Obama Declares China Isn’t a Currency Manipulator
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite the fact that a 4 month old corpse has a more active ekg than the usd/cny chart, the Obama administration did not declare China a currency manipulator on Thursday.
Treasury did go so far as to mention that it had “serious concerns” about their ability to keep a straight face if forced to continue to tell people that the usd/cny ‘flatline’ chart had anything to do with free markets.
American manufacturers believe that China is keeping its currency at artificially low levels against the dollar to gain unfair trade advantages. While critics say the weak Chinese currency has resulted in lost U.S. jobs, officials in the whitehouse retorted that without the tacit agreement in place to root the core of American manufacturing in return for them continuing to support US government overspending they’d be unable to continue their profligate ways.
Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., the chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, said that China’s currency manipulation and us treasury recycling had contributed significantly to his party’d ability to push their agenda through overspending on their pet projects and friends of the administration. He expressed the hope that an effort by President Obama and the G-20, but also admitted that as soon as China stops supporting their idiotic campaign of overpsending the ‘party will be over’.
The administration’s decision to keep the absurd charade that the currencies are not manipulated came in Treasury’s required semi-annual report to Congress. Based on a 1988 law, the administration must designate countries judged to be manipulating their currencies to boost their exports to the United States or make U.S. products more expensive in overseas markets. Only laws older than 25 years may be completely ignored.
Had China been declared a currency manipulator, it would necessitate negotiations between the two countries and could lead to really boring rounds of talks peppered with lots of disgusting banquets filled with shark fin soup and sea cucumbers. Law makers were obviously very anxious to avoid such a consequence.
Treasury Secretaries John Snow and Henry Paulson, who served under President George W. Bush, also sought to increase pressure on China to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar. However, once they realized that China could stop buying Treasuries and allow their whole artificial world to implode if its currency was allowed to rise, they immediately backed off their stance.
Obama, desperate to appease the socialist union vote in the rust belt during the election, promised to take a tougher stance against China on trade issues. But in April, with the presidency firmly in hand and being declared the saviour, the administration said China’s actions did not meet the legal requirements to be named a currency manipulator.
Obama in September did decide to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese tire imports, agreeing to demands of U.S. manufacturers and their unions that a flood of cheap Chinese tires were costing U.S. manufacturing jobs. Saving tire manufacturing jobs was an important stance to boost U.S. exports now that the Chinese are making Hummers. “Hey they get to make the cars we used to make here, but we get to supply the low value commodity items, pretty fair trade,” said Herbert Hunsucker, a White House trade representative.
American manufacturers contend that China’s currency is undervalued by 20 to 40 percent against the dollar, giving the country a huge trade advantage. An undervalued Chinese currency means that Chinese products are cheaper for U.S. consumers and American products cost more in the Chinese market.
The U.S. trade deficit with China totals $143.7 billion through August, the largest imbalance with any country. Still, the figure is running 15.1 percent below the same period in 2008, a decline attributed to the fact that Americans can’t jam anymore plastic walmart crap on their credit cards without a default.
In 2005 China modified its currency regime, allowing its currency, the renminbi, to increase in value by about 21 percent against the dollar through last summer. “Currency regime” is the orwellian phrase the chinese use for ‘manipulation’ and ‘control’ of the currency’s rate.
However, ina shock to all observers, since that time the renminbi has not risen further. U.S. manufacturers contend that China has blocked further currency appreciation because of concerns that its trade surpluses were shrinking in the midst of the global economic downturn. Horrified by such a strong statement the Chinese responded, “me chinese, me play joke, me put pee pee inyour coke….”
“Both the rigidity of the renminbi and the reacceleration of reserve accumulation are serious concerns which should be corrected to help ensure a stronger, more balanced global economy consistent with the G-20 framework,” according to the Treasury report.
Obama and the other ptb of the G-20 nations pledged at a meeting in Pittsburgh, glorious Pittsburgh (?), last month to develop a program to go after worrisome global imbalances. These include the monster trade deficits and soaring budget imbalances in the US and China’s large trade surpluses.
The G-20 countries are scheduled to meet in Scotland next month to figure out a way to contine the transfer of wealth in a way that is slighly more stealth and keeps the insurrections to a minimum while accomplishing the goals of one world government and one world currency.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
