The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

Southwest Associated University (Panlong Campus).

At this time, the new batch of students are undergoing military training.

This batch of students can be said to be the pride of heaven. It is the first batch of students after the reconstruction of Southwest Associated University. Each of them has excellent college entrance examination scores in various provinces.

There are even top scorers in liberal arts and science in fifteen provinces!

Before the college entrance examination, the admissions office of Southwest Associated University organized school professors to give speeches in major high schools across the country, and even put recruitment advertisements on CCTV.

This makes Southwest Associated University very well-known even though it is the first time to recruit students after the reconstruction.

Liu Tao came to the Southwest Associated University campus and watched the students undergo military training.

Military training will last for a whole month, with military training during the day, housekeeping at night, ideological classes, and military theory classes on weekends.

Although this month is only the beginning of college students' college life and a very short segment of college life, it is definitely an unforgettable segment for every college student.

At this time, some classes were taking a break, and the military training instructors were teaching the students to sing military songs.

The rank of the Southwest Associated University was in charge of the "Tiger Brigade". The soldiers of the "Tiger Brigade" were all covered with medals.

In front of these medals, these proud sons of heaven were suppressed and had no temper at all.

Because these proud sons of heaven were facing soldiers who had won military exploits time and time again.

Looking at these students with immature faces, Liu Tao had infinite expectations in his heart, because these people were the helpers of China's future prosperity.

Perhaps some of these people will become excellent teachers, teach and educate people, and cultivate more excellent students; some will enter the official career, work hard for the revival of China, and benefit the people; some will become scientific researchers, do things that ordinary people can't do, and solve problems that most people can't solve; some will enter the mall, struggle in the tide of the times, and become entrepreneurs

Of course, maybe some people will eventually sell pork, and then walk out of a life different from other pork sellers.

Although the conditions are still limited now, Liu Tao saw a spark, and a spark can start a prairie fire.

While Liu Tao was visiting the military training of Southwest Associated University students, the finance ministers of the United States, Japan, Britain, France and Germany gathered again at the Louvre in France.

The blue sky in Paris at this afternoon was intoxicating.

The white clouds were rolling and swaying in the breeze, just like the French girls in various poses on the street.

The Seine River sparkled in the sun, as if a few pieces of gold were scattered. In the distance, the spire of the bell tower of Notre Dame de Paris pierced the sky, overlooking the vicissitudes of the world for hundreds of years.

On this sunny afternoon, the heart of US Treasury Secretary James Baker was full of clouds.

A year ago, in order to get the US economy out of the predicament of weakness, the finance ministers of the five countries formulated the "Plaza Accord" at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Under pressure from the United States, West Germany and Japan greatly appreciated the West German mark and the Japanese yen, and devalued the US dollar to promote the development of the US export industry.

But no one expected that the Japanese yen would appreciate wildly at the beginning, catching all parties off guard. Although Japan later took strong measures to stabilize the yen and allowed it to appreciate in an orderly manner, the yen has appreciated by 33% since the signing of the Plaza Accord.

Under that stable exchange rate, Japan suffered a lot of losses.

The depreciation of the US dollar did not solve the inflation in the United States. On the contrary, due to high oil prices and the sharp increase in the prices of raw materials imported from abroad, the US industry has not enjoyed the benefits of depreciation and has fallen into the dilemma of having no money to buy raw materials.

In addition, the two operations of "Prairie Fire" and "Golden Canyon" this year seemed to have severely beaten Libya and almost killed Gaddafi, and the United States suffered a lot of losses, and the oil price rose sharply during that period.

As a result, a large number of American companies went bankrupt, banks fell into crisis, stocks and bonds began to shrink sharply, and the entire US economy fell into serious shocks.

Under tremendous pressure, many American companies closed their factories in the United States in order not to go bankrupt, and chose to open factories in China, or directly purchase Chinese goods to reduce production costs.

James Baker was under great pressure. Some people have criticized him as the worst Treasury Secretary in American history and Reagan as a worse president than Hoover.

Before Reagan came to power, the US economy was facing double-digit inflation and a 20% bank interest rate. Nearly 8 million people were unemployed, and the average hourly wage of workers was 5% lower than in 1976. The average personal tax rate levied by the federal government was as high as 67%, and the national debt was nearly 1 trillion US dollars.

After Reagan came to power, he was a libertarian. He implemented a free economic policy, advocating tax cuts, reducing the size of the government, and reducing regulations on business.

However, after a few years, the inflation of the US economy has been hovering around 10%, the bank interest rate has also exceeded 10%, the number of unemployed people has exceeded 15 million, and the national debt has approached 3 trillion US dollars.

The new military strategy of the Reagan administration has increased a large military budget, significantly increased military spending, and increased the purchase of various weapons.

Now the United States is no longer the world's largest creditor country, but has become the world's largest debtor country.

Even Reagan invested a lot of money every year to fight HIV. So far, the investment in fighting HIV has reached 57 billion US dollars, but HIV has not been eradicated. Not to mention eradicating HIV, even the number of people infected with HIV is increasing rapidly, which is terrifying.

By now, James Baker and others have known that in order to solve the current problems of the United States, in addition to the devaluation of the US dollar, the core is to reduce the price of oil.

If the price of oil can be reduced to $20/barrel or even $10/barrel, then the current inflation rate of the United States will certainly be greatly reduced, and even out of the economic crisis.

This G5 Finance Ministers' Meeting is a new opportunity. It is necessary to reach an agreement with the allies again and let them formulate appropriate policies to protect the steady recovery of the US economy.

Of course, this is a nice way to say it. To put it bluntly, the United States now has to suck blood from its allies.

In recent years, South America or even the entire Latin America has long been in an economic crisis due to the tide of the US dollar, and no oil can be squeezed out.

Those third world countries either follow the Soviet Union and stand in the Soviet camp, or are poor as hell and have no oil.

Among the third world countries, the only one that still has some oil is China, but China is an important strategic fulcrum of the United States, and China's military strength is not weak, and its autonomy is extremely strong, so the United States dare not make such a request.

Moreover, the RMB exchange rate against the US dollar is rapidly depreciating, and the United States is able to import a large number of goods from China. If it were not for the large number of goods from China, the current inflation rate in the United States would probably be much higher than it is now.

Now, in terms of trade with major countries, the United States can make money from China.

In other countries, whether it is Japan, West Germany, France, etc., the United States is in a trade deficit.

The Plaza Accord did not completely solve the United States' problems! This G5 Finance Ministers' Meeting is an opportunity for the United States.