Meanwhile, In China…
It may surprise you to know that I’m a pro-union person.
Not the “beat scabs with a lead pipe” kind. Nor the “throw your body on the gears of the machine” kind. But the “anyone should be free to pool resources and bargain collectively” kind.
Unions increase labor’s market power. So long as they don’t get a pass on violence or fraud, then unions — to me — just represent another way to compete.
Recently, rail workers had been doing just that — pooling power to get more value for their work. At least until the House of Representatives put the kibosh on it with a law aimed specifically at rail employees choosing the conditions under which they are willing to work.
Now its up to the Senate to create a new class of slaves.
Oh well, the ends justify the means, right? At least the end here benefits the greater good.
To be sure, we can expect rail workers to dutifully (and peacefully) go back to work. After all, legislators know what’s in the best interest of everyone. Surely, those humble laborers appreciate legislative perspicacity and can see how vital their work is to the country.
I mean it’s Christmas after all.
Thing is, people tend to take what’s right for them into account.
And when they do, you get what’s happening right now in China.
Seems a Little Passive Aggressive
I guess you can’t let people burn in deference to a CCP determined goal.
China’s Zero Covid policy was never about science any more than lock downs, social distancing, tracking apps, vaccine cards, and mask mandates were about science.
It’s about control. And when you don’t bend the knee, your authoritarian betters tend to let buildings burn.
Perhaps this was the last straw for a population that 1) let communists take over in the first place and 2) let them hang on to power for decades.
Protests are picking up. A quarantine camp got set on fire. And, as proof that dictatorial controls and limits only work up to a point, I’m seeing videos left and right showing CCP thugs in hazmat suits dragging people off to the modern-day gulag.
That didn’t used to happen.
China reopening has been the bulls’ second go-to right behind a Fed pivot. Perhaps if the CCP can back away from Zero-Covid idiocy, the people will settle down and (peacefully) get back to work.
Perhaps they can flip the switch on an economy that’s been locked down for over 2 years like you switch on a light bulb.
Perhaps…
A more likely scenario would be to expect it to take a considerable amount of time for the currently idle capital, labor, and knowledge to get going again because restarting the economy too quickly could create even more logistical nightmares.
But that ignores the possibility that the protests, unrest, fires, and videos are a manifestation of the Social Entropy that’s been advancing for over a decade.
Maybe the anti-authority, anti-centralization, anti-oneness global zeitgeist has gripped their spirits. Maybe the Chinese people have decided to take what’s right for them into account even at the sacrifice of comfort and certainty.
Who knows? U.S. rail workers might conclude the same.
And I’d like to see equity bulls pencil that into their 2023 S&P projections.
Think Free. Be Free.
P.S. If you’re preparing for the coming recession… Don’t do it alone. You’ll want a group of like-minded traders and investors to bounce ideas off of.
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