Voor mijn collega's van de NRC die denken dat China het probleem is en de context niet kennen of niet willen vertellen. Zie: http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.com/2007/05/de-nuance-van-de-nrc-29.html'Paulson’s Kabuki: Integrating China into the Neoliberal System
By Mike Whitney
05/22/07 "ICH" --- -
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is a man who knows what he wants. And what he wants is to further integrate the Chinese market into the global system---the “American-run” system. To achieve that goal he has assembled a group of 10 cabinet-level officials—mostly from big-business--who will are expected to urge the Chinese delegation to implement "sweeping economic reforms" that will open up their market to U.S. investment. Undoubtedly, Paulson will pay “lip service” to China’s manipulation of its currency which gives it an unfair advantage in competing with American exports. In truth, the “undervalued” Chinese Yuan is a godsend for Paulson and the US investor class who see it as a good way to expand the trade deficit and keep billions of dollars flowing into the stock market. From their perspective, the $230 billion trade deficit allows America to export its inflation, which keeps interest rates artificially low and makes the economy seem healthier than it really is. The down-side of this arrangement is that the American worker gets hammered. We have lost 3.2 million manufacturing jobs in the last 6 years while destroying America’s industrial base. If there is a sudden downturn in the economy, the US will not have the ability to work its way out of the doldrums. We are now a service-oriented economy. Paulson’s real goal is to see that the financial service industry can set up shop in China and lay their hands on the $2 trillion of Chinese savings which is languishing in Chinese banks earning a meager 2% interest per annum. This is the real prize, and as the former head of Goldman Sachs, Paulson will probably push hard to access to this promising new market. There’s a misconception in the US (particularly among “protectionist” Democrats) that trade with China is a “one way street” that only benefits the Chinese. That is not the case. In fact, the real beneficiaries of the present arrangement are the US business elites who set out to destroy the American labor movement by moving factories to a country with no labor or environmental laws. The Bush administration has enthusiastically assisted this corporate exodus by creating tax incentives for “off-shoring” and by promoting a “free trade” ideology which is ruinous to America’s future. As for the Chinese; consider the comments of China expert Henry C K Liu in his article “A Dialogue of the Mute”:
“China cannot expand domestic consumption because Chinese wages and benefits are too low. Yet Chinese cannot raise wages faster because real wealth has been leaving the country through export trade while the yuan money supply is expanding through the central bank buying dollar inflows with yuan. The result is a liquidity bubble, with too much currency chasing a dwindling supply of real wealth that has been exported.”'
“China cannot expand domestic consumption because Chinese wages and benefits are too low. Yet Chinese cannot raise wages faster because real wealth has been leaving the country through export trade while the yuan money supply is expanding through the central bank buying dollar inflows with yuan. The result is a liquidity bubble, with too much currency chasing a dwindling supply of real wealth that has been exported.”'
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