On Thursday, The Critical Hour spoke with guest Dr. Linwood Tauheed, an associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas CIty, and a former president of the National Economics Association. Sputnik’s hosts and their guest discussed an article that outlines the US’ anti-developmentalist policies which seemed to begin in 1953 with then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Administration.
“By the fifties, Argentina had the largest middle class in South America, while Uruguay provided free healthcare to its 95% literate people,” the article claims. “Since developmentalism is rooted in equality, justice and independence, the US painted it as the first step towards godless communism, forever tarnishing it in Americans minds. Then, in 1953, President Eisenhower launched the war on development.”
The term “developmentalism”, says Tauheed, is a set of economic theories developed by economists following World War II, and was created in particular by South American developmental economists.
“Economists in Argentina who looked at the relationships between South American economies and the industrialized north of the US and Europe, realized that if you follow the ways that the US wanted, the north wanted, that these countries could never develop,” said Tauheed.
“And so, they rejected the ideas of just trading with these developed countries as a way to get into developing their economies and began to educate their population and engage in what was called import substitution—that is instead of importing industrial machinery from the north, they would learn how to make those things and develop on their own,” he added. “And so this begins the US' war on South America to get rid of those regimes in those countries that were making progress for their citizens.”
Sputnik’s Garland Nixon pointed to a visit that US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made to Beijing in July. During the visit, Yellen said that a “shift toward a more market-oriented system in China would not only be in the interests of the U.S. and other countries” but would “be better for the Chinese economy as well.” The statement was exceedingly self-righteous, seeing as the Chinese economy is outperforming that of the US, Sputnik’s hosts and guest suggested.
“In the last 20 years, China has raised 800 million people out of poverty, that's almost two times the population of the US. The median household income in China has grown by 700% whereas the median household income in the US has only grown by 7%. So they outperformed the US in their system by 100 times,” Tauheed explained.
“It actually makes no sense for countries to want to grow food in order to sell that to other countries for farming equipment,” said Tauheed in reference to the US’ relationship with its southern neighbors. “These countries have figured out in the 1950s that in order to feed their own population, if your population is healthy, then economic growth comes as a result of that.”
“This policy that was destroyed in South America—the import substitution policy—was revived in the 1980s by what was called the Asian Tigers. Japan is part of that, as are Singapore, South Korea,” he continued. “They began to do the things that the South American countries did, but they were not attacked because they were looked upon as allies against China.”
“And so they were able to grow their economies and to take over industries like electronics and automobiles because they used the same policies that the South Americans were not allowed to use because the South Americans were invaded militarily. That blowback is still occurring, with the migrants who are coming to this country from their countries because their countries are war-torn as a result of US policy,” Tauheed added.
Nixon noted the US neoliberal capitalist effect on Europe as thousands of angry farmers protested in Warsaw on Wednesday against EU regulations and cheap Ukrainian imports. Farmers in Europe are frustrated that they are being forced to compete with cheaper imports from Ukraine after the EU eliminated tariffs on Ukrainian goods in 2022 following Russia’s military operation.
“The European population, of course, was sold that they had to be in support of Ukraine against Russia. And not only did the European elites allow their energy source from Russia to be destroyed, they're also insisting that those crops grown in Ukraine for these Western companies that own them now come into the European market and flood those markets, therefore putting those farmers out of business,” Tauheed explained.
“Now, I can't imagine that the farmers will continue with their support for Ukraine under these circumstances. But of course, governments have ways of suppressing people militarily and by police force until the dam breaks and they're no longer able to do that.”
On Thursday, Biden made his State of the Union address in which he reportedly gave a speech that highlighted the economic issues faced by the US middle class. His constituents’ frustrated response to inflation has caused him to drop the term “Bidenomics” which the White House had used repeatedly, at first, in an attempt to promote his economic agenda.
“Biden's approval rate is at 38%, the lowest it's been in spite of the fact that he a couple of months ago tried to push this idea that the economy is doing well. He named it Bidenomics, he raised it up the flagpole and it got shot to pieces,” Tauheed explained. “Although he still has to insist that he's doing well for the economy.”