Sense on Cents

If you were in serious debt and your largest creditor offered an opinion on how you managed your affairs, do you think you might listen?

Well, if we care to see the political gamesmanship involved in a relationship between debtor and creditor played out on the world’s largest stage, let’s navigate and take a look as to what The People’s Republic of China has to say to our leaders in Washington.

I thank the regular reader who brought this story to my attention. In what can only be compared to a cold, hard slap of reality, the Associated Press reports:

China slammed the human rights record of the United States in response to Washington’s report on rights around the world, saying that U.S. military operations have infringed on rights abroad and that political donations at home have thwarted the country’s democracy.

The report released Sunday in China — which defines human rights primarily in terms of improving living conditions for its 1.3 billion people— also cited gun violence in the U.S. among its examples of human rights violations, saying it was a serious threat to the lives and safety of America’s citizens.

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2012 said the U.S. government continues to strengthen the monitoring of its people and that political donations to election campaigns have undue influence on U.S. policy.

Do not think for a second that the Chinese are not following political developments here closely. The pointed reference to gun violence is a clear example of that.

While we can discount the Chinese report as little more than gamesmanship, who here in our country would discount or deny that the topic of campaign finance does not hit our nation in its most vulnerable spot?

Do people believe that our public interests are truly being addressed in Washington? That horse is so far out of the barn, through the pasture, and off into the woods and has taken our nation into an abyss along with it.

In my opinion, unless and until we get meaningful campaign finance reform — and not some prepackaged noise disguised as such — future generations are doomed to live in a cesspool of cronyism with a struggling economy and will ultimately be further beholden to those like China who fund us.

By the way, the Chinese are our largest foreign creditor and just so happen to hold only $1.2 trillion of our debt.

Navigate accordingly.

Larry Doyle

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I have no business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own. I am a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 22nd, 2013 at 8:38 AM and is filed under China, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.