Slashdot Mirror
China's State Press Calls For 'Building a De-Americanized World'
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Businessweek reports on some not-so-subtle commentary from China's official Xinhua News Agency on the U.S. budget showdown: 'It is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world.' Key among its proposals: the creation of a new international reserve currency to replace the present reliance on U.S. dollars. 'The cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising the debt ceiling has again left many nations' tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized,' the authors write. 'The world is still crawling its way out of an economic disaster thanks to the voracious Wall Street elites.' The commentary calls for a greater role for developing-market economies in both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, adding 'the authority of the United Nations in handling global hot-spot issues has to be recognized. That means no one has the right to wage any form of military action against others without a UN mandate.' The commentary concludes that 'the purpose of promoting these changes is not to completely toss the United States aside, which is also impossible. Rather, it is to encourage Washington to play a much more constructive role in addressing global affairs.'"
Meanwhile, U.S. Senate Leaders are claiming a deal is close to reopen the federal government until mid-January and defer the debt ceiling debate until mid-February.
The Slashdot summary already nicely shows why the Chinese do have a point of sorts:
"a deal is close to reopen the federal government until mid-January and defer the debt ceiling debate until mid-February."
In other words, the only thing they seem to be able to come up with is a deal to kick the can down the road for four months - and in the meantime, in all probability do exactly nothing about the underlying fundamental problems which have caused this mess in the first place.
You know, these pesky little details, like the U.S. habitually spending way more than it actually takes in tax earnings. As in: WAY more. A bit more could be argued to work in some lets-fudge-the-books-and-rely-on-inflation-to-make-it-work way, but the U.S. is light years from that sort of sustainable level. And no one wants to admit it.
The bit where the Chinese are IMHO wrong is that it will need any sort of centralised planning to achieve this replacement of the U.S. as hub of the global economy. That will just happen, inevitably. The fundamentals are gone, no way the U.S. can stay where it is. What will come afterwards is very uncertain - but things can stay the way they are.
China and many other nations would love to see another currency supplant the U.S dollar or at the very least have a credible alternative, but the truth is that currently there is no currency that could do that. The Chinese renminbi is not free floating, the euro is not even guaranteed to survive, Japan is too leaden with debt which puts into question the future stability of the yen, and finally the British sterling, Canadian or Australian dollars etc are simply backed by too small of a economy to be considered serious contenders.
"Yeah that's cool sweetheart" says china "you two look good together, but first can you give those trillions of dollars i loaned you back."
Rocket Surgeon.
Or in short: the US will fulfill its obligations to allies and creditors who've played the game in good faith. To China and others who've gamed the system-- well, that's another story, and in the next days and weeks, we may very well see, what action the US can use, to re-balance the sheets.
I'm not seeing any evidence to support that. Going by recent history, the US seems perfectly happy to trample over its allies to secure its putative interests.
the US will fulfill its obligations to allies and creditors who've played the game in good faith.
Nope, not even close. The USA will default on those debts by inflation.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
No they don't, Europe gets a lot of its energy from Russia. You don't have the monopoly you think you do.
There are not many countries that would prefer to be under Russia's thumb, however loudly they complain about the US.
There are not many countries that would prefer to be under Russia's thumb, however loudly they complain about the US.
Historically not. This is because it was widely known that Russia would screw you over hard.
With the recent revelations about NSA it is pretty clear that the US us following the same fucked up realpolitik and that you have to think of dealing with US in the same way as you think about dealing with Russia.
While both nations have a lot of wealth it is generally more beneficial to deal with other more idealistic nations.
It may seem like it is naive to be "soft" and kind hearted but in the long run people learn that they can trust you. I have seen this a lot in the business sector. Companies that makes sure that everyone involved benefits form the deals makes it in the long run.
Those who screws people over only lasts until word gets around. They do great for a decade or two until everyone else realizes that there is more money in working with other people.
China has no intention of fighting a *military* war. They're just sitting back and letting the U.S. bankrupt itself on a ridiculously over-sized military that it doesn't need, thus winning the *economic* war without firing a shot.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."