Ah, the old free-trade mantra raises its little head. So, you're comparing a skilled moldmaker, who works with 3D CAD and 5-axis high-speed machining centers, with a guy who sharpens knives on the back of a truck?
You sound like Grant Aldonis, Assistant Sec. of Commerce. He thinks our productivity is too low to compete. He apparently didn't read his own department's figures, which show that we have the highest productivity in the world.
As you sit there telling other people what they must do, bg, what is it you suggest? Should they all start becoming middlemen for China?
You don't understand the question. Geographic advantage relates to an advantageous climate or low-cost trans-shipping. In terms of trade with the US, China has neither.
We aren't talking about "most countries." We're talking about the US. Again, no advantage overall.
And your argument is utter nonsense. The US is the most innovative economy in the world. So, your cure for an assault by low-wage mercantilism is to do something that you can't think of yourself, and that this country already does better than anyone else. That sounds like a self-serving excuse to me, bg, when it's coming from someone who's engaged in foreign trade himself. Your prescription seems to be, "go away, I have mine."
Ooh, more government planning and spending. They're going to take your Junior Libertarian Free-Trade Decoder Ring away from you if you keep talking like that, bg.
enterprises,
You neglect to mention that this is only in a few select cities, and most of the foreign banks' RMB services are only allowed to Chinese businesses, not to the foreigners doing business in China. The phased "liberalization" of foreign banks in China won't be complete until 2007.
Meanwhile, our Fed. Reserve estimates that the non-performing loan (NPL) percentage among major Chinese banks is around 60%. In a competitive marketplace, banks are usually insolvent when their NPL goes above 20%. Their capital-adequacy ratios (CARs) are still far below the international norm of 8%, while they're demanding far higher ratios, well ABOVE the international norm, from foreign banks that want to do business in China. At the same time, they have limited the inter-bank loans from Chinese banks to foreign banks, which is one of their few sources of RMB, assuring that their growth will be limited, and that Chinese banks won't have to compete with them except at that margins, for quite a long time to come. They're barely sticking to the letter of their WTO agreements, but it's obvious they're doing everything they can to hold back the tide.
But China's banks are not in a competitive marketplace. If they were, as I said, they'd have a run and go belly-up before week's end.
Ah, bg, that ship set sail in June of 2002. Maybe your subscription to the People's Daily is running a little behind.
American Automobile Network Holdings Inc. was the remnant of the collapsed Daewoo dealer network in the U.S. All hat, no cattle. No cars, either.
The cars were slated to land in Port Everglades, Fla., but the US government wouldn't allow them to pass through customs because they don't meet US emissions standards. The ship was re-routed to Mexico, and then apparently it was decided they'd land in Port Everglades after all, for trans-shipment to Africa.
They haven't been heard from since. They may have tried to cross the Bermuda Triangle...
There could be a connection, though, with an incident in which the golf carts at the Boca Raton Country Club were replaced in the dead of night by a fleet of funny little hardtops with radios and turn signals, and with tear-off pads of Chinese takeout menus stuffed into the glove boxes. Under the vehicles' insignia, which no one recognizes, are the words "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy."
Golfers are generally pleased with the new vehicles, although they complain about the lack of air conditioning and a noxious odor coming from their trunks. "It smells like somebody has been living in there for weeks," says Boca Raton police chief Billy-Bob Turkle. "But it can't be, because those trunks are so small you could barely stuff a Chinaman in there."
The mysterious replacement of the golf carts, which turned up in a hand-laundry parking lot near Clearwater, is under investigation. Police report that the carts were missing their batteries and tires.
Yeah, a grand total of 900 luxury Buicks. But I was responding to this statement of yours: "VW, audi, Peugeot, Toyota, Honda and Nissan have all been benefitting greatly. I dont believe all have been exporting full vehicles, but many have." One assumes that the Shanghai VW executive quoted in that article knows where the cars that his company makes are going.
The total passenger car exports from China this year, which are all trial balloons, run to less than 2,000 vehicles, including SUVs, to other parts of Asia, Turkey, Iran, and Africa. The joke is that they're all being bought by Chinese foreign diplomats. That isn't trade. That's cultural exchange.
Yeah, more research. Maybe you can send me your year-old "People's Daily's" so I can find out what happened last year.
Any word on the Xiali ghost ship?
-- Ed Huntress (remove "3" from email address for email reply)