I don’t know how I went from one subject to the next but I did. Sue me.
The big story of the day to me was a long story in the Wall Street Journal about China and how Xi Jinping is circling the socialist wagon and starting to close the country off. I think he believes they are now wealthy enough where they can compete with the United States and perfect the socialist dream. I think he’s wrong but hey… I’m just a guy in a home office podcasting to an audience of 10.
For most of the 40 years after Deng Xiaoping first unleashed economic reforms in China, Communist Party leaders gave market forces wider room to flourish. That opening helped lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and created trillions of dollars in wealth, but also led to rampant corruption and eroded the ideological basis for continued Communist rule.
In Mr. Xi’s opinion, private capital now has been allowed to run amok, menacing the party’s legitimacy, officials familiar with his priorities say. The Wall Street Journal examination shows he is trying forcefully to get China back to the vision of Mao Zedong, who saw capitalism as a transitory phase on the road to socialism.
Mr. Xi isn’t planning to eradicate market forces, the Journal examination indicates. But he appears to want a state in which the party does more to steer flows of money, sets tighter parameters for entrepreneurs and investors and their ability to make profits, and exercises even more control over the economy than now. In essence, this suggests that he aims to rewrite the rules of business in what could someday be the world’s biggest economy.
Xi Jinping Aims to Rein In Chinese Capitalism, Hew to Mao’s Socialist Vision – WSJ
I will try to be more focused on the next episode. It’s a struggle!
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