Pat Oliphant for January 13, 2010

Well we should feel some pride in their success – after all it is our money that is paying for it.

Thanks to Cheney/Bush borrowing billions of dollars from them, so we wouldn’t find out just how much the wars cost, every year a good part of the taxes we pay go to China.

So when you see them building new roads, factories, and enlarging their army & navy, you can say to yourself: “My tax dollars at work!”

Maybe the bike was made in Taiwan …

Let’s be honest. This isn’t really Bush & Co’s fault. The Chinese coffers are being filled through the huge trade deficit the US has with China. The transfer of manufacturing jobs to China started happening long /before/ Bush took office and it’s still happening now.. Walmart, in it’s pursuit of lowering costs, started “encouraging” manufacturers to slash costs by moving manufacturing operations oversees where labor costs are much cheaper than in the US. Corporations looking to cut labor costs were only too happy to comply.

As long as the American public continues to buy Chinese made goods, this trend will continue. Always buy American made products whenever possible. The manufacturing job you save may be your own.

Clinton developed the alphabet that put American jobs on the fast track to Chindia: WTO & NAFTA!!!! Willy completed the job that Reagan started.

Now, when we call for our refills at Walgreen’s, we will be talking to someone in India..

And with the Copenhagen accords over, as is America’s chance to lead, this is exactly our position when we donate 140 Billion of our Gross Demand Product, as per China’s wishes, in order to bolster the economies of aforesaid China, India, and Brazil in offsetting carbon emissions, upon which, China will, “in the necessary future”, then cut their own carbon emissions (not likely since by 2030 they will be using 75 % of coal based energies, as reported by the United States’ EIA.

Ken, you’re a broken record and boring.

It’s Nixon’s fault. If he and Kissinger hadn’t opened diplomatic relations with China, this wouldn’t have happened.

Jobs are going to China and India because of NAFTA??!!!!!!

NAFTA = North American Free Trade Agreement.

Not “Chindia”.

I agree with Ken.

Also, we need to bring our troops home. We need to spend the money wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan in America maintaining and rebuilding our own infrastructure. That would help put Americans to work.

“….As long as the American public continues to buy Chinese made goods, this trend will continue. Always buy American made products whenever possible. The manufacturing job you save may be your own.

….”

Where is NeoCon Man?

I believe most of the above are correct, except GATT should have been included. NAFTA helped push jobs out of the US, and once in motion they just kept moving. Usurious interest and barely regulated financial instruments made the finance casino too profitable to ignore to be able to invest in manufacturing here. When they’re playing the market, they’ve not enough money left over to pay for anything but cheap job-shopped goods. The key term is “industrial policy”; China has one, we need one too.

The Nine Chinese Men Who Control the Fate of America By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud

Nine politicians in China control the fate of the United States of America.

I’m not kidding. The implications are scary. Let me explain…

These nine men are the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China. They control the value of China’s currency.

Fortunately, it’s easy to forecast what a politician will do… He will do whatever it takes to keep his job.

The story is remarkably simple…

In China, the goal of these nine politicians is to keep the Communist Party in power. The way to accomplish that goal is for the masses to stay employed. Right now, China keeps the people working by exporting cheap goods. In order to make sure those Chinese goods stay cheap, the Standing Committee sets the currency exchange rate artificially low. And that is the crucial part of the story…

How do these nine politicians keep the exchange rate low? They buy U.S. dollars. Importantly, these nine men don’t just sit on stacks of dollar bills… They invest those dollars in U.S. Treasury bonds.

It’s gotten out of hand. China owns nearly $1 trillion worth of U.S. debt. China’s holdings have increased dramatically every year… They’ve grown nearly tenfold since the end of 2000: China* Treasury Bond Holdings 2000 $99 billion 2001 $127 billion 2002 $166 billion 2003 $209 billion 2004 $267 billion 2005 $350 billion 2006 $451 billion 2007 $529 billion 2008 $804 billion 2009 $941 billion *includes Hong Kong

And China’s soon-to-be trillion dollars of U.S. government debt is not the end of the story. It’s the beginning…

In order for other Asian countries to compete with China, they have to artificially keep their own exchange rates low. And that’s exactly what they’re doing. They’re doing it the same way China does… They’re buying mountains of U.S. Treasury bonds, too.

At this point, foreigners now own half of the U.S. Treasuries outstanding (of the ones that are not held by the U.S. government). And they’re buying more… Most importantly, there’s enough demand for U.S. debt from foreigners that the U.S. government can finance its deficits for years to come… all by simply selling Treasury bonds to foreigners.

Would you lend money to the U.S. government at 3.5% interest for 10 years? I sure wouldn’t. I really can’t name anyone who thinks 3.5% in government bonds is a good deal. The foreigners aren’t buying to earn 3.5% interest. They’re buying to keep the value of their currencies down.

India is an interesting example… Earlier this year, when India spent $6.7 billion buying gold from the IMF, it was all over the news. What WASN’T reported was that India bought far more U.S. Treasury bonds than gold. India has increased its stake in Treasuries by over $22 billion since last summer – increasing its Treasury bond holdings more than 200%.

So, yes, there’s a mountain of demand for U.S. dollars – Treasury bonds – from all over the developing world. The important thing is demand will last. It will last as long as the nine men on China’s Standing Committee don’t change their minds.

So what does all this mean?

It means the U.S. dollar will not crash right now.

Most investors believe the U.S. dollar is about to crash. But the facts are clear… The dollar has ready buyers of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Treasuries. While the dollar might lose ground against gold, the reality is, no other paper currency has a tailwind of hundreds of billions of dollars of buying waiting in the wings like the U.S. dollar does.

Eventually, the dollar bears will be right. The U.S. will have to face all its debt one day. But that story is not in my True Wealth Script for 2010.

Good investing,

Steve

Steve has a couple of very important items in his post. The low percentage rate on U.S. bonds is extremely important. Our debt problem is manageable because the U.S. commands low interest rates. Without foreign investors willingness to invest in bonds the U.S. governments ability to issue stimulus bills and fund other programs will become limited. As soon as it is possible, we need to reign in spending. This does have to be balanced against the struggling economy. Austerity programs could push us back into recession. However, foreign investors are going to want to see a plan, at the very least. Greece is a good example of what happens when a government ignores its debt problems. Its credit rating has been downgraded twice recently.

er, steve did not make that post, it is from his investment service, true wealth. while i DO subscribe and pay for it, the TEMPORARY boost in the usd i think) will not last the year, as steve thinks, there IS a huge drag on the entire Republic as the cost of the wars will have to be paid for. see: costofwar.com as well as paying mega BILLIONS for the “homeland security” sic. It is ALL designed in keeping the US down, mis invested in wars, internally and overseas. HOW long will they KEEP buying the T-bills>? as long as THEY and BP(brit royals) keep getting the oil fields and profits from Iraq, THEY benefit, the US pays for it.

My mistake. I did not read his cite at the beginning of the lengthy commentary. It does not invalidate the necessity of changing our spending habits. The argument over where to cut, including war expenditures, might paralyze our ability to cut. The results of that situation would be disasterous.

This problem clearly started with Eisenhower…

I guess I forgot the number one rule of the Far Right – never place blame, unless it is to blame Obama and the Democrats.

We cannot go forward, if we don’t look at the past, and learn from our mistakes.

The 20th Century was America’s Century, the 21st will be China’s, unless we learn and improve.

Radish, It depends on our GDP growth. Right now I’d say we’re reaching our limits.

Pride cometh before a fall.

Eisenhower, bah! He did give us a prolific reconnaisance program, Anthony, following the Sputnik craze. And what GDP growth? With this Copenhagen accord, we’re about to pledge 1 percent of our GDP growth to help out China, Brazil and India: 140 billion dollars worth of GDP growth. And Ken, lest you forget that since 1989, as reported by OpenSecrets.Org, candidates on both sides have received 2.3 billion in funding from the insurance, real estate, and financial sector lobbyists. And Democrats, like Max Baucus and Chris Dodd, most recently are at the center of such matters, particularly Dodd’s affinity for Countrywide and AIG. The financial legislation authored and promoted by Frank and Rahm Emanuel before meetings of bank lobbyists in the past month has about as much bite as flat Vernor’s ginger ale, and most recently, the ABA is urging its constituents to fight any legislative reformhttp://undertheinfluence.nationaljournal.com/2009/12/aba-memo-stop-reform-bill.php, and our legislators will gladly feign a good fight for a padded pocket, much like the White House’s pantomime of feigning outrage over the bonuses for execs in 2009, a matter that Chris Dodd brokered and got caught for, might I add. Lastly, everyone blaming the economy on our forerunning presidents reminds me of an old Paul Conrad cartoon: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTconrad.jpg

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31428.html

Cpt. Jay, sorry to disappoint you, but my Eisenhower comment was nothing more than tongue-in-cheek amusement at how the previous posters kept blaming prior presidents.

I suppose I could have used Monroe or Jefferson instead of Eisenhower…but then you wouldn’t have taken me seriously.

And as it turned out, only you.

Steve…Thanks for all that info. I will print it and read with my coffee in the morning. You’ve earned an “Attaboy”!

Where did you get humor coaching? The Context School of Dave “Shecky” Letterman? Ant, he-she, baby, sir, whatever, I’m never serious about the things that matter most. I take my career seriously, but never my life. I’m just surprised that so many of you believe you have a right to your opinion. You don’t. You have a right to an informed opinion. You don’t have a right to be ignorant.

Not according to FoxNews.

See, now motivemagus quip was funny! And yes, even GE’s CEO on Obama’s economic advisory team, if I quipped about CNBC or MSNBC would equally apply.

Sam Walton is spinning in his grave. When he was alive Walmart advertised that everything was made in America!!

After he passed Walmart chose low prices over America and here we are pedaling along.

The “party in power, controlling Congress”, is represented by the cat in the car. The $$$ Party, without which, no politician can get elected past City Council, if even that.

If we don’t quickly find a way to get rid of that influence, we’ll continue to have more of the same.

The floor is open. Ideas? Anybody?