Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

China and Japan reject Bush's currency pleas
USA Today ^ | 10/19/2003 | Peronet Despeignes

Posted on 10/19/2003 6:28:31 PM PDT by traumer

Edited on 04/13/2004 1:41:16 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

BANGKOK

(Excerpt) Read more at usatoday.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chinacurrency
that much for help...
1 posted on 10/19/2003 6:28:32 PM PDT by traumer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: traumer
Now what ??
2 posted on 10/19/2003 6:29:25 PM PDT by traumer (Even paranoids have enemies)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: arete
ping
3 posted on 10/19/2003 6:30:10 PM PDT by FreedomPoster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: traumer
The Japanese and Chinese leaders are simply looking out for their own best economic interests. We need a leader to do likewise.
4 posted on 10/19/2003 6:54:42 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: traumer
America has enjoyed a monopoly in manufacturing money from thin air with relative impunity.We have been aided in this by willingness of countries like China and Japan to purchase and hold our debt instruments. In view of our soaring trade and fiscal deficits-- plus we increasingly don't manufacture enough real stuff anymore---they and other creditors are justified in increased nervousness. History is littered with examples of fiat currency gov't bonds ultimately being worthless.
5 posted on 10/19/2003 7:00:18 PM PDT by IGNATIUS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Last Dakotan
Punitive tarrifs... the gov't needs to cut off our supply of money to Asia.
6 posted on 10/19/2003 7:00:21 PM PDT by Lunatic Fringe (I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: traumer
Koizumi has an election coming up and there is no way he is going to start tinkering with the yen at this time. If he tried, he would be out on his ear faster than you could blink.
7 posted on 10/19/2003 7:06:56 PM PDT by Ronin (Qui docet discit!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: traumer
It is just as well. Those trade surpluses are in dollars. That means that those dollars have to be spent on American goods or services. Right now, the China and Japan are spending those surpluses on American bonds thereby financing our deficit. If Bush got his way, they would have to stop buying our treasuries, rates would go through the roof and an economic calamity would be upon us. As it is, the Chinese and Japanese are financing our war on terror. Quite frankly, I wish the Saudis and French were buying up treasuries as well.
8 posted on 10/19/2003 7:15:53 PM PDT by Pamlico
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Pamlico
we obviously cannot sustain our nation by issuing bonds bought by foreign nations that are taking our industries and tax base, as we send them those dollars to buy the goods we used to produce here. how long can that shell game last? the only way to stop offshoring of jobs and industries (tariffs aside, which Bush will never do) is to devalue the dollar to make offshoring to foreign countries more expensive.

interest rates are going up either way.
9 posted on 10/19/2003 7:19:35 PM PDT by oceanview
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: traumer
Treasury Sec. John Snow: US interest rates 'to rise soon'
Times of London ^ | October 20, 2003 | Anatole Kaletsky

AMERICAN interest rates are set to rise over the next few months, one of President Bush's most senior officials told The Times this weekend. However, far from being a dampener on the economy, John Snow, the US Treasury Secretary, said that Washington would welcome such a move because it would underline the strength of the country's growth prospects. Given the American economy's new-found strength, Mr Snow said he would be "frustrated and concerned" if there were not some upward movement in rates. Expectations of tighter US monetary policy began to take hold on Wall Street last week after speeches from two senior Federal Reserve officials, which drew attention to the exceptionally wide gap between today's low interest rates and the US economy's booming growth rate.

However, Mr Snow's comments, in an exclusive interview with The Times, offer the clearest sign so far that the US interest rate cycle is turning.

While Mr Snow refrained from discussing monetary decisions, which are left to the Federal Reserve Board, his comments implied that the Bush Administration was preparing for much higher rates in the election year ahead - in contrast with Wall Street, where many leading banks are still predicting that there will be no tightening of monetary policy until 2005.

Mr Snow, referring to his previous Times interview in July when he described the US economy as "coiled like a spring", joked: "The spring has now sprung."

The estimates of private economists, based on recent consumption and output figures, suggest that the US economy may have grown by up to 7 per cent in the third quarter. Although Mr Snow did not endorse these estimates, he said that growth in the year ahead would be about 4 per cent and would "produce loads of jobs". Referring to the rule of thumb that the US must generate 200,000 jobs a month to cut unemployment, he noted that 4 per cent growth would "translate into roughly two million new jobs from the third quarter of this year to the third quarter of 2004 - that's an average of about 200,000 a month".

He added, "I would stake my reputation on employment growth happening before Christmas. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that we're going to see a pickup in jobs in the next few months."

Asked about the impact of such rapid growth on interest rates, Mr Snow said: "Interest rates are the price of capital. As profits increase, there is going to be a need for a capital-rationing process.

"I'd be frustrated and concerned if there were not some upward movement (in rates)." He rejected the widely held view on Wall Street, that the Fed never raises interest rates before a presidential election. "It is amazing how you get this sort of mythology without any factual backing," he said.

Questioned on the dollar, Mr Snow said that the US policy had been misunderstood by many commentators, although not by the markets themselves. The dollar fell sharply in the month after a statement issued in Dubai by Group of Seven ministers, which called for "greater flexibility" in exchange rates. He had hailed this statement as "a milestone" and this comment was widely interpreted as a hint that the US wanted to see the dollar decline.

Mr Snow said the milestone he had referred to was the commitment of all the G7 countries to stimulate domestically led growth. The US had never intended to talk the dollar down against other currencies, whose exchange rates were set by the market, he said.

10 posted on 10/19/2003 7:47:33 PM PDT by Starwind (The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true good news)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: traumer
Now we're beginning to understand how few "friends" we have. We also see the truth about the currency manipulation going on around the world with our "trading" partners who accuse us of doing the same.

Just remember, what goes around comes around.
11 posted on 10/19/2003 7:57:43 PM PDT by DustyMoment
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AntiGuv; arete; sourcery; Soren; Tauzero; imawit; David; AdamSelene235; sarcasm; Lazamataz
This is classic. You can't make this stuff up.

Bush is in Thailand talking the dollar down against the Yuan and Yen, while Snow is on...I dunno Neptune? talking up US interest rates - strong dollar.
12 posted on 10/19/2003 7:58:56 PM PDT by Starwind (The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true good news)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: DustyMoment
Now we're beginning to understand how few "friends" we have. We also see the truth about the currency manipulation going on around the world with our "trading" partners who accuse us of doing the same.

It is so silly to think in term of "friends". Everyone is in it for themselves -- always have been and always will be. We have always been the biggest manipulator of supposedly free markets. When Greenspan lowers interest rates or when we ask Japan to either buy or sell dollars on command, just what do you think we is doing? Other nations trade with us because it is in their interests to do so. When it isn't then, why would we expect them to bite the bullet to support our lifestyle? The entire world has us over a barrel and Greenspan and the administration has put us there.

Richard W.

13 posted on 10/19/2003 9:26:16 PM PDT by arete (Greenspan is a ruling class elitist and closet socialist who is destroying the economy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: traumer
If we keep losing jobs, my great fear is that early next year, Karl Rove, the president's political strategist, will say, 'Mr. President, it's time for you to join the China bashers.'

It is my great hope that Mr. Bush wakes up to the China threat long before that.
14 posted on 10/19/2003 9:31:34 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #15 Removed by Moderator

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson