Elaine Meinel Supkis
China is trying to keep their roaring economy from overheating while the USA cooks the books so we can keep up wild spending and make a Wall Street bubble bigger. Japan gloats about weakening the yen further in the teeth of obvious financial numbers showing there is no depression and the Japanese news even admits this is great for their export markets and so the Nikkei rises. And this is all because the USA is pumping up Wall Street and reckless consumer spending. Also, Walmart is suffering greater theft thanks to their scheme of firing or driving away loyal employees.
TOKYO (Kyodo)--Tokyo stocks climbed Thursday as a sharp rebound in U.S. shares and a weaker yen against the dollar encouraged investors to buy recent decliners and export-oriented shares.
Why is the yen getting weaker? We all know how this is happening: the insanely low interest rate charged by the Bank of Japan. The monetarists in the USA, since the dollar is the world's top fiat currency, think that interest rates are connected to inflation. So they try to control inflation via various tricks the chief one being, outsourcing all industry and jobs to China. Then the Fed can print money and never see it appear on the ledgers as inflation.
But interest rates have other functions and one is to protect the currency so it won't tank. The USA recently decided it wanted to kill the dollar and no longer holds reserves, for example. But Japan is outrageously manipulating their own currency by dropping interest rates after ruthlessly suppressing inflation at home. Even if they have no inflation, they must defend their own currency!
And their trading partners should demand this. But this isn't happening and it is purely political. The whole world is agog over the rise of China. All the rivals of China are now trying to trip up or hem in China's rising industrial power. But of course, this doesn't mean the USA should commit economic suicide vis a vis Japan! The news in Japan today isn't being broadcast in America. I see many headlines talking about China but none talking about Japan even though Japan is the greater danger to us.
The little snippet I took from the Nikkei news also admits the weak yen makes stocks selling stuff to America rise. They are very coy and leave out the 'America' part and simply call it 'export-oriented.' This is funny talk for 'Toyota.' Also, they note correctly that Japan's exporters are happy Americans are buying like crazy even as things financially deteriorate visibly . I noted yesterday that the economic news of this wild spending should send the government into high gear to suppress this since it is merely making our export/import numbers worse!
China's management of its dynamic, fast-growing economy leaves much to be desired, but the mainland has not met the technical requirements to be designated as a manipulator of its currency, the Treasury Department concluded Wednesday."China should not hesitate any longer to take far more vigorous action to rebalance its economy, promote immediate [yuan] movement to tackle the currency's undervaluation, and achieve far greater flexibility in the exchange-rate regime," a Treasury report said. Read full report to Congress on exchange rate policies
So, is China pumping money into the system in order to encourage wild spending and wild asset bubbles? Is China's government doing rash and stupid things in order to load on more debt on everyone including itself? Is China's government run by a gaggle of insane neo-con traitors? No?
HAHAHA! And this is why both Bush and Congress are now below 25% approval ratings! The great mass of Americans are happy with increasing debts and declining economic power when it comes to having things and living super-sized but they are growing restive as they see there is something very wrong despite the happy-happy talk. Wages are declining, not rising. Debts take a big bite every month and it scares everyone who wonder what they will do if they lose a job. All it takes is one family member losing a job and bankruptcy is the only solution. Home repros are double over last years and rising rapidly. I see 'for sale' signs all over my own community and New York state has the best statistics of all the states, as per usual, it is the first to come out of housing busts and the last to slide into a housing bust along with the California coast.
But the bust is now beginning to show even here which means we are going into the darker levels of the housing collapse. The ballooning asset rise was good only if one was moving from an expensive market to a cheaper market or if one was a speculator. But the true nastiness of all this, basing housing value on how much one pays a month, will now appear. Namely, the PRINCIPAL owed on these things is huge! The interest is low but the gross amount is gigantic. And even if the monthly payments are fine, selling these things becomes impossible if interest rates rise! Thus, bankruptcy looms if someone must vacate a house that can't be sold for less than its present mortgage.
The USA wants to keep interest rates low and wishes they could ape the Bank of Japan but in Japan, people seldom are able to buy houses or much of anything, they are in an enforced depression imposed on them by the Bank of Japan's need for super-low interest rates which then means the yen is super-weak! Desperate Japanese are dumping their own currency and buying abroad. This scheme benefits the manufacturers selling to America and America should be putting on huge tariffs to punish Japan for setting up this scheme.
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler will seek labor cost reductions that put them on par with their Asian rivals during summer contract talks with the United Auto Workers, officials of the three automakers said Wednesday.
This is the final result of our present trade relations with Japan. China isn't exporting cars to America...yet. It is in their plans, of course. American wages are now in full retreat. This impacts everything at home. Auto workers won't be able to afford all the good things in life they got in the past. The ability to load up a ton of debt to make up for this will eventually end. The US lifestyle will continue to need red ink as savings decline rapidly. The impression of wealth due to rising asset values will vanish like snow in July. Congress should be dealing with all this but instead, the auto unions are fighting CAFE standards yet again which is suicidal.
This trap we are in is deadly. I see little or no discussion about it anywhere.
April 21, 2007 - 10:29AMToyota Motor Corp says it has established its fourthengine factory in China, bolstering its annual engine production capacity in China by 220,000 units to 980,000.
The factory, which will start manufacturing Monday, wasestablished as the second engine plant of Tianjin FAW Toyota Engine Co, its fifty-fifty joint venture with its Chinese ally, China FAW Group Corp.
Toyota is building factories in China, eh? Most of these cheaper-production cars are sold to Chinese buyers but you can bet, if there is any slosh-over in production, it will be exported to the USA. The focus on Chinese exports ignores the fact that the exports from China are often stuff produced for American and Japanese companies. The problem is the quest for cheap labor and the collusion is, both the US and Japan need to hide inflation for various reasons and China is the cave where they park all this.
Only the dragon in the cave is now richer in FOREX reserves and bonds than the US and Japan together! This is why both are attacking the dragon, not just because of the trade imbalance that was created by Japan and the USA.
TOKYO, June 7 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said sales in China jumped 87 percent in May, driven by the popular Camry sedan, and it was discussing a second car factory with Guangzhou Automobile in anticipation of continued strong growth in demand.
China is buying stuff more and more and as I keep saying, mass matters. Namely, China is a huge market. The USA has around 300 million people. Japan has around 100 million people. This is about 20% of China's population. India has a billion people, too, and like China, is sucking out high-tech jobs and office work. The need to seek cheaper labor has pulled much of Asia out of poverty but the price being paid here in the US is yet to show up. But it is now. As all our unions die or swallow huge wage cuts and losses, the USA slides down the scales of wealth. The USA taxpayer is being asked to carry the burden of imperialim while not seeing the benefits. Right now, thanks to cheap money and money being disappeared into the Chinese cave, we get some benefits from our world rule but this is vanishing rapidly leaving the workers holding a bag filled with red ink.
China's Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday macro control measures should be further strengthened to prevent the fast-growing national economy from overheating.The monetary policies should be stable in general but "moderately tightened" to secure a stable and fast-growing economy, said Premier Wen at a meeting of the State Council.
Wen said the country will continue to implement its current prudent fiscal and monetary policies.
At this point, one wonders if 'democracy' will survive. Our leaders in both parties are increasingly hated and all the shit hasn't hit all the fans yet. Our imprudent negotiators and officers running our government and currency are doing the exact opposite of China's leaders. They are frantically trying to pump up the Wall Street bubble. They are frantically trying to take on more debt. Japan this month is celebrating going into the black finally, its government no longer running a deficit. We haven't seen this in years.
Shoppers at Wal-Mart stores across America are loading carts with merchandise — maybe a flat-screen TV, a few DVDs and a six pack of beer — and strolling out without paying. Employees also are helping themselves to goods they haven’t paid for.The world’s largest retailer is saying little about these kinds of thefts, but it’s recent public disclosures that it is experiencing an increase in so-called shrinkage at its U.S. stores suggests that inventory losses due to shoplifting, employee theft, paperwork errors and supplier fraud could be worsening.
I'm closing with this story since it illustrates what is wrong with the American business class: they think brutally squeezing workers and suppliers is the road to riches. Grabbing everything for the very rich is the path to eternal power and wealth. Walmart has not only suppressed wages and abused its workers, it has decided--based on this stupid report put out by a young lady fresh from business school where she was taught neo-con monetarism---the way to get rich was to pay no benefits to anyone and to do this, all Walmart had to do was to hire everyone part time and juggle their hours so the new employess QUIT and then thanks to high turn-over, they never have to give a pay raise again and the Walton family will get another trillion dollars selling Chinese goods! Whoo hoo.
So loyalty to Walmart plummets and worker discontent turns to looting. Why take care about stealing if one is going to quit or be fired for spurious reasons anyway? There is no hope of staying so only transients work there and they simply move on to somewhere else. And asking transients who are being poorly paid to patrol with care is pure madness. I know from looking at the text books used in many American business schools, they talk about how to cut wages but never, how to make both the workers and the bosses richer together.
Instead, it is all about how to thwart employees. I go to stores now and finding staff who knows what is going on and cares about sales is hard as hell. I have seen this cycle in the past. A sign that a huge conglomerate is going into sudden bankruptcy is simple: the employees are listless and angry and will even actively refuse to sell things! And I see this more and more. One electronics retailer decided to fire all their best sales staff and replace them with cheap transients. They are now going bankrupt. What a shock.
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In the US nearly 750,000 owners are in trouble – this is up about 96% for the first eight months of this year (2007). You must first asses your ability to make payments on your loan before you consider the steps that need to be made to stop foreclosure and the refinance options available to you. If you are buried in debt then you may not b able to carry the burden of even a lower payment. You must ask yourself if the lower payment is better for your budget than getting in a lower rent situation. If saving your home from foreclosure is a viable option to consider then you must make contact with the lender who is trying to foreclose on your property. It is likely that they are already in contact with you so this may be easy to do. If you are several months over due you might need to make up a payment or two to negotiate with them to stop foreclosure. You can also show proof of your progress to refinance your home and stop foreclosure. The loan company or lender you are dealing with may have private investors that can help you out. Many foreclosure investors are in constant contact with lending institutions seeking loan opportunities for foreclosure properties.
Thanks, John http://advancemagnumcash.pixieinfo.com/
Posted by: John | October 29, 2007 at 04:11 AM