Posted on 03/17/2010 9:19:46 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Paul Krugman, Shadow Treasury Secretary, Misreads China
by Francis Cianfrocca
/snip
The Chinese know it’s undervalued. They can see it in consumer-price inflation, which is now up between 2 and 3 percent after being negative for much of 2009. They can see it in a 15% jump in housing prices in some cities. And they can see it in the growing concern among ordinary Chinese about the falling real value of their savings and their ability to keep up their headlong dash to prosperity.
For all the talk about China powering a global recovery on a flood of government-driven investment, Chinese authorities have been steadily preparing the country for some tightening in bank lending and monetary conditions. They overstimulated, and they have to get this inflation under control. People are even starting to mutter darkly about a Chinese financial crisis caused by terrible credit quality among the (rampantly corrupt) local government authorities who borrow heavily against land to finance investment, using the central government’s credit.
Against this backdrop, we had one of the mainstream media’s patented story clusters this past week, complete with heavily-publicized statements by favored pundits, innocently timed to coincide with statements by policymakers. Of course, none of this ever happens by design, since we all know the media are objective and only report what they see. PR has nothing to do with it.
It started with Paul Krugman, a man who wields more power outside the Administration (and is able to indulge his weakness for sniping at those in power) than he could from inside. Hearstlike, he just declared war on China’s currency undervaluation from his perch in Princeton, calling for up to a 25% tariff on Chinese imports until they learn their lesson and revalue their money.
(Excerpt) Read more at newledger.com ...
P!
This shouldn’t surprise anyone if you consider that only 8% of those under Obama have any business experience at all.
What a wonderfully succinct encapsulation!
Krugman is an idiot, a fool and misreads everything. He is a disgrace to his so-called profession.
for a “shadow secretary” he sure blows a lot of gaskets about Obama not listening to his advice
The other side of the “China is all powerful; wait, no its not” coin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.