If you owe the bank a million dollars and can't pay, you are in trouble.
If you owe the bank a billion dollars and can't pay, the bank is in trouble.
There isn't a damn thing yhe PRC ca do with respect to using the dollar denominated securities it already holds as a means of influencing US policy.
Try to cash them in all at once, or on any accellerated schedule, and China kills its own manufacturing sector and causes massive additional domestic unemployment, destabilizing the already very fragile domestic economic system and political control by the party outside Bejing.
Same could be done with Saudi funds. Which is why the US is propping up one of the most despicable despotic regimes on the face of the planet. You should hope the revolutionary wackjobs in Saudi Arabia don't bring down the royal family...or the Wahabists don't abandon them for their whoring after western materialism.
You should hope that Saudi Arabia and Iran never see eye to eye. Iran has already started the process to value its oil reserves and sales in euros.
Y'know, the Dalai Lama visited Portland, spoke from the dais above the waterfall, read everyone's mind, some read his mind back, consecrated Portland's 'living room.'
Which fairly well stopped that anachronistic, teutonic travesty of a misappropriation idea, Stickel's Currier & Ives-ancian 'krystal sternicht' ice-skating rink there. Blessings. Blessed event.
You know, my Mom worked with Tibetan refugees back in Texas, and I heard a lot of stories about just what the brutal Communist Chinese scumbags did to that country. Bulldozing countless, ancient temples, shackling old monks up by their hands in basements and beating them to death for refusing to give up their religion, as they urinated on themselves in abject terror, the list is quite long.
Screw You, China.
Just for that alone, should they ever foolishly decide to invade the US and seize some land, I will be behind one of those blades of grass Admiral Yamamoto spoke of. There are worse things than death, and the truly horrific crimes the Commies perpetrated upon the peaceful peoples of Tibet are some of them.
Trash the US economy and you trash the Chinese exports market. And neither Saudi Arabia, nor Iran, nor Europe will soak up those exports.
And the resultant Chinese un employment will take down what is already a very shaky Chinese government.
While neither CNN nor the Times are covering it, there is massive and violent labor unrest throughout the PRC, with CCP cadres routinely being lynched at factories in the provinces, and local PLA units are
increasingly munitying rather than firing on local workers.
My brother was the Reuters video guy in China during the hand-over of Hong Kong era. He told me about visiting some industrial operation, so dirty the cars went through a sprayer on the way out. One of the reporters made a crack about going through the brainwash. I'm not a big fan of police states and I've had two jokes on internationally about China. The first featured their leader's face on a bottle of cologne called, "Oppression". The second was about next year's Olympics: "You can tell China is a police state. One of the new Olympic events will be synchronized thinking."
These economic arguments strike me as another kind of thinking, though: Wishful. It's not what we owe China now, it's that we are relying on them to keep on lending us money. That's what worries me. I'd prefer having our economic future in our hands, rather than hoping for the right set of circumstances internationally to protect our financial well-being. Plus, if resources like oil ever become scarce enough, China could just shutdown the country that uses 25% of the world's recourses: Us. That's a vulnerability.
I also remember thinking that maybe getting Hong Kong back would be a classic case of the Chinese proverb "be careful what you wish for." Maybe China wouldn't swallow Hong Kong. Maybe Hong Kong would swallow China. One thing is for sure: Police states suck. Let's avoid one here.
What? You think that Tibet should be returned to the native peoples...or sumpin'?
And, why aren't those people doing something about Turkestan? It's enslaved in China, too. I guess it pays to have a friendly fuzzy camelid whose eyes close when he tilts his head back. Beau coup public relations for that...it helps cover up that violent history (within the various Tibetan Buddhist sectaries and against the Chinese).
Okay, so...when are you and your family going back to some other continent than North America?
Move those investments from dollars to euros, Godfrey? Sure, just click your heels! China holds over $500 billion in long-term US bonds. The key word here is long-term; which means that China would have to find a buyer. Who else has $500B sitting around? No one. So you sell $100B and what happens? The value of your remaining $400B pluments, the dollar drops faster than you can say goodbye, the US economy tanks, China's industrial production comes to equally quick end, the entire world ends up in a massive depression that will make the 1930s look like good times. China knows all of this; they are not stupid.
What China needs to do is let its currency float (it is now artifically tied to the dollar). The value of the luan rises, Chinese exports cost more, US consumers buy less, China's industrial production slows from the current 10-15% rate to a more manageable level, the US slows its comsumption of consumer goods therefore less need to borrow from China and Japan (which also hold a massive amount of US debt).
Charamba, Douro 2008
Horse Heaven Hills, Cabernet 2010
Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills Pinot Grigio 2011
Avignonesi, Montepulciano 2004
Lorelle, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2011
Villa Antinori, Toscana 2007
Mercedes Eguren, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Lorelle, Columbia Valley Cabernet 2011
Purple Moon, Merlot 2011
Purple Moon, Chardonnnay 2011
Abacela, Vintner's Blend No. 12
Opula Red Blend 2010
Liberte, Pinot Noir 2010
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Indian Wells Red Blend 2010
Woodbridge, Chardonnay 2011
King Estate, Pinot Noir 2011
Famille Perrin, Cotes du Rhone Villages 2010
Columbia Crest, Les Chevaux Red 2010
14 Hands, Hot to Trot White Blend
Familia Bianchi, Malbec 2009
Terrapin Cellars, Pinot Gris 2011
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2009
Campo Viejo, Rioja, Termpranillo 2010
Ravenswood, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2010
Waterbrook, Reserve Merlot 2009
Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills, Pinot Grigio 2011
Tarantas, Rose
Chateau Lajarre, Bordeaux 2009
La Vielle Ferme, Rose 2011
Benvolio, Pinot Grigio 2011
Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir 2009
Lello, Douro Tinto 2009
Quinson Fils, Cotes de Provence Rose 2011
Anindor, Pinot Gris 2010
Buenas Ondas, Syrah Rose 2010
Les Fiefs d'Anglars, Malbec 2009
14 Hands, Pinot Gris 2011
Conundrum 2012
Condes de Albarei, Albariño 2011
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2007
Penelope Sanchez, Garnacha Syrah 2010
Canoe Ridge, Merlot 2007
Atalaya do Mar, Godello 2010
Vega Montan, Mencia
Benvolio, Pinot Grigio
Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir, Marlborough 2009
Portuga, Rose 2011
Revelation, Chardonnay, Pays d'Oc 2010
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 2005
Monte Alto, Tinto Reserva 2005
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Cabernet, Indian Wells 2009
Espiral, Vinho Rose
Vin-Koru, Pinot Gris 2011
14 Hands, Hot to Trot Red 2009
Rodney Strong, Cabernet, Sonoma 2009
Abacela, Vintner's Blend #11
Portuga, White 2010
La Bourgeoisie, Red 2009
Januik, Red 2009
Three Rivers, River's Red 2008
Kirkland, Alexander Valley Merlot 2008
Muga, Rioja Rose 2010
Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2009
Mauro Molino, Barbera d'Alba 2009
Garda Chiaretto Rose
Columbia Crest, Two Vines Vineyard 10 White
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Pinot Gris, Columbia Valley 2009
L'Hortus, Rose de Saignee 2010
Maculan, Pino & Toi 2008
McKinley Springs, Bombing Range Red 2008
Trader Joe's Pinot Gris 2009
Montes Alpha, Cabernet 2007
Gran Sasso, Sangiovese, Terre di Chieti 2009
Garda, Classico Chiaretto Rose
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 1999
Picos del Montgo, Tempranillo 2008
Chateau de Montmirail, Vacqueyras 2008
La Granja 360, Syrah 2009
Montgras, Carmenere Reserva 2009
Lange, Pinot Gris 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet 2008
Kirkland, Pinot Grigio 2010
Trader Joe's Coastal Syrah 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Merlot 2008
Trader Joe's Coastal Chardonnay 2009
Vieux Papes Red
Domaine de l'Aujardiere, Chardonnay 2009
Santa Rita, Cabernet, Medalla Real 2007
Penfold's, Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2008
Guild, Red, Lot #02 2008
Dievole, Dievolino Sangiovese 2008
Laforet, Burgogne Chardonnay 2009
Columbia Winery, Merlot 2007
Bonterra, Cabernet 2008
Elk Cove, Pinot Gris 2009
Maquis Lien 2006
Scott Paul, Pinot Noir, Le Paulee 2007
The Occasional Book
Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace
Mark Bego - Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul (2012 ed.)
Jenny Lawson - Let's Pretend This Never Happened
J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Timothy Egan - The Big Burn
Deborah Eisenberg - Transactions in a Foreign Currency
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five
Kathryn Lance - Pandora's Genes
Cheryl Strayed - Wild
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
Jack London - The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii
Jack Walker - The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria
Colum McCann - Let the Great World Spin
Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - The Nanny Diaries
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Sharon Creech - Walk Two Moons
Keith Richards - Life
F. Sionil Jose - Dusk
Natalie Babbitt - Tuck Everlasting
Justin Halpern - S#*t My Dad Says
Mark Herrmann - The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
Barry Glassner - The Gospel of Food
Phil Stanford - The Peyton-Allan Files
Jesse Katz - The Opposite Field
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
David Sedaris - Holidays on Ice
Donald Miller - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Mitch Albom - Have a Little Faith
C.S. Lewis - The Magician's Nephew
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ivan Doig - Bucking the Sun
Penda Diakité - I Lost My Tooth in Africa
Grace Lin - The Year of the Rat
Oscar Hijuelos - Mr. Ives' Christmas
Madeline L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
Steven Hart - The Last Three Miles
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
Karen Armstrong - The Spiral Staircase
Charles Larson - The Portland Murders
Adrian Wojnarowski - The Miracle of St. Anthony
William H. Colby - Long Goodbye
Steven D. Stark - Meet the Beatles
Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
Rick Moody - Garden State
Jonathan Schwartz - All in Good Time
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt
Road Work
Miles run year to date: 21
At this date last year: 52
Total run in 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269
Comments (13)
Dear USA
Pay back all loans immediately.
Your creditor,
People's Republic of China
Posted by godfry | October 17, 2007 3:56 PM
If you owe the bank a million dollars and can't pay, you are in trouble.
If you owe the bank a billion dollars and can't pay, the bank is in trouble.
There isn't a damn thing yhe PRC ca do with respect to using the dollar denominated securities it already holds as a means of influencing US policy.
Try to cash them in all at once, or on any accellerated schedule, and China kills its own manufacturing sector and causes massive additional domestic unemployment, destabilizing the already very fragile domestic economic system and political control by the party outside Bejing.
Posted by Nonny Mouse | October 17, 2007 4:19 PM
Yeah, we have the Chinese right where we want them.
Posted by Jack Bog | October 17, 2007 4:32 PM
Like there is no other place for the Chinese to "reinvest" those funds currently invested in US securities?
Are you living in some kind of vacuum, nony?
Piss China off, they move their "investments" from dollars to euros.
They encourage their friends in the Islamic world to change their valuation of oil sales from US dollars to Euros.
*Shazam*...US suddenly financial hegemon has-been.
Same could be done with Saudi funds. Which is why the US is propping up one of the most despicable despotic regimes on the face of the planet. You should hope the revolutionary wackjobs in Saudi Arabia don't bring down the royal family...or the Wahabists don't abandon them for their whoring after western materialism.
You should hope that Saudi Arabia and Iran never see eye to eye. Iran has already started the process to value its oil reserves and sales in euros.
Posted by godfry | October 17, 2007 4:41 PM
As much as I despise Bush and hate to admit it, at least he got this one right. Finally.
Posted by Usual Kevin | October 17, 2007 8:13 PM
Y'know, the Dalai Lama visited Portland, spoke from the dais above the waterfall, read everyone's mind, some read his mind back, consecrated Portland's 'living room.'
Which fairly well stopped that anachronistic, teutonic travesty of a misappropriation idea, Stickel's Currier & Ives-ancian 'krystal sternicht' ice-skating rink there. Blessings. Blessed event.
Who's George Bush?
Posted by Tenskwatawa | October 18, 2007 12:20 AM
You know, my Mom worked with Tibetan refugees back in Texas, and I heard a lot of stories about just what the brutal Communist Chinese scumbags did to that country. Bulldozing countless, ancient temples, shackling old monks up by their hands in basements and beating them to death for refusing to give up their religion, as they urinated on themselves in abject terror, the list is quite long.
Screw You, China.
Just for that alone, should they ever foolishly decide to invade the US and seize some land, I will be behind one of those blades of grass Admiral Yamamoto spoke of. There are worse things than death, and the truly horrific crimes the Commies perpetrated upon the peaceful peoples of Tibet are some of them.
Posted by Cabbie | October 18, 2007 4:56 AM
So now standing up to a communist, dictatorial regime is a BAD thing?
Posted by butch | October 18, 2007 8:19 AM
T'aint the funds themselves, Godfrey.
Its the Chinese industrial production.
Trash the US economy and you trash the Chinese exports market. And neither Saudi Arabia, nor Iran, nor Europe will soak up those exports.
And the resultant Chinese un employment will take down what is already a very shaky Chinese government.
While neither CNN nor the Times are covering it, there is massive and violent labor unrest throughout the PRC, with CCP cadres routinely being lynched at factories in the provinces, and local PLA units are
increasingly munitying rather than firing on local workers.
Posted by Nonny Mouse | October 18, 2007 8:32 AM
My brother was the Reuters video guy in China during the hand-over of Hong Kong era. He told me about visiting some industrial operation, so dirty the cars went through a sprayer on the way out. One of the reporters made a crack about going through the brainwash. I'm not a big fan of police states and I've had two jokes on internationally about China. The first featured their leader's face on a bottle of cologne called, "Oppression". The second was about next year's Olympics: "You can tell China is a police state. One of the new Olympic events will be synchronized thinking."
These economic arguments strike me as another kind of thinking, though: Wishful. It's not what we owe China now, it's that we are relying on them to keep on lending us money. That's what worries me. I'd prefer having our economic future in our hands, rather than hoping for the right set of circumstances internationally to protect our financial well-being. Plus, if resources like oil ever become scarce enough, China could just shutdown the country that uses 25% of the world's recourses: Us. That's a vulnerability.
I also remember thinking that maybe getting Hong Kong back would be a classic case of the Chinese proverb "be careful what you wish for." Maybe China wouldn't swallow Hong Kong. Maybe Hong Kong would swallow China. One thing is for sure: Police states suck. Let's avoid one here.
Posted by Bill McDonald | October 18, 2007 9:01 AM
So now standing up to a communist, dictatorial regime is a BAD thing?
No, its most likely the backing of a religious figure that has hackles up.
Posted by Jon | October 18, 2007 12:14 PM
What? You think that Tibet should be returned to the native peoples...or sumpin'?
And, why aren't those people doing something about Turkestan? It's enslaved in China, too. I guess it pays to have a friendly fuzzy camelid whose eyes close when he tilts his head back. Beau coup public relations for that...it helps cover up that violent history (within the various Tibetan Buddhist sectaries and against the Chinese).
Okay, so...when are you and your family going back to some other continent than North America?
Posted by godfry | October 18, 2007 2:15 PM
Move those investments from dollars to euros, Godfrey? Sure, just click your heels! China holds over $500 billion in long-term US bonds. The key word here is long-term; which means that China would have to find a buyer. Who else has $500B sitting around? No one. So you sell $100B and what happens? The value of your remaining $400B pluments, the dollar drops faster than you can say goodbye, the US economy tanks, China's industrial production comes to equally quick end, the entire world ends up in a massive depression that will make the 1930s look like good times. China knows all of this; they are not stupid.
What China needs to do is let its currency float (it is now artifically tied to the dollar). The value of the luan rises, Chinese exports cost more, US consumers buy less, China's industrial production slows from the current 10-15% rate to a more manageable level, the US slows its comsumption of consumer goods therefore less need to borrow from China and Japan (which also hold a massive amount of US debt).
Posted by GDH | October 20, 2007 5:11 PM