UPDATE 3-Geithner tells China its dollar assets are safe: ""Chinese assets are very safe," Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s.
His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting scepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home."
From reader TwoPintWitty: "Geithner gets laughed at by Chinese students when he says China's money is safe... this makes me angry for so many reasons.
A) Chinese students are brighter (maybe) than the US masses...
B) They shouldn't be laughing, they should be throwing rocks at him for stealing their money..."
FN: US Treasury yields are fast approaching yields not seen since BEFORE Bernanke started cutting rates. This is not exactly going to help any economic recovery.
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The darker meaning of the HIndenburg Omen
4 hours ago
7 comments:
I thought they were laughing because they teach basic math in China and 2+2 sill adds up to 4 not 6 like here in the US.
I should licence my anger at utter stupidity to your blog...I have enough to go around.
The people laughing the loudest and the longest are the ones who are selling the bad bonds to China.
Suckers!
This truly is no laughing matter. When Timmy tells then don't worry your money is safe? Safe where? It should be in a safe far away from the US thievery
I don't think the US will be laughing so loudly if China makes good its statement to dump Bonds and Treasuries on the open market ALL AT ONCE if their buying power gets too diminished by US Dollar.
They have said openly that if US debt collapses their economy they won't care if they take the economy of the world down with theirs...who said the cold war was dead or that there are no more mutual assured destruction policies...there it is! And if you read Adrian Van Eck, you can find the entire quote!
Ben, is there any reason to suspect that at least some of this is the result of the dollar carry trade and that it could unwind viciously in the other direction at some point
I concur with the opinions expressed here. But a point needs to be made about the cultural meaning of the Chinese students' laughter. It's not so much derisive, as we Westerners interpret it; in Chinese culture, laughter in a situation like this indicates embarrassment for the speaker. The common understanding in the room was like this: Here is a guy (Geithner) who lacks the finesse to spin a situation that everyone knows is f.u.b.a.r. Only the most uncultured person, according to Chinese reckoning, would be so lacking in the art of indirection as to stand up there and blurt out something so patently absurd. If Geithner had learned anything in his Asian studies career, he would've known what touches the cultural giggle button and what doesn't.
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