Jim, do you know the percentage of chips Intel makes offshore? Seems to me the one thing we for sure lead the world in is consumption.
Over consumption, like pigs @ a feed trough...
Most important is that the rest of the world keeps buying our debt. If/when they decide they have had enough, watch out.
This is quite interesting, and why we have the $USD swoon today. This is a dangerous game of chicken>
U.S. Sways G-7 on Exchange Rates
Endorsement of Flexibility
Is Jab at Japan and China
And a Signal to Voters
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The Bush administration persuaded the world's industrial powers to endorse flexible currency exchange rates, a jab at China and Japan and a signal to U.S. voters that the president is addressing concerns about Asian economic competition.
"We emphasize that more flexibility in exchange rates is desirable for major countries or economic areas to promote smooth and widespread adjustments in the international financial system, based on market mechanisms," the Group of Seven nations' finance ministers and central-bank governors said at the conclusion of their gathering, held alongside the World Bank/International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Dubai.
The seemingly innocuous statement, backed by U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, is loaded with meaning at a time when many American workers, manufacturing executives and presidential hopefuls are making an election-season political issue out of the unwillingness of China and Japan to let their currencies float freely against the dollar. The U.S., Britain, Canada and the 12-nation euro zone allow their currencies to fluctuate in international markets. China, on the other hand, keeps the yuan tied to the dollar at a rate that many U.S. companies say leaves them at a competitive disadvantage. Japan frequently wades into currency markets to buy dollars when Tokyo feels the yen is gaining strength to the detriment of Japanese exports.
"I expressed my long-held view that the world trading system works best under a regime with market-based exchange rates," Mr. Snow said. "I am pleased that the communique reflected this view."
Mr. Snow scored his victory, however, in part because his team crafted language that allowed the Europeans to believe they were being more diplomatic than they were, the Chinese to believe nobody expects them to act anytime soon, and the Japanese to believe nothing at all had changed. Mr. Snow went out of his way to say the G-7 wasn't singling out any nation, even though his staff said privately that it was obvious that China and Japan were the main targets. Lol..
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I would note that China & Japan hold more of our paper than anyone else. Like I said, a game of chicken... |
