NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE: Securing the Economic Future of the United States
Stanford Erickson - Special to the Sunshine Journal
Stanford Erickson has been in media for over 50 years covering US presidents and government, global economics, global transportation transportation and logistics as well as media consultation through his own company, Integrated Media Consultants. As a journalist, he worked for Hearst, McGraw-Hill, Knight-Ridder and The Economist Group. As a journalist he worked in San Francisco, Korea, Chicago, New York, Washington, DC and Philadelphia.
He was the speechwriter for President of the American Bankers Association and for the President of the American Railroad Association and then for 10 years headed up all public relations activities worldwide for Sea-Land Service, the world’s largest containership operator.
Erickson was Editorial Director, Editor-in Chief and then General Manager of Knight-Ridder’s The Journal of Commerce in New York City. At the time, The Journal of Commerce had the largest news bureau in Washington, DC, of all Knight-Ridder newspapers. When The Economist Group bought The Journal of Commerce, he was made President and Publisher of the magazine division and bought magazines for The Economist Group. He then struck out on his own and, with investors, bought The Farm Journal.
Erickson is a recognized Silver Owl member of the National Press Club. He is the author of 4 books, his latest being, Ranking US Presidents from Washington to Trump.
Most Americans are not knowledgeable about world trade and commerce. In the late 90s, the media company I helped manage did a survey of U.S. businesses and found only an estimated 30,000 business people in the United States needed to be aware of international commerce on a daily basis. Perhaps 100,000 on a monthly basis.
I don’t think those numbers have changed much except for Americans involved in the development, production and use of information technology.
World trade is essential to England, Germany, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and most Middle East countries.
Because most Americans were unaware about world trade and commerce, we permitted the U.S. State Department and a very few international American business people to develop and enforce U.S. trade with other countries that actually helped other nations more than the United States. It also helped improve the wealth of the few Americans that benefited from such an agreement.
The State Department, prior to the Trump Administration and now under the Biden Administration, believes that an interdependent world, one that makes the United States increasingly dependent on the rest of the world, is useful in improving the economic well-being of other nations and encourages peace.
Making the United States dependent on oil from the Middle East led to the Mid-East oil embargo the U.S. experienced in 1973-74. Congress allowed U.S.- flag containership fleets to be purchased in the late 1990s by other countries making us almost totally dependent on other countries transporting goods to this country. China has the third largest containership fleets in the world.
I too believe in interdependence and helping to improve the economies of other countries. But I do not trust being dependent on the goodwill of other nations. I think Donald Trump thought the same way as me. He re-negotiated U.S. trade agreements with Mexico and Canada, making the agreement more beneficial to the United States. He renegotiated trade agreements with Japan, South Korea, England and China. The entrenched professionals at the U.S. State Department fought him every step of the way.
To secure the economic future of the United States, U.S. government trade negotiators should look at the world in the following way:
· North and South America and the Caribbean have a population of one billion people (Brazil 211 million) that, if need be, could prosper without being dependent on the rest of the world;
· Europe has a population of 745 million that is dependent on an integrated world to keep its labor market employed and feed its people;
· Russia has a population of 150 million and needs to sell its oil to other nations or face a revolution;
· The Middle East has a population of 246 million and needs to sell its oil to other nations or face revolutions;
· China has a population of 1.3 billion and needs to continue to develop an economy through world trade to prevent a revolution;
· India with a population of 1.4 billion needs to develop its own industrial capabilities and is dependent on other nations to accomplish that.
Given this perspective, the United States is in a unique leveraged position so long as it continues to invest in and develop its own industrial juggernaut, stay energy independent, and increase trade with Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and South America. From such a strong economic basis, and given our strong military capability, we can be useful to the rest of the world. Especially if China and Russia and a few Mid-East nations determine to create economic or military crises.
My fear is the Biden Administration appears to be unwilling to take advantage of the leverage we have and to revert to the trade and economic policies prior to the Trump Administration. England, Japan, South Korea, India and most Middle East nations, other than Iran and Syria, are our natural non-hemispheric allies going forward in the world after Trump. England already has broken away from the Common Market. Japan, South Korea and India do not trust China, for good reason. Most Middle East nations, including Israel, do not trust Iran, Syria or Russia.
My fear is that the Americans involved in the development, production and use of information technology, including the movie industry, are almost single-mindedly interested in money to be made in the rest of the world, and especially in China with its 1.3 billion population. These AU.S. industries will join forces with the U.S. State Department and the few Americans who gain their wealth primarily through international trade to make the United States increasingly dependent on other nations. Nations that are primarily interested in their own well-being alone.