Not Our Fault

As we navigate through these perilous economic times there seems to be a lot of name calling and finger pointing. In a recent OpEd on the New York Times website the following was said by US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson about talks with China: "the talks as 'robust' and characterized by 'straight forward back-and-forth' exchanges."

They yelled at each other a lot. China blames the US Administration for the falling exports to our country. Well, in some cases the exports have happened. Goods are sitting in containers on our shores with no takers. I assume that means China is paying storage fees.

Seems the Americans are fretting that China might be losing the stomach to let its currency keep rising in value and China voiced concern about Washington's management of the world's largest economy -- in which China has a huge financial stake. (We owe them tons of money.)

And it appears that daily we are more and more unable to pay that debt. Could China foreclose?And what would it gain by doing that? World indebtness is really the Emperor's New Clothes. It exists only on balance sheets.And if China is upset about the American people buying less of their goods whose fault is that? Consumer confidence in Chinese goods is at an all time low due to their manufacturing (make that poisoning) debacles. Why should we continue to buy poisoned pet foods or leadbase painted toys? So they won't yell at your Treasury Secretary?

And what do we buy these flawed goods with? Money the banks will no longer lend us though I have read in the same article that interest rates will drop again. And could get to zero. Frankly I am waiting until they start paying us to borrow money. I like the falling gas prices. And my e-mail alerts keep me posted on deals on items I need. Finally jumped at the last 20% off plus 10% to our subscribers deal and bought the winter boots I needed. Today I could have gotten free shipping.

I suppose if you are sitting with huge wharf fees for boxes of goods that have been shipped to the United States but not distributed to potential wholesalers it will sooner or later be cheaper to pay us to take them. I am willing to wait. Meanwhile, China, don't depend on the United States to buy just anything your produce. Improve your quality, meet your EPA and safety standards, and cut down on the junk.

Besides with our people losing jobs daily we are not to thrilled with countries that took a lot of US jobs away. Or with US based companies that took tax breaks to go over there. And now we are suppose to bail them out with our tax dollars. Well, we are mad as hell. Take your goods and shove them.