"WE used to do big stuff like this! Now its the Chinese. WHY?"

There is NOTHING on TV and I can't get excited over which group of Millionaires wins a pigskin game, and I can't handle another Talking Point on TV - so apparently the word from above is  to work on my updated Book Chapter "Agenda for American Greatness.'

Thanks to Steve Stelzer for a great research recommendation, Friedman's "That Used to Be Us" as another resource for my second edition of "Better Times Ahead: April Fool?"

As I looked around China, comparing it to the China I first saw 30 years ago in 1982, I kept thinking "WE used to do big stuff like this! Now its  the Chinese. WHY?"

Above photo: Author, Michael Fjetland in Beijing, 1982, as negotiator for Fortune 500 company selling pollution control technology for coal plants.

Why has America become so timid - too willing to invest Trillions in pointless wars for over a decade, and so unwilling to INVEST IN OUR FUTURE?

Above Photo: China, the 3rd country to put humans in space, plans a NEW STATION STATION in 2020 - just as our ISS reaches retirement age, and no replacement is even on the drawing boards. China could be the only country with a Space Station by 2020...

Part of the problem is that Americans tend not to focus much attention on the world - until a Pearl Harbor or a 9/11 wakes us up. We are so self focused that we are missing the Big Picture of what is going on around us--like other countries technical advancements versus our own. If America was an Olympic swimmer, we'd be out of the running for a metal when it comes to our education status. China now leads America in 7 key technologies of the 21st Century (detailed in "Agenda").

A major purpose of "Agenda for American Greatness" is to lay out  that big picture - How America wins when it has dealt itself a short hand, $16 Trillion in debt and China sitting with over $2 Trillion in Foreign CASH reserves. This is after China has lent the U.S. 40% of that new debt since the Bush tax cuts starting hemorrhaging the deficits that led to our debt bomb.

One of my nephews is a big fan of Ron Paul. He thinks Ron Paul rocks the world.  My nephew is not an economist with a Ph.D. and he hasn't been out of Texas or had experience negotiating business deals in multiple countries where one has to figure out how to be paid in real money for our products and services. I have, over 30 of them on behalf of Fortune 500 companies.

 He doesn't understand that Paul's "Gold Standard" would plunge us into a Depression. Our economy is too huge to be tied to any metal dug from the ground.

The Chinese discovered hundreds of years ago that there wasn't enough silver to meet the demands for their currency in their economy! After first starting coin currency they eventually went to paper not backed by a metal. Their economy was the backing.

That was about 1200 - over 800 years ago!  If it couldn't support an ancient economy then obviously there isn't enough of it to back up a modern Trillion dollar economy - not even Platinum can do that.

Besides we need that rare and precious Gold and Platinum to make things like high tech parts for computers, missiles, space parts, not to mention $200 fighter jets! You think  will be doing good sitting in Ft. Knox when the Pentagon needs Gold and Platinum for its weapons?

By the way, the Chinese are buying up the world's supply of it while our politicians fiddle and avoid any big thoughts or smart strategic actions in DC.

Our economy is way to big to be saddled to a metal...there are better, more realistic solutions, which we started laying out in the original "Agenda for American Greatness" published before the election. It is just if not more relevant after the election.

Here is the modern spin on what their ancient Chinese brothers discovered with silver:

"There is a controversial theory percolating in the gold community that China wants the yuan to become the world’s reserve currency and is buying gold and silver in order to do it.

A Chinese gold standard?

The idea is staggering and not to mention fraught with difficulties. China’s central bank currently holds 1,054 tons of gold, about 1.8% of its total reserves.

China holds $2.85 trillion in foreign reserves, which means the country would need to buy roughly 66,000 tons of gold to fully back its currency. Even if the country upped the ante to just 3%, the country would need to buy 1,000 tons..."

Ummmmm. History repeating itself? 

Above Photo: Michael Fjetland, on the Great Wall October 2012 - 30 years from his first trip to China on business.

 Stay tuned for the updated "Agenda for American Greatness" with more about how we fix our mess and win the future when the deck is stacked against us. We have no time to waste. It has to be done smart.

Photo above: From my days as volunteer pilot, Civil Air Patrol

Click "Follow" or "Subscribe" to stay up on these rapidly changing times...we may yet even see Congress do a circular firing squad!