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As noted by Last Dakotan before: The hourly average wage increase over a decade, in your chart, after deducting the CPI, is a paltry 60 cents/hr? And for that sum, that pocketful of coins, you have sacrificed the livelihoods of millions of your fellow Americans on the altar of your economic dogmatism? You would do well to consider the sayings in Proverb s 21:10-13.

That asserted 60-cent wage increase is easily overwhelmed by the drop in the dollar against the major currencies of the last 4 years. And, anticipating your lame argument, the EU's recent dip (which likely will not persist) is not shared by the other major currencies...hence not significant.

Wake up and small the coffee Todd. You have lost the argument on the trade deficit. US Dollar Debauchment is not a fair trade for letting you guys destroy America's industrial base, which was never desireable in the first place. All for ephemeral short-run savings at Walmart and Target?!

It destroys all of your theories.

All of your "facts".

All of your reasonings. All brought to nought.

Now with the cinders of your wage studies crashed down around your ears, let's take a look at your inquiry about PPP, purchasing power parity.. I'm not particularly doctrinnaire on this (which perhaps you are, since it is you asking), but in general, it is widely understood by economists that Purchasing power parity means that the domestic currencies in different nations have the same ability to obtain goods in the different nations' markets.

The formula for PPP is P = EPf where P = the domestic price of a good, E = the exchange rate and Pf = the foreign price of the good.

This means that the domestic price of a good equals the foreign price times the exchange rate when PPP holds. Hence, PPPs as inter-country deflators are preferable to the exchange rate based comparisons on both conceptual and empirical grounds.

There of course can be wide variances as between actual measures of the purchasing power, just as there are disputes over the U.S. CPI. It depends on what "baskets" you measure, i.e., how they are weighted. It would be interesting to know what sources "Li333" was alluding to.

Chinese Communists such as "Li333" clearly believe they are winning a trade war, and are going to be calling shots in all things. They envy and hate the power and wealth of the U.S....and wish to displace us as the pre-eminent super-power. And the quickest way to accomplish that is to take away our manufacturing industries directly. Strengthens them. Weakens us. And all you do is work for the other side, by stubbornly denying it is happening.