Monday, December 17, 2007

China Embraces Food Hoarding Story

China moves to discourage grain exports
Despite wheat prices at record levels and soya beans at their highest for 34 years, China wants less to go abroad

Battling inflation fuelled mainly by rising food prices, China announced yesterday that it would scrap the 13 per cent tax rebate on exports of grains to discourage overseas sales.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let the Yuan "go" but that might let the dollar go in the opposite direction. In the end it has to balance out. If we can keep civil and keep our freedoms we will be OK. It may come time to resist tyranny again in the US. I think blogs may wind up as important as the daily newspapers at the start of our country.

Stagflationary Mark said...

abby normal,

My balancing act doesn't care much about the currencies. I see billions of people who will work for far less than we do. It could be dollars, yuan, canned green beans, oil. It doesn't matter much. All that really matters is that they will work for less.

That gives me little hope that the median American's income is going to keep up with the median American's inflation long-term. That's a problem for an economy so dependent on the median American's consumption.

I suspect that the western economies have way too many retail stores, restaurants, and banks per capita. All three are currently suffering.

Anonymous said...

It gets worse. Consider that 1.6 billion Chinese have no voice in politics.

If hard work and productivity is exploited here, I cannot imagine the extent to which labor will be exploited in China (and the rest of the East). The bench is soooooo deep. Proper motivation is all that is required. Think of Stag's carrots and sticks.

Ever wonder why the U.S. is pushing so hard for China to open its banking system to foreign investment? Why would China resist? Bad debts? Maybe. Its all relative though. Debt is an illusion these days. Only a problem if the prize is not shared.

How will Western banks compete if the East really gets its act together?

Protectionism is evil? We'll see. Personally, I miss Cleveland and Detroit. Will protectionism arise if Western banking interests are threatened?

Maybe Western banking is an emperor without clothes. There is no money after all, only debt. Full faith and credit. Confidence you see.

The housing bubble was obvious here. But I can see why foreigners bought into it. AAA ratings from a rich and prosperous country with a sophisticated banking system. Do confidence scams work over and over?

Ingenuity and inventiveness. Why were these devalued in favor of financial hooliganism?

Stagflationary Mark said...

The housing bubble was obvious here. But I can see why foreigners bought into it. AAA ratings from a rich and prosperous country with a sophisticated banking system.

Meanwhile, we're told over and over that we should be investing overseas.

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~psyc351/Images/GrassGreener1.jpg