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peace13Oct 6, 2010
Nice article
chris1234Oct 6, 2010
Businesses like Wal Mart need to stop buying their exports and buy more American goods...
ericschc1Oct 6, 2010
Shhh...you think any corporate exec wants to hear "spend more" to save the economy you're dependent on? Not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying they won't hear of it.
anillopOct 7, 2010
As long as Americans only care about price and not where something comes from this will not change.
extravagantOct 6, 2010Submitter
Why does American always have to try to control everything?
it is in every right of the Chinese to do this....and no 1 can say nothing...if the Americans are so worried, they should peg their rate too.
stop complaining.
hipmanOct 6, 2010
Nah, we'll just tariff their imports.
agmlauncherOct 6, 2010
extravagant, in a globalized economy you simply cannot do what China is doing. It's not just hurting the US economy, it's hurting Europe's economy, Japan's economy, and Korea's economy as well. Imagine if every country artificially undervalued their currency just to increase exports....
teamelectricOct 6, 2010
Its not so much that China is "undervaluing" its currency as the western countries are "overvaluing" theirs. The Federal Reserve is HUGELY in the red and has NEVER been audited. Yet America is spending more and more every year than it takes in GDP. This is money that we are borrowing from the Chinese. The dollar is weakening internationally because of this.
Closed AccountOct 7, 2010
@teamelectric - I need to correct something here. The Fed is audited. Rather thoroughly, at that. There are a number of levels to the Fed's audits, and the entire schema involves a number of players, including both government and private auditing bodies. At the moment, I believe Deloitte is the independent company that's been contracted.
Deloitte is one of the "big 4" auditing companies, second only to PriceWaterhouseCooper, and is also the auditor of a tremendous number of major corporations like Starbucks, Boeing, Microsoft, Comcast, Lockheed, the NFL, VISA, Walmart, and Dell.
So yes, the Fed is audited by a competent body.
Closed AccountOct 6, 2010
@extravegant: Your remark is a huge over-simplification. The economic consequences of an artificial undervaluing of currency can be felt around the world. Given the US's influence as a dominant economic power, I think there's a very good case to be made for nudging the Chinese in the direction of a more fair and honest valuation.
Further, I think you'll agree that by placing duties on Chinese imports, we are well within our rights. Indeed, the Chinese impose tariffs on many US imports.
This isn't really about American imperialism or control, so I think it a bit of a straw man for you to take that route.
agmlauncherOct 6, 2010
The Chinese do something else even worse than tarrifs, they blatantly copy our technical specifications and make competing products with our own IP.
There was a story a while back how a123 Systems (a Mass. based advanced battery manufacturer) had to turn to Chinese manufacturing to keep costs competitive with LG Chem, but in doing so they gave the Chinese the know-how to make really advanced Li-Ion batteries, and they are already seeing Chinese companies making batteries using A123 Systems technology.
This tech won't make it state-side or even into Europe, but it will be sold in the world's largest market: China. It will also make its way into developing nations and other huge markets like India, effectively shutting out the companies that actually invented the tech.
At the end of the day, Chinese nationalism/propaganda is the greatest tariff they can impose. They don't need to have actual tariffs, they just tell their people to buy Chinese made stuff, and they will.
dk75eclipseOct 6, 2010
This has nothing to do with the US trying to control everything. It's an unfair practice that hurts every country's competitiveness except China.
teamelectricOct 6, 2010
Its kinda hypocritical to say "Stop undervaluing YOUR currency," yet still borrow billions from them everyday.
hipmanOct 6, 2010
I don't see the problem.
mdmcgeeOct 6, 2010
Stop complaining about unfair trade practices?
Stop complaining about what amounts to a subsidization of their entire economy to the detriment of everyone else, especially the U.S.?
Stop complaining about protectionist policies?
It may be within China's rights to practice any economic policy they see fit but when it is done at the expense of it's international neighbors using tactics that are generally considered inappropriate and shady then their neighbors have a right to bitch.
To claim this is about American (U.S.) control is disingenuous and intellectually dishonest at best.
canadianmacfanOct 7, 2010
Maybe the US government should take your advice. The "buy American" clauses in the stimulus packages even when there are trade agreements that prohibit such actions. I'm thinking NAFTA in particular.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
MilksteakToGoOct 6, 2010
I tend to disbelieve everything Tim Giethner says.
jhw539Oct 6, 2010
Why? He is looking to have been dead on about TARP, a very successful program that came in way, way under budget (it may yet end up a net profit!) to the point it makes the old Savings and Loan bailout look like the work of extravagant amateurs.
princetrunksOct 6, 2010
The undervalued dollar has hurt my small business in the past 2 years. I sell Japanese anime figures and I've watched the dollar go from 120 yen per $1 to it's sad 80 yen per $1. My customers used to be able to buy figures for $50-$80 that are now in the $70-$120 range. Yet, it's only us here in the US to blame; not China, not Japan, not the rest of the world. We shouldn't have to ask asia to adjust to our f**k-ups. It's not their fault we bailed out the companies like Goldman Sachs that pay an run the government no matter who's in office. It' China's fault we have stayed off the Gold Standard since Nixon was in office to make banks here seem like they have money.
I voted for Obama but I never liked Giethner from the start since he was just part of the Goldman Sachs run government back-end that were there during the idiotic Bush and Paulson TARP bailout and throughout. That bailout, though supposedly now paid off, devalued the dollar since we had to create money out of thin air.
We also can't blame the world for us not teaching any of our workforce in school and college that owning a business is the next step after getting the so called "good-job". It's why people not born here usually own most of the businesses in your local strip mall. More people trying to create businesses as oppose to people being told in college their main goal after spending $100K+ is to make $40 kissing the ass of a big company, is the only honest way to create jobs and grow the economy and make our $ worth something to the world. The few big companies we were told to be pigeon-holed into from grade school on obviously don't have our best interests in mind.
princetrunksOct 6, 2010
edit :"It's not China's fault we have stayed off the Gold Standard..."
hipmanOct 6, 2010
It's also not Bush's fault your guys supported the bailout.
princetrunksOct 6, 2010
my guys? I wish I had guys to have told Bush not to do the bailout but when Goldman Sachs runs the government (even now after Bush)...what do you expect? I was against the bailouts, both Bush's and Obama's from the start. Goldman, AIG and most of the banks should have failed so we can start over and maybe still have a middle class here...but when 1% of the people own 90% of the wealth..that doesn't happen.
extravagantOct 6, 2010Submitter
We should do something, but at the same time, we should stop complaining and trying to take over the world by pushing everyone into everything that is our way of the highway
hipmanOct 6, 2010
You should try living in China.Might really open your eyes.
philipaOct 6, 2010
Increasing the value of the yen will increase our prices! How is that going to help us?
adiggaOct 7, 2010
I find it amazing how few people can see this.
Imagine China stopped charging us for anything. Everything they make is free. It is the same as a mass transfer of wealth from China to the US. That makes us all richer.
Look at it from the other side. If the US artificially reduced the value of the dollar by half, then instead of getting 72 euros for 100 dollars, you might get 36. It is the same as if you sell your car, home, and wealth for half price. You are giving away your wealth.
The fact that our currency floats ensures you are breaking even. It protects you from giving away your wealth.
If the US held the dollar artificially high, then no one is going to trade euros for them. No one is dumb enough to give us 144 euros for 100 dollars. So we have to make the dollar float.
China isn't subsidizing China, it is subsidizing the US! Don't tell them to stop.
canadaboyOct 6, 2010
It's only undervalued because of what you did to your own economy
hipmanOct 6, 2010
Suuuure.
dynamojoeOct 6, 2010
If the renminbi is undervalued, buy it on the open market and wait for it to appreciate.
The US public doesn't have the stomach to tariff Chinese imports even as manufactuing jobs are sucked overseas by the boatload. Buying and holding large amounts of Chinese currency is the best way to back up what you're preaching.
What absolutely needs to happen is for Americans to stop taking out loans (ultimately financed by the Chinese) in order to buy underpriced Chinese merchandise. We're pushing ourselves out of jobs in order to save a buck on s**t we don't need.