One of the big worries Americans have about China’s rising economic power concerns its immense holdings of U.S. government debt. The fear is that Chinese actions regarding these holdings could end up destabilizing the U.S. economy, or that they could be used as a political tool to influence American policy. If China, let’s say, got angry at Washington over its support for Taiwan or the Dalai Lama, Beijing could retaliate by dumping U.S. Treasury bills. Or perhaps China would sell Treasuries as part of a no-confidence vote on the future of the U.S. economy. By selling American debt, China would weaken the value of the dollar, damage investor sentiment towards the U.S. economy and make it harder for Washington to finance its giant budget deficits.
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Archive for February, 2010
Will China Dump U.S. Debt?
While The Cause Of The Economic Collapse Is Debated Nothing Is Getting Done
One of the most disturbing aspects of the recent economic collapse and the ongoing financial market crisis is that there is still widespread disagreement over who or what caused it.
All too often, pundits say, “You can’t lay all the blame for our current condition on one institution or one man” and that is true, but these same commentators oftentimes skirt answering the toughest of questions about what nearly brought the whole financial system down by distributing the blame among many players and many failings.
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U.S. Stocks Fluctuate on Economic Reports
U.S. stocks swung between gains and declines as reports showed business activity expanded this month and gross domestic product topped estimates, while American International Group Inc. plunged on its quarterly loss and home sales missed projections.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.1 percent to 1,103.51 at 10:23 a.m. in New York after retreating 0.5 percent earlier.
Business activity in the U.S. expanded in February, more than anticipated and at the fastest pace since 2005, a private report showed. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said that its business barometer climbed to 62.6, from 61.5 last month. Readings greater than 50 signal expansion.
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Another State Economic Meltdown
Two years ago, I pointed to yet another obvious economic crisis in the U.S.: the collapse of numerous, state economies. I was not alone. Several of the other commentators who were right about the U.S.’s economic collapse have made similar predictions.
We deserve no credit. With state spending skyrocketing, and state revenues collapsing at the fastest rate in history, even people who perform all their “arithmetic” with their fingers and toes should have been able to make this prediction. In other words, this comes as a total “surprise” to more than 90% of the brain-dead media-parrots. These zombies-with-keyboards continue to mindlessly repeat the “economic recovery” propaganda of Barack and Bennie and Timmie.
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