Skip to content

Clouds, Clocks, and Sitting at Tables

A blog about politics and political data.

Clouds, Clocks, and Sitting at Tables

China Forex Reserves top $1.5 trillion (with a “t”)

We won’t explicitly cover IPE (international political economy) until the second half of the semester, but it will certainly come up when dealing with views about what constitutes power (state power, specifically). How does the fact that China has built up a 1.53 trillion dollar Forex (foreign exchange) reserve affect its power relationship with the United States? Should the US be worried? Do you know if this affects, or could affect how much interest you pay on your mortgage, car or student loan?

James Fallows has a new article in the Atlantic, in which he analyzes the nature of the China-US trade relationship. He writes:

Through the quarter-century in which China has been opening to world trade, Chinese leaders have deliberately held down living standards for their own people and propped them up in the United States. This is the real meaning of the vast trade surplus—$1.4 trillion and counting, going up by about $1 billion per day—that the Chinese government has mostly parked in U.S. Treasury notes. In effect, every person in the (rich) United States has over the past 10 years or so borrowed about $4,000 from someone in the (poor) People’s Republic of China. Like so many imbalances in economics, this one can’t go on indefinitely, and therefore won’t. But the way it ends—suddenly versus gradually, for predictable reasons versus during a panic—will make an enormous difference to the U.S. and Chinese economies over the next few years, to say nothing of bystanders in Europe and elsewhere.

You can find more about the specifics of China’s forex holdings here.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Author jdPosted on 15 Jan 200815 Jan 2008Categories China, Foreign Investment, Foreign Trade, International Relations--PLSC250, IPETags bank of china, China, current account deficit, forex, trade deficit

Post navigation

Previous Previous post: Debaathification redux
Next Next post: Links to Student Blogs in PLSC250–Section 01

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 70 other followers

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Data Visualization #8–a Treemap Addendum
  • Data Visualization #7–Treemaps using US Counties and 2016 Presidential Vote
  • Data Visualization #6–US Counties are [essentially] Meaningless in Presidential Elections
  • Data Visualization #5–Canadian Residential Schools–plotting change in number and federal government
  • Data Visualization #4–Bar plots with widely-dispersed data
  • Data Visualization #3–Cartograms as an alternative to standard area-based electoral maps
  • Data Visualization #2–Animations aid in Conveying Change
  • Data Visualization #1–Electoral Results Map

Archives

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • June 2018
  • February 2018
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • January 2009
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007

Blogroll

  • (IDEA) The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
  • America Magazine-Catholic Weekly
  • Atlantic Monthly
  • Balkan Insight
  • Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe
  • Central and East European International Studies Assn.
  • Democratiya
  • Elite Chinese Politics and Political Economy
  • Financial Times
  • Fistful of Euros
  • Freedom House
  • French Politics Blog
  • Greater Surbiton–Marko Attila Hoare’s blog on Souteast European Politics
  • KIVA Micro Loan Project
  • OneWorld Southeast Europe
  • Pitt Center for Russian and East European Studies
  • Political Terror Scale
  • Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
  • Radio 101-Independent Croatian Media
  • Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
  • Statistical Modeling
  • The Daily Green
  • The Monkey Cage
  • Time Magazine–World Section
  • Transparency International
  • United Nations Development Program–Statistics
  • Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Recent Comments

Kevin on Stephen Harper says voting is…
braiden24 on ‘Game-changing’ ne…
braiden24 on Canadian Minister Aglukkaq…
bodabodame on US Midterm Election Results an…
bodabodame on Climate Policy and Citizen…

Blog Stats

  • 210,245 hits
Clouds, Clocks, and Sitting at Tables Blog at WordPress.com.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: