Comments by "HKim0072" (@HKim0072) on "Zeihan on Geopolitics" channel.

  1. As an ethnic Korean, I can't imagine that after the South Koreans, US and allies were pushed down to Busan, Congress would have been like "hey, maybe we should debate the funding a bit more and be worried about (fake) corruption and not fund it. Let the Soviets, Chinese and North Koreans take over the whole peninsula."
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  2. While the European settlers realized American was bountiful in natural resources, no one would have expected this. Really are fortunate: energy, arable land, relatively good weather.
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  3. No one really looks at maps until geopolitics happen. Never realized that Okinawa is closer to Taiwan than the Japanese mainland. And, Taketomi Island is only 300km from Taiwan.
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  4. $50B in US spending is worth the practical military lessons being learned. And, developing plans to counter it. Again, with no US troops on the ground.
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  5.  @TAS_CNX  Those are upper class Chinese. It means they have external funding sources and can live abroad. The middle class in China can't do that.
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  6. India is participating because it's easier to control the game from the inside than the outside.
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  7. You need to separate out long term issues and short term issues. Short term employment issues are due to mismatch of labor, less export / manufacturing jobs due to supply chains shifting and way less FDI / foreign companies leaving. The falling population is a future thing ie less tax base, less consumption, etc when the older people die off.
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  8. Because I’m an ethnocentric American. It’s the size of Iowa! With half of the US population. It’s extremely dense.
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  9. It's a religion (or less religious) thing as well. Both sides of my parents were raised Catholic. My Dad has 9 siblings. When my Dad was little, everyone thought his Dad (my grandfather) was his grandfather. My Mom has 6 siblings. Very few Catholics adhere to not using birth control anymore. (I was raised in the suburbs of an East Coast city. And, my parents were raised there as well. No farmers.)
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  10.  @k.v.7681  Depending on what news article you find, we lost way more money in Iraq / Afghanistan. And I'm not even including stuff like the MRAP program that cost $45B.
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  11. Will be funny if the judge gives him community service and he has to pick up trash from the highways.
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  12. When something sounds too good to be true, it's usually too good to be true.
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  13.  @k.v.7681  You really think they are selling 155mm shells on the open market? or a Brad is going to end up in some African warlords hands?
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  14. Yeah, it's expensive to develop. Just not enough bang for the buck. The list of the Bell 412 (newer version) worldwide is quite extensive. Multiple countries have production licenses and more than 1200 worldwide have been produced.
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  15. They are already doing that with other products. But, you can't "slip" cars through the cracks. The admin has said they are monitoring that "loophole".
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  16.  @garedmorort  The amusing part is the economy is already basically dollarized. More and more places are pricing outwardly in dollars and some are even paying employees in dollars (if they can).
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  17. The US is where people assimilate the best. Which makes sense.
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  18.  @Chris.starfleet  Yeap, I think India and Russia are the other countries with the most arable land. Pretty sure the weather in the US is a leg up on both countries.
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  19. Twitter has been always great for niche information. You just have to follow the right people. People in the past were very generous in explaining "obscure" information because they liked sharing. When the UK Gilt market almost blew up, someone wrote a long tweet thread explaining what was happening. (I didn't follow that person, but someone I followed thought it was good information and retweeted it.) Edit: Jason Furman just tweeted out a dumbed down version of the Core PCE with charts. The dude was the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.
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  20. @@LTNetjak Yeah, the median income in China is $12,500. Don't think the overseas Chinese are going to slum it in SE Asia. They'll need at least $25-50K per year minimally. Probably need to have at least $500K+ liquid to feel comfortable. Closer to $1M makes more sense. Income is definitely relative.
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  21. Instead of Poland, they should invite Ukraine, lol.
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  22. I tune out the doom and gloom part. The global components are the interesting part and how everything interacts together. (I've always hated commodities. Just isn't fun to research.)
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  23. It's easy to be pro-fracking unless you live near the sites.
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  24.  @ronarnett4811  1- There is a cost sharing agreement with South Korea 2- US military bases in ROK are strategically important (for the US) 3- The US military acts as a de facto human shield. If we had a military base in Taiwan, zero chance the CCP is invading (well very small chance)
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  25.  @Pooburr  1- my Dad is a Navy Vet (stationed in FL though) 2- Grew up before internet was widely available (cheap AOL accounts) 3- one of the most educated kids on the planet because...my parents didn't let us watch TV. I read Encyclopedia Britannica for fun. And, we had a globe in our living room. 4- decent standard public school education But, we ain't studying battle maps of World War 2. Maybe they had a few pictures in our textbooks back then, but certainly not the same level of information available today.
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  26. Literally, this is an episode of the West Wing in Season 1: A Proportional Response. Greatest TV show ever to understand politics / geopolitics even if it's not your political leanings.
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  27.  @DivadNoodeldehm-lz2gm  I am the original poster.
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  28. The US housing market was barely oversupplied in 2008 and quickly went to undersupplied by 2010. It still is undersupplied.
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  29. lol, Elon the grifter. He's the last dude we want involved in geopolitics.
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  30. Anything works if it's in a moderate manner. EVERYTHING starts breaking down if a system gets overloaded.
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  31.  @knoll9812  People have no clue that fledging democracies need help and patience. South Korea had a terrible system in place and really has only been a democracy for 35 years. Now, it's the 12th largest GDP in the world and one of the great success stories. People are so impatient and think systems should be 100% success rates immediately. So annoying.
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  32. Was just randomly reading reading on the Korean War. The reason why the UN declared a police action and sent troops was... 1- ROC (Taiwan) was the official Chinese member of the UN 2- Soviet Union / Russia was boycotting the UN because ROC was the official Chinese member of the UN When the KMT was not expelled, the Soviets staged a walkout from the UN. According to Gaiduk, they believed that by walking out, they would remove legitimacy from the UN and the UN Security Council. Shortly after the Soviets walked out, the Security Council authorized intervention in the Korean conflict. Russia and China are both members of the Security Council. The UN will never take another action again in our lifetimes.
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  33. The CIA strategically released information on their Rocket Force in public. This was done in Oct 2022 via the US Airforce's think tank: China Aerospace Studies Institute. We basically said out loud that "we recruited some of your military to agents". My amateur analysis says this was done to slow done the invasion. Xi had to re-examine the military and appoint less experienced and to a degree less trust worthy military officers.
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  34. You are conflating strategy and execution. Everyone has a hand in the messy withdraw including the CIA and military intel. No one expected the Afghans to fold like a cheap tent in a matter of days.
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  35.  @blackcatdungeonmastersfami5311  I'm going to shock you, but there are some people and they are called...Native Americans. You think they assimilated?
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  36. I'm all for trying something different including legalization. Would definitely become a nightmare to execute though. "drug stores" would need to have security the same as banks. Not sure if that is feasible.
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  37.  @ForageGardener  Obviously, you never read Little House on the Prairie books as a kid. Uncle Sam was giving out free land in the mid to late 1800s.
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  38. Congrats. The US has a 6-7x higher median income.
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  39.  @DivadNoodeldehm-lz2gm  lol, you are native American? Geez, our schooling / education system is terrible.
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  40.  @OsbornsConcise  I agree with you. I stand firmly by Ukraine. The vast majority of Ukraine want a system of liberal democracy with the rule of law. Now, they are just fighting for their survival.
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  41.  @xzy89c  You people literally haven't studied history and who we've sent money to. We've sent $85B to Egypt. $30B to Pakistan. We gave aid to Park Chung Hee during his regime. Marcos in the Philippines. You think all that money got funneled to the right places? But all the sudden, we are fretting about corruption when a country is in the middle of war after getting invaded. You people are crazy.
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  42. Actually, it did make sense. Was a quagmire like Vietnam. Only people over 70 remember Vietnam (born after 1950). Maybe people in their 60s a bit.
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  43. Korea is changing faster than Japan and has a higher base at 5%. Japan is only 2.5% foreigners now. Japan will never change that much / change slower because...it's extremely hard language to learn how to read and write. People can learn Korea's alphabet in a day. I barely learned 500 kanji when I took Japanese for 1 year in college.
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  44. Wish we would find a way to get Venezuela online. But, that's not an overnight fix. They are definitely the "lesser of the evils" geopolitically.
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  45. (Un)fortunately, the US military would follow a ROE. Nothing would be attacked unless the CCP attacked first. The US would go into defend mode for Taiwan, but wouldn't take an offensive stance first. All bets would be off if the CCP attacked Okinawa or US bases in Korea (or Philippines now).
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  46. It's the opposite. There is way more demand for international stuff now. Chinese are flooding Japan and pushing up price.
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  47.  @mayevor8588  Yeah, I don't want the richest dude on the planet that has autocratic tendencies with no empathy to be involved in geopolitics. Hard pass.
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  48. My guess is that the choppers were so hard to maintain, the pilots didn't get enough flight hours. And, they probably have sub-par mechanics.
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  49. It's really just South Korea and Japan need to get along and become better allies. SE Asia is always going to stay neutral. Philippine is the big exception. Vietnam is generally neutral. Thailand is generally neutral. Malaysia / Indonesia tend to swing in the "other" direction. Singapore is neutral, but maybe tilts a little to the West. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos tend to economically driven. The small Pacific island nations are starting to get bought off by China.
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  50. I know this is a global site, but that grammar / punctuation is pathetic.
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