Posted on 09/30/2011 4:16:52 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Sept. 29, 2011, 6:19 p.m. EDT
China hard-landing fears hit high-end retailers
The tumble came amid growing fears of a hard economic landing in China, which has emerged as a key driver of the world’s economy in the wake of the global financial crisis.
The concerns circle around the possibility that China could face a sharp slowdown in exports in coming months, aggravating the headwinds facing the Asian country and dampening the nation’s demand for premium brands such as Louis Vuitton and Tiffany.
“Fears of a hard landing in China have once again intensified. While our base case remains a soft landing led mainly by an investment slowdown, we see increasing downside risk from the situation in Europe and at home,” Barclays Capital economists led by Yiping Huang wrote in a report earlier this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Buy American what? Which items are manufactured domestically in sufficient quantities to satisfy American consumer demand?
Given a climate that is hostile to business development (thanks to high-labor-cost unions and a government that over-taxes and over-regulates), which manufacturers would be foolish enough to move their operations back to the US?
China has come a long way very fast. The economic progress has probably outrun the social, cultural, and political adaptations that are needed. That makes things tricky. From a trade standpoint, China has to develop the understanding that with size comes systemic responsibility. Predatory mercantalism worked for them on the way up, but the Chinese economy is now large enough that the old approach is destabilizing the international order on which China now depends. People being what they are, a couple of hard knocks will probably be part of the learning experience.
China has to learn that a serious U.S. recession is a high-cost, high-risk proposition for China as well.
Manufacturing will (immediately) re-appear as if by magic, if we simply implement across-the-board import tariffs.
If import tariffs are raised precisely to the point at which it becomes slightly more cost efficient to produce and sell here, than to fire Americans.
We will see the true, invisible hand of the marketplace perform simple magic. Right in front of our eyes.
America first.
bump.
So... price the affordable stuff out of the marketplace. Interesting. Somehow, Americans will be happy to pay greatly inflated prices (where will they get the money for this??), all in the name of patriotism.
You talk about the "true, invisible hand of the marketplace", yet you propose tariffs, which is about as egregious a government manipulation of the marketplace as one can find.
Look: government is the PROBLEM, not the solution!
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