Comments by "Aristocles Athenaioi" (@aristoclesathenaioi4939) on "Lei's Real Talk" channel.

  1. Fascinating I have observed first-hand some of the appalling public behavior by Chinese tourists, but given that Americans have had a reputation as ill-mannered tourists, I felt reluctant to call out the behavior of the Chinese tourists. I also worried that my attitude might come from some racist attitudes. I finally decided there was something uniquely troublesome about the behavior of Chinese tourists after an incident during the Japanese festival of ohana-mei, cherry blossom viewing, when a group of Chinese tourists climbed into the trees to tear off branches as souvenirs. Nothing could have horrified the Japanese more, and now the Japanese have special sections of exhibits for Chinese tourists, or carefully escort Chinese tourist groups just as the Japanese have done with Westerners for many years. I had attributed this to Japanese racism, which they have in abundance, but it seems to have a factual basis as well. Thank you for explaining a behavior of Chinese tourists that had previously surprised and confounded me.
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  2. Winston Churchill famously said, "“Kremlin political intrigues are comparable to a bulldog fight under a rug. An outsider only hears the growling, and when he sees the bones fly out from beneath it is obvious who won.” Beijing is similar, but you have helped lift up the rug for us to see what is happening underneath.
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  3. Another first class and revealing analysis. Thank you Lei
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  4. I apologize in advance for what will be a long reply, but it takes some effortvto explain the situation with rare earth production. Rare earths can be extracted from coal tailings, and one company that manufactures solar panels already extracts cadmium from coal mine tailings. The journal articles linked below describe procedures for extraction of rare Earth's from coal byproducts. These methods likely cost more than rare earths from China do now. However, avoiding the ecological damage by the rare earth mining could prove a marketing advantage to manufacturers outside of China. Market research has indicated that consumers in the US will pay a premium price for products made with green technologies. Companies could present the process of extracting rate earths from toxic coal mine byproduct as a green technology because it helps dispose of coal mine byproducts. If China blocked the sales of rare Earth's to manufacturers outside China that could make it even more attractive to extract rare earths for coal byproducts. When you consider that Germany developed ballistic missiles because the Versailles Treaty forbid Germany from having long range artillery, you realize how inventive people can side-step sanctions by developing substitute technologies. Technology sanctions often have unintended consequences that result in the sanctions back firing. Both the US and China should weigh technology sanctions very carefully. A Review of the Occurrence and Promising Recovery Methods of Rare Earth Elements from Coal and Coal By-Products: International Journal of Coal Preparation and Utilization: Vol 35, No 6 (tandfonline.com) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392699.2015.1033097 Can Harvesting Rare Earth Elements Solve the Coal Ash Crisis? Over 3 billion tons of coal ash occupy more than 1,400 sites across the US https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2021-2-march-april/feature/can-harvesting-rare-earth-elements-solve-coal-ash-crisis Citric acid can be used to extract rare earth metals from coal ash - MINING.COM https://www.mining.com/food-grade-solvent-can-be-used-to-extract-rare-earth-metals-from-coal-ash/
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  5. Another excellent explanation of the politics in China. This reminds me of the corruption in the British Navy at the time of the American War of Independence, which left the British Navy ineffective against France who allied with the colonialists. If I may be indulged a long description: In 1783, when attention was called to abuses in the public offices, Mr. Pitt stated in the House of Commons that though it bad been officially declared that no fees were received by the navy office, it appeared that very considerable sums were received by the officers under the name of 'gifts'. Exact inquiry disclosed wholesale robbery rather than peculation. The accounts showed a deficit of about three hundred thousand pounds of bread in 1780, besides beef, pork, and other provisions. It was shown that the contract price of bread was more than 4s. per cwt. above the market price, and that the bread actually supplied was 4s. per cwt. inferior to the contract ; that the men in charge of the storehouses kept hogs in them, and fed them on serviceable biscuit ; that stores of different kinds and in large quantities had been taken out of the yards not for the private use of the officers, but for sale, and that everywhere intimidation or guilty complicity had kept the knowledge of these abominations secret (Parliamentary Report, 1783-4). The dockyards had been sinks of iniquity before that time, and were so after it [cf. Jervis, John, Earl of St. Vincent], but at no time were they so utterly bad as during the war of American independence. This state of affairs took place when the First Earl of Sandwich was the Lord of the Admiralty. It was said of the Earl of Sandwich that he was "too infamous to have a friend, too bad for bad men to commend." History does so often repeat itself.
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  6. Hua's comments are astonishing and very encouraging if true.
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  7. Thanks for mentioning Zhao Ziyang's role in the economic reforms and his view that a move to wards democracy should accompany move towards market economy. Zhao had his flaws, but at least he wanted government reform as well as economic reform.
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  8. My parents always admired Madame Chiang although they expressed reservations about Chiang Kai-shek. Neither of my parents were Communsts, but their politics was left-leaning. I can now understand better their admiration for Madame Chiang after watching your video Lei. Thank you again for providing more information about the recent history of China and the CCP.
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  9. One of my favorite examples of how the CCP misunderstands US politics was when they invited Nixon to a return visit to China AFTER Nixon had resigned as President. Many US China analysts concluded that the CCP thought that Nixon was the head of a faction in the US Government and that the CCP having Nixon visit China again would strengthen the hand of the faction led by Nixon.
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  10.  @drumpfdon760  if you insist on using the word "kid" then spell it properly with only 1 "d" not 2. Get the CCP to send you to a refresher course in English.
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  11. When the PRC was negotiating to get Most Favored Nation status with Carla Hill, United States Trade Representative under President George H. W. Bush, the CCP representative got very upset at one point and said, "Hong Kong has Most Favored Nation trade status, and Hong Kong is the child while Beijing who is the parent should have it." To which Carla Hilll replied, "In the United States we as parents always want our children to do better off than we do."
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  12. I am delighted you now have a sponsor! I was particularly impressed that the wallet has RFID protection. Some years ago when I visited friends in Romania I had the get RFID protection for my credit cards. It is a good idea to have that built into a wallet.
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  13. I think you should make a point of showing this video to the Canadian Embassy. I know the Canadians have some serious issues with the CCP, and the Canadian Government would find this very interesting, I think. If you were not talking about the CCP then I might consider this a conspiracy theory, but someone can never be too paranoid when talking about the CCP.
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  14. He is just the kind of person who made has contributed to make the US what it is today. Without immigrants this country will wither and die. I hope we can admit more immigrants. They all work harder than people born here. I sometimes feel ashamed when I see how hard recent immigrants work while I inherited my good fortune just because I was a US citizen at birth. My family was never wealthy, but I have more than 99% of people on this plane. I admire how hard people who just came to this country will work to improve their situation and that also improves the situation for all of us who call the US our home.
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  15. Thanks for a well documented and well reasoned analysis. Your previous videos about how the CCP manages and obscures the economic conditions of the country have made it especially interesting as I read about China trying to establish their electronic RMB as an International exchange currency. Based on the information you have provided in other videos as well as this one demonstrate that another country or any global enterprise should have their head examined if they signed up for the electronic RMB because of the lack of transparency and the control of information by the CCP means that the CCP can inflate the amount of electronic without any awareness by the users of the electronic RMB. However, China can might get their vassal state of Russia to sign up for the electronic RMB especially if the "M" is dropped so that electronic RB could also mean electronic Rouble. Then China and Russia can do all transactions between one another in electronic RB and make it look a real international trade currency eventhough it really is a Potemkin trade currency.
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  16. You are citing Breitbart as a serious journalistic source? And then you say you can not confirm Biden meeting, but you report it as fact? I have held your reports in high regard previously, but you past reliance on reporting from the EPOCH Times, Washington Examiner, and now Breitbart reduce my confidence.
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  17. If the CCP wants to take TSMC then they need to do VERY quick strike because it is very easy to destroy a semiconductor fabrication facility. You only need to open the clean rooms and you will have a herculean task of cleaning them out again. Also, the real valuable asset in a semiconductor facility are the human assets. I would be willing to bet that Taiwan with the US has a plan to evacuate all the people critical technical know-how. I am sure that a lot of people working at TSMC would willingly work for the CPP, but it will take years to restart the fab facilities, and during that time TSMC could restart in the new facilities they are building in the US. Also, the ASML systems at TSMC would likely be sabotaged if a take-over of the TSMC looked likely. Although ASML is a Dutch company, it relies on US intellectual property and patents. The US already has an embargo on selling the latest ASML technology to China. Any semiconductor company cut-off from ASML will have an impossible time getting the smallest and highest density chips fabricated. The world-wide manufacturing disruption caused by a disruption in the chips from TSMC would be cause alone for a serious backlash at China. Having said all this, I doubt it would deter China from attempting an invasion of Taiwan because such an attack would be motivated by political issues divorced from the issues of restarting TSMC operations. I seriously doubt that Chinese strategist shown in this video has even the slightest technical knowledge to understand how economicaly disastrous the consequences of disrupting TSMC operations would be or what an immense challenge it would be to restore those operations.
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  18. We should mount an online campaign for the UN to remove that designation of "The Happiest City". Eventhough the CCP has worked hard to get their people at the top of many UN Agencies, I think such a global online campaign would be hard to cover up.
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  19. When the only sons start coming back in body-bags the social backlash will be stupendous. The CCP might try to keep it a secret for as long as possible, but even if the invasion were successful there would be a lot of parents wondering where their son is and how they will manage their old age without a son to help as is traditional. The Chinese social services are bad now and could never pick up the slack. Even if they did, the cultural expectations of a son are enormous and the loss would be incalculable for many families.
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  20. Send a note to Winston Churchill though I doubt he will reply
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  21. Very interesting discussion of a strategic mineral. I worked in the IT industry my entire career, and even with people involved in semiconductor wafer production, and yet I had never hear of this dependency. I knew that the purity of the silicon was essential,but given that silicon is one of the most abundant elements on Earth, I never considered that the purity required would imply that only a few sources for it existed. Thank you for filing in this gap in my understanding. I am surprised that the US military has never identified this sand as a strategic material that would have export controls. I am equally surprised that a NATO member like Norway does not, and it also surprises me that Australia has failed to place export controls on it. Perhaps the AUKUS alliance will change that.
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  22. Many rare earths can be extracted from coal mine tailings in West Virginia and other states where coal mines have been closed. It is presently cheaper to buy rare earths from China at present for all the reasons the response above indicated.
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  23. Did I understand you to say that the 2002 air crash might have occurred because someone wanted to eliminate a single person who was a political enemy? Someone would kill 112 innocent people just to kill 1 person? Moreover, are you suggesting that someone would kill over 300 innocent people to kill just 1 person? I suppose if that was the reason for the 2002 crash then it could also be the reason for this crash. Is it plausible that someone might have paid the 1st officer to do it? Perhaps for a financial payment to a foreign bank that would assure the financial security of his family now that his salary had been so severely reduced? I would guess that this could have happened based on other videos you have done about the extraordinary actions of the CCP.
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  24. I have a friend who fled Crimea two years with her 5 yr old son who is now 7 yrs old. She speaks Russian but considers herself Ukrainian. Her mother and sister decided to stay in Crimea, and they had tried to convince her to return. She wants a better life for her son in Ukraine than she feels he would gets in Russia. Although she knew nobody in the city where she moved she did find a man who loves her and who she loves and who loves her son who calls him "Daddy" Her husband fought in the Donbass where he drove an armored vehicle. When the Russians invaded, my friend insisted on staying in Ukraine because she would be near husband eventhough he has gone back into the Army. I tried to persuade her to leave because I felt that her husband would feel better knowing she and her son were safe in Poland. She refused to leave. When the Russians shelled the nuclear power plant then her husband told she had to leave because it was too dangerous. I and some other friends of hers here in the US helped her with money to get to Poland with her son. She is now in Poland but will probably have to move on in about a month. I have told her to go to Berlin because she also has her son's dog with them, and the Germans are very dog friendly. From Berlin she could get a visa to Canada where there is a large Ukrainian immigrant community. I grew up in the US in that same area, but I no longer live there. Once again, she refuses to go to Berlin because it takes her farther from her husband. First she is refugee from Crimea, then a refugee from Western Ukraine moving West to Poland all because Russia has invaded her country. She has had to flee twice, and her husband fought against the Russians first in the Donbass and now back into the Territorial Defense. I can deeply empathize with the Chinese man who has a Ukrainian wife and wanted to keep his family together. Meanwhile the nationalists in China mock him on the Internet. He wants to keep his family together, my friend wants to keep her family together, but what do those supporters of the CCP want? I have no idea.
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  25. Wow, it is getting expensive to relocate to Singapore. Combined with global inflation and a coming recession it looks like I will need to spend a bit more money than I had planned for my relocation to Singapore.
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  26. Would that the explanation of names were as easy in other languages. You will find the derivation of the Russian word for train station of interest I think. The Russians use the word "вокзал" pronounced "Voxhal" because a delegation of Russians to the England in the 19th century had never seen a railway station, and when they saw Vauxhall Station in London, they asked the English what that was. To which the English replied "That's Vauxhall" and from there the word stuck. "вокзал" is the word for train station in Russian!
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  27. I very much appreciate your commentary on conditions in the PRC and CCP. I avidly await your next video on CCP succession.
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  28. Perhaps a civil war rather than a war against another country
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  29. It seems to me that China is basically buying A320 airplanes from itself given that they manufacture A320 themselves. Essentially China is subsidizing their own airline industry. I should also note that the US Government effectively subsidizes Boeing given that Boeing has numerous military contracts with the US Department of Defense. In the 21st century a country needs a robust aircraft industry just as a country needed a blue water Navy in the 19th century. Aside from the obvious military advantages of a robust aircraft industry are the less obvious military logistical values. As General Omar Bradley famously said: “Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.” Looking at the heavy lift capabilities the US has used to supply the weapons to Ukraine demonstrates the importance of air cargo. None of the other NATO countries except Canada have needed to use air transport to deliver weapons to supply Ukraine. Whenever one sees a Boeing passenger plane or cargo plane, one should keep in mind those planes can carry troops and weapons in time of war. The CCP knows this very well and wants to make sure that they have the logistical capabilities needed to sustain an invasion of Taiwan. Looking back at the East Timor Crisis from 1999 to 2000 helps to frame the importance of logistical capabilities. The International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) from the United Nations and led by Australia was refused US ground troops but was able to secure vital support for airlift, logistics, specialised intelligence, over the horizon deterrence, and "diplomatic muscle". This sounds a lot like the situation in Ukraine today where the US refuses to commit troops but provides other capabilities. A war with China would require far more resources on both sides of such a conflict. Reading the Wikipedia article on the International Force East Timor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Force_East_Timor helps to remind us of earlier conflicts like the current Russo-Ukrainian War when multiple nations needed to cooperate to stop a genocide. This comment has strayed from the initial topic of the CCP buying A320 jets. However, we should never forget conflicts like East Timor and the human pain and suffering inflicted on the Timorese as well as the fierce fighting to end the oppression in East Timor.
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  30. Classic case of "do as I say, not as I do"
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  31. Will there be more adventures about Miss China and her boyfriends? Maybe there is a graphic novel in all of this. Perhaps Miss China can visit the places you have discussed in the past? "Miss China visits the Three Gorges Dam" and "Miss China considers investing in real estate" and more Adventures of Miss China?
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  32. Ironically, the Soviet Union had a more stable political structure than both Russia and China have now. The KGB was essential for the political stability of the Soviet Union. People may forget that the KGB was also referred to as "the shield of the Party." If you wonder who the Party needed a shield against, then the answer is the Army. The KGB, unlike the present Russian FSS, actually had armed troops that had a separate chain of command from the Army. I always found it interesting that the Soviet Union had a tripartite system of Government which corresponded to the tripartite form of Government in the US, as follows: Legislative Branch: -- US: Congress. -- Soviet Union: Communist Party. Executive Branch: -- US President, Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces, and effectively the Head of the Police. This is more obvious in the Government of a State within the United States, where the State Police report to the Governor. It is also worth remembering that the US President commands the National Guard in each State. -- Soviet Union: Marshal of the Soviet Union. This was the position held by Gyorgy Zhukov. The last Marshal of the Soviet Union was Dmitry Yazov, appointed in 1990, who was imprisoned after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. This is exactly what the KGB was expected to defend against. Judicial Branch: Now here is where it gets really interesting. -- US: Federal and State Courts. -- Soviet Union: KGB. Now at this point, you may be asking "why is the KGB the organization corresponding to the Judiciary?" The answer is that the Judiciary and the Courts are in place to protect against the Executive Branch (the Military and the Police) trying to act in contravention of the Laws passed by Congress. You may also ask yourself, "The KGB had agents through-out the Soviet Union. If the KGB corresponds to the Judicial Branch, then who corresponds to KGB agents in the US?" The answer is simple, "Lawyers." Every lawyer in the United States is an officer of the Court. This is why the first move of an autocrat after becoming the head of the Executive Branch immediately tries to weaken the Courts because that effectively removes the Rule of Law. You only need to look at Hungary and Turkiye to see that at work in contemporary times. There are many more examples, I simply cite those two because they are part of NATO, and in Hungary's case, Part of the EU as well. Putin long ago neutered Russia's Court System which now hands down whatever sentence Putin wants, and under whatever law Putin uses as a pretext. On paper at least, the head of the Dumas is the Prime Minister as opposed to Putin. As President of Russia, Putin is supposed to be Commander in Chief of the Russian Armed Forces. However, the legal head of the Russian Armed Forces is Shoigu, and that is why Putin makes sure that Shoigu, who has served Putin from Putin's time as Mayor of St. Petersburg and Shoigu never served in the military and therefore lacks any power base in the Russian Armed Forces. It also explains why Generals come and go, even Gerasimov, but Shoigu always remains. Although the FSS is technically separate from the Russian Armed Forces, the FSS and the Armed Forces work hand in glove. Gorkin was an FSS Colonel as opposed to an Army Colonel. In truth, the FSS, unlike its predecessor the KGB, lacks its own armed troops comparable to those of the KGB. In place of KGB troops as the Shield of Party against the Armed Forces, Putin needs a "Praetorian Guard" to protect him from the Russian Armed Forces. Does Xi Jinping have a "Praetorian Guard" similar to Putin's? Historically though, a Praetorian Guard has taken control by appointing their own Emperor as happened when the Praetorian Guard declared Claudius following the assassination of the Roman Emperor Caligula by the Praetorian Guard. The Captain of the Praetorian Guard and the other Guard members who assassinated Caligula did commit suicide at the command of the new Emperor Claudius because they had betrayed their oath to protect the Emperor.  They had enough concern for their honor that they did commit suicide to restore their honor and to display remorse for breaking their oath.  Somehow, I doubt that Putin's personal Guards unit or whoever Xi Jinping has as a personal Guards unit would act similarly.
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  33. ROTFLMAO. Any country or global enterprise should have their head examined if they sign up for the electronic RMB. The lack of transparency and the control of information by the CCP means that the CCP can inflate the amount of electronic RMB without any awareness by the users. However, China can might get their vassal state of Russia to sign up for the electronic RMB especially if the "M" is dropped so that electronic RB could also mean electronic Rouble. Then China and Russia can do all transactions between one another in electronic RB and make it look a real international trade currency eventhough it really is a Potemkin trade currency.
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  34. A further comment about English and Chinese. I recall that my father who was a Physicist learned enough Russian to understand technical papers in his field that were written in Russian. I can see where there is the same value now in reading, as opposed to speaking Chinese. Is there anything like technical Chinese as there is in English or Russian? I mean that question seriously. Can anyone suggest to me a way to learn technical Chinese in order to read technical publications in Chinese?
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  35.  @drumpfdon760  you whippersnapper, young dolt are all fault of the the CCP. A laughable, ridiculous shill of the CCP and their fifty-cent army.
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  36. The Second World War ended the Great Depression, and the CCP may decide that a war may answer the unemployment problems. The various Government programs enacted during the Great Depression did make a difference, and overtime might have pulled the country out of the Depression. The full national employment required to fight the Second World War definitely took the US out of the Depression, and resulted in full national employment. The CCP might decide a war would serve their interests.
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  37.  @BoycottChinaa  And so does Luxembourg. The Swiss effectively get interest free loans as a result of the deposits in Swiss banks by foreigners. By the way, did you know that Swiss bank account actually have a negative interest rate? You must pay the bank for you to have an account at the bank. Great business model if you can make it work as the Swiss have done.
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  38. As one of Mr. Washington's children, I must say that Mr. Washington favored some children, and even allowed them beat up some of the other children. 😖
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  39.  @drumpfdon760  In fact, I first went to Mainland China in 1985 at the invitation of the CCP, and I went to Hong Kong and back to Mainland China in 2002. My family and a Taiwanese partner did business in Guangzhou from the late 1990s through the early 2000s. So I am quite different from the ignorant, prejudiced, insulting toad that you are.
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  40. Crocodile tears from Xi
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  41. Another superlative video! Very good to make countries into families. Even if the parents disliked one another they would rarely forbid their children from competing in games because of the social stigma for the children. Especially if the competition was intramural, and the children went to the same school. Perhaps a school called "The Academy." Do the parents all work for the same company named "Global Trade Group" perhaps? It was interesting to realize how well the Western European countries had capital cities with names that worked so well as family names. In many cases a legacy of the Roman Empire. This video never needed to use the names of the capital cities in Europe or countries in Empires that the Romans subdued. Using those capital city names would feel forced in English.
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  42. As I recall you told us about some islands that form part of the territory of Taiwan are very close to China. I believe it was Quemoy and Matsu, but it may have been some islands even closer to China. You mentioned them in the context of a strategy China might use to engage diplomatically with Taiwan without making it obvious. I ask about these islands because I wondered how China might react if Taiwan began to build an "oceanographic" station there that operated undersea drones for the purpose of "mapping and exploring" the undersea area around those islands while staying in international waters. I am sure China would react negatively, but it might be hard for China to attack the islands without provoking an armed conflict. Given the very large number of diesel-electric submarines in the Taiwan straits, a "scientific" base operating undersea drones would have defensive advantages for Taiwan. Who knows such an "oceanographic" facility might require the kind of construction that a military base would require.
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  43. The incidents you described took place 20 years ago when the fabrication of images and videos was more difficult to do. If this had happened today, and I was Neil Bush, then I would say that the photos and videos were deep fakes made by using doubles and image processing. He might very well get away with that. I am sure the CCP has thought of that "defense" and now must get some evidence that nobody could consider fake, perhaps DNA. Even in that case Neil Bush could say that someone, the housekeeper for example, could have collected material like hairs from which they extracted the DNA. I think the CCP would need a "blue dress" to make the case harder to refute. Given that a "blue dress" got a President impeached, one could imagine what the evidence might be, and it would be stronger than just photos and videos.
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  44.  @ketoswilly7581  Were you replying to some post that I made? I am not any sort of investor, and I can't see anything that even remotely resembles "raw, irrational emotion" in my comment. Perhaps you mean to reply to some other comment.
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  45. I must agree with the comments that take exception to your view of how benign Putin is for Ukraine. In the July speech from Putin that you quoted, Putin presented the Ukraine Russia shared culture and border as comparable to the relationship of Canada to the US, or Austria to Germany. In fact that is a false equivalence. Despite having history in common, Ukrainian and Russian are different though related languages. I have a friend in Ukraine who who grew up and lived in Crimea, but fled Crimea with her son when the Russians annexed it. She settled in Lviv in Western Ukraine, which about as far West as you can go in Ukraine. She and her son only spoke Russian, and now she is learning to speak Ukrainian. There is less difference between Ukrainian and Russian than there is between Cantonese and Mandarin. However, there is a lot more difference between Ukrainian and Russian than between English as spoken in Canada and English as spoken in the US. The US and Canada really do speak the same language. I should add the my friend in Ukraine views Russia with the same apprehension that my Taiwanese friends view the PRC. The real issue in both Ukraine and Taiwan is whether they can continue to develop as separate and democratic societies, or will they become subject to an autocratic regime even if they share common history, culture and speak closely related languages. Ukraine should be permitted to decide it's destiny, and Taiwan permitted to decide it's destiny. Neither should have that decision made for them.
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  46. Precisely the most important point.
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  47. The US never had a treaty requires the US send troops to defend Ukraine specifically because Ukraine lacked membership in NATO mutual defense treaty. The nature of NATO seems difficult for many people to understand. NATO is purely defensive and NATO treaty requires an attack on a NATO member, but Ukraine is a member of NATO, and Russia specifically wanted assurances Ukraine would never join NATO . The US was observing rather strict treaty commitments in NATO, and Biden stressed that no American infantry would go to Ukraine to avoid feeding Russia propaganda that NATO wanted to attack. I am unsure about the precise conditions outlined in US Defense of Taiwan Treaty. Can someone explain those provisions?
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  48. It seems to me that any economy operating without debt implies low expectation that the economy will grow. Countries need to take on debt to grow faster. Of course as Lei has pointed out in this video, a country can borrow more than it can pay back over time.
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  49.  @MrAdhiSuryana  Absolutely correct. That is consistent with the point about companies taking on debt. Needing to take on debt to continue or expand operations, some companies must turn to sources of debt that hurt the company. The fact that companies need to take on debt never implied that they made good choices about where they got the money, and who lent the money. Loan sharks exist because companies need loans, but reputable institutions refuse to lend money to the company because the bank judges the company's ability as poor. Enter stock rating systems like Standard & Poors, who provide the ratings on which banks rely to make decisions about whether a company can service the debt and the bank will get a return on their loan. Stock rating companies make mistakes, but their purpose is clear. A common practice these days is for companies to buy back shares to increase the value of the shares in the market, but the real purpose is to assure compensation for executives whose income depends on stock options and therefore depend in the growth of the value of the company stock. Companies who do this really are not buying back shares because the company believes it will earn more by investing in itself. Stock buy-backs should be used to invest in the income generators, such as new manufacturing facilities, rather than to assure to assure that stock options in the company have value. If the company does depend on retaining specific employee expertise, as some service companies such as consulting companies do them stock buy backs to increase employee compensation and thus retain those employees is a case of investing of the company investing in itself to continue company growth. It may also be a way to launder money through the company as you so rightly indicated in your comment.
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  50.  @drumpfdon760  However, such permission is easily obtained because most boards are controlled by the executive management rather than stock holders. I should add that I speak from first hand experience from the time I worked at a very large transnational corporate whose name I know even you would recognize. I was a low level executive and yet stock options made up a significant part of even my compensation. Also my job involved working very closely with the finance organization who confirmed that the main purpose of the stock buybacks was to make sure the options held by the executives continued to retain value. You understand young whipper snapper? BTW I am glad the wumao Management replaced the previous with you because your English is much better. I still don't understand why you use the expression "old kidd" because nobody native speaker uses that expression. Perhaps there is something other expression that you have mixed up
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