Charles Fishman Quotes
Walmart is the largest economic force in the world that is not a government.
Charles Fishman, Business Journalist, C-SPAN, March 7, 2006
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
What makes this quote significant is the data—the end of the 19th century and here was an author, in a prestigious journal, warning about the potential economic competition from China which at the time was seen by most as a backward, primitive civilization which could never compete with the West. Also, Hearn was the first writer who communicated information about Asia to Americans on a large scale.
The only previous source of light in America had been whale oil or candles—both very expensive. Oil was discovered in Pennsylvania and refinery techniques developed to produce Kerosene. (Gasoline was too explosive and dangerous for home use.) Everyone’s standard of living depended on Kerosene at the time and John D. Rockefeller controlled the price everywhere except New York. There were no monopoly or antitrust laws when he gobbled up his competitors and he rapidly became the richest man in America and one of the most hated. His abuse of the system at the time led to the government regulation of monopolies and the antitrust laws. It was very courageous for the Atlantic Monthly to publish this article, as Rockefeller’s power extended all over the nation—but less in New York where the magazine was published.
This is an excellent example of the delusion that many Southerners functioned under regarding the importance of cotton to the economy of the nation. There were New York merchants and some New England ship owners who profited from the export of cotton, but cotton contributed very little to the economy of the North and the Midwest while it was essential to the South representing a huge percentage of their output. Industrialization was growing all over the country except in the South where slavery and cotton both held it back. When the South finally decided on war, they did not realize that the North would be able to embargo their cotton exports nor did they realize how little the rest of the country needed the cotton industry It was another great example of political hubris.
The President had decided to aggressively push for railroad regulation to end the rate rebate abuses that were used to support the monopolies like Standard Oil. In vintage Roosevelt tactics, he gave his first major speech on the subject in the setting and forum that would be most opposed to it. The Union League Club of Philadelphia in included the wealthiest men in the area where were most opposed to any Federal Regulation of anything. All the major railroad executives and stock owners and traders were also members. The President wanted to persuade the opponents to change their positions, and sometimes he did. He also was driven by his concept of sports and athletics so that the “opposition” should have “fair notice” for the contest ahead.
This was the origin of the term "military-industrial complex." This speech was written by Malcolm Moos who first penned the term. However, conceptually it was referred to earlier by C. Wright Mills in 1954— {623497}.
The Chinese Emperor Qianlong would not allow entry to Chinese ports by Western (Christian) traders {641621}. The nation was already somewhat unstable {641623}, and it might not take much to topple it.
Brightstar, owned by Sprint, had 70 percent of the Venezuelan cell telephone market when leftist and anti-American Hugo Chavez was the President of Venezuela. The company served it’s Venezuelan customers well at competitive prices and created many jobs at all levels for Venezuelans. Chavez allowed them to stay in the market.
