6/13/2013

The irrational fears of the Americans

Actually the fears are not irrational but concocted in one way and a self inflicted fear in another way. The Americans could not stomach the huge trade deficits they have had with the Chinese and the huge debt that they owed to the Chinese. But they cannot help not wanting to trade with the Chinese, buying extremely cheap products, or keep selling Treasury notes to the Chinese. No other country could sell them reasonable products at ridiculously low prices, and no country will buy Treasury notes in such big numbers. In fact the Americans were begging the Chinese to do so. The Chinese are funding the Americans in their big spending appetite and consumption. The Chinese are extending credits to the Americans to live a good life.

And the Americans keep blaming the Chinese for taking advantage of cheap Yuan to make their products cheaper. Unfair trading practices! The Yuan must rise to make Chinese products more expensive to buy. Is that what the Americans really want? Now the Chinese have gone ahead to appease the Americans by allowing the Yuan to rise. It has gone up by more than 10% since the American Congress started to rattle the sabre.

So now what? Aren’t the Americans happy that they have forced the Chinese to heel? They should, they got what they wanted. But everything is a double edged sword. Now there is a new heighten fear in America. With the appreciating Yuan, everything in America becomes cheaper for the Chinese to buy. With more than 3 trillion US dollars in their war chest, the Chinese could buy up quite a bit of America. The big names are going, Walmart, Apple, Boeing, General Electric, General Motor, the banks and finance houses etc etc.

But of course the Americans are not going to sell. And this is the main reason why they are having such a huge trade deficit with the Chinese. The Americans just want to buy from the Chinese but did not want to sell to the Chinese. How silly? Oh, there is a long list of strategic reasons not to sell to the Chinese. Everything can be explained in terms of national security. So military stuff is off the shelf. Then strategic products, aircraft, electronics, ITs and financial institutions, mines, golf courses, everything can be explained in terms of national security too.

Believe it, the buying of a hog factory producing food, also came under heavy fire for strategic reasons. Food is strategic, sure, of course. What else is not? Educating the Chinese in American universities is transfer of knowledge and technology. The Chinese should be barred from being schooled in America. Better still, the Chinese should be barred from entering the US. And there should not be any trades with the Chinese, not even peanuts as this is also a food item.

Well well, what else is new in the brilliant American mindset? Is it irrational? Can the top thinkers or congressmen and women be irrational?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everybody wants to have their cake and eat it lah.

So why should the Americans, or for that matter, the PAP, or Sinkies, be any different?

PAP wants more foreigners and high economic growth and Sinkies also want their jobs to be protected from foreigners. So can or not?

Sinkies want a better and stronger opposition but Sinkies dare not or do not want to join opposition. So can or not?



virgo48 said...

USA kept blaming china for spying and hacking.

Now they are disclosed to be the main culprits to hack the PRC systems.

Haha!!!;

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Aiyah redbean, geo political wayang.

America wants its cake and eat it too. China wants its cake and eat it too. America prints money. China prints money -- they both have debased their currency, with one BIG and IMPORTANT difference: China can pay back its loans, America has to keep borrowing just to service the interest.

America has the world's reserve currency. And they print as much as they and the rest of the world needs. So some cuntrees got fed-up and said: "Let's trade directly, by-passing the need to value our exchanges in USDs" Ok, sign bilateral trading agreements. Fuck America!!

The some financial calamity happens. US Fed to the rescue. Print more money to "bail out" cuntrees who've defaulted: Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia, the EU..."Oh thank you Big White Daddy America, please let us suck your dick now...sorry for all that anti-American sentiment in the past."

The western consumers love "cheap". But they hate it when they lose their jobs to China or India.

What to do? Nothing. We are on a fiat (paper) money system. Governments can print or soak up what they want, any time for any made-up reason.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

The Americans can only bully the Chinese for another few years. When the military power is nearer to parity, and with the huge debt owing to China, the Chinese will have the Americans by their balls.

Anonymous said...

Americans firms are foolish enough to invest so much in china. If they love cheap labour, they can find them everywhere in east europe, russia or outside china. Serve them right for being so pro china and cheapo.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

redbean 343:

>> When the military power is nearer to parity

Looking at things the way they are, that is a long, long way away. Sure China may have the numbers, but their hardware is suspect and training...well, let's just say the US are the world's #1 war mongers, and it is something they do extremely well, because thy not only train like nuts, but have the real world opportunity to integrate their hardware, software and human ware in ongoing wars, refining their military strategy and tactics. They've learned from the errors made in Korea, Vietnam and every failed mission, and modified.

They've even learned from the terrorists they've been fighting and have incorporated terrorist tactics and strategies into their fighting. Improvise, Adapt and Overcome -- the unofficial slogan of US Forces, now adopted by the corporate and private sectors in civilian business life, also by all those fake "motivational" gurus who make money off gullible stupid people.

The US have global infrastructure as far as military goes. They also have killer intel. Simply put, it comes down to MONEY.

The US military spending is more than the next 10 cuntrees COMBINED .

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Really, your mind is stuck in the shit of the 90s. The Chinese are firing their rockets to the moon like firing firecrackers.

Everytime the Americans launch an Apollo mission they wet their pants and praying them hard that it won't blow up.

The Chinese equipment may not have the nice finish, but they function just as well. Why do you think so many countries are paying for Chinese taxi services for their satellites instead of the Americans? Reliability.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

redbean:

>> The Chinese equipment may not have the nice finish, but they function just as well.

Please lah. Failure rate is high. But they need to "save face" so they'll show you the stuff that works.

China is all about "face". They always have something to prove, and they'll be dishonest about it if they need to be.

All this cultural/ national insecurity bullshit about "face". If a Chinese thinks you made him "lose face" and you'd better prepare to defend yourself. This "face" thing is purely emotional. And if they don't change, this "lose face" / "save face" / "I must impress people" will ultimately be China's downfall.

Get over your sense of insecurity lah redbean. Honestly, it's embarrasing.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

redbean:

>> Really, your mind is stuck in the shit of the 90s.

Actually no, I hang out with a lot of ex- SAS, Navy SEALs etc and other trained legal murderers ;-)

>> Everytime the Americans launch an Apollo mission they wet their pants and praying them hard that it won't blow up.

Absolutely. If you take the trouble to see what kind of shit the human body is up against in space, you'd know that anything can go wrong.

Thankfully the US has cut NASA's budget, so they don't have to "show off" anymore by shooting humans into space. They use ROBOTS -- safer, more bang for the buck and the amount of science they've gleaned far outstrips human missions into space.

Meanwhile, the Chinese are hell bent on trying to "impress the world" by shooting humans into space. And they haven't even made it to the moon yet.

China has had its share of space mission failures. Yep, people have died. Going into space is dangerous. Failure is expected lah.