Chapter 857 - 801: Seeking Demand
If the world wants to trade, the United States is basically an unavoidable part...
Why is the United States so important? Because they are the leaders of dollar hegemony!
And as the leaders of the US Dollar, it means they must export dollars on a large scale every year to maintain the liquidity of the world economy.
Thus, the United States will always be a deficit country!
This is why when there's fluctuation in the US Dollar, the whole world catches a cold...
In a way, the United States is the world's number one principal party, and the dollars they export largely keep global trade running.
This year is 2016. Last year, they exported a total of 2.5 trillion dollars, then recovered around 2 trillion dollars through goods trade and services trade, with an actual deficit of about 500 billion dollars.
And a large part of these 500 billion dollars will flow back to the United States through channels such as US Bonds.
Dollar hegemony means the United States can price all global assets through the dollar!
Financial hegemony can also cause external liquidity to be harvested in tidal waves according to their needs, taking away the development dividends of other countries.
To be honest, dollar finance is a brilliant design!
This approach allows the United States to abandon the colonial model previously dominated by Europe and carry out economic colonialism worldwide in a comparatively more palatable way.
However, this thing has a downside, which is that highly developed finance will inevitably squeeze the living space of industrial capital...
After all, transporting raw materials to the United States to build factories is certainly not as good as building factories in a place with abundant and cheap labor resources.
Thus, the more developed the financial industry, the faster the industrial capital flees!
In a way, after the Cold War, the United States indeed constructed a new global industrial chain as the main force through the export of capital and technology.
This has nothing to do with Mountain Eagle, but he knows very well that as long as he finds the right path, making money from the United States is the easiest!
Blood Fox is looking for someone to explore the path in Venezuela, and if this works out, Mountain Eagle would have essentially caught a hen that lays golden eggs.
However, this also means that Tiago's importance will rise...
So Mountain Eagle will not directly state his purpose, otherwise who knows what Tiago would think?
Just relying on threats to control a person doesn't work, having Tiago's family fake their deaths and then sending them to El Salvador for protection is just a temporary measure...
From here, many things need to be done slowly, aiming to change Tiago's thinking fundamentally while using General Sid's measures to implement dual control over his body, which is the most secure method.
Mountain Eagle is not in a hurry about this, after all, there is no news from Venezuela yet, and he believes that the cooperation between Daria the Banshee and Kate the ghostly woman can provide him with a satisfactory answer.
Mexico is a mess, and the reason for their mess is their proximity to the United States, but at the same time, their opportunities are many, and the reason is the same—they are close to the United States.
NAFTA is heavily criticized because this trade agreement has allowed the modern agriculture of the United States to thoroughly crush Mexico's agriculture, with low-cost agricultural produce bankrupting Mexican farmers.
However, turning around to look, the trade agreement is actually bilateral, and the large-scale relocation of internal industry in the United States has in fact spurred Mexico's internal industrial development.
One thing many people do not know is that the largest trade volumes between the United States and Mexico are in automobiles, semiconductors, and energy, and it's Mexico selling to the United States, with the trade deficit between the two nations continually around 90 billion dollars.
According to the North American Free Trade Agreement, apart from agricultural products, most of the products exported from the United States to Mexico need to pay a 10-20% tariff, but products exported from Mexico to the United States are basically tariff-free.
Magical, right!
In fact, as a country with a population of 120 million, Mexico's GDP can reach 1.04 trillion dollars, ranking 15th in the world in terms of economic aggregate, with a per capita GDP of about 8,500 dollars.
Purely looking at the data, Mexico is absolutely close to the standards of a developed country, but due to its high dependence on the United States, this country almost lacks the ability to think for itself.
Due to cost issues, the United States inputs large amounts of industry into Mexico, and a significant amount of nearshore outsourcing lifts Mexico's economic scale, and bilateral trade allows Mexico's upper-middle class to reap substantial benefits.
This bunch of Americans has no ambition. When they earn money, the first thing they think about is immigrating to the United States or enjoying life, no one ever considers using the money they earn to independently develop Mexico.
In a capitalist system, economic interests converge upwards, the higher the ecological niche, the fewer the people, and the more they earn.
This situation exists worldwide, but Mexico is a bit more abnormal. As a country with a per capita GDP above 8,500 dollars, it lacks social security, with a poverty rate consistently over 45%, and extreme poverty—meaning unable to afford food—around 10%, with a Gini coefficient consistently above 0.45, well above the international warning line.
The country's management and distribution system is completely imbalanced, with US companies and the top 10% in Mexico taking most of the wealth.
In a country with a population of 120 million, nearly 45 million people can barely make ends meet, with hardly any medical, educational, or social security, and more than 12 million people struggle just to eat...
What does this mean?
Many people say Mexican officials are corrupt because they have no choice; if they don't take bribes, they'll be killed...
But looking at the drug trafficking history of Mexico, it's never been the drugs that pushed corruption, but Mexico's high level of corruption that fueled the growth of drug trafficking organizations.
The Sinaloa Group, a giant like this, developed into a supersized criminal organization against this backdrop, and then they started influencing the Mexican government.
People from East sometimes find it hard to understand why many countries in this world are so abstract. The reality is that many countries are merely loose political alliances dressed up as nations, with elites leading the politics, some even holding passports from other countries, not caring about what's ultimately going to happen to that country.
The economic environment and geographical location largely hide Mexico's problems. Their fight against drug trafficking organizations is not what people understand as a struggle between police and criminals, but a civil war!
'Drug war'
is the civil war that erupted around the drug issues in Mexico, and the Mexican government army ended up losing!
That's why Mexico, a country with a GDP of over a trillion dollars every year, looks so bad...
But this is unrelated to Mountain Eagle himself. If Mexico weren't rotten enough, he wouldn't have the opportunity to push a wedge inside through Tiago...
As long as a foothold is established in Mexico, besides being able to digest Venezuela's crude oil, he can also leverage transshipment trade or simply resort to smuggling, continuously exploiting the United States, the largest client in the world.
Such an opportunity for Mountain Eagle is one not to be missed!
Now the only issue is 'execution'!
Daria and Kate can solve most of the preliminary issues, but the crucial matter of 'combat,' they can't offer much help.
General Sid has only about thirty people he can use, barely enough to rob a money stash, and wanting to split the forces to ambush the Sinaloa gunmen coming to support is impossible.
What Mountain Eagle needs to do now is figure out a way to equip Tiago with enough strike power, those captured cannon fodder gunmen definitely won't do, so he needs extra manpower.
A team of soldiers who can adapt to complex environments and dare to battle local forces in a foreign land.
When Daria and Kate left the cabin, Mountain Eagle radioed Blood Fox and his old-timers over...
A few old guys have been awkward lately because of meddling in Mountain Eagle's private life.
Mountain Eagle welcomed them into the living room, looked at these awkward old men, sighed helplessly, and said, "Okay, let's not talk about past issues.
Although you've created a lot of extra troubles for me, the outcome is still good, so I've decided to forget about the messy things you old guys did by acting on your own.
Now I've run into some problems and need some advice from you..."
'Mi Lu' poured vodka from the bottle into his coffee and took a delighted sip, then looked at Mountain Eagle grinning and said, "That's more like it...
This bunch of old folks have been worrying every day that you'll go back on your word and abandon Arctic Fox to strike out on your own, but I said you're not that kind of person."
Mountain Eagle replied in a bad mood, "If you keep interfering in my private life, then it might not be the case!"
'Mi Lu' finished his coffee, indifferently said, "Blame it all on that old guy Blood Fox, but that's just how these old monsters left by the KGB are.
I don't care much, although I quite like Mrs. Li and Tessa, seeing them bicker is also quite entertaining."
Mountain Eagle didn't want to discuss his love life with these old guys, he looked at Blood Fox seriously and said, "Press Venezuela a bit; I need some reliable information, so I can decide how much money and manpower to invest in Mexico..."
Blood Fox frowned at Mountain Eagle and said, "Mexico?
Related to that Kate? Are you planning to collaborate with the United States to strike against Sinaloa?
It's a good plan, but what's it got to do with Venezuela?"
Mountain Eagle roughly explained his idea, detailing the trade route for importing heavy crude oil from Venezuela through Mexico and trans-shipping it to the United States...
Then he looked at the slightly enlightened Blood Fox, and said seriously, "My refined oil trade in Southeast Asia has a limit, wanting to support my Shadow Fleet strategy, I need sufficient trade to fill in, so the fleet can operate.
So Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, and even Cuba are crucial; they have a lot of trade business that ordinary companies can't access...
I'm not the one making problems, but I can be the one solving problems, or fulfilling their needs...
So the first step of 'finding sources' is important; this will determine my subsequent investment in Mexico!"
Blood Fox nodded slightly after listening, and said, "I get it, wait one moment..."