Absurd US Campaign in China
John Snow, the U.S. Treasury secretary, touring
this village in Sichuan Province to promote "financial modernization," urged
China on Thursday to take lessons from the United States on how to spend more,
borrow more and save less.
John Snow, the U.S. Treasury secretary, touring this village in Sichuan Province to promote "financial modernization," urged China on Thursday to take lessons from the United States on how to spend more, borrow more and save less.
Snow, visiting a thriving farmers' market and a traditional rural credit cooperative, argued that China's consumers and entrepreneurs were badly in need of financial prowess offered by American banks and investment banks.
With better credit, he said, Chinese families would be able to spend more money, buy more goods and perhaps reduce China's huge trade surplus with the United States. "Good credit facilitation and consumer finance is going to help consumers buy more things," Snow said. "We see consumerism and consumer credit as going directly to the thing we have most on our minds - the global imbalances."
Can anyone use the words “fiscal” and “conservative” in the same sentence anymore?
Snow's comments underscored the Bush administration's newest theme regarding China: the need for the world's most populous nation to generate more growth at home and less from exports.
It has been an awkward campaign at times, given that China has blistering economic growth, is a huge magnet for foreign investors and is one of the United States' biggest creditors.
China's savings rate is nearly 50 percent of income, one of the highest rates in the world. The United States' savings rate, by contrast, has sunk to less than zero, one of the lowest in the world.
------------
Here in this farming village of 36,000 inhabitants, the outdoor market was packed with about 250 vendors who showed Snow pork bellies, bean curd, spices and pastries. At Wang Ting Ting's appliance store, residents paid cash for glistening new Chinese-made washing machines, televisions, DVD players and stereos.
Snow will probably order that “Buy now -- Pay Later” be printed on our money!
Posted: Thu - October 13, 2005 at 03:34 PM