China Bets Big On America

Forbes ^ | 3/5/2010 | Gordon G. Chang

[JasonC]

Ducking the demand again.

[familyop]

It’s an interesting situation. They scoff at consequences. Our national house of ill repute needs to be cleansed of such so-called leadership at every level of business, government and academia. IMO, we should encourage their continued anti-competition social spending (national and local bipartisan regulatory, anti-family, etc.) while encouraging our own peers to become more frugal and inventive. And we’re wasting time with politics, when the only effective recourse may be anti-political. ...generalizing scorn and recognition of bipartisan special interests, to begin with.

[Niuhuru]

Soon we’ll be importing husbands.

[Niuhuru]

“75% of lawyers could be sent to Mars “

Let’s keep Larry Lucido though. I like him.

[familyop]

"Ducking the demand again."

Your demand for gambling on whether or not bonds will collapse? I don't engage in that kind of gambling or have much respect for such vices. But all of us on both sides--anti-American and pro-American--are now, in another sense, betting our future lives on our personal economic decisions. Loyal Americans are using every penny toward breaking economic ties with socially perverted, bipartisan, anti-American, political-corporate weirdos.

[Niuhuru]

More than half this mess was caused by those idiots who overspent their incomes and go figure, they are taking us with them as they sink.

[Niuhuru]

We need to stop suing companies for every little thing. If we didn’t almost literally attack businesses and successful businesspeople, businesses wouldn’t be moving overseas. Jobs are not something we’re entitled to and we need to stop these social experiments.

[Niuhuru]

in a lot of respects, you’re right. A lot of people who are losing jobs are losing jobs in real estate, finance, and a lot of Wall Street execs are looking for work too. People in medicine couldn’t be busier I’m sure and there are a lot of places that need people.

[dennisw]

How are the gov’t balance sheets doing? They are doing for shit. And if consumers are doing so great (your bullshit) they sure aren’t spending! But they sure are being foreclosed on and walking away from underwater houses. Bankruptcies are very high. Go much for your twaddle

You are 0bama’s best ally

[dennisw]

A lot of people who are losing jobs are losing jobs in real estate, finance, and a lot of Wall Street execs are looking for work too.......

Those are the paper shufflers and money jockeys. Turns out we don't need so many of them
They ginned up the last bubble, we are left w the aftermath

[familyop]

"Jobs are not something we’re entitled to and we need to stop these social experiments."

That's true. We're not entitled to businesses, either. Agreed on social experiments and overspending.

[familyop]

CIA World Factbook [Excerpt]

Country Comparison :: Current account balance

This entry records a country's net trade in goods and services, plus net earnings from rents, interest, profits, and dividends, and net transfer payments (such as pension funds and worker remittances) to and from the rest of the world during the period specified. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Rank     country     Current account balance     Date of Information

[...]

183

United Kingdom

$ -32,370,000,000

2009 est.

184	Australia	$ -33,310,000,000	2009 est.

185	Canada	$ -36,320,000,000	2009 est.

186	Greece	$ -40,820,000,000	2009 est.

187	France	$ -43,670,000,000	2009 est.

188	Italy	$ -55,440,000,000	2009 est.

189	Spain	$ -69,460,000,000	2009 est.

190	United States	$ -380,100,000,000	2009 est.

[familyop]

Does that show up well enough in your browser? ...hard for me to excerpt from tables very quickly while getting a little work done here.

[dennisw]

Jason is correct that our trade deficit is roughly 50-60% of what it was at the peak a few years ago. Do you remember all the talk of a NAFTA super highway to bring Chinese crap up from Mexico? Where the Chinese ships would unload their merchandise in Mexico due to our West Coast ports simply being too backed up to accommodate them. Back then I posted here a few times that before this grand scheme ever materialized there would be a US dollar crash that would make the Mexican ports unnecessary due to the buying power of the USD going down so much. This did not happen. Instead we had an economic collapse that decreased what we buy from China.

Out trade deficit always comes 50% from energy imports and 50% from merchandise imports which are mostly Asian and Chinese
Despite your chart Canada and Australia usually do not run trade deficits. That chart shows a very bad crash year where Canada's and Australia's trade deficits are equal to ours when population is taken into account. 

Both those nations have a brighter future than us because 

• their banks are in very good shape
• no real estate bubble and crash
• they have what the world wants which is raw materials. they are are major commodity exporters
• they generally do not run trade deficits
• Germany and Japan also run trade surpluses but this comes from manufacturing exports

[dennisw]

yep...shows up OK in my browser

[dennisw]

How many people working? How many hours worked? What capital accumulated? We are vastly wealthier today than we were two generations ago, and our income is highe

That sure looks great when all our debts are ignored. 

I'm talking about 

• state indebtedness and pension obligations
• county indebtedness and pension obligations
• city indebtedness and pension obligations
• Federal indebtedness and pension obligations
• Federal Social Security and Medicare promises and obligations
•  
• consumer indebtedness
• consumer household mortgages
• corporate indebtedness
• corporate pension obligations meaning signed contacts that can not be delivered on and the Feds might take over
• small business indebtedness

I've seen numbers of 100+ trillion for all the above debt and government obligations that are contractually obligated such as a county employed teachers pension or the pension of a retired Army officer

[familyop]

Very well said in comment #74. Our trade deficit with China is down due to our decreased consumer buying (also see container ship parks in Asia, excess coastal inventory here, etc.). Canada and Australia are indeed poised to be well off with commodities during the times to come.

[familyop]

The list of debt problems in comment #76 is really enlightening, too. On “corporate indebtedness,” the preferred capital of today (short term, high interest loans) is not what some of our wiser ancestors often described as capital (savings from profits, stocks, and the like). They move here and there, hitting and running like bandits.

[dennisw]

Any young or old person who can pick up roots ..I would tell them to move to Nebraska. Our commodity export superpower state. Nebraska has low unemployment and low on foreclosures. Their farms are very mechanized, center pivot irrigated, mostly grains and beans and cattle with less need for illegal aliens than California which is a produce exporter to the other 49 states and to Japan and overseas too!

It’s cold there which tends to keep out the riff raff.

[familyop]

Agreed. I’ve thought about Nebraska and talked to some Nebraska acquaintances about it. It’s been kept in mind as a less expensive, warmer, low elevation alternative if needed. I’m on the Range to the west of there at a high elevation. Business is dying here. ...large numbers of foreclosures. ...brutal place, especially with the cooling trend, and quite a few people are fleeing it for lower ground, nearly all of them to the cities. ;-)