Free Republic

Far down in the article ... There are only two policy options: 1) Grasp the nettle and refuse to bail out debt-funded speculative excesses, thereby popping the Everything Bubble, or 2) play the game of keeping the bubble expanding until it implodes on its own, an end-game made inevitable by the systemic instabilities intrinsic to bubbles. Xi has correctly chosen Policy #1, and to do so has positioned the Party as the defender of the people, i.e. anti-corruption, shackling the Big Tech billionaires like Jack Ma, and announcing that the state will not bail out EverGrande. The Federal Reserve and...

Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise on the US debt ceiling, putting an end to the White House shutdown on Thursday morning and bringing a temporary solution to the debt crisis. Nonetheless, the 11th-hour deal will stay effective only till February 7, 2014 and the two parties will face the possibility of another bitter budget calamity early next year. As the single largest foreign creditor of the US, China has every reason to feel anxious. It has been years since Chinese started calling for the central government to slash US debt holdings and such appeals have been flaring up recently....

China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating cut its credit rating for United States debt by one notch to A-minus from A on Thursday, saying an agreement reached by Congress to raise the government’s borrowing ceiling failed to address the root cause of its debt issue. Should investors care? In theory the answer is yes, as China is a large holder of US Treasuries. If Chinese officials were to take this downgrade seriously, they may end up trimming China’s holdings of US Treasuries, causing a market sell off. In practice however, the answer is no, for four reasons. First, it is very...

RICHMOND, Va. – The head of Smithfield Foods Inc. is trying to ease concerns that the proposed takeover of the world's largest pork producer by a Chinese company would pose risks to the U.S. food supply. CEO Larry Pope testified Wednesday at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on the pending deal struck in May with Shuanghui International, China's largest meat producer. The plan, which is subject to federal and shareholder approvals, is expected to close later this year. It would be the largest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm, valued at about $7.1 billion including debt. Committee...