MarketWatch: America's economic decline

[marmar]

By Brett Arends, MarketWatch


BOSTON (MarketWatch) — During the past 10 dismal years of American decline, few sights have been more pathetic than that of a succession of U.S. Treasury secretaries traveling to foreign cities, cap in hand, to beg the Chinese to stop being so mean to our economy.

It has reminded me of nothing so much as the infamous footage of Neville Chamberlain, then the first minister of the world’s greatest empire, flying as a supplicant to Berchtesgaden during the Munich crisis.

We now look like the British Empire near its end.

Witness the G-20 meeting this weekend. It produced yet more pious words about China’s predatory currency manipulation, but nothing of substance. Another meeting is scheduled for next month, from which we probably can expect yet more pious words.
As for the suggestion that China will work to lower its gigantic trade surplus, analysts at GaveKal, a research firm in Hong Kong, have the takedown: “If, as Beijing recently proposed, it takes the country about four years to get the current account surplus back down below 4% of GDP (where it last was in 2004),” they write, “then assuming nominal GDP growth of 11%, a further $100 billion will actually be added to the surplus. That brings it to $400 billion by 2014, higher than the peak level of 2007 and six times the level of 2004. In other words, China will still be demanding a lot of excess demand from the rest of the world.” .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tracking-americas-economic-decline-2010-10-26

[bemildred]

1. Hey, the corporations sold us out. What can you expect?

You wanna take back America, it's the corporations you have to take it back from.