Fatal Strike: Paladins Mercenary Road

Chapter 802 Finding Needs

If the world wants to engage in trade, the United States is essentially an indispensable link...

Why is the United States so important? Because they are the dominant force behind the dollar's hegemony!
As the dominant force in the US dollar economy, they must export large amounts of dollars every year to maintain global economic liquidity.

Therefore, the United States will always be a trade deficit country!
This is why the whole world reacts negatively to any fluctuations in the US dollar...

To some extent, the United States is the world's number one customer, and the US dollars they export largely sustain the operation of global trade.

This year is 2016. Last year, they exported a total of $2.5 trillion and recovered about $2 trillion through trade in goods and services, resulting in an actual trade deficit of about $500 billion.

A large portion of this $5000 will flow back to the United States through channels such as US Treasury bonds.

The hegemony of the US dollar means that the United States can price all assets globally using the dollar!
Financial hegemony can also enable them to harvest external liquidity according to their needs, taking away the development dividends of other countries.

To be honest, the dollar-based financial system is a brilliant design!
This approach would allow the United States to abandon its past European-dominated colonial model and conduct global economic colonization in a less physically uncomfortable way.

However, this thing has a downside: a highly developed financial system will inevitably squeeze the living space of industrial capital...

After all, shipping raw materials to the United States to set up factories is definitely not as good as setting up factories in a place with abundant and cheap labor.

Therefore, the more developed the financial industry is, the faster industrial capital will flee!
To some extent, the United States did indeed become a major force in building a new global industrial chain after the Cold War through the export of capital and technology.

These things had nothing to do with Mountain Eagle, but he knew very well that as long as he found the right path, money from America was the easiest to earn!

Blood Fox is trying to find a way in Venezuela. If this succeeds, Mountain Eagle will have caught a golden goose.

However, this also means that Thiago's importance will increase...

Therefore, the Mountain Eagle will not directly state its purpose, otherwise who knows what Thiago will think?
Threats alone are not enough to control a person; faking the deaths of Thiago's family and sending them to El Salvador for protection is merely a stopgap measure...

Many things need to be done gradually. We need to fundamentally change Thiago's mindset and at the same time use General Sid's methods to exert dual control over his body. This is the safest approach.

Mountain Eagle wasn't in a hurry about this, since there was still no news from Venezuela, and he believed that Dalia, the female monster, and Kate, the ghost woman, could give him a satisfactory answer through their cooperation.

Mexico is terrible, and the reason they are terrible is because they are too close to the United States. But at the same time, Mexico also has a lot of opportunities, for the same reason that they are close to the United States.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been heavily criticized because it allowed American modern agriculture to completely destroy Mexican agriculture, with dumping of low-priced crops bankrupting Mexican farmers.

However, looking at it from another perspective, trade agreements are actually two-way, and the large-scale relocation of American industries actually spurred industrial development in Mexico.

What many people don't know is that the largest trade volumes between the United States and Mexico are automobiles, semiconductors, and energy, and it is Mexico that sells to the United States. The trade deficit between the two countries has remained at around $900 billion for many years.

According to the North American trade agreement, apart from agricultural products, most products exported from the United States to Mexico are subject to tariffs of 10-20%, while products exported from Mexico to the United States are basically subject to zero tariffs.

It's magical!
Mexico, a country with a population of 1.2 million, has a GDP of $1.04 trillion, ranking 15th in the world in terms of total economic output, and its per capita GDP is around $8500.

Looking at the data alone, Mexico is definitely close to the standards of a developed country, but because of its heavy dependence on the United States, the country has almost no ability to think for itself.

Due to cost issues, the United States has shifted a large amount of industrial production to Mexico, and the extensive outsourcing of near-shore businesses has boosted Mexico's economic scale. Moreover, bilateral trade has greatly benefited Mexico's upper and middle classes.

These Americans have absolutely no ambition. When they make money, their first thought is to immigrate to the United States or enjoy life. No one has ever thought about using the money they've earned to develop independently in Mexico.

In a capitalist system, economic interests converge upwards; the higher the niche, the fewer people there are, and the more one earns.

This situation exists all over the world, but Mexico is a bit more extreme. As a country with a per capita GDP of over $8500, it lacks social security, and its poverty rate has been above 45% for many years. Among them, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, that is, not having enough to eat, is about 10%, and its Gini coefficient has been higher than 0.45 for a long time, far exceeding the international warning line.

The country’s management and distribution systems are completely unbalanced, with American corporations and the top 10% of Mexicans taking the lion’s share of the wealth.

In a country with a population of 4500 million, nearly 1200 million people can barely make ends meet, with virtually no access to healthcare, education, or social security, and more than 1.2 million people struggling to even put food on the table…

What is this concept?
Many people say that Mexican officials are corrupt because they have no choice; if they don't take bribes, they'll be killed...

In fact, looking at Mexico's history of drug trafficking, it has never been drugs that fueled corruption, but rather Mexico's own high level of corruption that propelled the growth of Mexican drug cartels.

The Sinaloa Cartel, a super-powerful criminal organization, developed in this context and then began to influence the Mexican government. People who grew up in Tokyo sometimes find it hard to understand why many countries in the world are so abstract. The reality is that many countries are merely loosely organized elite political alliances disguised as nations. The elites who dominate national politics may even hold passports from other countries and have no real concern for the ultimate fate of their nation.

The economic environment and geographical location have largely masked Mexico's problems. Their struggle against drug cartels is not, as people understand it, a struggle between police and criminals, but a civil war!

'War on Drugs'

It was a civil war that broke out in Mexico over the drug problem, and the Mexican government forces ultimately lost!

That's why Mexico, a country with an annual GDP of over one trillion US dollars, looks so bad...

However, this has nothing to do with the Eagles themselves. If Mexico weren't bad enough, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to plant a stab in through Thiago...

Once a foothold is established in Mexico, in addition to absorbing Venezuelan crude oil, it can also continuously exploit the United States, the world's largest customer, through entrepot trade or even smuggling.

This is an opportunity that the mountain eagle cannot afford to miss!
The only problem now is 'execution'!
Dalia and Kate can handle most of the early-stage problems, but they can't offer much help with the crucial issue of 'combat'.

General Sid only had about thirty men at his disposal, which was barely enough to take down the treasury, let alone send troops to ambush the Sinaloa gunmen who were going to provide support.

What Mountain Eagle needs to do now is to find a way to provide Thiago with enough firepower. Those captured cannon fodder gunmen are definitely not enough, so he needs some extra manpower.

A group of tough soldiers who can adapt to complex environments and dare to fight local bullies in unfamiliar places.

After Darya led Kate and the others out of the cabin, Mountain Eagle radioed Blood Fox and his gang of old guys to come over...

The old folks have been having a bit of a disagreement lately because of their interference in Shan Ying's private life.

Mountain Eagle welcomed them into the living room. Looking at the awkward old men, he sighed helplessly and said, "Alright, let's not talk about the past."

Although you caused me a lot of extra trouble, the result was not bad, so I decided to forget about the mess you old geezers made.

I've run into some problems and need your advice..."

'Deer' poured the vodka from the flask into the coffee, took a satisfying sip, then looked at Mountain Eagle, grinned, and said, "That's more like it..."

These old fogies are worried every day that you'll back out and abandon Fjällräven to go solo. I told you you're not that kind of person.

Mountain Eagle retorted irritably, "If you continue to interfere in my private life, then things might change!"

'Deer' finished his coffee and said nonchalantly, "It's all that old bastard Blood Fox's fault, but all the old monsters left behind by the KGB are like that."

I don't really care. Although I quite like Mrs. Lee and Tessa, I still enjoy watching them bicker.

Mountain Eagle didn't want to discuss his relationship with these old fogies. He looked at Blood Fox seriously and said, "I need to urge Venezuela on. I need some reliable information so I can decide how much funding and manpower to invest in Mexico..."

Blood Fox frowned as he looked at Mountain Eagle and said, "Mexico?"

Is it related to Kate? Are you planning to join forces with the United States to attack Sinaloa?
This is a good idea, but what does it have to do with Venezuela?

Mountain Eagle briefly explained his ideas and described in detail the trade chain of importing heavy crude oil from Venezuela, transshipping it through Mexico to the United States...

Then, looking at Blood Fox, who seemed a little dazed, he said seriously, "My refined oil trade in Southeast Asia has an upper limit. To support my Shadow Fleet plan, there needs to be enough trade to fill the gap so that the fleet can operate."

Therefore, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, and even Cuba are all important, as they have many trade opportunities that ordinary companies cannot access...

I'm not the one who creates problems, but I can be the one who solves them, or the one who meets their needs...

Therefore, the first step, 'finding suppliers,' is crucial, as it will determine my subsequent investment in Mexico!

After listening, Blood Fox nodded slightly and said, "I understand, wait a moment..."

(End of this chapter)