China has acknowledged it has the US by the balls

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Original post by Alpha_ProgDes So what can we do about

probably don't piss off china,
this option means throwing away a huge sum of money and will probably cost china almost as much export money as it will cost the US so i doubt their going to do this just for kicks

economic mutually assured destruction or something

Sucks if suddendly someone else is doing the same things to the US, that the US has been doing to other small defenseless countries for decades, doesn't it ?

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The threats play into the presidential electoral campaign of Hillary Clinton, who has called for restrictive legislation to prevent America being "held hostage to economic decicions being made in Beijing, Shanghai, or Tokyo".

If there is still time to reverse this situation. Maybe someone should tell Georgie boy that waging senseless wars with Chinese credits is not the best idea on earth. It's not as if nobody could have foreseen this happening sooner or later... When you borrow money from someone, then this someone is eventually going to request it back - or use it against you.

Quick question... what's Tokyo got to do with it? Tokyo's in Japan so I don't see how it follows on from the statement involving Beijing and Shanghai.

Sorry if that seems irrelevant but it stood out in the article especially when it's the Chinese that are trying to force this change.

Well they pay a large sum of the UNs bills and I'm pretty sure they have a large export of electronics here to the US. So if they were to suddenly act like China and start threatening with their exports, we'd be in more doo-doo.

So the dollar is going to suck even more compared to the pound? If I didn't get paid for some work in $US that would be great...

Obviously China isn't going to actually do this. They're not stupid, and they don't have anything to gain from actually following through with the threat. It's the ability to trash the US economy that's valuable, not the act itself.

Still, it's a pretty tough bind. Maybe China will be mostly getting to do whatever it wants for a while.

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Obviously China isn't going to actually do this. They're not stupid, and they don't have anything to gain from actually following through with the threat.

That depends. What do they have to lose ?
Japan was in the same position 10-something years ago, but Japan is an ally of US, so they agreed to US demands and revolvated the yen. Now their economy is stagnating.

Basically US dollar is like a world-wide fraud, it only works as long as people keep bringing their friends in, or under the threat of death. But its 21st century and there's no one left to bring in, and there are more states with potent armies now than 60 years ago...

Besides, you think that trashing the US economy will only affect the US? Everyone will take some form of hit if it happens, including China, so it would be a bit like committing suicide.

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Original post by Mike.Popoloski Besides, you think that trashing the US economy will only affect the US? Everyone will take some form of hit if it happens, including China, so it would be a bit like committing suicide.

but the point of this isn't "were going to take you down"
its more like "if you try to take us down were going to take you down with us"

additionally if the united states is going to restrict trade with china anyway then china will have far less to lose by crashing their economy

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Original post by Karnot Quote: Obviously China isn't going to actually do this. They're not stupid, and they don't have anything to gain from actually following through with the threat. That depends. What do they have to lose ? Japan was in the same position 10-something years ago, but Japan is an ally of US, so they agreed to US demands and revolvated the yen. Now their economy is stagnating. Basically US dollar is like a world-wide fraud, it only works as long as people keep bringing their friends in, or under the threat of death. But its 21st century and there's no one left to bring in, and there are more states with potent armies now than 60 years ago...

I think "what do they have to lose" is the wrong question. Again, what do they have to gain?

US politicians are obviously interested in avoiding a recession under their watch, so they'll likely be willing to make a lot of concessions when threatened this way.

Actually following through with the threat would accomplish nothing but getting the US government (and public) pissed off. It would only happen if either China or the US behave completely unreasonably. I have some minimal faith that both parties are smart enough to avoid that scenario.

I'm guessing all that will come of this is that the US will temporarily lose some of its economic bullying power. Don't prove me wrong, China! [grin]

For someone who is a little behind in econ classes, can someone explain exactly what's going on? Seems like China is threatening to cash in 1.3 trillion USD in bonds if we don't do something. But I guess I don't get what their demand is. Thanks for aiding the economically challenged.

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Original post by NickGravelyn For someone who is a little behind in econ classes, can someone explain exactly what's going on? Seems like China is threatening to cash in 1.3 trillion USD in bonds if we don't do something. But I guess I don't get what their demand is. Thanks for aiding the economically challenged.

Bonds have interest, my friend. And we don't have 1.3 trillion dollars to give them back much less the interest that goes along with it. Which is why China has 1.3 trillion dollars in bonds [smile]

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Original post by Alpha_ProgDes Quote: Original post by NickGravelyn For someone who is a little behind in econ classes, can someone explain exactly what's going on? Seems like China is threatening to cash in 1.3 trillion USD in bonds if we don't do something. But I guess I don't get what their demand is. Thanks for aiding the economically challenged. Bonds have interest, my friend. And we don't have 1.3 trillion dollars to give them back much less the interest that goes along with it. Which is why China has 1.3 trillion dollars in bonds [smile]

Well I caught that part. But what exactly do they mean 'to negotiate yuan reevaluation'? Are they talking about currency exchange rates?

Yep. As you may know, the yuan is undervalued and is causing a major trading deficit for the US. So the Chinese are threatening to cash in those bonds if the US tries too forcefully to get the Chinese to reevaluate the currency of the yuan (by letting it appreciate) quicker than the Chinese wants.

Heh, as usual the democrats will be left to clean up the big mess. A term or two with economic acts/reforms will probably hurt a lot of people economically, you'll have to tone down the war of terror for a bit, and the US will come out strong again.

Hopefully, because soon you'll reelect guys with dreams of mighty soaring eagles swooping down on delicious snakes around the world.

Global hegemony for one state alone is insanity, and the sooner that course is corrected, the better off you/we will all be.
Who wants to live in a world of fear?
Well if you read 1984 you know what a powerful a tool fear can be.

So work with China and make Big Brother proud!

Your trusty allied, Denmark, will certainly never abandon you. Having successfully liberated Iraq and won the hearts and minds of people around the globe, we are now deploying our full force to Afghanistan in the final push towards destroying evilness in the world! We'll cover your backs.

If they tried to cash out their bonds we should tell them no. I tell creditors that all the time. Seriously though if everything is gonna go to hell anyways we mise well tell them to go to hell too.

Of course we shouldn't be in this situation anyways. The dim wits who decided our trade policy in the past 30 years believed for some reason we should let corporations and governments exploit foreign workers in the wrong believe that is would some how help them. Our trade policies that do nothing but ensure no tariffs, nothing to keep the foreign workers from be exploited in near slave labor and by the same token nothing to ensure that domestic worker can compete. Of course we have all this because we're not producing any of our own stuff we're just buying it from other countries and that money has to come from some where. So instead of bring others up we're getting dragged down. Of course the people who funded those policy makers campaigns new this was coming all along and our aiming for a return to the era of robber barons instead of the very gradual crawl we had been making away from that for time period before this. But I rant.

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Original post by JohnhlOur trade policies that do nothing but ensure no tariffs, nothing to keep the foreign workers from be exploited in near slave labor and by the same token nothing to ensure that domestic worker can compete.

Not quite. The US trade policies impose a hell of a lot of trade restrictions, embargoes, limitations and tariffs. For other countries, that is. The point in the policy is that "When we talk about a free market, we mean it should be free for *us*. Our companies should have access to any market anywhere. On the other hand, your stuff can only be sold in the US under very strict rules, because we don't want you actually *competing* with our guys, that'd be terrible"

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Original post by Spoonbender Not quite. The US trade policies impose a hell of a lot of trade restrictions, embargoes, limitations and tariffs. For other countries, that is. The point in the policy is that "When we talk about a free market, we mean it should be free for *us*. Our companies should have access to any market anywhere. On the other hand, your stuff can only be sold in the US under very strict rules, because we don't want you actually *competing* with our guys, that'd be terrible"

I agree with what you're saying, but I note that you live in europe, and the EU's refusal to cut agricultural subsidies. Which is annoying for australians. Protectionism is a global thing, it doesn't just happen in the US.

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Original post by DaBookshah Quote: Original post by Spoonbender Not quite. The US trade policies impose a hell of a lot of trade restrictions, embargoes, limitations and tariffs. For other countries, that is. The point in the policy is that "When we talk about a free market, we mean it should be free for *us*. Our companies should have access to any market anywhere. On the other hand, your stuff can only be sold in the US under very strict rules, because we don't want you actually *competing* with our guys, that'd be terrible" I agree with what you're saying, but I note that you live in europe, and the EU's refusal to cut agricultural subsidies. Which is annoying for australians. Protectionism is a global thing, it doesn't just happen in the US.

Countries besides the United States acting in their own self-interest?!
Preposterous I say!