I guess so. Just because the U.S. took a plunge from the top of the Empire State buliding doesn't mean it's done... it's just passing the 60th floor right now, so far so good, right?
US Financial Crisis/Bailout, China's Role
- Thread starter FugitiveVisions
- Start date
I guess so. Just because the U.S. took a plunge from the top of the Empire State buliding doesn't mean it's done... it's just passing the 60th floor right now, so far so good, right?
Just out of curiosity, Goll, if my "arrogant and cocky" statements turn out to be correct, would you publicly apologize and then thank me for posting such insightful calls at your forum?
After all, arrogant and cocky is debatable, but right or wrong will be obvious in time.
RedMercury
Junior Member
Well, I disagree with your prediction, but I'll gladly admit I'm wrong if it turns out that way. However, I find "put the west in its place again..." distasteful (I wouldn't want someone saying "put China in its place"). Plus, the quip about religion is, imho, off-topic.
Now you failed to understand why you were been noted by moderators. It's not your obinion(s) but the method you express them. So I suggest that if you have something to say, do it in the norms of the forum rules.
If you by somehow prooved out to be right, I might aknowlidge it, but sure not wont apologize that I called you to cut off rude and arrogant manners.
Golly
If you by somehow prooved out to be right, I might aknowlidge it, but sure not wont apologize that I called you to cut off rude and arrogant manners.
Golly
Excelent
Philip Bowring: Asia's reawakening resentments
By Philip Bowring
Published: October 14, 2008
HONG KONG: The $2.5 trillion combined bailout of Western financial institutions may have eased the crisis, but it has done rather less to assure the creditor nations of the East that their holdings are safe from erosion by money-printing central banks. Indeed events have aroused the resentment that surfaced during the Asian crisis a decade ago at a global financial architecture perceived, with some justice, to be weighted against Asians.
The deputy governor of China's central bank, Yi Gang, recently castigated the International Monetary Fund for its almost total failure to put any teeth into surveillance of those countries - the United States, Britain, EU member states, Switzerland and Japan - enjoying the reserve-currency status that makes it easier to run deficits. As he rightly noted, "weak financial-policy discipline resulted in excess global liquidity and disorderly capital flows."
This should not be news. The unwillingness of the IMF to try to discipline these countries - America and Britain in particular - has been remarked upon often enough in these columns. It now makes a particularly poignant contrast to the IMF's zeal for dispatching experts from Washington to discipline other countries' economies - developing ones in particular. The humiliation of President Suharto of Indonesia in 1998 by the head of the IMF, Michel Camdessus, is not forgotten in Asia.
Asian (and a few other) major creditor nations now face many challenges. Perhaps the most immediate is whether the blanket guarantees offered to Western banks by their governments will set off a drain of capital as money moves from banks in other regions still operating under free-market principles that will have to compete with the now-partly-socialized systems of the West.
China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong have the fiscal and foreign-reserve capacity to defend themselves, but other economies may be more vulnerable. Given that foreign-exchange controls are undesirable and difficult to implement, Asia will need to see agreements between central banks on currency swaps to defend its currencies.
There is also the question of whether creditor nations should continue to accumulate ballooning Western government debt. If the U.S. really returns to fiscal discipline, this problem may solve itself. Consumer demand for imports will fall rapidly, savings will rise and Asian surpluses will fall dramatically. A serious recession in 2009 in the United States may not be inevitable, but it is necessary to restore equilibrium.
The alternative, from a creditor-nation perspective, is that in an effort to achieve a soft landing for the United States, the mix of fiscal deficits and continuation of very low interest rates will assure continued inflation and erosion of the real value of U.S. debt. In which case creditor nations will have to make a choice between buying more bonds or seeing the U.S. currency slide further, eroding the value of their existing holdings and further crimping their exports.
For the longer term, there is the issue of what can be done to end the perceived institutional bias of the IMF, and give creditor nations a much larger say in its activities. Recent events have shown a remarkable divide between endless, often inaccurate and alarmist reports appearing in the Western financial media about South Korea's situation - the woes of its banks and the threats of a repeat of the Asian crisis - and coverage of Australia. Unlike South Korea, this "lucky country" continues to receive almost nothing but praise. Take for example the IMF report in September praising Australia's "sound macroeconomic policies." That report was issued despite the country's huge current account deficit (which remains at 5 percent of GDP), five years of rising commodity export prices, minimal foreign-exchange reserves, very high household debt and net foreign debt of $600 billion Australian dollars, or 65 percent of GDP.
South Korea's foreign reserves are six times larger, its current account deficit just one third of Australia's, its household debt just half that of Australia. Its foreign debts are roughly matched by its foreign assets.
Australia's situation - and indeed that of New Zealand - should actually be viewed as more perilous than that of South Korea. But as many Asians see it, the IMF and the London and New York capital markets have one rule for the old, rich, English-speaking nations and another for Asian upstarts. Doing something about that, however, requires a degree of solidarity not yet evident in the region.
By Philip Bowring
Published: October 14, 2008
HONG KONG: The $2.5 trillion combined bailout of Western financial institutions may have eased the crisis, but it has done rather less to assure the creditor nations of the East that their holdings are safe from erosion by money-printing central banks. Indeed events have aroused the resentment that surfaced during the Asian crisis a decade ago at a global financial architecture perceived, with some justice, to be weighted against Asians.
The deputy governor of China's central bank, Yi Gang, recently castigated the International Monetary Fund for its almost total failure to put any teeth into surveillance of those countries - the United States, Britain, EU member states, Switzerland and Japan - enjoying the reserve-currency status that makes it easier to run deficits. As he rightly noted, "weak financial-policy discipline resulted in excess global liquidity and disorderly capital flows."
This should not be news. The unwillingness of the IMF to try to discipline these countries - America and Britain in particular - has been remarked upon often enough in these columns. It now makes a particularly poignant contrast to the IMF's zeal for dispatching experts from Washington to discipline other countries' economies - developing ones in particular. The humiliation of President Suharto of Indonesia in 1998 by the head of the IMF, Michel Camdessus, is not forgotten in Asia.
Asian (and a few other) major creditor nations now face many challenges. Perhaps the most immediate is whether the blanket guarantees offered to Western banks by their governments will set off a drain of capital as money moves from banks in other regions still operating under free-market principles that will have to compete with the now-partly-socialized systems of the West.
China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong have the fiscal and foreign-reserve capacity to defend themselves, but other economies may be more vulnerable. Given that foreign-exchange controls are undesirable and difficult to implement, Asia will need to see agreements between central banks on currency swaps to defend its currencies.
There is also the question of whether creditor nations should continue to accumulate ballooning Western government debt. If the U.S. really returns to fiscal discipline, this problem may solve itself. Consumer demand for imports will fall rapidly, savings will rise and Asian surpluses will fall dramatically. A serious recession in 2009 in the United States may not be inevitable, but it is necessary to restore equilibrium.
The alternative, from a creditor-nation perspective, is that in an effort to achieve a soft landing for the United States, the mix of fiscal deficits and continuation of very low interest rates will assure continued inflation and erosion of the real value of U.S. debt. In which case creditor nations will have to make a choice between buying more bonds or seeing the U.S. currency slide further, eroding the value of their existing holdings and further crimping their exports.
For the longer term, there is the issue of what can be done to end the perceived institutional bias of the IMF, and give creditor nations a much larger say in its activities. Recent events have shown a remarkable divide between endless, often inaccurate and alarmist reports appearing in the Western financial media about South Korea's situation - the woes of its banks and the threats of a repeat of the Asian crisis - and coverage of Australia. Unlike South Korea, this "lucky country" continues to receive almost nothing but praise. Take for example the IMF report in September praising Australia's "sound macroeconomic policies." That report was issued despite the country's huge current account deficit (which remains at 5 percent of GDP), five years of rising commodity export prices, minimal foreign-exchange reserves, very high household debt and net foreign debt of $600 billion Australian dollars, or 65 percent of GDP.
South Korea's foreign reserves are six times larger, its current account deficit just one third of Australia's, its household debt just half that of Australia. Its foreign debts are roughly matched by its foreign assets.
Australia's situation - and indeed that of New Zealand - should actually be viewed as more perilous than that of South Korea. But as many Asians see it, the IMF and the London and New York capital markets have one rule for the old, rich, English-speaking nations and another for Asian upstarts. Doing something about that, however, requires a degree of solidarity not yet evident in the region.
interestingly enough, they have a thread going on Chinese bbs about how this financial crisis has allowed China to buy out many Western companies for their technology.
Although it seems to me that they just sunk a lot of money in for failing companies.
Some examples they listed are F Zimmermann, Schiess, Ingersoll Milling Machine Company, CM Systems (but these are from back 3 or 4 years ago).
I'm not sure what they are referring to now. Just thankfully they don't think every bankrupt Western companies are good deals.
Although it seems to me that they just sunk a lot of money in for failing companies.
Some examples they listed are F Zimmermann, Schiess, Ingersoll Milling Machine Company, CM Systems (but these are from back 3 or 4 years ago).
I'm not sure what they are referring to now. Just thankfully they don't think every bankrupt Western companies are good deals.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Chinese workers seize Israelis in Turks and Caicos
JERUSALEM, Oct 16 (AFP) Oct 16, 2008
Hundreds of disgruntled Chinese construction workers on a small Atlantic island have taken hostage 12 Israelis whose company failed to pay their salaries, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
The Israelis have been held for several days on the West Caicos Island, one of a group of islands which form the British territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands near the Bahamas, foreign ministry spokesman Aviv Shiron told AFP.
"A group of 12 Israelis is being held by about 300 Chinese workers who haven't received their salaries," he said.
Communication with the island, accessible only by sea, has been extremely difficult after the Chinese workers sealed off its sole port, he added, saying that the foreign ministry is in contact with British authorities.
The men held work for an Israeli construction firm managing a project to build a high-end resort on the long uninhabited island.
According to one of the Israeli hostages, their company run out of cash and the project was suspended some three weeks ago after one of the US banks financing the project collapsed.
"They shut down the island from all directions and are holding us. Because of the collapse of the American bank the project was suspended," the Ynet news website quoted one of the hostages, identified as Motti and reached by telephone, as saying.
"We informed the workers the project was stopped and that we are trying to solve the financial problems. The workers want to return to China and are asking for compensation," he said.
All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse.
JERUSALEM, Oct 16 (AFP) Oct 16, 2008
Hundreds of disgruntled Chinese construction workers on a small Atlantic island have taken hostage 12 Israelis whose company failed to pay their salaries, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
The Israelis have been held for several days on the West Caicos Island, one of a group of islands which form the British territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands near the Bahamas, foreign ministry spokesman Aviv Shiron told AFP.
"A group of 12 Israelis is being held by about 300 Chinese workers who haven't received their salaries," he said.
Communication with the island, accessible only by sea, has been extremely difficult after the Chinese workers sealed off its sole port, he added, saying that the foreign ministry is in contact with British authorities.
The men held work for an Israeli construction firm managing a project to build a high-end resort on the long uninhabited island.
According to one of the Israeli hostages, their company run out of cash and the project was suspended some three weeks ago after one of the US banks financing the project collapsed.
"They shut down the island from all directions and are holding us. Because of the collapse of the American bank the project was suspended," the Ynet news website quoted one of the hostages, identified as Motti and reached by telephone, as saying.
"We informed the workers the project was stopped and that we are trying to solve the financial problems. The workers want to return to China and are asking for compensation," he said.
All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse.
Dont mix your Apples and Oranges Tphuang. There is a big difference between Industrial Companies buying Strategic Assets and the use of State/Sovering funds to Invest in Financial Institutions.
I too would be interested to know whcih companies have recently been taken over, butt he logic here is clear. Chinese Firms have cash and can borrow, which is a great advantage for dealing with recession hit and finance starved Overseas competitors. My guess will be that these are going to be Resources based or otherwise orientated firms that help Chinese Industry maintain supply of Raw Materials.