Monday, August 08, 2011
Open Letter to Any Chinese People of Good Will
You've watched quite a spectacle play itself out over the last weeks and months, yes? The tea party (of which I am not a member but which I support in many particulars), sporting what, 17 house members and no senators, prevailed (mostly) against a president and senate aligned against them. Not bad.
But have you, as a citizen of our largest creditor nation, really listened to the message of this movement? Have you stopped to examine carefully our overall fiscal position? Have you examined the past actions and general moral climate of both major political parties that run our country? I'm a proud American...but I'm not proud of our political parties or political culture. The tea party movement is like a breath of fresh air to those of us Americans who have looked on with you in disbelief as our once-frugal-and-responsible country has run up $trillion-plus yearly deficits the last few years (by the exact same people, including our current president, who pretended to be aghast at the several-hundred-billion yearly run up immorally by our last president).
I don't understand your country, and you probably don't understand mine, especially lately. I think we both should just take a step back and look at what's going on. Why do you continue to buy our debt? That's what I really don't understand. You have the cash to buy gold, which is a much safer bet. Or silver, or platinum, or palladium, or copper or almost any mineral that will hold its value far better than the US Dollar. I know you want to prop up your number one export market...but trust me, you won't be able to export to us for much longer.
So if you indeed are a Chinese person of goodwill...please cut us off. Don't buy another treasury or any other debt instrument of the United States government, including even dollars. Give our politicians the medicine they so badly deserve. In the long run, your people and mine will be able to develop a much healthier economic relationship that will benefit us both. Right now our relationship is very unhealthy and cannot get better with the people we have in charge until they learn a real lesson in economics. Your country is the only one, in my estimation, that is in any kind of position to teach that lesson peacefully, particularly if you could arrange a concerted action with Japan in this vein. I know your two countries have bad blood from the past, but the United States is a huge trading partner for you both and our usefulness to either of you will continue to dwindle until painful economic action is taken.
I suspect, but don't know, that such an action would cause far more pain on our side than on yours right now. That may not be the case for much longer...because I fear that if you take such an action later our political leaders will be even more desperate. And a careful study of our country's history will show that when we get desperate about something, the guns come out and we go to war. It doesn't pay to wait too long, if there's a chance things can be done peacefully sooner. I know you guys have nukes. We have a LOT of them, and a bunch of them are already aimed at your cities...and unlike yours, ours are the latest stuff and not many of them will fail or miss. I'm sure many of yours won't fail or miss, either. So both sides lose if we let it come to that.
So neuter these dogs while they are still puppies. You have the perfect cover with the recent S&P downgrade of our debt. Simply declare that you'll hold the debt you currently have, won't be buying any new American debt until our budget is balanced and then only to roll over old debt, and that you will not issue new debt purchases until half of our obscene debt is gone. It would be a favor to our country and a long-term favor to both our countries, though it would cause pain for both of us short-term. I've tried to think of a better way to force the issue on the clowns in Washington DC, and come up empty.
Worst case? You lose your investment in us. If you keep going the way you have, that investment will only get bigger and the prospects of being repaid will NOT get better. Consider it.
But have you, as a citizen of our largest creditor nation, really listened to the message of this movement? Have you stopped to examine carefully our overall fiscal position? Have you examined the past actions and general moral climate of both major political parties that run our country? I'm a proud American...but I'm not proud of our political parties or political culture. The tea party movement is like a breath of fresh air to those of us Americans who have looked on with you in disbelief as our once-frugal-and-responsible country has run up $trillion-plus yearly deficits the last few years (by the exact same people, including our current president, who pretended to be aghast at the several-hundred-billion yearly run up immorally by our last president).
I don't understand your country, and you probably don't understand mine, especially lately. I think we both should just take a step back and look at what's going on. Why do you continue to buy our debt? That's what I really don't understand. You have the cash to buy gold, which is a much safer bet. Or silver, or platinum, or palladium, or copper or almost any mineral that will hold its value far better than the US Dollar. I know you want to prop up your number one export market...but trust me, you won't be able to export to us for much longer.
So if you indeed are a Chinese person of goodwill...please cut us off. Don't buy another treasury or any other debt instrument of the United States government, including even dollars. Give our politicians the medicine they so badly deserve. In the long run, your people and mine will be able to develop a much healthier economic relationship that will benefit us both. Right now our relationship is very unhealthy and cannot get better with the people we have in charge until they learn a real lesson in economics. Your country is the only one, in my estimation, that is in any kind of position to teach that lesson peacefully, particularly if you could arrange a concerted action with Japan in this vein. I know your two countries have bad blood from the past, but the United States is a huge trading partner for you both and our usefulness to either of you will continue to dwindle until painful economic action is taken.
I suspect, but don't know, that such an action would cause far more pain on our side than on yours right now. That may not be the case for much longer...because I fear that if you take such an action later our political leaders will be even more desperate. And a careful study of our country's history will show that when we get desperate about something, the guns come out and we go to war. It doesn't pay to wait too long, if there's a chance things can be done peacefully sooner. I know you guys have nukes. We have a LOT of them, and a bunch of them are already aimed at your cities...and unlike yours, ours are the latest stuff and not many of them will fail or miss. I'm sure many of yours won't fail or miss, either. So both sides lose if we let it come to that.
So neuter these dogs while they are still puppies. You have the perfect cover with the recent S&P downgrade of our debt. Simply declare that you'll hold the debt you currently have, won't be buying any new American debt until our budget is balanced and then only to roll over old debt, and that you will not issue new debt purchases until half of our obscene debt is gone. It would be a favor to our country and a long-term favor to both our countries, though it would cause pain for both of us short-term. I've tried to think of a better way to force the issue on the clowns in Washington DC, and come up empty.
Worst case? You lose your investment in us. If you keep going the way you have, that investment will only get bigger and the prospects of being repaid will NOT get better. Consider it.
Labels: China, National Debt, Tea Party
