Schumer, Kerry stormed Snow on economy and China (where's US media?)

[blm]

Source: Agence France-Presse English Wire
Date: June 23, 2005

by Jitendra Joshi

(SNIP)

Pressure is mounting in the US Congress for Washington to get tough over the yuan issue. Snow was attacked by some committee members for judging that Beijing does not yet qualify as a "currency manipulator" in US law.

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, one of the co-sponsors of the tariffs bill, rounded on the administration stance.

"The opponents of our bill are protectionist. They are protecting China from joining the community of free trading nations," he said. "How long can we continue to talk without action?"

Senator John Kerry, the Democratic challenger to President George W. Bush in last year's election, asked Snow pointedly "are we powerless, are you oblivious, or is it a combination of the two?"

The lively exchanges coincided with news that the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. is launching the biggest ever takeover offer by a Chinese group with an 18.5 billion-dollar cash bid for US oil major Unocal.
>>>>>>>>

[TayTay]

1. The Admin is afraid to do anything as regards China

The Chinese have the Admin by the balls. It's disgraceful.

[autorank]

2. Getting their hair & nails done, shopping for loofas, sitting on their ..

...collective asses. CM (corporate media) is usless. Even if instructed by their masters, they've been dormant so long they do not know how to report and investigate. They certainly cannot write.

[blm]

7. They don't have to write. They only need to read what Rove writes.

.

[autorank]

9. Perfect...

:rofl:

[second edition]

3. McCain or Hillary aren't involved!

Not that McCain would take our side,(I'm sure Hillary would) but the media is only busy chasing around select people while important questions go unanswered and the public is kept in the dark on important issues. This media bullsh*t has got to stop.

[blm]

13. I'm not so sure about Hill on this. Exposing Bush policy on China

that benefits Chinese corporations and a handful of American ones like WalMart is not something Hillary is likely to jump on. It would mean exposing the profiteering of the entire Bush clan.

[TayTay]

4. The DJ Wire said:

http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearings.htm
This hearing is still up, so you can see for yourself. Greenspan and Snowe come up about 45 minutes in.

Kerry comes on around 1:53 into the hearing. Schumer is on at abround 1:35.

1625 GMT Senator Schumer asked Snow what options, beyond tariffs and continued chiding of China, are there to try to resolve the yuan issue. Snow reiterated that the administration is not satisfied with the pace of reform on China, and that he thinks they are going to move. If not, he said that the next Treasury report on currency manipulation will have to give them the designation. What that will mean and what measures will be taken after such a designation remains to be seen. (SDV)

1617 GMT Sen. John Kerry is going head-to-head in questioning Snow on the administration's policy - or lack of it - when it comes to addressing the loss of U.S. jobs because of China. Kerry asks straight out, are they manipulating the currency? Snow's answer: "We believe the currency is pegged, it should move to flexibility." (GMM)

1615 GMT Greenspan and Snow were asked whether degree of imbalances globally now are such that they might demand a Plaza Accord-type solution. They're taking the same line in answering the question - pointing out that the world now is vastly different to the Plaza days. "We are dealing with something we have never seen before," said Greenspan. He said the current situation isn't a crisis and "one of the ways you avoid a crisis is not introducing types of actions based on frustration which don't address the real problem." Plaza Accord harks back to high watermark of forex coordination days, when G7 agreed after a meeting at New York's Plaza Hotel in 1985 to coordinate interest rates and other policy to weaken the dollar. (GMM)

1600 GMT Greenspan tells Sen Schumer he sympathizes with what Schumer-Graham bill is aimed at achieving, but that it is a "destructive" means of getting China to level the playing field. "It's your particular tactic that I disagree with", Greenspan says. Schumer's response: what other options are there, other than talking? (LPN)

1555 GMT Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who's been the most vocal on Capitol Hill on the yuan peg, is having his moment of glory now before Greenspan and Snow. Schumer's the sponsor of a Senate bill that would slap tariffs on imports from China unless it scraps the yuan system. He's laying out his time-honored critique of China: that it takes an `a la carte' approach to free trade. Referring to the Cnooc bid for Unocal, Schumer asks: "Would China allow an American company to take over a Chinese company?. We know countless instances where it hasn't been allowed." (GMM)

[blm]

6. Bushies have been cozy with Chinese industrialists since the 70s.

I really believe that the rise of WalMart and the Bush alliance with Chinese industrialists was no coincidence.

Most Bush voters have no idea that Uncle Prescott Bush headed the US-China Chamber of Commerce for years. That's just a coincidence, too, I guess.


They are meeting their goal of making this country's economy a service economy with the middle class being destroyed as a matter of policy.

[Supersedeas]

10. thanks for the link...but still wondering where the corporate stenos are

[blm]

11. The news about China will really anger the public against Bush. The press

needs to protect the fascist agenda of BushInc.

The fascists of China (the industrialists and finaciers) hopped into bed with the fascist Bush family 3 decades ago.

The American people are reaping what GHWBush sowed in China then.

[orwell]

5. Bye Bye

The Chinese will not eliminate the Yuan peg to the dollar until US politicians shut their yaps about it. China will never do anything that appears to be caving in to foreign influence.

It would be in their best interest to strengthen their currency as the dollar goes over the cliff and they no longer need the US consumer or US investment to bring their economy into the modern world. They are getting closer but they are not there yet. They still need the US consumer to buy up all their growing factory output.

It is in China's best interest to continue the peg. It gives then a tremendous competitive trade advantage with the US. Some have reasoned that more important than the Yuan peg is China's controls on capital flow.

Whether we like it or not, China holds the cards in this poker game. They can do whatever they want and we are almost powerless to stop it. Why? Because we need them to continue to prop up our debt market. Otherwise, the whole credit house of cards is in serious trouble.

Bye bye housing

Bye bye retail sales

Bye bye stock market

Bye bye bond market

Bye bye currency

Bye bye buy buy (consumer debt bubble)

[Cha]

8. Where they always are..

up bush's ass.

[blm]

12. Oh geez...........

gross and accurate....how sad is that?