2016 PPP GDP estimate:
– China – $18,975.7 trillion
– America – $18,807.5 trillion

In current dollar terms, America retains its lead, but it’s slipping noticeably.

IMF’s 2016 dollar GDP estimate:
– America – $18,807.5 trillion
– China – $11,220.2 trillion

Economic forecasts, of course, vary. Moreover, long-range ones combine extrapolated trends with reasoned judgments. However, as economist Alec Craincross (1911 – 1998) once observed:

“A trend is a trend is a trend. But the question is, will it bend? Will it alter its course through some unforeseen force and come to a premature end?”

Not China’s for over three decades, “growing 17-fold in real (inflation-adjusted) terms since 1980,” according to economist Mark Weisbrot. As a result, it’s been the world’s fastest growth engine, a pace it’s maintained during the current global economic crisis in contrast to America in decline.

Economist Henry HK Liu mostly attributes China’s sucess to its not freely convertible currency, its closed financial market, and its quasi public-private central bank used for economic growth, not bailouts and speculation. In his January 12, 2010 article titled, “China and a New World Economic Order,” he discussed policy initiatives to keep influencing it positively, including:

– avoiding a deregulated market economy;
– prioritizing full employment and rising wages;
– breaking free from dollar hegemony;
– conducting trade based on mutual development; and
– not using “green-tech investment” to stimulate growth.

On August 17, 2009, financial writer Ellen Brown’s article headlined, “China’s Miracle Economy: Have the Chinese Become the World’s Greatest Capitalists?” saying:

China “seems to have decoupled from the rest of the world, preserving an 8% growth rate (now higher) while the rest of the world sinks into the worst recession since the 1930s.”

Unlike America to this day, in fact, China keeps credit flowing freely for economic growth, though too much of a good thing itself creates problems; notably bubbles that sooner or later burst.

However, Brown explains that China’s banks “serve public enterprise and trade” because it controls their operations, unlike America’s privatized system serving bankers, not people.

Notably, in fact, Beijing prevented “irresponsible bank speculation and profiteering by keeping a leash on (its) banking sector,” as well as focusing on economic growth and job creation, ignored by Washington policy makers.

It’s worked for over three decades so why not three more or much longer provided greed doesn’t replace good policy, what’s headed America down for decades.

As a result, China consumes record volumes of oil, natural gas, coal, copper, iron ore, and other commodities. It’s also the world’s largest industrial country and producer of gold, rare earth metals, steel, coal, copper, agricultural products, pork, seafood, textiles, electronic products, and more with no end of its growth in sight.

Impressively, China passed Japan in Q II 2010 to become the world’s second largest economy. Heading for number one, perhaps Washington policy makers recall what’s believed Napoleon once advised to: “Let China sleep, for when the dragon awakens, she will shake the world.” IMF analysts apparently took note.

America’s Decline and Fall

In his book titled, “The World in Crisis,” historian Gabriel Kolko believes that America’s decline “began after the Korean War, was continued in relation to Cuba, and was greatly accelerated in Vietnam – but (GW Bush did) much to exacerbate it further.” Obama not only continues Bush policies, he exceeded him with greater recklessness, masquerading as a people’s president while waging war on working Americans.

No wonder Kolko thinks US influence is declining everywhere. The world no longer depends on its economic might. Nations like China, India, Brazil and others grow much faster, and after the Soviet Union collapsed, “the absence of identifiable foes has been a disaster, leaving the US aimless. (So) it picks and chooses enemies” globally in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, and perhaps later China and Russia while other nations increasingly tire of imperial America and its reckless economics counterproductive to their own.

As a result, America’s century of dominance is ending. Immanuel Wallerstein agrees, saying it’s been fading since the 1970s, accelerating post-9/11. In fact, “the economic, political and military factors that contributed to US hegemony are the same (ones) inexorably produc(ing) the coming US decline.”

Chalmers Johnson called it the same dynamic that doomed past empires – “isolation, overstretch, the uniting of local and global forces opposed to imperialism, and in the end bankruptcy,” combined with growing authoritarianism and loss of personal freedom.

Calling America’s condition dire, he said it’s “too late for mere scattered reforms of our government or bloated military to make much difference.” History is clear. We can choose democracy and survive or continue as present and perish. Clearly the wrong political, social, military, and economic choices were made, heading US hegemony for the ash heap of history.

Nixon’s Council of Economic Advisers chairman, Herb Stein, notably explained, saying, “Things that can’t go on forever, won’t.” Earlier, Johnson said:

The “combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency. We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire.”

Moreover, once a nation starts down that path and won’t change, its end time is certain. Only its timing is unknown, perhaps coming faster than expected.

America’s Dollar Hegemony in Decline

Global plans to replace the dollar metaphorically highlight America’s decline, the topic economist Michael Hudson addressed in his June 13, 2009 article titled, “De-Dollarization: Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire.”

For decades, America stayed economically dominant because other nations agreed to a Washington controlled WTO/IMF/World Bank/Bank for International Settlements (the Central Bank of Central Banks in Basel) system, using the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

Other countries, however, now balk. A June 2009 Yekaterinburg, Russia meeting with top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (led by China and Russia) took the first step to end dollar supremacy, perhaps replacing it eventually with a single global currency or a basket of major ones.

Today, America remains unchallenged militarily, its economic supremacy, however, weakening as it staggers under growing debt, while nations like China, Brazil, India, Russia and others are rising.

In July, 2009, Russian President Medvedev advocated a supranational currency. In September, the UN Conference on Trade and Development proposed an artificial one to replace the dollar. Other alliances, including nine Latin American countries, support a regional currency. China wants its yuan protected, and Russia plans to begin trading in the ruble and local currencies.

Hudson calls the present system a “sinister dynamic (because) the US payment deficit pumps dollars into foreign economies (that have) little option except to buy US (debt) which the Treasury spends on financing an enormous, hostile (global) military build-up,” and its ready-to-unleash-anytime war machine.

Moreover, foreign US Treasury buyers may not only be financing their own endangerment, they’re also buying a depreciating asset, what analyst Matthias Chang calls dollar denominated “toilet paper” from a “toilet paper printing press….issu(ing) irredeemable fiat money.”

Why else would world demand for gold and silver be strong. They reflect real value, not paper backed solely by the eroding faith and credit of issuing countries. Buyers clearly lack it in America with good reason. As a result, expect further dollar erosion, decline and perhaps crisis if current selling ahead surges.

No wonder other countries seek a new monetary system to avoid funding America’s deficit and military. BRIC nations (China, Russia, India and Brazil) took the lead. Others are now following, and the weaker the dollar gets, inevitably they’ll be more.

Economist Paul Craig Roberts also believes the dollar’s global reserve currency hegemony won’t last. Sooner or later wholesale dumping will happen when foreign central banks unload them. As a result, import prices will rise enough to make Wal-Mart shoppers “think they have mistakenly gone into Neiman Marcus.”

Domestic prices will also soar “as a growing money supply chases the supply of goods and services still made” domestically. Disruptions will follow. The dollar won’t survive. When it goes America’s trade deficit can’t be financed. Imports will fall sharply. Inflation will rise, and “(p)anic will be the order of the day” because a corporate – government cabal is “strung out on the ecstasy of Empire,” and obsessed with destroying the nation’s middle class to transfer maximum wealth to America’s super-rich already with too much.

A Final Comment

Consider how far America declined and the inevitable consequences. The combination of:

– military Keynesianism;
– permanent wars;
– Washington being corporate occupied territory;
– banker bailouts;
– generous handouts to corporate favorites;
– offshoring the nation’s industrial base;
– neoliberal austerity;
– class warfare, including against unionism;
– systemic corruption;
– increasing repression;
– sham elections; and
– democracy in name only, the best money can buy, made America no longer a model for other nations, the engine of world growth, a fit to live in, or able to prevent its inevitable decline, fall, and replacement by China and perhaps other nations one day.

It’s a sad testimony to a two centuries old experiment that failed because absolute power corrupted too many with it wanting more.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

Dunbar Center Head to Speak To Church Group

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE

The James S. Robinson Jr. Project

The James S. Robinson Jr. Papers

 Mars, PA

April, 29 2011

                             

   The below article appeared in the Butler Eagle on June 12, 1954.

                   Dunbar Center Head to Speak To Church Group


Speaker at the annual Woman's Day program of the North Street Christian Church on Sunday will be James S. Robinson, executive director of the Dunbar Community Center.
 The program sponsored by the Christian Women's Fellowship will begin at 7: 30 p.m.

 Mr. Robinson has directed summer camps for the Pittsburgh YMCA and has been a social worker for the YMCA in Morals Court in Pittsburgh. He also has served as assistant director of the Kay Boy's Club where his duties included vocational education, social recreation, health activities, physical education and extension services.

 He has also served as superintendent of the Friendly Service Bureau for the Prevention of Crime for the City of Pittsburgh, and as a director of Hill City Youth Municipality. Mr. Robinson received his education at the University of Pittsburgh and the George B. Held School of Radio and Television Arts.

 Mrs. Charles Banks will be guest soloist for the public service.

Jim Robinson To The Rescue on Route 8 in Penn Twp.

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
The James S. Robinson Papers
Butler, PA
April 24, 2011

                         Jim Robinson to the Rescue
                              Summer of 1954

 

There were times during the summer months, I would go with my dad to the Dunbar Community Center located in Butler, PA.  My father was the Executive Director of the Dunbar Community Center.

One day we were traveling on route 8 north in Butler county.  We were between the Step Inn Restaurant and the Penn Vue Golf Course (which was owned by a Negro in Penn Twp.), when we observed that several cars were involved in a crash.  Other motorists were  just standing around looking at the one accident victim who was bleeding from the head and lying on the ground.

My dad stopped our large 4 door 1951 Black Nash Ambassador and went into the trunk and got out a couple of brown blankets and a first aid kit.  My dad proceeded across the road to the scene of the accident and immediately took charge by telling one motorist to go to Step Inn to call for an ambulance and the State Police.  My dad placed both blankets under the woman and placed a bandage or compress on the woman's forehead, which stopped the bleeding and thus treated her for shock before the ambulance arrived which took the victim to the Butler Memorial Hospital.

When the medics arrived, they were amazed at how the woman in question was being cared for and asked my dad was he a Doctor because he may have saved that woman's life.  My dad replied: "that isn't important who or what I am.  Just get this woman to the hospital". 
Later my dad received a call from the ER doctor who stated that he actually saved the accident victim from serious injury and that the woman's family was offering my dad financial compensation which my dad refused.   My dad responded that "their mother's life was more important than any amount of money." I can't recall the name of the woman who was injured.

The editor notes that James S. Robinson Jr. was a member of the Pennsylvania State Council of Civil Defense, Harrisburg, PA.
               

               Below is my dad's Civil Defense Card, which I still have.

                                 Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania
                      STATE COUNCIL OF CIVIL DEFENSE
                                   Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
                                       This is to certify that
                                    James S. Robinson, Jr.
                                          524 Francis St.
                            is duly enrolled in..... City of Pittsburgh
                 (Name of county or local civil defense organization)
                            assigned for duty with the Warden............. service
                                          County of Allegheny
                                Enrollment No. 86-W-5898
                               Date of Issue..... Nov. 19, 1956
                               State Director of Civil Defense


Happy Easter
                        
               
                

Paul Lawrence Dunbar Community Center in Butler, PA will celebrate its 75TH Anniversary on Saturday April 30, 2011

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
Robinson Family Archives
The James S. Robinson Jr. Papers
April 23, 2011
Chicora, PA



 The below article was taken from the Butler Eagle Newspaper dated Jan. 9 1953.
               
         
             

           DIRECTOR- James S. Robinson Jr. former superintendent of the Friendly Service Bureau for the Prevention of Crime, Department of Public Safety in Pittsburgh, has been named director of the Dunbar Community Center, on Bantam Ave. according to announcement made by the board of directors of the Center.

        Mr. Robinson has also served as director of Hill City Youth Municipality, and prior to this he served as assistant director of the Kay Boy's Club, where is work included vocational, educational, social, recreational, and physical activities. He has served as social worker for the Pittsburgh YMCA in Morals Court, Pittsburgh, and also as director of summer camps.

      Mr. Robinson received his education at Schenley High School and the University of Pittsburgh, where he majored in Physical education and sociology. He is also a graduate of the George Held School of radio and TV announcing and acting.

    During his school athletic career he participated in track, basketball, football, gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, and swimming. Mr. Robinson has won honors in art, public speaking, and crafts. He is the holder of the American Legion Honor Award.
  Mr. Robinson is married and the father of two boys, 14, and 10 years old.


The editor notes that under Mr. Robinson's directorship from 1953 to 1960, the  Paul Lawrence Dunbar Community Center in Butler PA became known for excellent programming and outstanding corporate/ community outreach throughout the Tri-State area.

* On Saturday April 30, 2011 the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Community Center Inc. will celebrate its 75TH Anniversary Gala Celebration at 6: 30 at the Grand Ballroom Cornerstone Commons, 201 South Main Street, Butler, PA 16001

The National Black Political Caucus Archives: Profit rules allies

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The Ronald B. Saunders Project
The Ronald B. Saunders Papers
The Archives of the National
Black Political Caucus
Pittsburgh PA.
April 18, 2011

The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Press on January 6, 1986.
    
                                                Profit rules allies

President Reagan has initiated sanctions against Libya but those sanctions are not far reaching and have little clout and substance.
     Without the support of the so-called Western European allies and Japan, whose own self-interest would be served by supporting the U.S. sanctions , there appears to be a lack of hope for the sanctions.
   It is very perplexing to see President Reagan initiate more stringent measures against Libya while refusing to impose strong sanctions against the rogue government of the Republic of South Africa.
 Our so called allies are more concerned with making a profit than combating internal and international terrorism simply because they are economically dependent upon Libya for oil and other forms of trade and commerce.
Our allies also have thousands of their nationals working in Libya and it would be cheaper for the allies to invest money in more elaborate security systems than to go along with U.S.-initiated economic sanctions which would upset the status quo.
 Libya would not survive a year without Russia's support or military hardware.
However, it is the Soviet Union that is really the culprit in the exportation of Libyan terrorism to an estimated 35 countries.
By using countries such as Libya and South Yemen, that enables the Soviet Union not to dirty its hands by direct involvement in terrorism.
                                                        Ronald B. Saunders
                                                                         Pittsburgh
                                           (The writer is chairman of the
                                        National Black Political Caucus)

Native Americans & African Americans Defeated At The Battle of Suwanee on April 18, 1818

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Special Report
April 18, 2011
BBNS

SUWANNEE.. Military leader and former runaway Andrew Johnson leads the defeat of a force of brave, ferocious Native Americans and African Americans at the famous battle of Suwanee bringing an end to the First Seminole War.
This is the same Andrew Johnson who would later become President of the United States and one his siblings( brother) was advertised for sale in a local newspaper as an Indentured servant.
The Seminoles had been the target of a government military campaign because they possessed lands which whites in Florida greatly desired and because they had provided safe haven for escaped slaves.
As a result of the battle of Suwanee John Horse a fearless highly intelligent Black man would become a major Seminole leader, and there were many other Black leaders of the Seminole tribe.
It would take at least two more major wars of resistance before the Seminoles and their Black allies lost possession of those lands.
 Later the Black Seminole scouts would become some of the most famous feared military scouts in United States history. Today their descendant's are still fighting for full recognition of their accomplishments and for full membership in the great Seminole nation.

Fearless Warrior For Justice

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Pittsburgh PA
April 16, 2011
BBNS
PITTSBURGH...The entire Pittsburgh community and nation are saddened by the death of our Titan, Nate Smith who was a true, fearless, uncompromising warrior for justice. Nate was an outstanding role model for all Americans and there was nothing phony or fake about him.
 My father, Jim Robinson who was the former Director of the famed Hill City Youth Municipality, a nationally acclaimed youth crime prevention program suggested to me as one of the leaders of the Volkswagen Black Caucus that we contact Nate Smith to assist us with our numerous workplace related problems with VW because "Nate was a person who could be trusted because he hadn't sold out to the system."
   Nate also helped the Black employees at the Westinghouse East Pittsburgh facility and countless numbers of others in Allegheny County who had discrimination issues with their employers.
   Nate Smith's effective Pittsburgh Plan, which was designed to get more Blacks and women into the construction, skilled trade and apprenticeship programs became a blueprint nationally and was emulated and copied by other cities throughout the USA. Philadelphia in particular used the Pittsburgh Plan in its desegregation of the building and trade unions and apprenticeship programs.
I like many others have always valued Nate's wisdom and friendship.
In 1987, I was honored and humbled to receive the Humanitarian Award for community service from Nate Smith's Operation Dig/Career Inc.
Our prayers and sympathy are extended to the Smith family.

The birth and legacy of the Black Power Movement

Black Buzz News Service
Pittsburgh, PA
April 13, 2011

By Fred Logan

April 11, 2011

For anyone who, at this very late date and time, may still lost and confused, the first two paragraphs of Vincent Harding’s classic work “There is A River” tells us all precisely when and where the so-called “Long Civil Rights Movement” and the “Long Black Power Movement” began.

Now, fast forward: Without the post-WWII African American freedom struggle, the United States would surely still be preaching and practicing racial apartheid.

Without the relentless pressure of the African American struggle, post-war US military and political plunder all across the globe would have been infinitely more horrendous than the US-made horrors the world has suffered since 1945. And the state- sponsored domestic repression in such a draconian era would have far surpassed the worse moments of McCarthyism.

In American academia and civil society at large the profound civilizing discourse on gender, race, ethnicity, and culture which the USA has enjoyed over the past 40-odd years could not have arisen when it did without the force of the Black Freedom Movement.

In sum, the inevitable decline of “American world predominance” would be much further along than it is today without the saving graces of the modern black freedom struggle. And that is only a very small part of the eternal debt the US status quo owes to both the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements.

For the “Black Power: Beyond Borders” lessons and inspiration, I thank all of you…..

*The editor notes that the above author Fred Logan was one of the participants in the Black Power Beyond Borders conference held at Carnegie Mellon University on April 8TH-9TH, 2011 in Pittsburgh PA.
The Conference was sponsored by CAUSE, CENTER FOR AFRICANAMERICAN URBAN STUDIES AND THE ECONOMY.

BLACK POWER BEYOND BORDERS
This conference aims to expand our understanding of the Black power movement geographically, chronlogically, and thematically. By examining Black power beyond geographic and chronological borders, Black Power Beyond Borders will investigate the multiple meanings of Black Power both within and beyond the United States.

Panelist were as follows:

Dr. Barbara Ransby, Professor of History and African-American Studies, The University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Carol Anderson, Associate Professor of African American Studies, Emory University ( Atlanta,GA)

Dr. Yevette Richards Jordan, Professor of Women's History, African American History, Labor Studies, and Pan-Africanism , George Mason University ( Fairfax, VA )

Dr. Oz Frankel, Associate Professor of History, The New School ( New York )

Dr Robbie Shilliam, Senior Lecturer, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science & International Relations, Victoria University
( Wellington, New Zealand

Dr. Donna Murch, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers Univeristy
( New Jersey )

Dr. Yohuru Williams, Associate Professor of African American History
Fairfield University ( Fairfield, Connecticut )

Dr. Scott Kurashige, Associate Professor of American Culture, University of Michigan ( Ann Arbor, Michigan )

Dr. Nico Slate, Assistant Professor of History, Carnegie Mellon University
( Pittsburgh, PA ) This conference was his brain-child.

Dr Kevin Gaines, Professor of History Center for Afro- American & African Studies University of Michigan ( Ann Arbor, Michigan )

*The editor and family attended this enlightening and informative conference.

Historical Important Pittsburgh Courier Document From Mrs. Robert L. Vann

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The Beatrice L Saunders Robinson Project
The Saunders/Robinson Archives
Pittsburgh PA
April 1, 2011


The below document is part of the Mrs. Beatrice L Saunders Robinson collection of papers.

                                           THE PITTSBURGH
                                                 ( Courier )
                         Published by the Pittsburgh Publishing Company, Inc.
Largest Negro Weekly
Newspaper in the World

POST OFFICE BOX 1828.......MUseum 3-2000. Pittsburgh 30, PA


Dear Fellow Employee:
                                  
                                   We are happy to take this opportunity to send on to you
  your personal copy of the X life insurance policy which this company has purchased for you.
                                 This policy became effective as of April 1, 1957, and the cost of this will be borne entirley by the Pittsburgh Courier Publishing Company.
                                Should there be a change in your beneficiary or should any questions arise concerning this policy, kindly get in touch with the comptroller's office and they will be happy to handle any questions.

                                Sincerely yours,

              THE PITTSBURGH COURIER PUB. CO., INC.
                                 Jessie M. Vann

                                  ( Mrs. Robert L. Vann )
                                 President-Treasurer

Mrs. RLV:es
Encl.

                 

                         

Mr. Honda and Mr. Toyota Will Start a New Chain of Fast Food Restaurants

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
Tokyo, Japan
April 1, 2011
BREAKING NEWS

Tokyo...... With slumping auto sales world-wide we have learned from a reliable source inside the Obama administration that Mr. Honda and Mr. Toyota have decided on opening up a world wide chain of fast foods restaurants to be called Sambo's.
This joint venture by the two mega auto corporations will offer such menu items as prime radiation burgers, bluefish tuna steaks with a dash of radiation, special bottled plutonium water, Sarkozy french fries, spinach salads with radiation dressing, and strontium 90 Frosty's.
It is also our understanding that BP was desirous of being a partner with the Japanese firms but they were turned down because of
longstanding grudges leftover from World War II.
The first 1,000 visitors to Sambo's restaurants in Japan will be given a lifetime supply of darkie toothpaste and a free medical pass to a cancer clinic of their choice.
Mr. Honda and Mr. Toyota have hired the services of NBC's ( breed ) Ann Curry,  buffoon Bill Cosby, and the over the hill contemptuous Donald Trump to be their primary pitch personnel in selling the  new chain of fast foods outlets.  
Each one of Honda's and Toyota's Sambo's restaurant's will have a smiling picture of Auburn's Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton on the outside glaring at a pile of money surrounded by a bunch of prime radiation burgers.
MoveON.org has been trying to convince the Obama administration to make sure that all Sambo's restaurants in the United States have a warning sign posted in each facility.