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"The dragon shows its teeth"

Surprise! China is beginning to place conditions on bailing out over-extended western countries.

Some call this blackmail. I call it “what the fuck did you expect? These people have ‘population control’ and gulags, for Chrissakes!”

Frankly, I like mine better.

22 Replies to “"The dragon shows its teeth"”

  1. Seth says:

    “Rawr.” -the Dragon

  2. Squid says:

    Doesn’t blackmail usually involve demanding money? And threatening to reveal embarrassing secrets? I’m pretty sure China is the one offering money in this scenario, and Europe’s embarrassing secret (they’re broke!) isn’t really very secret at all.

  3. Darleen says:

    In the U.S., China holds about $1.4 trillion of treasuries. When the sovereign debt crisis comes to our shores, as surely it will, what sorts of conditions might China attach to helping the U.S. to refinance its debts? Taiwan? South Korea, perhaps?

    Well, it’s not like China is only influencing the EU

    All we’ve been told is the president has made a decision, and I assume it will be for the F-16 A/B upgrade package,” said a senior congressional aide close to the issue.

    The president decided against selling Taiwan 66 advanced F-16 C/D model aircraft, despite several requests from Taipei and Congress, the officials said. […]

    China, which opposes U.S. arms sales, is expected to react harshly to the upgrade package. China’s military cut off exchanges with the Pentagon in 2008 and last year after two arms packages were announced.

    The Obama administration has made its policy of seeking closer military ties with China a high priority, one reason that the president rejected new F-16s in the latest arms sales package, the officials said.

    China’s U.S. debt holdings also likely influenced the decision. In February 2010, Chinese military leaders called for punishing the United States for arms sales to Taiwan by calling in some of the $1.1 trillion in China’s Treasury debt holdings.

  4. Silver Whistle says:

    I’m pretty sure China is the one offering money in this scenario, and Europe’s embarrassing secret (they’re broke!) isn’t really very secret at all.

    It’s not just Europe’s secret, my decapod cephalopod friend – they are threatening to dump US paper too.

  5. McGehee says:

    I call it “Him that pays the piper calls the tune.”

  6. Dana says:

    Mr Goldstein, you are just obviously not sophisticated enough an economist to comment on this. We have a Nobel Prize winning economist telling us that we need to keep borrowing and spending and borrowing and spending, and it will always be good for us. Now, why shouldn’t I trust a Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist like Paul Krugman more than you on this? :)

  7. Silver Whistle says:

    Now, why shouldn’t I trust a Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist like Paul Krugman more than you on this? :)

    Because Niall says he’s full of it?

  8. Squid says:

    It’s not just Europe’s secret, my decapod cephalopod friend – they are threatening to dump US paper too.

    Hush, you!

    The American economy is fine! We have lots of revenue to service our debt! Pay no attention to the rabble rouser in tartan!

  9. Silver Whistle says:

    Another QE or three, Squid, and it won’t matter how much we owe.

  10. mojo says:

    As somebody once noted, pleasing your enemies does not turn them into friends.

  11. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Because Niall says [Krugman’s] full of it?

    Ferguson’s an apologist for Imperialism!. And he left his wife so’s he could keep shaggin’ that apostate hate mongering phony refugee /llegal immigrant woman. And his column is only in Time.

    Whereas the right-thinking Paul Krugman’s is in THE New York Times, and has a Nobel Prize.

    Really sir, have you no shame?

  12. Squid says:

    Another QE or three, Squid, and it won’t matter how much we owe.

    That’s the beauty of it! All we gotta do is print up a special run of $100,000,000,000 bills at the Mint, and PRESTO! Debts all paid off, ahead of schedule, in cash.

    Win-win! Everyone’s happy! What could possibly go wrong? Really, the only thing to worry about is what design to put on the new $100,000,000,000 bills.

  13. geoffb says:

    The Taiwan elections are also part of the equation and our administration is trying to influence the outcome.

    “The problem is less that America cannot afford a conflict with China and more that China can afford one with America. There is a big element of bluff in America’s position, as well as China’s. What if China calls America’s bluff, just as America has called China’s?” Now the Financial Times reports that America is afraid that the possible election of a Taiwanese leader unable to accomodate China would force just that.

    The Obama administration has warned that a victory by Tsai Ing-wen, the Taiwanese opposition leader, in the island’s January presidential election could raise tensions with China. …

    “She left us with distinct doubts about whether she is both willing and able to continue the stability in cross-Strait relations the region has enjoyed in recent years,” the official told the Financial Times after Ms Tsai met with administration officials.

  14. DarthLevin says:

    If Obama really cared, he’d have the Mint print up one of those $100,000,000,000 bills for each poor person in the US. Poverty is eliminated instantly! Millions of potential new owners for the Dodgers! What could go wrong?

  15. dicentra says:

    Another QE or three, Squid, and it won’t matter how much we owe.

    Oh, I think we’re already there. Our unfunded liabilities plus unpaid debt and all that runs into the $200 trillion range.

    Might as well be infinity.

  16. Silver Whistle says:

    Really sir, have you no shame?

    Not since that polyester leisure suit, no sir.

  17. ThomasD says:

    So, the Europeons are now having to resort to foreign imports in order to reach their desired levels of totalitarianism?

    Double secret socialist fail.

  18. Joe says:

    Why do you think Obama nixed Taiwan getting more advanced F-16 C/Ds? Hell, Taiwan was willing to actually pay for them.

    Instead Taiwan will get a lesser package and the ChiComs may still throw a fit. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/15/obama-rules-out-new-f-16s-for-taiwan/

  19. Squid says:

    Man, I wish JHo and happy could ignore Darleen as effectively as Joe seems to…

  20. Joe says:

    Sorry Darleen, it helps to actually read the posts before! My bad.

  21. zino3 says:

    China?

    That’s what my mother used to call my sister thingie when we were about three and four years old. Back before we had a TV.

    Oh. Wait.

    That was a “Jina”.

    Sorry. My bad!

  22. geoffb says:

    Ben to the rescue.

    Worried that a mounting debt crisis in Europe could trip up the global economy, the Federal Reserve opened its vault Thursday to the central banks of other countries in an effort to head off a crippling shortage of dollars.

    The main recipient of the Fed’s money is the European Central Bank, which will in turn extend dollar loans to banks in the nations that use the euro currency. Those banks do significant business in dollars, for instance making loans to customers operating around the world, and have been finding it harder to raise dollars from anxious investors.

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