FugitiveVisions
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How will China deal with the US adjustment?
January 9, 2009
by FT
By Michael Pettis
Michael Pettis basically hit it right on the head. Demand from the West has collapsed, and there is no way for China and other surplus countries to avoid that reality except to promote government spending or domestic consumption. Reliance on exporting is dead in the water, and so is the 'de-coupling' theory.
January 9, 2009
by FT
By Michael Pettis
The post-1997 global balance is breaking down, and the world is lurching drunkenly to find a stable new balance. Until now, Chinese overproduction has balanced US overconsumption, leading to China’s massive trade surplus and capital account deficit. Inevitably, however, a reduction in US overconsumption, a necessary consequence of the financial crisis, must force a corresponding reduction in overproduction elsewhere, and China, like it or not, will have to bear the brunt of the adjustment. The US and Europe must design their fiscal and monetary policies in part to ease China’s adjustment, which will otherwise be extremely difficult.
Michael Pettis basically hit it right on the head. Demand from the West has collapsed, and there is no way for China and other surplus countries to avoid that reality except to promote government spending or domestic consumption. Reliance on exporting is dead in the water, and so is the 'de-coupling' theory.