Bloomberg just published Tyler Cowen's US-beats-China opinion piece — an example of flaming puffery

19 November 2020

Realism is (arguably) a necessary element in achieving successful outcomes

However, the United States typically ignores reality, during its pretend geopolitical strategic planning.

One could (and probably should) wonder why this is so. Provided, of course, that we are searching for reasons that go deeper than just advancing Corporatist Pillaging as a matter of fundamental American principle.

So as to prevent such an inconvenient rooting for Truth, corporatists usually cover their tracks with pleasantly diverting propaganda.

And . . .

Tyler Cowen's Bloomberg opinion piece is a glowing example . . .

. . . of this kind of deception.

I select it for mild ridicule, just because it is so quintessentially American Establishment.

Mr. Cowen, who hopefully was only pretending to be a Fluff Wit, begins his stream of patriotic encouragement this way:

One question is whether China has overtaken the U.S., and on that there is good news: In terms of ideas and relative influence, America may have opened up its lead.

China has done surprisingly well, and some of its vaccines are likely to prove sufficiently effective and safe. But the U.S., working with the German BioNTech company, has produced an entirely new kind of vaccine platform, namely mRNA vaccines.

They can be quickly manufactured and hold the promise of combating many future viruses. The China vaccines are mostly based on older methods, with the Chinese doing their utmost to scale up production quickly.

The point stands in other areas of technology as well. If you are wondering whether China or the U.S. with its allies is more likely to make a big breakthrough, in, say, quantum computing, ask yourself a simple question:

Which network will better attract talented immigrants? The more that talent and innovation are found around the world, the more that helps the U.S.

Where should I begin a rebuttal?

First, old-fashioned vaccines work, and safely so. China knows that. Furthermore, Cowen as no credentials or ties (that I can detect) that would permit him to know what China is doing with allegedly more advanced biomedical technologies.

And, realistically speaking, the newer mRNA process (to which he refers) is utterly unproven across time and wide demographics. It is, therefore, laughably premature to cite mRNA tech as proof that the United States beats the People's Republic in medical research acumen.

Second, having to attract immigrants to maintain American technological success is — more likely than not — a strategic weakness, rather than a strength.

With the bulk of the world's science papers now coming out of China — with almost exclusively Chinese names attached to them — Cowen's 'tech wonders of immigration' thinking appears questionable or even reversed.

Consider, in demonstration, the fact that the United States already depends on swaths of foreign-originated physicians to provide substantial portions of its medical care.

Is that a national security strength, or does it say something concerning about our inability to save ourselves?

Cowen continues in this same lame-ish vein

No level of flag-waving ridiculousness is, we can infer, too stout for him to leave unplucked.

He states that China's 'One Belt, One Road' initiative is already failing, due to drops in cash and travel. Since both those trends are cyclical — and therefore, temporary — one has to wonder about Cowen's crystal ball ability.

Cowen also points out that hostility toward China is increasing, especially in Europe. Evidently, he missed the fact that no one sensible takes ineffectual Europe especially seriously. The EU consistently acts like the United States' mentally and courage-deficient stepchild. This is inconvenient for Russia and China at times, but it is not particularly threatening. As the US plummets in clout, so do its tag-along European allies.

The height of Cowen's truth-skirting comes with . . .

. . . the following three bits of genuinely nova-class (pie-in-sky) fluffery:

The U.S. . . . just conducted a very peaceful and orderly election, and the U.S. president-elect is much more popular than the U.S. president in most of the world’s democracies.

In economic terms, the U.S. bounced back from major declines in GDP and employment more quickly than most economists had been forecasting, reflecting an underlying resilience in the economy.

Yes, the U.S. has botched its response to Covid-19.

At the same time, its experience shows that America as a nation can in fact tolerate casualties, too many in fact.

It had long been standard Chinese doctrine that Americans are “soft” and unwilling to take on much risk. If you were a Chinese war game planner, might you now reconsider that assumption?

When it comes to the ideas and the people that matter, America and the West are not losing the lead.

Gosh, Tyler, you shot for the Moon of Non-Sequiturs didn't you?

Fact is, the US election was neither emotionally peaceful nor legally orderly. Some reasonably perspicacious analysts even worry that its roused furies are going to leave an urge for civil war in their wakes.

Contrast mostly quiescent China.

And the US economy is, contrary to Cowen's stated anticipation, projected to take a probably significant dive. Both from COVID business closures and financial sector bubble-bursting. Betting the other way (as Cowen does), seems unwise and lies in the realm of economic history-denial.

Last, and again contrary to Cowen's conclusion, no one in his or her right mind is going to infer that American deaths from "botched" COVID policy demonstrates a willingness to profligately croak ourselves in war.

So many of us have died from SARS-CoV-2 infections precisely because Americans and its leaders are:

"soft"

blazingly ignorant

characteristically stupid

and virtually always

strategically lazy and interminably unprepared.

This is hardly an intimidating picture of the American public's battle readiness from a potential foe's perspective.

China need only look at its apparently successful damping of COVID-19 — compared to the United States' rampaging ineptness in the same regard — to conclude that the PRC may have a noticeable edge in getting concretely valuable things done.

The moral? — Tyler Cowen plays the part of the Happy Imperialist Idiot

The fact that Bloomberg News published his easily questioned puffery, says something indicative about the American Establishment's inability to deal with reality on the ground.

Recall that strategically worthwhile self-defense starts by reasonably accurately reading probable terrain and arrayed forces.

This has not been an American strength for quite some time. Corporatist pillaging, however (both domestic and imperial) is. So, we will see how far militant rapaciousness takes us, given our now failing hegemonic ability to consistently force it upon others.

Tyler Cohen's serially backwards perspectives, I suspect, represent the terminal rah-rah-ing of a soon to be rickety and disappearing empire.

The weaker a once-strong nation becomes, the more vigorously falsely it toots its enfeebled horns.

PeteFree.com

Bloomberg just published Tyler Cowen's US-beats-China opinion piece — an example of flaming puffery