ZAIBATSU & WESTERN OLIGARCHS' ALLIANCE CRAMBLES, WAR LOOMS!

Erle Frayne Argonza

Magandang hapon sa inyong lahat! Good afternoon to you all!

Just about a few weeks back, the world was shocked (as per media sensationalism) by the failures of new Toyota models on the road, leading to deaths of over twenty (20) riders in the USA. Within hours of the news, panic arose among riders, congressional investigation began, and Toyota was compelled to pull back 7-digit cars-in-use from the roads for retrofitting works.

The world watched as Toyoda-san, scion of the Toyota zaibatsu founder, wept before the congressional committee that investigated the fiasco and near-to-maelstrom in the markets caused by it. I wished I could have extended commiseration to Mr. Toyoda, but knowing the cold-blooded greed of the oligarchs made me adopt the scientific attitude of detachedly observing a species exhibiting behavior under duress.

My take of the matter, which some economists and investments analysts in the USA incidentally confirm, is that an organized bashing of oligarchs of Asian origin the West is in progress. Using typical Freud-type analysis, I’d say the bashing is very large-scale, with the Toyota- and Hyundai-bashing representing merely the tip of an iceberg, or better still a mere scratch in the skin surface.

My preliminary thought on the matter is that the Anglo-European oligarchy, led by the greedy financiers whose notoriety in looting the portfolio & derivatives markets led to the recent global financial meltdown, is calling it quits with their long-time partners from East Asia. The marriage is over, and so we better expect de-mergers and hostile take-over by the Western oligarchs of the assets and/or enterprises of their East Asian counterparts.

To recall, after the World War II, humanity was confronted with a new polarization forged as the Cold War between capitalism and communism. New spheres of influence have to be crafted pronto by the world powers, with the West securing Japan’s zaibatsu loyalty through sticks (force, de-militarizing Japan) and carrots (permitting Japan to achieve industrial prosperity, but subordinated to the West).

The zaibatsus (Japan), chaebols (Korea), emerging oligarchs of Taiwan and the Far East, zamindars (India), and more, or those landlord-gentry elites who were enticed to invest in industries and emerging commercial enterprise, sooner or later found no better recourse than to ally themselves with Anglo-European oligarchs (bankers, financiers, industrialists, rentiers) in order to preserve family wealth and elevate these to new levels.

Fast-forward to the 1980s, when the zaibatsus reached their peak of prestige brought about by the gigantic strides of Japanese firms, globalization became the buzz-word as Japanese technocrats cajoled the West into creating a borderless world economy. Zaibatsus thus made headway in their merger schemes with Anglo-European businesses, and nary a conglomerate in the West refused the sweet offers of the likes of Sony and Toyota to name some representative East Asian champions.

The last of such waves of mergers and ‘Asian offensives’ in the west saw the Indian tycoons such as Mittal investing heavily in the western backyards, and merging with western businesses when opportunities do open up (e.g. Mittal steel). Asian emerging markets’ own companies followed through this wave, with the likes of San Miguel Corp of the Philippines buying NatFood of Australia at one time (before reselling/divesting).

It seems that the ever-predatory financiers of the West will have nothing like a permanent alliance with the Asian taipans & nascent oligarchs. Just like in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies among global corporate owners. What is nasty about the matter is that the western oligarchs are showing their fascistic, if not racist propensities too soon.

The Toyota-bashing will sooner or later find its equivalent in other industrial and commercial concerns. The goal of the western financiers is to eventually take over the eastern assets, such as what the Mittal steel exemplifies, where Lakshmi Mittal is but the nominal controlling shareholder of a steel giant that is actually now owned and controlled by the pals of George Soros & House of Rothschild.

Whether the zaibatsu-bashing will sooner or later lead to a crack in the Trilateral Commission—created by the same predators to consolidate the wealth and powers of the Northern oligarchs (West + Japan)—remains to be seen. The zaibatsus won’t take slights that easily, and surely enough they won’t take betrayals from their Western counterparts lightly.

The zaibatsus possess enormous quantities of precious wealth that the Western financiers (whose wealth is largely useless debt papers and bills) could only salivate upon: gold bullions. Such bullions were amassed by the Imperial Japanese state in Asia during the heydays of militarist onslaughts (‘36-‘45). Stashed safely inside underground bunkers and cross-island tunnels, they were utilized to bankroll the industrialization of Japan (by zaibatsus, with Emperor Hirohito’s blessings). These must must be worth hundreds of trillions of dollars today, if we estimate them to be at least two (2) million tons.

Whereas the western financiers cannot operate alone as they have to collaborate with each other (e.g. Venetian, Dutch, German, English financiers coming together in gigantic trusts), the zaibatsus can go it alone and wage business offensives using their enormous assets. The same zaibatsus can also finance wars so facilely, such as they’ve done for the USA’s wars in Iraq (early 90s & 2001-02).

The zaibatsus can always choose to go their own way, foment new militarism in Japan, and create a new sphere of influence that can rival the western powers’ (if one can call bankrupt states in the West as powers). Note that at this time, within a span of less than a year, Japan can create nukes arms and unleash its version of the Tesla Earthquake Machine (TEM), simply by employing networks of yakuza and global mafia families to get their WMDs to terror groups, while reserving their own military assets for more ambitious confrontations.

How the latest brickbats between the western oligarchs and zaibatsu-Asians will figure in the forthcoming Philippine elections is something worth observing by strategic research analysts. Whether the Philippines remains in the sphere of influence of the western oligarchy, or move closer to zaibatsu orbit via covert maneuverings, will be contended in the next polls.

The Philippines may decide to install a nationalist government, and stay clear from the line of fire between two potential oligarchic adversaries. And, hopefully, the new government in Manila will sharpen its observation of changing oligarchic templates, and position itself to forge the ASEAN into a regional power later free from encumbrances with the aforesaid contending oligarchic factions.

[Philippines, 23 March 2010]