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China Has $3T of ‘Hidden’ Currency Reserves, Setser Says

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Re: China Has $3T of ‘Hidden’ Currency Reserves, Setser Says

#231

Post by ethbr0 »

simonh wrote: post #227
ethbr0 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The [Chinese] military is very firmly under Party control. The point about the military-industrial complex capturing politicians isn't about control, but rather excess procurement. On the one hand, China has a long way to reach parity with the US. On the other hand, they're building extremely quickly, and that means lots of government money going to corporations. Subsequent restrictions to that funding flow tend to…

So long as China knows that's their only winning move that's fine, but especially given Xi's tendency to shoot the messenger and pack his administration with barely competent yes men we have no idea what he 'knows'.

It was assumed that Putin was rational enough not to make the blunder he did.

The uncertainty bands would seem to be wide, in both more- and less-competent directions, in gazing into the navels of autocratic regimes.

Re: China Has $3T of ‘Hidden’ Currency Reserves, Setser Says

#232

Post by partiallypro »

fooker wrote: post #195
partiallypro wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relatively speaking it's undeniable that the US has been the most "friendly" "empire" or "super power" in World history. That doesn't mean it's never done anything wrong.

This is only true if you live in a handful of North America and West European countries.

It's just true in general, past empires were far more brutal than the US.

Re: China Has $3T of ‘Hidden’ Currency Reserves, Setser Says

#233

Post by scotty79 »

candiodari wrote: post #193
scotty79 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in cases of hugely unequal powers it's a stabilizing factor. US stabilizes so many countries by making them dependent.

And while I don't subscribe to the idea of US exceptionalism, in this particular case the US really is exceptional. Historically, international debts were cause for invasion or colonization, and that seems to be repeating with China.

US is exceptional, but only due to its strength which is the result of it spinning up its economy during WWII and suffering none of the devastation that all of the old powers suffered. US is clipping coupons ever since, still operating on semi-wartime economy that needs an enemy to justify its existence. But after those few decades, cracks started showing. Worst tragedy is that US thinks it's exceptional and successful because of how it does all the things and is afraid to change anything about it. Even in areas where clearly superior solutions exist and were already adopted by virtual entirety of the civilized world.

Re: China Has $3T of ‘Hidden’ Currency Reserves, Setser Says

#234

Post by tome »

ithkuil wrote: post #68
vkou wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's certainly a problem! If it were a problem, Washington could get it resolved in a year. It's not a problem, because half the people bankrolling political campaigns are neck-deep in it! Their businesses are built on it! On cheap labour, on captive markets, on sources of third-world resources that are accessed through theft, violence, or corruption! And even if you aren't directly involved, our society will not f…

I see two kinds of people saying either: 1. The west is doing immoral things and hiding it. Let's talk about it and force people in charge to change things or change the people in charge! Or: 2. The west is doing immoral things. Let's root for these other guys who are also doing immoral things; eventually they will replace the west and then somebody will figure out how to stop them from doing the immoral things. I th…

Thanks, I think this is a very astute analysis

Re: China Has $3T of ‘Hidden’ Currency Reserves, Setser Says

#235

Post by TrapLord_Rhodo »

crazygringo wrote: post #217
TrapLord_Rhodo wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this seems to misunderstand what tarrifs actually do. It's the US companies that pay the tarrifs. The concept of 'if we increase the tarrifs, US manufacturing will come back". That's not how the world works. It takes years to switch a manufacturer depending on terms, who owns the molds, etc. Placing tarrifs on China hurts American consumers. Instead, there should be tax incentives for producing stateside.

I'm not arguing whether tarriffs are good or bad, but the absolutely do work. > It's the US companies that pay the tarrifs. No, customers pay the tarriffs at the end of the day. Companies raise the prices of imported goods to cover the tarriffs, and tarriffs in this case are set so that the final retail price of imported goods matches (or exceeds) the domestic manufacturing price. > The concept of 'if we increase the…

>No, customers pay the tarriffs at the end of the day.

This depends on the product and the type of demand. If it's inelastic, yes. if it's consumer focused, yes. But most of the time that's not the case. Tarrifs on material exports ar b2b, where pricing agreements are common.

At the end of the day, tarrifs create downward pressure on companies profit margins. If you instead, gave incentives it would put upward pressure on the companies who created fucundity for the economy.

Re: China Has $3T of ‘Hidden’ Currency Reserves, Setser Says

#236

Post by htss2013 »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #157
jacquesm wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The smartest thing the west can do from now on is dump fiat currencies, switch to crypto Seriously? WTF?

Crypto isn't possible with todays tech, because it's an ever increasing bug bounty program that's super slow and has no undo button for fraud (which the elderly are extremely susceptible to).

You could say the same about people having the ability to make wire transfers or international transfers. They're largely irreversible after some period. Every kind transaction becomes irreversible eventually.

No one has solved the elderly exploitation problem yet for the existing banking system. Not sure why it would be fair to hold crypto to a higher standard.

Re: China Has $3T of ‘Hidden’ Currency Reserves, Setser Says

#237

Post by FreshStart »

Timon3 wrote: post #186
dr_hooo wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you also just share which previous empire you believe has been more "friendly"?

I don't know how friendly or unfriendly previous empires were, so I'd like to read up more on it, but I honestly don't know what keywords I'd look for. Asking the one who made the claim for references seems like the best way for me to understand their comment better. Why do you expect me to provide arguments counter to theirs?

You want to look out for border regions, the small nations were other empires ended and went back and forth. You look for civil wars (empire lovers VS suppressed), cultural extinction attempts and empire imitators.. Aka small nations behaving atrocious to remain free by mimicry.. Sift through history and you get to know alot of empires that were and are worser.

Re: China Has $3T of ‘Hidden’ Currency Reserves, Setser Says

#238

Post by Timon3 »

FreshStart wrote: post #237
Timon3 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how friendly or unfriendly previous empires were, so I'd like to read up more on it, but I honestly don't know what keywords I'd look for. Asking the one who made the claim for references seems like the best way for me to understand their comment better. Why do you expect me to provide arguments counter to theirs?

You want to look out for border regions, the small nations were other empires ended and went back and forth. You look for civil wars (empire lovers VS suppressed), cultural extinction attempts and empire imitators.. Aka small nations behaving atrocious to remain free by mimicry.. Sift through history and you get to know alot of empires that were and are worser.

But that's not what GP was talking about. They said "the US has been the most friendly empire". It doesn't matter if a lot of empires were worse.
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