In China's pocket
Boston Globe
by Robert Kuttner
12/16/06
The high-profile mission to China of key administration economic officials looks like another predictable fizzle. The delegation, headed by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve c hairman Ben Bernanke, is long on state dinners and photo ops, short on real progress. That's because the Chinese have learned to play their American trading partners like a soothing violin, and the Americans are all too willing to dance to the tune. Despite the precarious condition of the U S dollar, the Chinese central bank keeps lending us dollars by the hundreds of billions, so that we can keep buying their cheap products. The more we owe them, the less leverage we have. As the cliche used to have it, damn clever, these Chinese. A better interpretation would be: Damn stupid, these Americans. Bernanke, Paulson and company make a big deal of China's deliberately undervalued currency. By intervening in money markets to keep the yuan cheap, China makes its products artificially discounted...
http://tinyurl.com/ylf24p
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Kuttner
by Robert Kuttner
12/16/06
The high-profile mission to China of key administration economic officials looks like another predictable fizzle. The delegation, headed by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve c hairman Ben Bernanke, is long on state dinners and photo ops, short on real progress. That's because the Chinese have learned to play their American trading partners like a soothing violin, and the Americans are all too willing to dance to the tune. Despite the precarious condition of the U S dollar, the Chinese central bank keeps lending us dollars by the hundreds of billions, so that we can keep buying their cheap products. The more we owe them, the less leverage we have. As the cliche used to have it, damn clever, these Chinese. A better interpretation would be: Damn stupid, these Americans. Bernanke, Paulson and company make a big deal of China's deliberately undervalued currency. By intervening in money markets to keep the yuan cheap, China makes its products artificially discounted...
http://tinyurl.com/ylf24p
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Kuttner
rudkla - 18. Dez, 15:17
