Has Britain initiated the beginning of the end of US hegemony?

Often  what future historians will see as the most significant event of a period is buried under many other stories at the time it happens. Right now the battle against the Islamic State or the negotiations with Iran, the reelection of Netanyahu, or even the story of murderous millionaire occupy the front pages, but I would bet that in only a few years, Britain's defying the USA and joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will be seen as much more important. 

The following snippets will give you a pretty clear "story arc" of the British move.

The US has expressed concern over the UK's bid to become a founding member of a Chinese-backed development bank. The UK is the first big Western economy to apply for membership of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).(...) the US sees the Chinese effort as a ploy to dilute US control of the banking system, and has persuaded regional allies such as Australia, South Korea and Japan to stay out of the bank.(...) "We think that it's in the UK's national interest," said Mr Cameron's spokesperson. BBC

America’s sensitivity to the creation of banks such as AIIB is understandable. Rivalry between Washington and Beijing for global economic influence is intensifying. Since the end of the second world war, the US has been the dominant voice, partly thanks to the creation of the Washington-based World Bank and International Monetary Fund. China is now challenging the Bretton Woods set-up by creating financial bodies to help it gain greater political influence in the Asia-Pacific region and other parts of the world.(...) The US may want to stop the growth of these bodies. But its lacklustre stewardship of the Washington-based international financial institutions is one of the reasons rivals are proliferating. Financial Times

France, Germany and Italy have all agreed to follow Britain’s lead and join a China-led international development bank, according to European officials, delivering a blow to US efforts to keep leading western countries out of the new institution.(...) Australia, a key US ally in the Asia-Pacific region which had come under pressure from Washington to stay out of the new bank, has also said that it will now rethink that position.(...) South Korean media have reported that Seoul will also now rethink its decision not to join the AIIB. Japan, the US ally in the region that is most worried by China’s growing influence, is not expected to become a member. Financial Times

Why is this so important?

To simplify: American hegemonic power is based on a tripod of arms, economy and narrative (media, academia etc.). The two most unquestionably powerful are arms and economy.

America, as we are constantly being told, has the most powerful armed forces in the history of the world. But somehow, except for Panama and Grenada, America's wars don't seem to turn out that well. The last two, Afghanistan and Iraq, have turned out so badly and so fatigued American public opinion that we are forced to ask Madeline Albright's famous question, "What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?"

This takes us to the economy where America's power has at its heart the dollar. The greenback is the currency in which most of the world's commerce takes place... very, very simply put, the USA can very cheaply print as many dollars as it wants whenever it wants and everybody else has to use them to buy the things they need. Too good to be true? The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank could mean the end of that.

This excellent snippet from Thailand's "The Nation" will give you an idea of how much trouble the AIIB could mean for US power and the average American's pocketbook:

Once the AIIB gets off the ground, it will become an international financial institution to be reckoned with, offering financing for infrastructure projects in yuan-denominated loans. This is the underlying reason for Washington's concern over the creation of the AIIB. Allowing the yuan to flourish will hit the international standing of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency of choice. China, Russia and other BRICS countries are moving away from the dollar, preferring to trade among themselves in their own currencies. Not only will this reduce foreign exchange risks associated with the dollar, it will also promote the use of their own currencies. Washington cannot afford to let a new international foreign exchange regime come into being. With a budget deficit of $1 trillion a year, the US needs to finance its debt with borrowing. If the dollar's credibility is questionable, fewer and fewer countries and funds will be willing to become the US's creditors by buying up US bonds. The dollar will be dumped. Interest rates will rise, hurting the economy and the financial markets. The chain reaction will bring another round of financial crisis.(...) we have come to a point where the US can no longer dictate global events on its own terms. The fact that its allies are deserting to join the AIIB reflects the waning of Washington's influence. Its allies realize they will miss the boat if they fail to join the AIIB, because the growth opportunities are in Asia - not in Europe or the US, where structural problems have yet to be addressed.

And to top it off, using the AIIB, China will be able to finance the infrastructure that will unite Asia, Africa and Europe and very possibly isolate the USA with The New Silk Road.

In short: in only a few years the Communist Party of China, without firing a shot, has used the very tools of capitalism to reduce the power of the lords of modern capitalism.

 Sun Tzu would be proud. DS

Google wants (us?) to live forever

"Don't be evil" was the formal corporate motto (or slogan) of Google

Wikipedia

“The famous Google mantra of ‘Don’t be evil’ is not entirely what it seems.”

“Evil is what Sergey [Brin] says is evil.”

Eric Schmidt - Executive Chairman of Google

“If you ask me today, is it possible to live to be 500? The answer is yes,” Bill Maris says one January afternoon in Mountain View, California. The president and managing partner of Google Ventures just turned 40, but he looks more like a 19-year-old college kid at midterm. He’s wearing sneakers and a gray denim shirt over a T-shirt; it looks like he hasn’t shaved in a few days. Bloomberg

When I first read about Google's plans for life eternal I thought I'd write a "think piece" about it, but then on researching the thing, I saw that many had trod the path before me. As I read though page after page I saw that Google was not alone, that Silicon Valley was filled with Forbes List billionaires putting oodles of money into research hoping to live forever.  

Reading on, it suddenly struck me that that I had seen this before... Then I remembered where... Aldous Huxley classic, "After Many a Summer Dies the Swan". 

Sergey Brin wants to become the Fifth Earl of Gonister!

Here is a quote from Wikipedia's summary of Huxley's masterpiece:

Written soon after Huxley left England and settled in California, the novel is Huxley's examination of American culture, particularly what he saw as its narcissism, superficiality, and obsession with youth.

Looked at with the eyes of Huxley, I began to think that today's Silicon Valley is nearly beyond parody and then a friend sent me this wonderful send up of the "sharing apps":

Getting serious for a moment, it seems truly "evil" that these Silicon Valley billionaires cannot see that the true health problem today is not eternal life or even a cure for cancer: it is the existence of many millions of human beings who do not have access to even the most rudimentary health care or sanitation. 

I am not asking these mega-geeks to "have a heart", I am asking them not to be stupid. In today's interconnected world which they have done so much to interconnect and which they want to interconnect infinitely, a virus that breeds in some filthy, overpopulated, third world slum, with no doctors and no toilets (near an international airport, naturally) can undergo a metamorphosis into an airborne, killer flu from one day to the next and be in San Jose in a matter of hours.

How can people who are supposed to be intelligent be so stupid? Maybe their intelligence is like "Rain Man" memorizing telephone books. DS

Binyamin Netanyahu is Sheldon Adelson's puppet

Adelson and Netanyahu

There is a lot of talk about Binyamin Netanyahu these days, but Bibi is just a figurehead, the real operator in this whole story is the American casino billionaire, Sheldon Adelson, who is going about proving beyond any reasonable doubt (if anybody still doubted it) that the American political system is for sale. In fact, he has been doing the same thing in Israel.

Since in his mind, Israel and the USA seem to be of one flesh, it might be interesting to visit Sheldon Adelson's view of democracy in Israel:

“I don’t think the Bible says anything about democracy. I think God didn’t say anything about democracy,” Adelson said. “God talked about all the good things in life. He didn’t talk about Israel remaining as a democratic state, otherwise Israel isn’t going to be a democratic state — so what?” The Jewish Daily Forward

What does Adelson's money buy for Israel in Washington? Nothing but the best.

Among foreign leaders, nobody has been invited to address Congress more often than Netanyahu. He now stands equal at the top of the table along with Winston Churchill. Behind Netanyahu trail Nelson Mandela and Yitzhak Rabin. That’s a pretty devastating commentary on the state of contemporary American political culture and the very notion of leadership. Roger Cohen - New York Times

The results of Adelson's meddling could have disastrous results for both Israel and the USA and many Israelis are fully aware of this and very disturbed by the prospect and so are many American Jewish people too.

If anyone ever decides to make a movie of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,' the opening scene is already done. An Israeli prime minister bewitching hundreds of American Congress members who cheer him on as if he is their Caesar and they are his legions; a few short miles away, meanwhile, the leader of the free world and sole superpower sits in the White House, helplessly seething, pretending to be otherwise engaged, while his aides studiously ignore his very public humiliation.(...) They see a brash Jewish leader, backed by battalions of loyal AIPAC lobbyists and one casino magnate with billions of dollars to spare, thumbing his nose at the U.S. president and openly trying to derail his efforts to achieve a nuclear deal with Tehran, which most of the world supports. Netanyahu’s success, the conventional wisdom goes, could ultimately lead to war.  (...) And if the U.S. and Iran find themselves in an escalating conflict that leads to armed confrontation, Netanyahu, Israel and the Jewish people will find themselves in the dock, cast in a central role in a new chapter in the Protocols of the elders of Zion, but one which will be much harder to refute. As a student of Jewish history, this seems to be Netanyahu’s most reckless gamble of all.  Chemi Shalev - Haaretz

Iran may or may not be the existential threat to Israel that Netanyahu insists it is. But a lessening of U.S. support for Israel certainly would be. With an indifferent America, Israel would become a lonely, frightening place. Its chief export would not be high tech, but people looking to get out — Jews once more on the go. This is hardly the settlements policy that Netanyahu intends. Richard Cohen - Washington Post

Alas, Bibi is Churchill when it comes to isolating Iran, but he is AWOL when it comes to risking his own political future to make it happen. I have a problem with that. I still don’t know if I will support this Iran deal, but I also have a problem with my own Congress howling in support of a flawed foreign leader trying to scuttle the negotiations by my own government before they’re done. Rubs me the wrong way. Thomas Friedman - New York Times

How are Adelson's obsessions, vanity and dollars potentially more even harmful than, say, the Koch brothers' obsessions, vanity and dollars?

The answer is ISIS.

Everything is building up to this: ISIS's greatest wish is too draw the US armed forces back into a ground war in the Middle East. The ISIS is mobilizing, radicalizing and even more important, giving military training to hundreds of citizens of the European Union (who can enter the USA without a visa) and dozens of American citizens too. This means that within months, weeks, days, hours, anyone of these men or women could walk into a shopping mall  or Wal-Mart in the deepest flyover America and blow him or herself up, along with dozens of peaceful shoppers... And there might be several such instances in the space of a few hours in different regions. It is not difficult to imagine the ensuing paranoia, rage and hostility. 

Hysteria is modern America's default reaction to almost anything, it is hard to imagine how a series of well executed suicide bombings would play out and what lasting effect they might have on American life and institutions... any country seen to have brought it on in any way might face the full force of all the hysterical, paranoia, rage and hostility that might be out of control for quite some time.

Obviously in any US ground war against ISIS, any Israeli intervention against the jihadis would be worse than useless, just as it would have been in the first Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein invaded Iraq. If Israel intervened militarily to help the USA kill Sunni Muslims, it would instantly turn the ISIS into heroes for most of the world's Sunni Muslims. The only country that could reliably help the USA with the heavy lifting would be, (some say already is) Shiite Iran.

Sheldon Adelson and his puppet Netanyahu are simply playing with fire. DS