(original recording made in 2000)
This is a book about white collar crime. 25 years ago George Winslow
made his only appearance on the program to talk about his book "Capital
Crimes." 25 years later many of the issues we discussed are even more
prevalent today. We looked at the growing disparity in compensation
between workers and CEOs. Take a look now at the billionaires who seem
to be running our country these days.Things have not improved.
Recently it was announced that China just had a trillion dollar trade
surplus. We hear threats being made by our nation's leader, he keeps
complaining that the Chinese are not buying enough stuff from us and as
punishment he plans to enact enormous tariffs on Chinese goods.The
Chinese have now become a dominant producer of electric vehicles and
solar arrays. Some consumers are looking to reduce their carbon
footprints and these items are hot commodities. So let's make them more
expensive, more difficult to obtain. China will find other markets for
their goods while ordinary Americans will be paying the price. Meanwhile
as the US is producing more fossil fuels than ever we are hearing that
extracting even greater quantities of them will somehow curb inflation.
I'm not an economist but this sounds absurd to me.
So why am I talking about China? Well, when you look back at history you
can learn some interesting things. When I spoke to George Winslow 25
years ago he explained a trade situation that took place centuries ago.
All that time ago the Chinese were not interested in western products.
Amazing what history can show us, right? The British had an unquenchable
thirst for Chinese tea and were running huge trade deficits with China
because the Chinese were not interested in British goods. What to do?
The British finally came up with a product the Chinese would buy; opium.
They began producing enormous quantities of opium in their colony of
India and shipping it to China. Other European powers, and it should be
noted, the Americans as well, followed suit, and began making millions
by selling opium to the Chinese. Millions of Chinese became opium
addicts and this caused cultural decay and indebtedness. The Chinese
tried to curtail the flow of opium. The western nations did not want to
lose this highly profitable trade. Look up the Opium Wars if you want to
learn more.
And hopefully I am not the only person who sees irony in the fact that
China is now a leading producer of the chemicals that go into the
production of the synthetic opiate now known as fentanyl, a product that
is ravaging our country, producing addiction and death.
Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it. The flow of
fentanyl into this country from places like Mexico is being funded by
our insatiable desire for the product. The British wanted their tea so
they gave the Chinese opium. The Latin American cartels producing
fentanyl are being supplied in large part by Chinese chemical
production. Mexico is also being threatened with tariffs, over
immigration, and over fentanyl. I'm sure the Chinese are aware of this
fascinating history between them and the western world. Perhaps we
should try to obtain a broader understanding of the history that
underlies trade deficits over the centuries. What causes them, and how
greed is usually an underlying factor.
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