China June trade surplus swells five-fold

Reuters ^ | Reuters

[jpsb]

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's trade surplus for June swelled five-fold from a year earlier as exports grew much faster than imports, offering more ammunition for foreign critics who argue that Beijing should let the yuan rise in value.

The June surplus grew to $9.68 billion, exceeding forecasts of $8.0 billion and towering above the $1.8 billion surplus recorded for June 2004.

[listenhillary]

People, or countries, that spend twice as much as they make each year, go broke.

Tell that to your representative in congress, supposedly they control the purse strings.

[SandyB]

If they go to war with us, they won't bother telegraphing the fact by dumping their security holdings with the US.

Communist china has already made it perfectly clear what their intentions are. Deflating the US dollar so we wont be able to buy anything from anybody else is not going to "telegraph" anything that they have not already said. Their missles are already pointed at american cities, they are building a war machine, they are going to war with Taiwan, which the US has pledged to ally with. We already know we are going to war with them, it is no secret.

[SandyB]

People, or countries, that spend twice as much as they make each year, go broke.

Tell that to your representative in congress, supposedly they control the purse strings.

The president also has veto power to stop any spending bills, or that increase the national debt.

The more and more trillions and trillions of debt that americans are creating is going to cause problems.

You heard it here first.

[listenhillary]

For example, it would be bad policy(for a governemnt or a private individual) to have (financially) supported germany or Hitler in the 19200's and 1930's, which would have enabled him to build a super war machine.

I do agree with you some what here. But, using government force to manage our imports and exports and government force to make consumers pay more for goods will do what?

Shut off the $ flow to China? Do you think they will just say "OK, no big deal we understand" Or do you think it push up the time table for war and make them even more twitchy?

What do you say to the families that lose everything when the 800 billion export market to China dries up?

[listenhillary]

It is the PRIMARY responsibility of the representatives. Do you cheer when a representative "brings home the bacon with a new bridge with federal dollars?" Or is it just spending on other states/districts that is pork barrel spending?

How about their buying votes giving your tax dollars to lower income voters? Pork?

Yes the president SHOULD veto spending, but he will be blamed for shutting down the government.

[Last Dakotan]

And they are calling me an America hater..

Nah, they are just calling you a hater. I can see like most of the others who argue for unfettered free trade on this forum, friendly persuasion isn't your strong point.

No government interference should be allowed or tolerated.

Agreed in theory, but the reality is that our Asian economic rivals use government to protect nascent industries and technologies and also use currency trading by central banks to sop up US dollars rather than buying US goods. As an example, during the time the Korean auto industry was forming in the '80's the Korean government ran a 300% tariff on US autos.

I think trade globally has to be managed on a country by country, case by case basis. If we are to open our markets to other countries, they have to be truly willing to open theirs.

[SandyB]

Shut off the $ flow to China? Do you think they will just say "OK, no big deal we understand" Or do you think it push up the time table for war and make them even more twitchy

They are not prepared yet for all out war. If we boycott all trade with them, as we did with cuba, they will not be able to afford to build more missles, fighters, bombers, nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, troop transports to get accross the Taiwan strait, etc. The money they now get from us, is not going down to the chinese civilian people, it is going to build a war machine. Shut them off, and their plans for war against the US are indefinitely postponed.

[SandyB]

Yes the president SHOULD veto spending, but he will be blamed for shutting down the government

Yes the president SHOULD veto spending, but he will be cheered for shutting down the government

[SandyB]

If we are to open our markets to other countries, they have to be truly willing to open theirs.

What goods do we still make in the USA?

[listenhillary]

What will they have won if they go to war and win? A population that has 250 years of being total piss ants when it comes to bowing to authoritarian trash? We won't make very good "subjects"

What will drive the economy if private property is no more? We don't have any resources left according to the gloom and doomers. What's in it for them?

This totalitarian/capitalism bastard they've spawned will not survive it's schizophrenia. It just won't work in the long term.

[listenhillary]

Yes the president SHOULD veto spending, but he will be cheered for shutting down the government.

By the people that hang out at Free Republic and maybe 30 to 40 percent of the population, the rest will want to crucify him.

[Protagoras]

Nah, they are just calling you a hater.

Actually, they have called me an America hater.

I can see like most of the others who argue for unfettered free trade on this forum, friendly persuasion isn't your strong point

I have yet to see a friendly exchange on this forum on this topic.

And friendly is what you are to people who don't call you a traitor.

I don't suffer fools gladly, so they can keep that friendly nonsense after they call me a traitor.

[listenhillary]

China/Walmart haters vs Free traders. We seem to keep butting heads, but not changing any minds.

I hate China's government as much as anyone, but we were dealt our hand by Bill Clinton. We need to play it out and not reach for our guns. (yet)

I agree we should be a bit more forceful with China in insisting that access to our markets be reciprocal. It is a balancing act where a sledgehammer approach will only cause harm.

[snowsislander]

And yet oddly enough, foreign trade has resulted in a number of success stories that you'd never see in the manufacturing sector. The disastrous situation on the railroads in the western U.S. last year was a good case in point, where freight operations on the Union Pacific / Southern Pacific railroad came to a near-standstill because the company didn't have enough workers to keep up with the level of freight traffic coming out of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The trucking industry has been facing a shortage of qualified drivers for several years now, and the situation is expected to get worse in the future.

To top it all off, longshoremen are now among the highest-paid blue-collar workers in the U.S., with an average annual salary of somewhere between $75,000 and $85,000 per year.

Here are the BLS employment and wage numbers for people working in transportation and material-moving related activities:

			Wage Estimates
SOC Code Number	Occupation Title	Employment (1)	Median Hourly	Mean Hourly	Mean Annual (2)	Mean RSE (3)
53-0000	Transportation and Material Moving Occupations	9,581,320	$11.48	$13.41	$27,880	0.4 %
53-1011	Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors	7,460	$16.40	$18.90	$39,310	2.0 %
53-1021	First-Line Supervisors/Managers of Helpers, Laborers, and Material Movers, Hand	169,860	$18.40	$19.45	$40,460	0.3 %
53-1031	First-Line Supervisors/Managers of Transportation and Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators	222,590	$21.54	$23.23	$48,320	0.4 %
53-2011	Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers	78,490	(4)	(4)	$129,620	3.0 %
53-2012	Commercial Pilots	21,370	(4)	(4)	$62,290	3.0 %
53-2021	Air Traffic Controllers	22,260	$49.05	$47.94	$99,710	0.7 %
53-2022	Airfield Operations Specialists	4,810	$17.64	$20.22	$42,050	2.4 %
53-3011	Ambulance Drivers and Attendants, Except Emergency Medical Technicians	17,410	$9.49	$10.17	$21,140	1.4 %
53-3021	Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity	183,710	$14.30	$15.09	$31,390	2.1 %
53-3022	Bus Drivers, School	475,430	$11.18	$11.33	$23,560	0.6 %
53-3031	Driver/Sales Workers	406,910	$9.66	$11.36	$23,620	0.8 %
53-3032	Truck Drivers, Heavy and Tractor-Trailer	1,553,370	$16.11	$16.63	$34,580	0.3 %
53-3033	Truck Drivers, Light or Delivery Services	938,730	$11.80	$12.88	$26,790	0.4 %
53-3041	Taxi Drivers and Chauffeurs	132,650	$9.41	$10.34	$21,510	0.7 %
53-3099	Motor Vehicle Operators, All Other	85,520	$9.45	$11.04	$22,960	1.7 %
53-4011	Locomotive Engineers	31,180	$24.30	$26.29	$54,680	2.9 %
53-4012	Locomotive Firers	620	$21.56	$22.23	$46,230	3.2 %
53-4013	Rail Yard Engineers, Dinkey Operators, and Hostlers	6,170	$17.70	$18.41	$38,280	1.8 %
53-4021	Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators	16,410	$21.46	$23.03	$47,900	1.6 %
53-4031	Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters	35,720	$22.28	$25.28	$52,580	2.7 %
53-4041	Subway and Streetcar Operators	8,900	$23.70	$22.67	$47,150	4.5 %
53-4099	Rail Transportation Workers, All Other	7,680	$19.57	$19.56	$40,680	1.5 %
53-5011	Sailors and Marine Oilers	27,570	$14.00	$14.98	$31,160	1.3 %
53-5021	Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels	25,200	$24.20	$25.11	$52,230	1.0 %
53-5022	Motorboat Operators	2,830	$15.39	$16.25	$33,790	2.7 %
53-5031	Ship Engineers	10,330	$26.42	$27.80	$57,830	1.9 %
53-6011	Bridge and Lock Tenders	3,500	$17.98	$17.05	$35,460	1.3 %
53-6021	Parking Lot Attendants	120,080	$8.08	$8.48	$17,650	0.8 %
53-6031	Service Station Attendants	90,640	$8.29	$8.92	$18,560	0.7 %
53-6041	Traffic Technicians	6,240	$16.19	$17.11	$35,600	1.8 %
53-6051	Transportation Inspectors	24,140	$24.22	$24.89	$51,780	1.5 %
53-6099	Transportation Workers, All Other	51,850	$15.47	$16.11	$33,510	1.8 %
53-7011	Conveyor Operators and Tenders	54,380	$12.23	$12.85	$26,720	0.9 %
53-7021	Crane and Tower Operators	43,570	$17.99	$18.81	$39,130	0.9 %
53-7031	Dredge Operators	1,730	$13.47	$14.43	$30,010	1.6 %
53-7032	Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators	67,080	$15.37	$16.40	$34,120	0.9 %
53-7033	Loading Machine Operators, Underground Mining	3,330	$15.98	$16.34	$34,000	1.6 %
53-7041	Hoist and Winch Operators	5,550	$16.19	$18.65	$38,790	1.8 %
53-7051	Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators	631,530	$12.78	$13.57	$28,230	0.4 %
53-7061	Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment	330,520	$8.41	$9.33	$19,400	0.5 %
53-7062	Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand	2,390,910	$9.67	$10.53	$21,910	0.3 %
53-7063	Machine Feeders and Offbearers	149,500	$10.68	$11.31	$23,530	0.5 %
53-7064	Packers and Packagers, Hand	872,260	$8.25	$8.97	$18,660	0.4 %
53-7071	Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators	4,680	$21.07	$21.56	$44,850	2.0 %
53-7072	Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers	9,810	$17.04	$17.79	$37,000	2.2 %
53-7073	Wellhead Pumpers	10,040	$16.31	$16.33	$33,960	1.8 %
53-7081	Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors	139,920	$12.38	$13.37	$27,810	1.8 %
53-7111	Shuttle Car Operators	3,000	$18.08	$17.58	$36,570	1.1 %
53-7121	Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders	16,530	$15.59	$16.44	$34,190	1.4 %
53-7199	Material Moving Workers, All Other	57,390	$13.87	$15.29	$31,800	1.9 %

On another page, there is a further break-out:

Industry	Employment	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage
Support activities for water transportation	7,730	$26.82	$55,780
Inland water transportation	4,730	$24.42	$50,790
Sea, coastal, and Great Lakes transportation	3,210	$28.10	$58,450
Scenic and sightseeing transportation, water	2,440	$19.08	$39,680
Machinery and equipment rental and leasing	1,150	$25.86	$53,780

[SandyB]

What will they have won if they go to war and win? A population that has 250 years of being total piss ants when it comes to bowing to authoritarian trash? We won't make very good "subjects" What will drive the economy if private property is no more? We don't have any resources left according to the gloom and doomers. What's in it for them?

They want TAiwan back - they have been obsessed with that since 1950. They have no interest in making us "subjects".

People that will fight, or make war, at any cost, and never give up, dont necessarily act rationally, but they can inflict a lot of damage on their opponents, and occasionally win.

[SandyB]

Yes the president SHOULD veto spending, but he will be cheered for shutting down the government.

By the people that hang out at Free Republic and maybe 30 to 40 percent of the population, the rest will want to crucify him.

YOu are overestimating, it is probably more like 10% of the Free Republic, and 3-4% of the rest. The war in Iraq is going to cost over a trillion dollars(that we dont have and must borrow), and most people support all of that spending.

[snowsislander]

As a side note -- how many families in 1970 sent their high school age kids to Aruba for a class trip?

Hmmm. I don't remember people sending the kids to the Caribbean, but in my experience, sending the kids to Europe used to happen a good bit. I think that many schools had organized trips to France or Britain.

Just to verify some of these memories from three decades ago, I did a quick Google, and I found a West Virginia high school history of the 1970s that mentions just such a school trip to France.

[listenhillary]

The war in Iraq is going to cost over a trillion dollars(that we dont have and must borrow), and most people support all of that spending.

What is the cost of not fighting the Islamofacists?

[superiorslots]

Quote: Who are you to suggest I should feel guilty for shopping there? I'm retired and on a fixed income. Why should I pay higher prices for any item, just to satisfy someone else's concept of fair trade. It's none of your business...stay out of my wallet.



Translation: I got my comfy pension and SS and screw all the younger people and their own grandchildren who still have to work.

Typical "I got mine-screw everyone else" senior citizen greed/attitude that is so prevelant today.

[SandyB]

The war in Iraq is going to cost over a trillion dollars(that we dont have and must borrow), and most people support all of that spending.

What is the cost of not fighting the Islamofacists?

Apparently not very much. All of the other presidents, did not spend anything on it, why is this president having problems? Why are they a problem only now after not being a problem for hundreds of years?

Bush is spending over a trillion dollars on his war that other presidents did not spend anything on it. People attack you for reasons. To stop them you find out why it is happening and deal with that.