Live data from Hacker News

U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

wsj.com

301–310 of 356 posts

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#301
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean they sorta already are? Xi Jinpeng was calling Vladimir Putin his "closest, most dearest friend" just a month or two ago. They already oppose the US (along with Russia) on every major international issue.

> Xi Jinpeng was calling Vladimir Putin his "closest, most dearest friend" Why would anyone care what state heads say (this includes Trump and his comments about NK)? It means nothing and has no consequence...except maybe preventing fickle market fluctuation. You never hear "I hate this guy" because it's just pablum. Convince me otherwise. I really don't understand why you would cite that as something meaningful.

I couldn't agree with you more ;-)

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The us decoupling itself from China would be an unmitigated disaster for the us as China would align itself with Russia.

Russia is an irrelevant economic factor in the 21st century. Their export is fossil fuels, and that's about it.

Northeast passage in a couple of decades might be a big boom for Russia and China.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#303
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Α 10000ft gorilla of a superpower, meddling in foreign countries, toppling governments, spying, downright invading to "bring democracy", blackmailing, buying foreign politicians and influence, maintaining bases all over the world, playing one neighbor country against another for support, forced them. It might not register that much on the giving end, but it's common knowledge on the receiving end...

All those actions you list are sadly true, but they don't really force anyone to use a specific currency. Now if a country was invaded, its government replaced, and its currency literally replaced, then that would be forcing.

you can call it whatever you want as long as we're on the same page

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that's funny, you should see the Pizza Huts.

That’s true. To be fair though, Chinese version of Pizza Huts & KFC is whole another level better

Pizza Hut sure, but KFC is similar to its American fast food incarnation. Starbucks serves as the consistently nice place to hang out, in both the USA and China, so no surprise there. Interesting aspect that in China there are many less TOGO orders, people are really paying for the nice place to hang out part.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) and 3) to a lesser extent. China's currency has been pegged to the USD for some time now. This is actually a common arrangement. A currency peg is basically a commitment by a government to keep its exchange rate with another country at a certain value, mostly to aid exports. It does this by buying and selling currencies, usually leveraging very large reserves. There are several reasons why the past few Admin. have…

> prompting a symbolic US response. What makes it symbolic?

So far, it's just words, really. If it results in a WTO finding against China, we could expect it to be followed up by something non-symbolic.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#306
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean they sorta already are? Xi Jinpeng was calling Vladimir Putin his "closest, most dearest friend" just a month or two ago. They already oppose the US (along with Russia) on every major international issue.

> Xi Jinpeng was calling Vladimir Putin his "closest, most dearest friend" Why would anyone care what state heads say (this includes Trump and his comments about NK)? It means nothing and has no consequence...except maybe preventing fickle market fluctuation. You never hear "I hate this guy" because it's just pablum. Convince me otherwise. I really don't understand why you would cite that as something meaningful.

Well, it cannot be taken at face value, but it can mean something. It means that there is an understanding by Russian and Chinese heads of state that they could have a common interest in keeping the U.S. from acting as a world despot.

Of course, Russia and China have attempted to unite vs. U.S. interests before, and it always turns out that they have more to disagree/argue about than they have to agree on. But it doesn't mean that it's not worth mentioning.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#307
post #160

One thing that I think is getting lost in this discussion is the role of intent on currency manipulation. Switzerland has the strongest currency in the world due to the country's reputation for governmental and financial stability. This makes Swiss labor extremely expensive for reasons mostly outside of their control, and the Swiss government has tried (and largely failed) to remedy this. Technically, this is devalua…

What an oddly balanced and rational post. You must be new to the Internet.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US decoupling itself from China would have an avalanche of effects, including huge inflation on most consumer goods, and outright product shortages. China is also a huge foreign debt holder, and if presumably no longer a buyer due to decoupling, will send US interest rates skyrocketing.

> China is also a huge foreign debt holder, and if presumably no longer a buyer due to decoupling, will send US interest rates skyrocketing. Before that happens, the capital exodus demanding to liquidate their Yuan for USD would have burned through the country's USD reserves and they would be insolvent. This is quite similar to what happened in South Korea in 1997 and it took IMF intervention to stabilize the country…

Who exactly will be demanding to liquidate their yuan? Offshore yuan deposits amount to under ¥2tn. China has foreign exchange reserves worth $3.1tn (¥21.8tn). Enough to buy back all offshore yuan deposits ten times over, and still have more reserves than all but eleven countries.

China has enforced strict capital and currency controls over decades to protect its currency from external shocks like an attempted run on the yuan. There may be lots of vulnerabilities in the Chinese financial system, but currency is not one.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#309
post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China holds only 5% of US federal government debt, down from a peak of 11%. If they stop buying it won't cause interest rates to skyrocket. The impact would be a few basis points at most.

That is presuming private ownership effects won't be big. And they will be. China owns more corporate debt in the US than anywhere else and it is a high percentage.

Not necessarily. If the Chinese yuan is devaluing, Chinese investors want very much to hold US dollar denominated debt.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The us decoupling itself from China would be an unmitigated disaster for the us as China would align itself with Russia.

Russia has the population of Nigeria and the GDP of Italy. The cold war ended a while ago. Worrying about them today makes about as much sense as worrying about Autria in 1930 because Austrohungaria used to be a world power.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN