{"id":151845,"date":"2025-09-07T15:03:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T22:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=151845"},"modified":"2025-09-07T15:03:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T22:03:03","slug":"septembers-us-war-games-fiscal-illusions-as-merchants-squander-sri-lankas-riches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/09\/07\/septembers-us-war-games-fiscal-illusions-as-merchants-squander-sri-lankas-riches\/","title":{"rendered":"September\u2019s US War Games & Fiscal Illusions as Merchants Squander Sri Lanka\u2019s\u00a0Riches"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

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eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 31 August \u2013 06 September 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 2021, NATO members sent 21 warships into Asian waters<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

where they conducted joint operations with all the regional navies<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

that the USA is trying to pull into alignment against [China]<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, The EU: Fascism is coming home<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USA\u2019s <\/strong>Pacific War Forces<\/strong> and allied Quad<\/strong> members (Australia, India, & Japan), plus lesser \u2018allies\u2019, are participating in Exercise Pacific Angel 2025<\/em><\/strong> from September 8-12, hosted on Sri Lanka\u2019s soils & seas (including Trincomalee!). It is no serendipity perhaps, that on the same day, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)<\/strong> is launching \u2018sessions\u2019 which threaten to haul Sri Lanka up before the International Criminal Court (ICC)<\/strong>. This charade against a member nation has never been asked for by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) <\/strong>or UN Security Council <\/strong>(UNSC<\/strong>, see ee <\/em><\/strong>Quotes<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The US war games<\/strong> will be followed by a US trade team<\/strong> who will visit Colombo in mid-September for talks following up on US threats to impose punitive tariffs on our pre-industrial exports, which go mainly to the US and Europe. Presidential Advisor Duminda Hulangamuwa discloses that a State-Owned Enterprises Bill<\/strong> will be tabled this month, with the government also promising to liquidate<\/em> 33 public enterprises (including Lanka Cement<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      It has thus come to pass that Sri Lanka is being subjected to such threats and straitjacketing by the scum of the earth<\/em> (as the poet Bertolt Brecht called the Nazis) now led by England, since their big daddy the US is the one major country that refuses to submit itself to such \u2018international\u2019 tribunals. We also should note the media adoration evoked by England\u2019s recent promise of \u2018duty-free\u2019<\/em> access to some<\/em> of their markets. Duty free indeed!<\/strong> This cringing obsequious subservience has to do perhaps with the import-export merchant mafia that hold the country\u2019s economy hostage due to their addiction to the fleshpots (markets) of the US & EU. The merchant mafia are therefore beholden to their largesse<\/em>, as these mercantile agents of underdevelopment also stash their profits in tax hideouts under the watchful eye of the imperialists, instead of investing in modern industrial production here. (see SBD, ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     It is in preparation for such September \u2018games\u2019 that saw the present Sri Lankan government avoid the large Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)<\/strong> meeting in Tianjin, China, where the world was given a thrilling glimpse of future possibilities. Then 2 days later, on Sept 3, many world leaders including those of China & Russia & free (DPR)Korea were in full view in Beijing, celebrating the 80th<\/sup> anniversary<\/strong> of China\u2019s crucial role in smashing Japanese fascism. We must also recall that far more Asians & Africans were killed in those wars than those European imperialist countries, who many colonial troops fought for, would dare admit \u2013 even as US leaders claim it is they<\/em> who have won all world wars! The US has certainly profited<\/strong> from the \u2018peace\u2019(s) that followed, even as they have never allowed much peace for much of our world, which has continued to be colonized by other means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     It is the threat of such a good example<\/strong>, as displayed by China, Russia & free Korea, for other countries to achieve the velocity needed to escape the imperialist orbit, that sees the US and their lesser poodles in Europe & the East escalate their plans to maintain their hegemony, not just through direct warfare but via \u2018economic sabotage, social unrest, and psychological attrition\u2019 to attempt \u2018gradual internal collapse\u2019 among their perceived main enemies (see ee <\/em><\/strong>Quotes<\/em><\/strong>, Destabilization\u2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Israel\u2019s (read: the USA\u2019s) air strikes assassinating the Prime Minister of<\/strong> Yemen & other senior civilian ministers last week has been followed by the US declaration<\/strong> of a change of name from the Department of Defence to the Department of War<\/strong>, reverting to its original name from 1776. Recall that England\u2019s Department for War & the Colonies<\/em> was a cabinet-level position created in 1801, while it was waging war on Sri Lanka. In 1854 it was split into the Department for War and Department for the Colonies. From 1966 it was renamed the Ministry for Commonwealth <\/em>Affairs<\/strong>; and after 1968 became Ministry for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, renamed Ministry for Foreign, Commonwealth & Development <\/em>since 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Thus, we find that \u2018Development<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 is a direct descendant of \u2018War & the Colonies<\/strong>\u2019; \u2018development<\/em>\u2019 being a term suggested by the multinational corporation (MNC<\/strong>) Unilever<\/strong>\u2019s public relations department in the 1950s to replace more direct terminology, at a time of so-called post-colonialism<\/em>. It is no wonder that under their tutelage, we find so many ministries in Sri Lanka, with \u2018development<\/em>\u2019 in their name. At the same time, the USA now reaches back, to its own genocidal settler colonial origins. (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, SBD de Silva\u2019s Political Economy of Underdevelopment<\/strong><\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 The news this week suggests that the US will move to impose its old Monroe Doctrine<\/strong> over the entire western Atlantic and escalate wars against Venezuela & long-US-blockaded Cuba first. ee<\/em><\/strong> goes to press, noting that several of the websites we depend on (eg, Moon of Alabama, Radio Havana<\/em><\/strong>)for news with a difference<\/em><\/strong>, keep being blocked or hacked. Indeed, we learned this week of the phenomenon of \u2018shadow banning\u2019 by US \u2018social media\u2019<\/strong>, eg, Youtube<\/em>, Facebook<\/em>, Instagram<\/em>, X<\/em> etc, where posts that contradict the hegemon are hidden away, downplayed or outright blocked unbeknownst to users (see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, Chinese professor explains why India fails to reach its potential). It is therefore good to record that Nepal has outright & publicly banned such US social media<\/strong>. Let us see how that works out. Meanwhile, due to the opposition by the USA\u2019s Uber,<\/strong> etc, and certain local \u2018services\u2019, the Sri Lankan government has again postponed its VAT tax on Digital Services (purportedly even demanded by the USA\u2019s IMF<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Financial institutions have opened Letters of Credit<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(LCs) worth $530mn so far this year<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

for the importation of \u2018over 70,000 vehicles<\/strong>\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, SL\u2019s Automobile Market: Subliminal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

economic bubble? \u2013 Adheeb Anwar)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Another horrific bus crash near tourist-infested Ella<\/strong>, recalls how this \u2018mass murder on wheels\u2019<\/em><\/strong> was accelerated by the IMF-guided \u2018explosive growth\u2019 of Finance Companies (FCs) after 1977<\/strong>. Adheeb Anwar, in this ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, asks if \u2018Sri Lanka is repeating a global mistake?<\/em>\u2019, as local banks & finance companies are throwing money at people to purchase new vehicles, so as to profit from the interest rates that stem from loans \u2013 escalating further debt<\/strong>. It\u2019s not new to Sri Lanka, of course. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) linked this motorized mayhem<\/em><\/strong>, post-1977, to the larger banking system providing \u2018market space\u2019 to Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFI). The FCs exploited demographics; as bankers financed imports to serve this then burgeoning \u2018market\u2019 (see ee<\/em><\/strong> 1 Jan 2022, World Bank driving madness on our roads). Meanwhile, as other commentators have pointed out, rather than being subject to the whims and loans of US economic and military policies, IMF, etc, why couldn\u2019t these banks have invested instead in modern industrialization and attendant workers\u2019 skills, and pay off Sri Lanka\u2019s so-called debts?? How much of Presidential Advisor Hulangamuwa\u2019s mention of the need for mechanisation and wage reforms, in the plantations in his media-headlined address to the 171st<\/sup> annual general meeting (AGM) of the powerful Planters\u2019 Association <\/strong>of Ceylon (PA), fell on deaf ears and how much fell on fertile soil is yet to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 With all this money being thrown to purchase other countries\u2019 industrial goods, this ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> looks at how the People\u2019s Republic of China<\/strong> (PRC<\/strong>) has allocated its resources and invested in modern \u2018green\u2019 production by coordinating policy between the central government & local authorities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In contrast, a \u2018politically powerful class<\/strong>\u2018 of import & export merchants, holds Sri Lanka in thrall to imperialism, in the absence of a state capable of subordinating their trading interests to production capital \u2013 this is a major theme in SBD de Silva<\/strong>\u2018s work. SB saw a profitable congruence, rather than any conflict, between mercantile interests here and industrial & mercantile interests abroad. He provided examples from Japan<\/strong>, as well as the white Dominions<\/strong> of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where English capital invested in modern industry. He contrasted them to, eg, Sri Lanka, India<\/strong>, Iran, Turkey, where the foreign exchange assets<\/strong> of colonial governments were invested mostly in government or municipal securities in the metropolis. ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> therefore continues reproducing Chapter 1 of de Silva\u2019s The Political Economy of Underdevelopment (PEU)<\/em>. Here SB further takes apart various claims \u2013 to plantations being modern & capitalist vs a backward peasant sector \u2013 by eminent economists such as DR Snodgrass<\/strong> who wrote extensively on Sri Lanka, as well as Gunnar Myrdal<\/strong>, HW Singer,<\/strong> etc, as well as Sri Lanka\u2019s own (LSSP theoretician) HA de S Gunasekera<\/strong>, and India\u2019s Romesh Dutt<\/strong> famous for his \u2018drain theory<\/em>\u2018. In contrast, SBD points out that Sri Lanka has large surpluses that are also squandered inside in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clearly, with the US offshore procurement (OSP<\/strong>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

& (Military Assistance Program) MAP collectively<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

equalling between 40-60% of South Korea\u2019s<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

gross capital formation during the late 1960s,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

their significance for the ramping up<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

of Korea\u2019s industrial \u2018takeoff\u2019 was enormous.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, Chaebol<\/em> & US MIC)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> also continues looking at US-occupied (South) Korea\u2019s industrialization, examining the growth of their Hyundai<\/strong> conglomerate becoming \u2018one of the world\u2019s best-known construction and heavy industry companies,\u2019 again through supporting US wars. Yet are these Korean companies, or mere adjuncts of such large US multinationals as the US Halliburton subsidiary Raymond, Morrison-Knudsen, Brown&Root, JAJones (RMK-BR)<\/strong>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Fiscal illusion<\/em><\/strong> is a term\u2026 often used to explain<\/p>\n\n\n\n

how governments & fiscal policymakers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

navigate budgets in ways that mislead voters,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

helping them gain & maintain popularity.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 see ee Economists, <\/em><\/strong>How we are being misled\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> also continues our look at New York\u2019s political machinery, through Gustavus Myers\u2019 1917 History of Tammany Hall<\/em>, that famous New York \u2018charity\u2019. We see how, even as the name of Tammany Hall became an international byword for corruption, its \u2018wonderful instinct of self-preservation\u2019<\/em> enabled it to rise from the ashes, through its link to New York\u2019s \u2018largest and most energetic part of the voting population \u2013 the Irish\u2019. Look how it claimed to be \u2018a real reform body\u2019 while advancing their old ways and furthering political fortunes. Fiscal illusions, indeed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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September\u2019s US War Games & Fiscal Illusions as Merchants Squander Sri Lanka\u2019s Riches<\/a><\/blockquote>