The World's Chess Masters and Go - Part 2

The more often a stupidity is repeated…

Stupidity is so universal now, as Einstein reflected, that "Two things are infinite, the Universe and Human Stupidity and I'm not certain about the Universe,"

This phenomenon now limits the benefits of power and technological innovation. For example? There was a time when those who had inherited wealth in America, used it for the Good:

We live with a generation that did not have to sacrifice in order to accumulate wealth and fails to recognize both its purpose and its value.?

A Little History

Beneficiaries of Our Inheritance?and Global Trade

Warren Delano Jr., John Jacob Astor and several other Americans took advantage of?the “Canton System” by offloading opium offshore of the Chinese mainland and transshipping the drugs upriver via smaller vessels.?

The descendants of Astor and Delano, namely Brooke Astor, Teddy, Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt had a more enlightened view of wealth and purpose resulting from global trade and the wealth and power that it conveyed.

Teddy Roosevelt took pains to explain the true meaning of patriotism:

and Brooke Astor, RIP, said:

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt helped to enable the public education of Blacks and other minorities in the US and to create both the Marshall Plan and the U.N.

After the failure of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, an agreement whereby nations would no longer settle their disagreements through violence and war, was drawn up. The hubris of the regimes of Nazi Germany, Japan and communist Russia resulted in the devastation of WWII.?The Marshall Plan, conceived and executed?by FDR, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George C. Marshall rebuilt Europe:

Eleanor’s vision and that of George Marshall and Dr. Albert Schweitzer rebuilt the world.?

Eisenhower and Marshall understood the importance of logistics and finance in achieving victory. Marshall realized that without the loans and grants provided by the eponymous Plan; its financial logistics, the reconstruction of Europe would have failed.?Without their vision and that of folks like de Coubertin who revived the Olympics, the rebuilding of the world would have failed.

The U.S.?

Eisenhower led the team that surveyed the U.S. for the purpose of creating an interstate highway system. This system would unite America, facilitate communication and spur economic growth by creating numerous jobs.

Truman who was succeeded by Eisenhower as the American President, could not execute the plan to build an interstate highway system because of the diversion of funds caused by the Korean Conflict. Not only did Eisenhower succeed in building the U.S. Interstate Highway System, such massive infrastructure projects as Idlewild, now J F Kennedy Airport, would be constructed during his regime.?

Lyndon Johnson, Ike’s successor after the assassination of JFK, failed to institute the Great Society because of the diversion of resources to the Vietnam War; the war during which I served.?

Global Trade and Financial Logistics

The US and Europe were not alone in building their global trade infrastructures. MacArthur simplified the Japanese language, democratized its government and?invited W.E. Deming who used statistical quality control and the cultural affinity of the Japanese for perfection, to remake Japan.?

After WWII, the U.S. grew rapidly, and US multinational corporations dominated global trade.?

To compete with the American Challenge,

European global trade experts created an infrastructure whereby the EU’s banks, insurance companies and brokers would outcompete the US. The initial concept of Bolero at SWIFT:

?grew to encompass Incoterms:?

the TSU (Trade Services Utility):

and BPO, Bank Payment Obligations:

?The failure by SWIFT to rapidly democratize BPO, led to its demise.?

The US in its response to the regional economic integration of Europe and its effort to again dominate global trade, created the World Trade Organization. The result of this attempt to harbor US Multinationals from taxation is the loss of millions of US manufacturing jobs, education by zip code:

and a failure to provide housing of the type built and made affordable for hundreds of thousands of?homecoming U.S. veterans after WWII:

The Flaw in Our Stars

Representation Without Taxation

The flaw in WTO is its provision for the country of origin of goods to be the nation where the “last substantive transformation takes place.” American multinationals advanced this concept because they thereby avoided taxation. To provide an example, Apple product components are sourced from various countries, but the final products are assembled in China, by Foxconn, a Taiwanese-owned corporation.?As a result of this process, Apple pays little in taxes for products invented, patented, advertised and marketed in the U.S. but produced in China, the “legally designated Country of Origin.”

In a similar form of TIVA or Trade in Value-Added product (and services), Boeing aircraft components are produced in various countries, but?the cockpit, Boeing’s core competency, is made in the U.S. Boeing aircraft provide employment for a considerable number of persons in the U.S., Japan and Australia, just as Airbus aircraft are constructed by workers located throughout the EU. Shared production makes it easier to sell aircraft to the countries where employment occurs. Economic development and infrastructure are all about job creation.?

Intelligent and Not-So-Intelligent Responses to Competition

By understanding TIVA, a current leading global trade process, and inviting foreign direct investment, and realizing the importance of culture,?South Carolina, under the leadership of then Governor Nikki Haley:?

attracted $30 billion in capital investment and created 105,000 new jobs. Additionally, the state has secured significant investments from international brands, including BMW, Boeing, Bridgestone, Continental AG, Giti Tire,?LPL Financial?Holdings,?Mercedes Benz Vans,?Michelin, Samsung,?Toray and?Volvo?Cars.

Additionally, the state of?South Carolina achieved an export sales record in each year of her tenure. In 2016, the state exported more than $31 billion in products for the first time, leading the nation in the export sales of completed passenger vehicles and tires.

Other Approaches?

The Trump regime?also reacted to TIVA and government subsidies in an irrational manner, while grotesquely failing to provide quality education and affordable housing for Americans, particularly for Black and Hispanic Americans who had served on the front line and as veterans.?

Continued with The Black Sea

Continued with We are Go!