FIAT's negotiations for Land Rover and Jaguar have paused while FIAT considers the effect of the acquisition, of what were once the pride of the British former car industry, on its bonds' investment grade rating .
FIAT has only put off buying Land Rover and Jaguar temporarily as it has good logistical reasons for the purchase; it intends to expand in off road vehicle production, and the Jaguar acquisition fits with its expansion plans for Alfa Romeo in the North American market.
Coventry and Birmingham seem as far away as the 1980s.
Sic transit gloria mundi (though it's pleasing that the Defender will soon be so much at home here).
Showing posts with label globalisation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label globalisation. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 June 2007
Monday, 4 June 2007
Building blocs and the Spirit of Shanghai
Coming up to the Berlin Treaty meeting it's worth glancing at another Union, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation.
'The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has a population of nearly 1.5 billion and covers 3/5 of the Eurasian continent...
Four years ago in the city of Shanghai leaders of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan announced the birth of this new organisation of regional cooperation. The SCO makes efforts to strengthen good-neighborly relations, mutual trust and friendship between its member states; contributes to effective cooperation between its member states on economy, trade, transport, energy, tourism, environmental protection and humanitarian affairs; combats forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism; protects peace, security and stability in the region; promotes the creation of democratic, just and rational international political and economic order'.
'..the SCO has basically completed its work on mechanism [organisation] building... and establishing external ties. A recent summit in Astana outlined strategic plans, aimed at further development of the SCO, and, following the admission of Mongolia to the SCO as observer state, accepted Pakistan, Iran and India as new observers.' The United States sought observer status but was refused, as was Ukraine the last on the grounds that it is a European state.
Every year the Union strengthens: customs union, inter-Union transport, particularly highway links, energy supply and use agreements, investment, environmental protection, foreign relations, (that is Union relations with other blocs), banking, development funds, health and social welfare, human rights; by now the organisational structure from Secretary General through various councils of ministers from head of state level to interministerial co-operation, representation in discussion forums, budgets, bureaucracy, is complete.
'The Council of Heads of Government /Prime Ministers/ of SCO Member States agreed to hold its next meeting in Tashkent in 2007'.
A look at the map to remind oneself where these countries lie, and the thought that although they are more or less at the stage the European Union was in the late fifties, the speed with which the SCO has formed, developed, and established itself in only 5 years is increasing, puts Berlin into another light.
'The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has a population of nearly 1.5 billion and covers 3/5 of the Eurasian continent...
Four years ago in the city of Shanghai leaders of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan announced the birth of this new organisation of regional cooperation. The SCO makes efforts to strengthen good-neighborly relations, mutual trust and friendship between its member states; contributes to effective cooperation between its member states on economy, trade, transport, energy, tourism, environmental protection and humanitarian affairs; combats forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism; protects peace, security and stability in the region; promotes the creation of democratic, just and rational international political and economic order'.
'..the SCO has basically completed its work on mechanism [organisation] building... and establishing external ties. A recent summit in Astana outlined strategic plans, aimed at further development of the SCO, and, following the admission of Mongolia to the SCO as observer state, accepted Pakistan, Iran and India as new observers.' The United States sought observer status but was refused, as was Ukraine the last on the grounds that it is a European state.
Every year the Union strengthens: customs union, inter-Union transport, particularly highway links, energy supply and use agreements, investment, environmental protection, foreign relations, (that is Union relations with other blocs), banking, development funds, health and social welfare, human rights; by now the organisational structure from Secretary General through various councils of ministers from head of state level to interministerial co-operation, representation in discussion forums, budgets, bureaucracy, is complete.
'The Council of Heads of Government /Prime Ministers/ of SCO Member States agreed to hold its next meeting in Tashkent in 2007'.
A look at the map to remind oneself where these countries lie, and the thought that although they are more or less at the stage the European Union was in the late fifties, the speed with which the SCO has formed, developed, and established itself in only 5 years is increasing, puts Berlin into another light.
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Reality and romanticism
The Scottish people go to the polls today to elect their parliament. Undeniably there is the the most pressure to vote in such a way as to open the path for choosing Scottish independence, since the Act of Union was signed 300 years ago.
What is the form that dissolution of a federal state might take? The most recent dissolution of a European federated state was in 1991.
When Yeltsin decided to disband the Soviet Union he did so constitutionally. Russia and the governments of Ukraine and Belarus were parties to the Treaty of the Union of 1922 and, on 8 December 1991, the leaders of the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian republics met in Belavezhskaya Pushcha near Minsk and signed the Belavezha Accords ‘declaring the Soviet Union dissolved and replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).’ Gorbachev described this as an unconstitutional coup, but this was rejected, and anyway it could not be halted.
On 12 December 1991 the legislature of the Russian Soviet Republic formally accepted the secession of Russia from the Soviet Union by ratifying the Belavezha Accords and denouncing the 1922 Treaty on the creation of the Soviet Union.
On 17 December ‘twelve of the fifteen soviet republics signed the European Energy Charter in the Hague as if they were sovereign states, along with 28 other European countries, the European Community and four non-European countries.’
On 21 December 1991 ‘representatives of all Soviet Republics, except Georgia, signed the Alma Ata Protocol, confirming the dissolution of the Union ‘ .. 'all former Soviet republics, except the three Baltic States, agreed to join the CIS.’ Russia was authorised to succeed to the UN membership of the USSR, and take the USSR seat in the Security Council. Russia was accepted as the successor state to the USSR on 31 December 1991.
All powers still vested in the presidency of the USSR were ceded to the president of Russia , Yeltsin, and on 26 Decembe 1991, the Supreme Soviet ‘recognized the extinction of the Union and dissolved itself. By 31 December 1991 all official Soviet institutions had ceased operations and individual republics assumed the central government's role.’ (this is an extensively edited and shortened version from Wikipedia’s excellent entry, and from other sources).
The plainness of this account belies the knife-edge avoidance of descent into open violence and armed repression, involving tanks on the streets, the courage of the White House defenders, military mutiny, and attempts at re -seizing power by Soviet elites.
This is the dissolution of a much larger federated state, it faced different problems and was motivated by only some of the forces driving the desire for Scottish independence; furthermore it was the principal state of the Union, Russia, that sought the dissolution.
The United Kingdom does not face economic collapse, despite the doomsayers; England has no major political force seeking dissolution of the Union, quite the contrary, all parties want its maintenance; Scotland will achieve no economic benefits from secession - pace models of celtic tiger and oil-fired growth - indeed the economic evidence points to relative impoverishment; there will be no ready acceptance of its independent status by supra national states or organisations, other member states of the European Union have no desire for such an example to make good , and the EU policy of regionalism is designed to avoid this kind of member- state fragmentation. Losing a Security Council seat (which would surely happen if the UK broke up) flies in the face of the current UK administration’s entire foreign policy and, presumably that of any opposition party. There is no other part of the UK with which Scotland could ally against the Westminster administration - mutatis mutandis the Supreme Soviet - for Wales and Northern Ireland are no Ukraine and Belarus.
To break up a federated Union, then, requires constitutional routes, external overpowering threat of the order of economic collapse, cultural and historical links and memories, powerful allies , and international acquiesence if not encouragement. Scotland has the third of these requirements, and may have the first.
Independence may require also the facing down of physical threat by the Union state, and there has been a lot of practice in just this - ask the people of Northern Ireland.
What is the form that dissolution of a federal state might take? The most recent dissolution of a European federated state was in 1991.
When Yeltsin decided to disband the Soviet Union he did so constitutionally. Russia and the governments of Ukraine and Belarus were parties to the Treaty of the Union of 1922 and, on 8 December 1991, the leaders of the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian republics met in Belavezhskaya Pushcha near Minsk and signed the Belavezha Accords ‘declaring the Soviet Union dissolved and replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).’ Gorbachev described this as an unconstitutional coup, but this was rejected, and anyway it could not be halted.
On 12 December 1991 the legislature of the Russian Soviet Republic formally accepted the secession of Russia from the Soviet Union by ratifying the Belavezha Accords and denouncing the 1922 Treaty on the creation of the Soviet Union.
On 17 December ‘twelve of the fifteen soviet republics signed the European Energy Charter in the Hague as if they were sovereign states, along with 28 other European countries, the European Community and four non-European countries.’
On 21 December 1991 ‘representatives of all Soviet Republics, except Georgia, signed the Alma Ata Protocol, confirming the dissolution of the Union ‘ .. 'all former Soviet republics, except the three Baltic States, agreed to join the CIS.’ Russia was authorised to succeed to the UN membership of the USSR, and take the USSR seat in the Security Council. Russia was accepted as the successor state to the USSR on 31 December 1991.
All powers still vested in the presidency of the USSR were ceded to the president of Russia , Yeltsin, and on 26 Decembe 1991, the Supreme Soviet ‘recognized the extinction of the Union and dissolved itself. By 31 December 1991 all official Soviet institutions had ceased operations and individual republics assumed the central government's role.’ (this is an extensively edited and shortened version from Wikipedia’s excellent entry, and from other sources).
The plainness of this account belies the knife-edge avoidance of descent into open violence and armed repression, involving tanks on the streets, the courage of the White House defenders, military mutiny, and attempts at re -seizing power by Soviet elites.
This is the dissolution of a much larger federated state, it faced different problems and was motivated by only some of the forces driving the desire for Scottish independence; furthermore it was the principal state of the Union, Russia, that sought the dissolution.
The United Kingdom does not face economic collapse, despite the doomsayers; England has no major political force seeking dissolution of the Union, quite the contrary, all parties want its maintenance; Scotland will achieve no economic benefits from secession - pace models of celtic tiger and oil-fired growth - indeed the economic evidence points to relative impoverishment; there will be no ready acceptance of its independent status by supra national states or organisations, other member states of the European Union have no desire for such an example to make good , and the EU policy of regionalism is designed to avoid this kind of member- state fragmentation. Losing a Security Council seat (which would surely happen if the UK broke up) flies in the face of the current UK administration’s entire foreign policy and, presumably that of any opposition party. There is no other part of the UK with which Scotland could ally against the Westminster administration - mutatis mutandis the Supreme Soviet - for Wales and Northern Ireland are no Ukraine and Belarus.
To break up a federated Union, then, requires constitutional routes, external overpowering threat of the order of economic collapse, cultural and historical links and memories, powerful allies , and international acquiesence if not encouragement. Scotland has the third of these requirements, and may have the first.
Independence may require also the facing down of physical threat by the Union state, and there has been a lot of practice in just this - ask the people of Northern Ireland.
Saturday, 28 April 2007
Video Killed the Radio Star
You were the first one...
Globalisation killed Soviet -type socialism because the system as it was could not benefit from the international division of labour. It insulated producers and consumers from international prices, due to the state monopoly of foreign trade conducted by large Foreign Trade Organisations implementing government plans, with a domestic currency which was not convertible into goods internally, as a result of shortages and queues, let alone into a foreign currency. This led to extreme inefficiency. By the 1980s Japan was buying Soviet machinery for scrap, between a fourth and a fifth of manufacturing output in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia had negative value added at international prices. Production actually destroyed GDP. Either the system had to be radically reformed, or was doomed to collapse. For unwillingness to let repressed inflation surface into open inflation, and for the even greater fear that reform would reduce party grip on power it was not reformed enough. It collapsed, leading to the restoration of capitalism and its global connections.
You were the last one...
Forms of socialism (and non-socialist statism) under social democratic regimes, whether left or right leaning, were killed by globalisation in a different way. Through competition from cheaper labour - whether from immigration, the delocalisation of production and employment to emerging countries, or by foreign trade; and by cheaper welfare systems, and lower labour -employment -protection competition, by social dumping as well as environmental dumping, between countries seeking to attract internationally mobile capital. There was competition to offer an environment friendlier to business, through lower taxes, tax evasion and avoidance by multinational corporations, and through the monetary and fiscal constraints required for a stable exchange rate in the global economy.
.. Rewritten by machine and new technology,
and now we understand the problems you can see.
But the Labour and its statist zealots cannot or will not see.
.. We hear the playback and it seems so long ago.
And you remember how the jingles used to go...
Brown and the zombies still sing the jingles - fraternal solidarity, redistribution, state investment, planned growth... But what we have is a corrupt administration sustaining itself in power by animating a corpse.
Globalisation killed Soviet -type socialism because the system as it was could not benefit from the international division of labour. It insulated producers and consumers from international prices, due to the state monopoly of foreign trade conducted by large Foreign Trade Organisations implementing government plans, with a domestic currency which was not convertible into goods internally, as a result of shortages and queues, let alone into a foreign currency. This led to extreme inefficiency. By the 1980s Japan was buying Soviet machinery for scrap, between a fourth and a fifth of manufacturing output in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia had negative value added at international prices. Production actually destroyed GDP. Either the system had to be radically reformed, or was doomed to collapse. For unwillingness to let repressed inflation surface into open inflation, and for the even greater fear that reform would reduce party grip on power it was not reformed enough. It collapsed, leading to the restoration of capitalism and its global connections.
You were the last one...
Forms of socialism (and non-socialist statism) under social democratic regimes, whether left or right leaning, were killed by globalisation in a different way. Through competition from cheaper labour - whether from immigration, the delocalisation of production and employment to emerging countries, or by foreign trade; and by cheaper welfare systems, and lower labour -employment -protection competition, by social dumping as well as environmental dumping, between countries seeking to attract internationally mobile capital. There was competition to offer an environment friendlier to business, through lower taxes, tax evasion and avoidance by multinational corporations, and through the monetary and fiscal constraints required for a stable exchange rate in the global economy.
.. Rewritten by machine and new technology,
and now we understand the problems you can see.
But the Labour and its statist zealots cannot or will not see.
.. We hear the playback and it seems so long ago.
And you remember how the jingles used to go...
Brown and the zombies still sing the jingles - fraternal solidarity, redistribution, state investment, planned growth... But what we have is a corrupt administration sustaining itself in power by animating a corpse.
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