China says it has plans to unhook currency from U.S. dollar -but no timeta

[True_Blue]

'China says it has plans to unhook currency from U.S. dollar -but no timetable'

LONDON (AP) - China will free its currency from its peg to the U.S. dollar eventually, a central bank official told international officials Saturday, but emphasized that the weakness in the dollar is not China's concern.

China has come under heavy pressure at this weekend's Group of Seven finance ministers meeting, particularly from the United States, to move toward a flexible currency regime. Chinese officials have repeatedly suggested that the nation needs more time to reform its economy.

"We have a very firm determination leaning to a more flexible exchange rate," People's Bank of China Deputy Governor Li Ruogu said Saturday. "There is no timetable."

U.S. and European leaders argue that the yuan's peg has protected the currency from the decline in the U.S. dollar, and gives Chinese companies a huge competitive advantage -particularly in the large U.S. consumer market.

more....
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1821&ncid=732&e=9&u=/cpress/20050205/ca_pr_on_bu/britain_g7

[Chicago Democrat]

1. yeah whatever...

blah blah 1 billion slaves can't be wrong blah blah

[RawMaterials]

26. this is huge news..... your a retard if you think that

china is just a slave state, they Have more power over the us then you will ever know

[Robert Oak]

2. Our economy is not completely dominating the world yet

we need more time to get that in place before we let the dollar
crash like Argentina. Thank you.

[leesa]

5. Oh, I see...it's CHINA'S fault that our economy is collapsing!

Sounds like a Republican. Perhaps China should quit loaning us money.

[ckramer]

14. Bullies always blame others

[GHOSTDANCER]

3. Like a baby on it's mothers tit.

something don't smell right...."the weakness in the dollar is not China's concern." wha wha whaaaat?

[Chicago Democrat]

4. Its hard to admit that our fates are linked in a sick, wrong, exploitive

and so bad for the planet working relationship.

[Occulus]

7. China's economy is about to explode

I give our economic machine about fifteen years tops if China keeps going at the rate it is now. as a coworker said to me last night, we're driving 80 on the Autobahn and we're about to be passed by a car driving 140.

[DulceDecorum]

9. Time to learn

Chinese and Arabic.

[Blower]

12. Somewhat of a myth--

China's growth is not organic. Most of their growth is in exports to places like the US, who runs a huge defict buying those goods.

Hence, the world economy is locked into the US borrowing ever-more to by ever-more from China.

What Greenspan said the other day about the trade deficit reversing is largely a lie.

[Career Prole]

18. Greenspan's been having a lot of trouble with the truth

for the last four years or so. He's owned now.

[Occulus]

25. we e e e l llllll......

That's true, but they're tending more and more in the economic directions that, as a nation, they ought to have been taking in the first place. I think the Taiwan situation is hindering this somewhat; if China and Taiwan decided to be business partners for their mutual benefit, they could together cut sales to the US while increasing it to other countries, simply by using the "more democratic" Taiwan as a middleman. Trade with Taiwan, after all, would be more palatable to some than trade with China, for whatever the reason.

Don't ask me for any proof of this; this is all a feeling I have just by observing China's words and actions, as well as what China's overall size (population, resources, geographic area, etc) implies.

By the way- what would happen to us if China decided to slap us with a big ol' trade embargo?

[w4rma]

6. I despise Bush and the whole Republican leadership for utterly destroying

so much of America's wealth and power. How low will they bring us before they are removed from their power over us?

[VegasWolf]

8. No it's just that so many Republicans have contracts out on the

Renminbi in anticipation of the upegging and dreams of
overnight wealth. They believed bushie when he said he would
order China to unpeg its currency. Who cares what the
long term effect will be as long as overnight success stories
are made.

[aquart]

10. This is a polite threat.

Pity it won't have any effect on George.

[Blower]

11. It would crash the world economy

The dollar-denominated price of intermediate and finished goods (aka food for all the multinationals and Wal-Mart) would skyrocket and immediately crash the economy, which is leveraged against low interest rates and huge debt.

[Massacure]

13. TIMBER!!!

[Disturbed]

15. How much money does the U.S. owe China?

If they called in the debt the U.S. will belong to China, right?

[ckramer]

17. 6 hundred billion? I am not sure

[Massacure]

20. The most current figures I can find are the end of May 2002.

1032.8 billion dollars in T-Bonds were owned over seas. $618.4 billion of that was by foreign governments. China had $81 billion, Hong Kong had $42 billion, and Taiwan had $32.9 billion.

Source: http://www.ariannaonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=94c966a7bf01b0cff39b140a5c99992f&t=15837&page=1&pp=10

[American liberal]

24. I heard on NPR a few weeks ago

that China owns about 40% of the U.S. debt, but the commentator did not give precise figures.

[clem_c_rock]

16. How bad do y'all think this could get???

I keep having doomsday scenarios of my company crashing, me jobless, everyone I know jobless, homeless population increasing tenfold.

I'm freaked out as hell. The first time in 36 years when I haven't lived hand to mouth and it might all come crashing down.

I'm thinking about buying a van in case I have to live down by some river.

Am I being rational?

[VegasWolf]

22. It's not that bad!! In reality, what will probably happen is that the

USD will continue to devalue relative to other currencies.
Inflation will drive prices up. Massive unemployment due to
outsourcing will finally cause th US to change its dollar
policy. It is not a pretty picture nor is it the end of the
world. Remember the adage, given lemons make lemonade. The
policies of bushco are killing the economy. The Dow Jones has
not move a net 500 points since georgie took office. i am
investing overseas to cushion myself from the falling dollar.
At first I was doing euros, but now I am doing Australian dollars
as Australia manufacturing is way ahead of Europe and Australia
is a good way to play the China export market.

[KoKo]

23. Lot's of us have been thinking that....Lots of apartment buildings going

up in the Southeast. I've wondered who they were for. The van sounds good. But, remember it's not in anyone's interest for the US to crash because if we don't buy their own economies start to spiral down. And if we can't pay the interest on the treasuries they've bought it doesn't help their economies, either. But, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't all be worried. I sure am.

[Conservativesux]

27. I've also noticed an increase in the building of apartments in CA too.

I suppose lots of people will soon have no way to ever buy a house.

Good for the landlords, I suppose :(

[fedsron2us]

19. China is only going to unpeg its currency from the dollar

when it is clearly to its maximum political and economic advantage. At the moment the current situation where all the jobs and investment flow east suits them fine. Even Greenspans low interest policy has benefited them more than the US. I can not see them making this move voluntarily before 2008 at the earliest. However, there are clear signs that the political climate between Washington and Beijing is starting to chill very quickly. The hostility shown by the White House to European arms sales to China shows which way the wind is blowing. The problem for the US administration is that US consumers, business and government have got hopelessly addicted to the cheap goods and credit that they have been getting from Asia. Breaking that dependency is going to involve some serious pain. The question is does the US population want to stop the rot now or are they just going to keep borrowing their way to oblivion.

[VegasWolf]

21. There is absolutely no incentive for China to unpeg. They are

getting filthy rich. The are now the world's largest
importers and exporters. Unpegging would drive WalMart
out of business. They are getting sloppy rich selling cheap
exports to America. they laugh at georgie when he whines
that they have to unpeg the yuan.