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U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

wsj.com

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Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#331

Post by baybal2 »

whoevercares wrote: post #272
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McDonald’s has been in China since the late 90s, there was even a couple of Starbucks when I visited in late 1999! 94 is sort of what I see as the cutoff between old and new China.

What’s funny is Starbucks in China is considered high end coffee shop (it literally cost $8 for an ice latte). So you can even see “influencers” bragging themselves there

> $8 for an ice latte

You have not been to their "reserve" stores where they sell noname American whiskey for $20 a cup

This is a funny things that happened with many American brands in China.

McDonalds has desk service, and actually quite satiating meals

Wallmart turned into a somewhat upscale store

KFC - Same story as Mac

Pizza hut... Ever seen a $50 pizza hut pizza meal?

Wendy's? Probably along same lines

Buick!!!!!! Pffffffff!!!!! - China is the one of a kind country where people will buys a car falling apart as you drive just because it is American.

Other GM brands, Ford, Lincoln - more or less the same on a lesser scale. Ford was a latecomer to selling "Americanness," but I think they just got it right now. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-china-lincoln/...

GE appliances (actually Haier now) - same story

I even recall stories of some "made in USA" clothing and apparel going big

I personally saw a very plain looking black plastic sunglasses going for $100+ with "Made in USA" and your flag boldly silkscreened on it.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#332

Post by onemoresoop »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #329
onemoresoop wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are those? Simply curious

16+1 , look it up Or Tsjechie Or Germany closer ties with China since Trump

Thanks for the info. I see now. I just looked up 16+1, haven't heard of it. Seems like it's strategically spread over eastern Europe. Not sure how this fits with the European Union but I guess not so well.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#333

Post by d0100 »

BowBun wrote: post #183
NicoJuicy wrote: post #169

China has started invading Europe through Tsjechie also. Just read a disturbing dutch article and Europe should join the US. I wasn't sure before, but I'm sure now. Here's a small report of the EU : https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?re... Yeah, it's disturbing and it doesn't even contain all the info...

Seems like FUD without a credible source, can you link something? Plenty of dutch readers on HN. The article linked is referencing the unfavorable economic terms of China's Silk Road project towards developing nations' economies, which has been written about and is plenty concerning on its own.

When it comes to China, FUD is more akin to Fear of Unwarranted Death. hurdur

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#334

Post by baybal2 »

nradov wrote: post #262
havetocharge wrote: post #78

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 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.

> The impact would be a few basis points at most.

After a decade of rock bottom rates, even few basis points will sound big

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#335

Post by raincom »

jussij wrote: post #245
raincom wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. Let me give you an example: if 70% of Americans get $40K bonus per annum from the fed, it will lead to inflation. However, if the same amount of money (70% of 300M times $40K =8.4T) is given to ten billionaires, it won't lead to inflation.

You are describing inflation caused by consumption (i.e. high demand driving up prices). The inflation the OP was describing is the massive inflation caused by printing money. The US bond is effectively an IOU representing US dollars the USA owes the bond holder. For the USA to buy back those bonds they only have two choices: 1. Run an strong economy earning lots of US dollars (i.e. a trade surplus) and use that USD…

There are second order effects: if billionaires start buying stocks, thereby increasing the value of RSUs that tech employees hold, this can cause inflation in housing prices.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#336

Post by xster »

ideasRgood wrote: post #318
xster wrote: post #131

The entire premise of the post-Bretton Woods neoliberal world US currency is based on an agreement with the Saudis to sell oil in US dollars for military support and on threats to bomb countries who sell oil in non-US denominations. And China is the currency manipulator.

And this is why we have Bitcoin. Or if you don't like that, pick a different non government asset.

Well my point is essentially that unless Saudi Arabia is willing to sell you oil for Bitcoins or that Venezuela wouldn't get 'humanitarian regime changed' for selling oil in Bitcoins, it's all kinda moot.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#337

Post by yourapostasy »

coupdejarnac wrote: post #319
thaumasiotes wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Is Pizza Hut still considered fine dining these days?

They're trying to upscale it even more [1], and when they first entered the China market, they were considered upscale relative to other options [2], and were far more sit-down oriented than their US branches during that long-ago time period. Since then, options have proliferated, and competition has heated up to the point that such low-level differentiation is no longer sufficient, hence their current even greater upscaling efforts.

I'd like to hear from Chinese HN readers who grew up remembering Pizza Hut arriving in their locale, and how it was viewed then versus now with the greater competition. With innovations like Haidilao's highly-automated (not fully-automated) robotic restaurant [3] for locals, and even Tier 2 cities with business class Western hotel chains like Sheraton boasting every day dinner buffets that put US Sunday brunch at Four Seasons to shame, I think Chinese citizens in most metro areas have an embarrassment of culinary riches in options now. The local hole in the wall restaurants in the more rural areas that I tried were also a delight. To stay at the top of the game, Western restaurant chains have a high bar to clear, especially as many home-grown Chinese restauranteurs have cottoned onto how dining out is not about food, it is about entertainment.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yum-china-hldg-pizzahut-f...

[2] https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Pizza-Hut-so-much-better-in-Chi...

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61y2nAE8GsI

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#338

Post by thefounder »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #296
thefounder wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU has its own issues such as Brexit, lack of fiscal union, Greece, Italy debt, unemployment, slow growth, no immigration policy, no common foreign policy etc. When you talk about EU you really talk about 27 member states not some kind of United States of Europe. The EU it's not really in the mood of taking short term hits unless is threatened(i.e with tariffs). Not to mention that it supports Trump stance on China a…

It was using the Euro that really Hurt Greece and other poorer eu members

The same could be said that US dollar hurts the poorer US states. Truth is that you need fiscal union if you use a common currency otherwise you can't make everybody happy.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#339

Post by NicoJuicy »

onemoresoop wrote: post #332
NicoJuicy wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

16+1 , look it up Or Tsjechie Or Germany closer ties with China since Trump

Thanks for the info. I see now. I just looked up 16+1, haven't heard of it. Seems like it's strategically spread over eastern Europe. Not sure how this fits with the European Union but I guess not so well.

Indeed, it tries to break the bound with ( mostly) false pretenses and its a good trap for the more corrupt countries.

The countries that the EU guessed to become more democratic after a while.

Re: U.S. Designates China as Currency Manipulator

#340

Post by internet_user »

Bendingo wrote: post #210
internet_user wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The three assessment criteria are: “(1) a significant bilateral trade surplus with the United States is one that is at least $20 billion; (2) a material current account surplus is one that is at least 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP); and (3) persistent, one-sided intervention occurs when net purchases of foreign currency are conducted repeatedly and total at least 2 percent of an economy’s GDP over a 12-mo…

That seems pretty arbitrary to me.

How so? It's just a way to ban competitive devaluations.
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