Sure, Boycott China, If You Want to Walk Around Naked

North Star Writers Group ^ | April 15, 2008 | Lucia de Vernai

[Invisigoth]

Not shopping at Wal-Mart is inconvenient and costly, but just as I was weaning myself off Sam’s Choice animal crackers, it turns out that avoiding the only place that will sell you The Breakfast Club for $5 is not enough. The liberal yuppie peer pressure has moved on to boycotting all products made in China.

Would you like me to stop breathing to not pollute the environment while I’m at it too? Actually, don’t answer that. The new pet project of the J.Crew-clad Inquisition has the right foundation – China’s record of human rights abuses in prisons and in the workplace is grounds for boycott. But the economic reality, and growing guilt most Americans are experiencing, makes the call for a boycott of the country’s biggest trade partner fall on deaf ears.

No large U.S. retailer is willing (read: stupid enough) to not carry Chinese products. In the year following their 2004 joining of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and consequent release from quotas, the volume of Chinese clothing exports increased over 500 percent, and prices dropped almost 50 percent. If that’s just numbers to you, do this experiment: Check the perimeter to see if your boss is out of the way, duck in your cubicle and start checking your tags. Even if the leather on your shoes comes from Italy, the sole is Chinese. Your shirt? Yes, Made in China. Your underpants? Ditto.

[dragnet2]

I think it's all this isolationism that is screwing us up.

:o

[Caramelgal]

Seems like there a lot of different numbers being quoted and not to not to argue with the Federal Reserve but…

Source

China's foreign reserves, already the world's largest, have risen past $1.2 trillion, a state news agency said Thursday, amid surging trade and plans to create a multibillion-dollar company to invest some of the stockpile.

The composition of China's foreign currency reserves is a secret. But as much as 75 percent is believed to be in US dollar-denominated instruments, mostly Treasuries, with the rest in euros and a small amount in yen.

75% of 1.2 trillion would be closer to 9 billion and a lot more than 20% of our total treasury securities based on the 500 billion figure. But in any case, 500 billion, 1 trillion or 900 billion, I still find that very concerning. Don’t you?

[Just another Joe]

They said the food was unrecognizable (and inedible).

Unrecognizable, perhaps to those not conversant in actual Chinese food.
Inedible, not hardly. They must have hit some bad cooks.

[Toddsterpatriot]

75% of 1.2 trillion would be closer to 9 billion and a lot more than 20% of our total treasury securities based on the 500 billion figure.

The public debt is about $5 trillion, so their holdings are about 10%.

But in any case, 500 billion, 1 trillion or 900 billion, I still find that very concerning. Don’t you?

The original post was about China selling our Treasuries. So what happens if they sell $500 billion of our Treasuries?

[AnAmericanMother]

Tour must have been on the cheap.

My F-in-L was a globetrotter, they went everywhere from Tierra del Fuego to Tibet, he wouldn't have said it was inedible if it weren't.

[mass55th]

“Clothing is wonderful, but let them go naked for a while, at least the kids.” —Teresa Heinz Kerry

[TigersEye]

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