China

The Dragon's GDP coming in not as high...still relatively good compared to US.

Bloomberg is reporting the latest Gross Domestic Product figures for China.  The figures are below what many expected, pointing to what we've all been talking about.  Basically the growth is slowing. Reading this, the fear is that the government is now going to have to refocus from exports to aid in producing real consumption from the average citizen.  The stimulus plan in place is helping, but it's not enough.

 

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- China’s gross domestic product, battered by collapsing exports, grew at the slowest pace in almost 10 years, probably marking the low point for the world’s third-biggest economy.

Meet the new masters.

This article says it all. Our financial geniuses think they are so smart, but we are way behind the curve. All of those foreigners who go to Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford and all the other elite institutions here pay attention. They are able to assimilate not only how the US thinks, but they are very good at formulating Long Term National Strategies maximizing their positions. On the other hand, our best and brightest just seem to be learning how to get rich in the short term. Unfortunately, the end game indicates that we will all be Chinese one day.

China's State Reserves Bureau (SRB) has instead been buying copper and other industrial metals over recent months on a scale that appears to go beyond the usual rebuilding of stocks for commercial reasons.

China's export collapse continues

Bloomberg reports that:

China’s exports fell for a fifth month in March....

Overseas sales declined 17.1 percent to $90.29 billion from a year earlier, the customs bureau said on its Web site. Imports dropped 25.1 percent, leaving a trade surplus of $18.56 billion.
....
The export decline was less than February’s record 25.7 percent drop.

China Decoupling from the Dollar - Enabling Yuan Currency Swaps

Anyone have some good analysis on what happens if China stops buying U.S. debt? Bloomberg is reporting China to Boost Yuan Swaps, Payments on Dollar Concern:

China’s leaders, increasingly concerned about the nation’s $740 billion of U.S. Treasuries, are making it easier for trading partners and consumers to do business in yuan.

The People’s Bank of China has agreed to provide 650 billion yuan ($95 billion) to Argentina, Belarus, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea through so-called currency- swaps. More such arrangements are being planned so importers can avoid paying for Chinese goods with dollars, the central bank said. In Hong Kong, which has pegged the currency to its U.S. counterpart since 1983, stores from Park’n Shop supermarkets to jewelers accept yuan.

China wants to replace U.S. dollar with new reserve currency

Here we go. China pushes SDR as global super-currency:

Zhou's speech shows that the issue is a pressing one for China, whose top officials regularly bemoan the volatility of the dollar and what they see as U.S. economic mismanagement.

Creating a new, widely accepted reserve currency may take a long time, Zhou acknowledged. It would be a "bold initiative that requires extraordinary political vision and courage".

SDR ADVANTAGES

Allocating more SDRs would give the IMF more resources and help it address imbalances in power within the fund, where big emerging economies like China muster a fraction of the votes cast by Europe and by the United States, which wields a veto.

As well as a further allocation of SDRs, Zhou proposed a series of steps to broaden the unit's use so it can evolve into a reserve currency:

What a surprise, toxic drywall from China

It never ends and we do not have inspections at ports and lord knows what is in our products anymore since they are made overseas.

The latest? toxc drywall causes houses to smell, make people sick and even destroy their home appliances.

shipping records indicate tens of thousands of residences in the United States, with a good chunk of them in Florida, may have drywall from the manufacturers

"tens of thousands" can be 10,000 to 1,000,000 properties.

The drywall was imported in 2005, 2006. God knows what else or shoddy goods were going on during the height of the housing bubble.

the drywall has caused them to suffer health problems such as headaches and sore throats and face huge repair expenses.

Geithner Backs Off China currency manipulation

Surprise, surprise. Treasury Secretary Geithner backed off the well known and well documented currency manipulation by China. Anyone believe that's because China now owns the United States?

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pushed Group of Seven officials to soften criticism of China last month after his accusation that the nation was “manipulating” the yuan strained ties with the U.S.’s second- biggest trading partner, said a person briefed on the matter.

G-7 finance ministers and central bankers on Feb. 14 welcomed “China’s fiscal measures and continued commitment to move to a more flexible exchange rate.” By contrast, the group in April 2008 pressed for “accelerated appreciation” of the yuan.

China Importing Electric Cars to the United States

Classic China. In this government controlled Chinese press is this report:

Shandong Baoya Vehicle Co., Ltd. received orders from the US this year for the purchase of 4,800 electric cars.

Baoya electric car possesses its own core technologies including driveline technology for the chassis of electric cars, as well as adaptation and optimization technologies for drive motors, according to Zhang Haibo, Baoya's General Manager.

"At present, all our products are for export. In 2008, 500 cars were exported to the US, and orders from the US this year have already reached 4,800 units." Zhang said.

Pages