Candidates lack a serious plan

Dear Editor:

The U.S. and Western leaders share an inability to grasp and absorb the changing world economy and its implications. By denying decline of the U.S.-led western empire relative to the rise of China and its BRICS allies, the West misses unfolding implications.

As of 2023, BRICS’s $33 trillion PPP adjusted GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) exceeds the G7 countries’ $26.9 trillion PPP adjusted GDP. This is part of the reason why U.S. and European sanctions against Russia failed.

Trump’s disrespect for NATO is an expression of disappointment with an institution he blames for failing to stop the

U.S. empire’s decline. Both Trump and Biden attack China’s Huawei with tariffs and heavily subsidize Silicon Valley, – a historic shift away from globalization towards economic nationalism. An American empire that is shrinking into a regional bloc, – one of a number in a new multi-polar world.

The U.S. and western leadership’s aggressive focus on economic nationalism, its fiat financing of unsustainable spending, virulent talk of war and anti-Russia/ China/Iran message is to distract public’s attention from empire decline, – however, this creates new problems.

The “America first” policies has allies retaliating in-kind and reconstructing their future expectations. Many capitalists rethink investment strategies, those who invest overseas anticipate loss from the shift to economic nationalism. Not only do capitalists adjust their thinking, but also quarrel and dispute the direction and pace of the changing world economy., creating further volatility.

The “Make America Great Again” slogan weaponizes U.S. empire decline. Trump promises to undo and reverse that decline and punish those he blames for it, – not only China, but also the Democrats, liberal globalists and socialists. There is rarely any serious attention to the economics of decline, – to do so would critically implicate capitalists’ profit-driven decisions, – neither Republican, nor Democrats dare do that.

Continuing to fund and arm Ukraine, support Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and arm Taiwan are polices premised on denial of decline. Perhaps the greatest delusion of decline is the up coming presidential election.

Both candidates lack a serious plan to deal with declining empire. Both blame each other. Joe Biden offers a declining empire in denial and Trump promises to undo that decline.

Neither candidate offers a sober admission and assessments of a changing world and plans to cope with it.

Jon Peter Christoff

West Kelowna