Here Today... Gone To Hell!

China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 1:48am BST 08/08/2007


The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (?658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.

It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.

Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a "bargaining chip" in talks with the US.

I guess Chinese democracy doesn't start now  :-[

I've always thought that China could get nasty without a drop of blood.

Don't forget, Chinese culture has been around for centuries.

As Confucious says:

If you don't learn from your mistakes, you are doomed to repeat them again and again.......

Open a fortune cookie did you?

Not at all! It is one of my favourite sayings from the Chinese!

A wise old Chinese man taught me this............

Slow news day

..so China would damage the US economy and in turn wreck its own economy in return?

do people think the Chinese are really that stupid? ::)

W ran up a 5 trillion dollar debt, putting us in this vulnerable position.

Did it wreck their economy when they balanced their reserves by holding Euros?

no but by killing their largest trading partner it would seriously hamper their economy

And a U.S. in recession could afford to turn its back on cheap Chinese manufacturing and labor?

More interesting is the actual story, that the U.S. would threaten trade sanctions against China in the interests of boosting its own economy by weakening the Chinese economy. I hope it works out very poorly for them.

normally i would say they can always turn to canada for the cheap stuff, however with less then a 5 cent difference in dollar value and 15% higher wages in canada then the US i dont see that as an option...... looking south to mexico, perhaps...... but I find it unlikely that there is enough industrial capacity in mexico to swallow that much required output. even in canada we are pushing near a 2% ceiliing in output capacity (i think we have already breached that but with the losses in manufacturing jobs in ontario it maybe holding steady)

shall we call this an economic cold war? though with almost 9 trillion in debt and growing at over a billion a day how long exactly can the US really afford to pour money in the river...... oh back in the day good ole trump proposed a 14.25% tax on people and trusts worth more then 10 million....... in 2000 that was 5.7 trillion and would have saved the goverment 200 billion a year in intrest payments...... i know i know never would have happened....... but hey do the same now...... you may be able to grab 6-7 trillion thanks to fility rich oil companies and rappers and save yourself maybe 250 billion or more a year in intrest payments hell thats a huge chunk of military budget...... or heaven for bid national medicare or tax cuts...... lol..... oh one can dream............ wait dont have to I live in canada, debt gone by 2018 now i think.... goal of 2020 best preforming economy in the G8 for over a decade and runs billions in surplaces every year that all throw against the debt.... national medicare, talks of national pharmacare, a expanding military (should have been done 15yrs ago)..... will be invaded by the US by 2050 hopefully not bail out the US somehow by paying down some of her debt....... in a perfect world yes...... but you would be hung if ya tried that here

Not everyone would agree with you on that.

The Liberals don't support an expanding military, and certainly don't support a missile defense program :hihi:

well how about under the liberials the CF suffered shrinkage faster then a cock in the north atlantic...... attrition of equipemnt that required replacement but hey we can squeese a few more decades out of C-130's and hey just because a Sea King sits for a week everytime it flys we dont need to replace em...... but to be fair, the Liberals did announce a size increase by a few thousand soilders back under PM martin.............

did you know that the CF does not have enough LAVIII's to properly outfit all units that are supposed to have em so they are rotated around the country so everyone can train a little bit on em...... unless your not deploying.... then good luck seeeing em.

MSM calls it a US style buildup...... when infact its actually kitting out our soilders with the gear they should have had ages ago..................... 33 LAV hulls are being refitted to replace lost hulls in the next little while............... there is a short fall of about 300 hulls to properly outfit arrrrrrgh

we buy C-17s to take the load off the over used c-130's (less runs more cargo to theater faster good deal..... you can even spin it to the liberals and NDP as a fast DART transport)

we buy 100 Leo 2 A4's and A6M's and lease another 20 A6M's because the direct fire support was a requirement and the Leo 1 C2's are cooking our "tankers" in near 60C temp's.

I love teh maratime helo replace program...... JC kills the contract in 93 saying its a cadillac of a helo.... puts off replacing the SK's then finaly when they put it back to tender........................... what gets picked? the same damn helo that was canned in 93.....................so teh SK's were falling down all over the place asking to be retired and we said your still good.... we love you..... should ahve been shot like a lame horse.

What i find funny is the NDP they want the military to alll this massive amount of PK, yet they dont want us to have the hardware that allows for us to do teh job right and keep our guys safe........... Taliban Jack wants us to suck off "johnny cut off the arms of vacinated kids and hang people cause they think they are spying on em" and when johnny blows up a MARP dont say nothing....... when johnny shoots mine removal persons casue they are evil (yet they consider mines unislamic) he remains totaly silent..... but if we accidently shoot one civy he flips out saying that we should be in Darfur give me a break jacky, your not going to ride any anti war wave to power here with your dithering.

then ya Stephan "its not fair" Dion, little cry baby that cant seem to do anything right............... who will not ever be PM....... my prediction is this, spring election another miniorty goverment dion gets ousted as leader of the LPC his replacement will end up being the next PM............................ depending on who replaces harper cause ahrper aint going to gain seats in the next election.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh i almost forgot the Green party...................... Ms may is retarded................................ i dont want to become an MP by taking an easy seat and actually getting in, no i want to run against poster boy McCay and beat him good to send a msg to the goveremtn that the people ahve spoken....................... fuck sakes............... take the easy seat get in the house and talk talk alll day long dont waste your run tring to show boat....... wait till the next election................ i can still remember he saying how the military should be used to promote enviromental concerns............... LAUGH

ohhhhhh FWSAR................... replacing Buffalo's out west and Hercs in the east.................... still dragging on this............ though with the C-17s we can rotate some C-130e's out and some H's in get a little fresh blood in...................expect the contract signing for teh 17 new C-130J's in september or earlier, and since the C-27 Spartan won the US comp for a smaller tactical airlifter look for this to be brought in as the Buff replacment......... maybe not as good at some stuff as the Buff was, but with some teathing pains will end up being better over all.

I guess Aritic Patrol vessels is up next................ 6-8 i think was the offical statment........... meh............ CCG will get 2 new Breakers to give year round coverage, maybe a few naval weapons techs as well.... and a 30mm-70mm dg for show...... dont think its a waste of money on teh APV as the MCDV blew chunks this can pick up some of that area of loss..... FELIX is a go on teh Halifax class....... SSCV tendering should be announced by 2008-09 to replace all DD and frigates with one ship class..... my guess something along teh lines of a Type 45 of teh brits...... though I would not rule out DD 1000 fromthe US as a possible design... though it looks too mean.........JSS waste of fucking money..............should jsut replace the AOR's with more modern and lower manning requirement designs..... save some cash, then truely go for modren Anphib design with low manning requirements..... something liek teh brits Bay class would be good.... 2 would surfice, then 1-3 pure RO/RO vessels for fast deployments of equipment from canada to needed friendly port.... JSS is just tring to cram as much into one hull as possible, meaning its not going to do anything great but do everything ok.

I want to see canada as  aleading Middle power not a hey we were teh shit in the day middle power that cant really do for its self........ if you look at all the middle powers and take into account population and economic output the average population that is in their countries military is 0.61% in canada that would be 220k compard to our current 65k and expansion to 80-85k is only 38% of the middle powers average, making us one of the smallest armed forces world wide. what mazes me is that the NDP and other cant see that with a strong a larger modren military we can do all the things that they want us to do, where as now, we may if needed be able to muster 100-200 extra bodies to assist on the ground in darfur.............. what we most likely will do is supply aircraft to fly in cargo and such maybe CAS but what ever..... costs of this would not be huge..... most of it would come in equipment and infastructure, but with suffucent orders costs per uint would decrease, and spread this over 15-25 years, you could reach this goal and not hurt the social programs at all................ too be fair at current rates, the buget would ahve to rise to about 28billion a year excluding equipment, equipment would be multi year procrument of about 160 billion of 25yrs excluding existing projects on the books so say 6.5 billion a year

the post above lost me when he started talkin about johnny.

Just give it a hundred years and the "Great Plains" will be a desert, while the tundra will be the "bread basket" of the world.


Well, all that war talk ...

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of deaths construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds, oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait till their judgement day comes, yeah!

Now in darkness, world stops turning
As the war machine keeps burning
No more war pigs of the power
Hand of God has sturck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
All right now

probably some of the best lyrics ozzy ever sung

It doesn't get enough rotation in my area.

I think Black Rain is a great song, right up there with war pigs if you ask me-lyrically anyway.

The black rain is falling
Contaminating the ground
The human race is dying
The dead are scattered around

What is the price of a bullet?
Another hole in the head
A flag draped over a coffin
Another soldier is dead

How many victims have fallen?
How many more have to die?
People dying in masses
Angel of death standing by

We've got our marching orders
Defenders of our home and our pride
We've crossed too many borders
Military suicide

[Chorus:]
War killing sons and daughters
Another failed attack
There is no turning back
Blood running down like water
You'll think you got away
Until the judgement day comes
Politicians confuse me
I watch the body count rise
Why are the children all marching into the desert to die?
The human psyche is twisted
The madness rising again
Another empire falling
I watch them dying in vain
We've got our marching orders
Defenders of our home and our pride
We've crossed too many borders
Military suicide

[Chorus:]
War killing sons and daughters
Another failed attack
There is no turning back
Blood running down like water
You'll think you got away
Until the judgement day comes
Are you ready?
Black rain, black rain
Black rain, black rain

[Chorus:]
War killing sons and daughters
Another failed attack
There is no turning back
Blood running down like water
You'll think you got away
Until the judgement day
You'll think you got away
Until your judgement day comes