Baskadia

Civilizational Clashes In the Age of Disruption: Trade and Advance


When the results came in for the mext US president, stocks rallied. But so did Bitcoin and other crypto currencies.  Was it a sign? Probably not.  But also,  likely,  yes. The stock market and many of its attending derivatives often acts more as a gage of investor confidence and not the real economy.  And if you know this, you will never get too excited about stock numbers unless you have positions that stand to gain or lose.

Just recently, Nvidia has been dubbed the most valuable company in the world. And that would seem a blow to Apple, unless one understood markets and trade by the Western ethic.  It is why Berkshire Hathaway has dumped 55.8 percent of Apple Stock in favor of treasury bonds, helping to maintain the entire US borrowing system. A feat far more necessary than holding fickle stock that does not advance the real US economy. There is absolutely no coincidence that Nvidia has now become the most valuable brand during a chip war with China.  A chip war that is devastating US brands and chipmakers over the most advanced wafers.

These advanced wafers are generally used to power the tiniest most advanced devices--usually in mobile phones. This means the US has sparked a chip war on processors that likely make up less than 5 percent of the market, the vast majority of microprocessors used in consumer electronics,  military armaments, medical devices and so on do not require such fine technology.

And this may not make sense to the average onlooker, but it makes sense in the Western construct of obstruction in business and trade.  States from Africa, Latin America and West Asia to Eastern Europe can provide a palpable example of the Western ethic on trade. It is why the West has begun walking back globalization, particularly where it pertains to trade. Why?

History teaches us important lessons about the Western ethic on international trade in many of its excursions abroad for loot and treasure.  There is a deep Civilizational  notion that goods and resources must be sourced abroad, but  not a foundational ethic that they must be paid for, maintained or replenished.  In this sense there is only resources to gain and nothing to lose after such resources are located.

The New World gold rushes of Western Civilizational expansionism in the Americas underscores this point.  Men from a host of Western European countries heard of gold in North and South America and hence, rushed to find it.  Spain and its infamous conquistadors are among the most celebrated in the civilization arc. They arrived at lands not their own to find and confiscate resources not their own and haply ferry those gains back to Europe.  There was never a question of remuneration, permission or territory.  It was an errand to the New World to loot, steal and plunder without the burden of payment, repayment, treaty or diplomacy.
Similar contingencies occurred in Africa,  Latin America, West Asia and Asia.

Therefore, trade has never been a fully realized practice. In instances where trade did occur, often "explorers" and "traders" came with far inferior products to trade or sell to locals for resources. The intention to "scam" has had its origins in these nacental trade exchanges where Western visitors sought to exchange cheap liquor, buttons, basic household items, junk and the like for resources, seeds, food, human capital and gold.  The value differential scam was a tradition brought to the Global South by its earliest Western visitors.

Value differentials are necessary in the Western dialectic of trade because the Western trader really does not want to relinquish any value for the resource or product he obtains. Raider cultures often see renumeration for goods as troublesome and  cumbersome, whereas might and strength could wrest the desired resources without a penny ventured.

How does one have a gold rush to someone elses's country? It happens if you believe resources can be discovered and taken without recourse or responsibility.  It is how land in the West Bank, Gaza and the Levant id confiscated by the Idraeli Front without so much as an illusion to diplomacy,  treaty or renumeration. The US state of Oklahoma is known as the Sooner State, because "settlers" were told to go annex the land from Native Americans and whoever go there "sooner" could kill the inhabitants and keep the land.

This ideal matters a great deal in the evolution of the Western Civilizational ethic on trade. Coupled with a zero-sum framework, trade therefore cannot be equal. There can be no gain from a civilizational context, if commensurate payment is made for commensurate work.  It defies the principle of hegemony and zero-sum cognition.  Win-win would means both buyer and seller gained in the exchange and that violates an important principle.

It also underscores the rise of both China and Japan in massive trade relations with the United states. As long as China remained poor and without much gain, its trade relationship made sense from a Western Civilizational perspective.  In both instances, it suddenly became clear that first Japan and now China had begun to grow due to the rapid trade, therefore a civilizational thucidyes trap was triggered.  In actuality, it violated an important principle of the Western Dialectic in trade, which eschews commensurate exchange.

It is why even the Eurozone has followed behind the US in imposing huge tariffs and protectionist measures.  Just recently, China has levied a complaint at the World Trade Organization over such barriers, SCMP News reports.  Both the EU and US operate from the same civilizational playbook on trade.   It has become obvious that Beijing has capitalized off of its trade with the West and others, increasing its capacity in ways unimaginable.

Even Russia has become quite the bone of contention as it surges to the largest economy in Europe.  That is a problem principally because it violates the West's civilizational ideology. It is why the East has always been so problematic for the West. It is not an irrational hatred that galvinizes the West against Eastern sentiments, rather it is the existential threat the East poses as a trade partner with the capacity to outstrip the West and hense violate the trade ethic on non-commensurate value differentials.

It is why the West needs the monetary exchange system as it is, because it presents a financial world where it will always have the capacity to get more resources, products and labor for the same printed paper fiat as others. It promises unequal exchange.  There are no literal reasons why the dollar has more worth than the ruble.  There simply is no logical explaination, except that the US has faster, more active printing presses than Russia.  The world is actively involved in the Tom Sawyer Method of fence-painting and profit. It was recently discovered that the Bank of France distributed fake Gold coins in the 1950s for almost a decade, Greek Reporter news revealled.  A fearful sentiment for users of the CFA Franc, the proposed, Paris-backed West African Eco Currency and those with un-repatriated wealth in French coffers.

It is also why the US and EU auto industry has cratered to massive proportions. It is unable to produce its own products and earn profit from the massive currency differentials underscored by the Fed's over-reliance on interest rate hikes.  In fact, Qualcom, Pepsico, Boeing, Volkswagen, Nissan and a host of restaurants have laid off thousands of staff, cut earnings, shuttered locations and reduced production.  This malaise also effects certain Eastern actors like Japan, who closely follows Western Monetary and economic policies.  Nissan just cut 9000 staff as earnings projections have fallen 70 percent, CNN reports reports.

It is why resources mined by the fingers of children are suriptiously flown out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to manufacturing hubs in the developed world to make digital products. Equal exchange violates the Western Dialectic on trade and this civilizational ethic can be seen in almost every long-term trade arrangement, from China's inexpensize labor to Africa's unmined minerals and on to rich LNG and oil resources in Eastern Europe and Agriculture in Latin America. Equal trade removes the point of primacy necessary in zero-sum relations and cognition. It also forces the trader to increase his holdings through natural ability, strategy or planning.  All areas where Western civilizations have not fared as well in comparison to others.

Anthropologist and social scientists have argues the societal and economic systems of hunters verses gatherers and agriculturalists for decades in the Western theatre of theory. Many non-Western cultures/civilizations  have mistaken their animal pastoralism with the hunter civilizations of the West in a prowess for dominance. But that would be an error. Pastoralists must plan and care for animals, while hunters hunt to satisfy today's needs.  Western civilizations did not pivot to animal husbandry until much later.  It is this planning phase seen with both pastoralists and agriculturalists which has been absent to inform the Western Dialectic on trade and international business up until today.

It did not require much forethought to conclude that outsourcing most production would result in an impotent economy.  Yet, the corporate raiders of the 1980s and early 2000s did not see the flaw.   And that is because the Western cultural dialectic on trade looks for gains only,  not investments on long-term outcomes for sustainability. It hunts. It does not maintain as animal husbandry and agriculturalism requires.  There is a similar trade conundrum occurring accross the Western world concerning AI and green energy adaption, as it slashes staff to increase bottom lines.  The West must rely on new conquests in "the hunt" to survive. A hunt for war, resources, proxies and cheaper labor.

This impulsivity and lack of foresight has led to the blowbacks in recent times that threaten the EU, US and UK among other sycophant actors. This phenomenon was evident in its earliest attempts at international trade and treaties.  It often made trade pacts that it refused to keep because it was unable to convert what it had obtained in equal trade into palpable growth without the advantage  of unequal exchange.

Often such losses resulted in massive violent attacks against locals, intimidation, sacking entire towns and cities.  An that still happens today. Nord Stream II was unexpected by most, but necessary, from a civilizational context--even though it has almost sunk Eurozone production. Recently, bands of vigilante settlers in Israel descended on the property and livelihood of Palestinians.  People, cars and orchards were attacked and burned in the violent mob, Times of India reported.

Settler states often carry with it the ideology of their parent civilization.  It is why the same kind of violent mobs in the 1800s-1900s descended on Black towns in the US to burn down business, property and attack the Black American ethnic minority.  It was unthinkable to many US settlers that Black Americans, fresh from slavery, had taken so little resource and created thriving communities and lucrative businesses.  The Black American population was adaptable and skillful even under duress, able to plan and strategize if left to its own devices.

Finally, trade has often been used in the Western Civilizational context as a tool of control. States and consumers who become dependent on trade or products from the West are often leveraged by those inbuilt needs. Many global south states present a picture of dependence in the area of technology, whereby most of its digital footprint is owned and managed by its former colonial overlords.  This means it must be cautious not to upset its benefactors to maintain a digital competency. This phenomenon also manifests in other areas of trade and industry where states and regions have not procured sovereign development or multilateral cooperations.

Trade in which the hegemon controls the price and distribution is seen as a worthy tool of domination. It is why China's growth is seen as an existential threat to the West. From Build Back Better to the Chips Act, the USA models the civilizational ideology that trade can be used as a weapon. Just recently the Israeli Front leader confirmed that Tel Aviv executed the pager bombings that killed and injured hundreds in Lebanon, in a technological first in terrorism, France24 reported.  The craven act was an essential demonstration of hegemony by dependency.

Trade, therefore, is engaged with the hope of an unequal exchange. An even better outcome would be one in which no exchange was necessary and resources could be ferried away, like the energy resources in Iraq and Yemen.  While names like piracy and barbarism have been taken on as unsavory descriptors, these concepts underlie the dialectic, "Why spend money for what can be obtained through force?"  It is why power, strength and domination are far far more valued in the West than strategy, planning and calculated production.  There are no plans. Just the intention to hunt resources and wealth for current needs.  Real value is often hoarded in the West never to be seen again.

It is why states have begun repatriating their gold in the fear that it might be confiscated for some sundry reason. Bharat recently repatriated an additional 102 metric tonnes of gold from the Bank of London and the Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland.  And this makes sense for a lot of nations, because even the BIS has abandoned its neutrality by blocking the mBridge cross-border payment system,  AP News reports.  And quite literally the move by the BIS fits perfectly into the Western Dialectic on trade and exchange.  In fact in areas where Western powers have a trade advantage like currency, payment systems and technology it has not hesitated to leverage those tools against other states in an effort to control or maintain hegemony.

Therefore, trade with Western partners requires a kind of vigilance that the Global South and much of the East does not exercise entirely.  It is why trade wars,  sanctions, confiscations, proxy wars and predatory monetary policy always comes as a shock to those from other civilizational frameworks. They are often gripped with outrage and sentiments of betrayal.   However, what solves this gambit is a more calculated engagement with an expectancy that at some point the tide will turn. Measures must be put into place to anticipate the sudden anarchy that will eventually erupt over trade and finance. Systems must be created so that the West is not over-leveraged in key areas and negotiations will be of necessity where multiple stakeholders exercise controls.
Monetary and trade systems that create measured engagement and protections for those transacting with the West may create the best outcomes for both. The world is already at work on several solutions, we will just have to wait and see.