Smoke and Mirrors

As far as taking potshots at foreign people – especially Asians – the insinuation is there, my friend.

Well, now that you brought up the subject yourself of working for a living, what DO you do?

I’m a contract Systems Analyst for a large global privately held engineering firm. My area of expertise is primarily Class 4/5 telecomms, and industrial process control.

I’ve decided to lean more towards industrial process control, particularly in specialty chemicals and coatings, and petrochemicals. I recently supervised the completion of a 2,300 point field sensor upgrade from 4-20 mA to Foundation FieldBus, and a major MCC (Motor Control Center) upgrade from individual DO/DI motor starters to networked DeviceNet using an Allen-Bradley IntelliCenter MCC.

Most of the PE-certified engineers I work with and hang around with tend to agree with me on the root cause of our current economic and social mess

 

Tell me about it. When we ride the elevator to the lobby - which has a small Starbuck's concession - you should see the arguments over ordering a cup of coffee.

You'd think the fate of the entire bloody world depended on it!

 

My co-workers at the office are completely absorbed by this thread.

Currently we're taking bets on what psychoactive medication Malorn is taking.

 

Again, there go again, speaking as if "coming out" with the hybrid system is something they did on a whim, something cooked up by the marketing department at Toyota.

That is simply not the case. You DON'T KNOW hybrid technology. If you continue to think it's just a PR blitz, then you're hopeless.

I could think of a better way to improve their image than they did. If they'd just talked about a hybrid system, or just talked about a hydrogen fuel cell system like some of the other car manufacturers to make it seem like they're still advanced and still thinking, but not actually deliver anything. Actually delivering the hybrid vehicles they have already shipped has cost them way more than you have accounted for.... i keep saying it, but the only way for it to work out in the end for Toyota is if they incorporate the technology everywhere they can, which is exactly what they said they'd do.

It's about ROI.

 

In the case of my 2000 GMC Sierra SLT, trust me on this point: my word-of-mouth for that POS has been VERY very bad indeed!

 

He's repeatedly said that Toyota's done nothing unethical, but he says Toyota's wrong anyhow for being successful.

I don't dismiss him as a crackpot, but he brings a lot of misinformation about hybrid technology here... it's not just a lackluster viewpoint on Toyota, it's his misunderstanding of hybrid technology...

continues to use that misinformation to prove his point that Toyota Trucks through the distraction of Hybrids will be the end of American economy, but refuses to acknowledge my points that hybrid technology is bigger than a PR blitz.

 

Actualy we officially got off the gold standard in 1944, that was the subject of the Bretten Woods Conference in 1944. Thanks for the reminder though.

As the company I contract for is a large global privately held engineering firm, that company actually has to have a great deal of knowledge regarding how governments manage their finances.

So the company does employ a staff of economists and accountants. I've met these folks and they are very bright. I have emailed your post and they have all rejected your line of reasoning.

Money. Money only has to satisfy 3 things:

1. A unit of exchange
2. A measure of value
3. A store of wealth

If everybody agreed to it, we could use toilet paper as money, or flashlights or baby seals or whatever. The reason why many folks are worried about the enormous trade deficits of the United States, and the record levels of personal and public debt, is that it really isn't magic like you seem to think.

A lot of that public debt is financed on the open market, like an OMO. When the debt is financed within, say from folks who put their savings into a bank, the problem is internal.

When you no longer have savings - both Canada and the U.S. have had a negative savings rate for awhile now - that debt is picked up outside. Countries like China are flush with cash and they routinely purchase our debt offerings.

But you're a smart fellow so you already knew that, right?

 

Japan is flush with cash? They have been recovering from a serious recession since the 90s... As a country, they are not in very good shape, and they have a significant debt themselves.

You knew that of course, right?

Japan is more like us that any of the other Asian countries, for good reason.

 

So you think Toyota's REAL goal is to sell more trucks?

Do they want to sell more trucks? Of Course. Do they think there future is in truck sales? I don't think so.

If you think otherwise, please give us some more valid proof of this. Everything they've been doing shows the exact opposite.

I'm all for an intelligent conversion/debate, but this is now getting a bit ridiculous.

 

Dude... you keep lumping Japan and China in the same boat as if they were exactly the same country, but they aren't...

Japan is still suffering right now... you must be thinking of the 80s when Japan was at the peak of it's economic superpower status... Japanese electronics exports have waned significantly in the past 15 years. Sony takes up the lead, but the Koreans, the Taiwanese, and yes the Chinese are filling up a vacuum that the Japanese recession has caused.

I wouldn't be surprised if Japan was running a trade deficit.

 

They're building a hybrid plant in Kentucky. Close enough.

 

Japan's economy is inexorably tied to our own. That is one reason why they've had a huge recession over the last 15 years, because our economy hasn't been hot for many of those years.

Japan's economic ties to America lead way back ...

 

Trade deficit to one country isn't everything.

You're getting dangerously close to insinuating that the Japanese collectively are against America.