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Bernanke said China holds at least $2 trillion of U.S. government bonds. That is more than double the widely cited official figure, which is published monthly by Treasury.
Bernanke said China holds at least $2 trillion of U.S. government bonds. That is more than double the widely cited official figure, which is published monthly by Treasury.
Two trillion dollars is more than enough to keep China in line to keep military confrontation at bay.
That's like saying that if you took out a bigger mortgage your bank would have less of a desire to foreclose on you (if you didn't pay). If China expects payment, wouldn't a larger loan (on their part) give them a greater reason to be angry if we don't pay? If we owed them nothing, what incentive would they have to attack us?
Free, but unfair trade. Our government passes laws (OSHA, minimum wage, labor/union, environmental) that only apply to American made goods, while we give foreign made goods a free pass. This is very hypocritical of our government.
We should impose a tariff (import tax) on goods that are not made in accordance with our laws, and that tariff should be levied in proportion to how poorly our laws are followed.
ATTC is right. the simple fact is that the federal reserve owns more treasuries than china.
Federal Reserve holdings of US Treasuries now exceed China’s, with the Fed owning $1,108 billion and China owning $896 billion, according to data released last Thursday. Japan holds another $877 billion.
By June, according to one analyst, the Fed will have accumulated $1,600 billion in Treasury issues, a number likely to match China’s and Japan’s COMBINED holdings.
that is a mind-blowing statistic no matter how you look at it.
the fed did not have to produce anything tangible, anything with any intrinsic value. No goods were produced, no trade was done. The Fed simply created, via Bernanke’s electronic printing press, the dollars with which it bought – and is buying – massive quantities of US Treasuries.
This is massive inflation – in its classic definition. In time, we will see massive price inflation.
this, of course, cannot end well for a lot of people.
Last edited by floridasandy; 02-23-2011 at 04:20 AM..
let me add that we had a recovery after the depression due to the growth of the private sector -we had amost full employment and ACTUAL PRODUCTION.
what we have now is financial jenga-with the government determined to prop up wall street irrespective of facts.
look at what quantitative easing did:
unemployment. In August 2007, when the Fed lowered the discount rate, the unemployment rate was 4.7%.
December 2008: The Fed reduced rates to just north of zero, when the unemployment rate stood at 7.4%.
March 2009: Fed launched QE1 with unemployment at 8.6%.
November 2010: Fed rolled out QE2, and unemployment stands at 9.6%.
unemployment is actually rising under quantitative easing.
denninger did a great column on how bernanke failed in other aspects of the "economic recovery" plan, succinctly called "bernanke, you stupid bastard":
then we have this news:
Heavy supply including price competition from foreclosures continues to depress the housing sector. But the economy as a whole, unlike the prior recovery, is moving forward without the housing sector. Price data for January will be posted with tomorrow's existing home sales report and Thursday's new home sales report.
so the economy is said to be moving forward-without a housing recovery and without an employment recovery.
party on dudes, because it is all good until it isn't.
Last edited by floridasandy; 02-23-2011 at 06:05 AM..
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