I've heard that if you owe a thousand dollars, the bank owns you; if you owe a hundred million dollars, you own the bank. I'm not sure how true that is. It appears, though, that
our supervisors are convinced:
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A group of U.S. senators sought to increase pressure on Chinese President Hu Jintao ahead of his summit with President Barack Obama this week, predicting U.S. lawmakers will pass legislation this year to crack down on Beijing's exchange rate policy.
"The time for talk is over. We've had enough of China's empty verbiage," Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), a longtime critic of China's currency policy, said during a Monday conference call with reporters.
We interrupt the story at this point to note that the salary of Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y., and a qualified expert on "empty verbiage") is being paid through borrowing from the Chinese. Now, to continue:
Schumer was joined by fellow Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) and Bob Casey (D., Pa.) on the call to back legislation targeting countries that artificially value their currencies.
We interrupt once again to ask fellow Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) and Bob Casey (D., Pa.) what the "natural" way is for countries to value their currencies, and whether they are quite sure that the United State has fully avoided artificiality in this respect. Hearing no answer, we again continue:
The measure would increase pressure on the Treasury Department to cite countries with artificial exchange rate policies, as well as make changes to U.S. trade law targeting such currency issues.
"Our message to President Hu is 'Welcome to the United States, but we want to make sure we have a fair trading system,'" Stabenow said.
Yes, whenever I want advice on living a sober and productive life, I always seek out the town drunk. Speaking of whom: wasn't that Uncle Sam I just saw, staggering to the curb outside the local gin mill?
3 comments:
Jim, that last paragraph is a gem!
Yes, Jim, I also like the last paragraph.
Your interesting and insightful analysis is much more than most people ever think about. Unfortunately, most people believe the government propaganda. Drinking the government kool-aid includes believing that the government schools offer "free" education; as a taxpayer in two states and a non-partaker of government schools thus far, I realize that my tax money provides these supposedly free schools.
Tonight, on NPR's Fresh Air, Terri Gross (sp?) was interviewing Paul Krugman. She asked him about the "gold standard" that so many "conservatives" now support; when conservatives are mentioned on NPR, the meaning is generally those idiots who don't want to support the raping and pillaging of the public by means of forced taxation--what's wrong with them?!? Krugman went on to pontificate about how useless the gold standard is these days and how the "Bernanke standard," a term I'm sure Krugman patted himself on the back for using, is so much more aligned with our lifestyles, i.e., we can pretend that the dollar has much more value than it actually does, and everyone will be very happy.
Oh, I had to turn the station, for sure, but still, I couldn't help but think of how many people were eagerly swallowing Krugman's words, believing that this supposed expert can only tell the truth, especially on truth-saturated NPR (yeah, right).
You're both very kind.
I wonder: if we're on the "Bernanke standard," that should mean that the price of Bernankes would be pretty much constant, right? Which is something I can get behind. Bernanke can be worth nothing -- yesterday, today, and forever, world without end. So let it be written; so let it be done!
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