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2007-09-20 China-Japan-Koreas

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Posted by lotp 2007-09-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 You can talk about subprime debt and global financial intrigure all you want, but the basic problem for Chinese inflation is that China cannot make the world's goods and their own goods as well. Something has to give.

Posted by badanov 2007-09-20 00:07|| http://www.freefirezone.org]">[http://www.freefirezone.org] 2007-09-20 00:07|| Front Page Top

#2 I always tried to imagine hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers making millions of items they themselves can not afford. At a certain point there's going to be either a rebellion or one hell of an inventory control problem.

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-09-20 00:32|| 2007-09-20 00:32|| Front Page Top

#3 Inflation, yup. That's what happens when you have so much money going around. Only problem is, there are a ton of people who make $200/mo or less, and inflation hits them the hardest. Of course, they won't rebel, they have no guns. The only threat to the regime is splinter WJ or PLA officers.

Posted by gromky 2007-09-20 03:02|| 2007-09-20 03:02|| Front Page Top

#4 The problem is that when dictatorships (or, for that matter, any strong government) are faced with situations that make the 'people' unhappy they tend to create distractions or scapegoats to deflect the dissatisfaction away from themselves. If the problem gets bad enough in China I would expect them to blame Taiwan and demand that the wayward province be re-united with the nation, by force, of course. Common enemy means government is safe from insurrection.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2007-09-20 07:52|| 2007-09-20 07:52|| Front Page Top

#5 Freeze prices to control inflation. Yep, that'll work.

Buffoons...
Unless they can control the prices of incoming raw materials, soon the factories will be so far in debt because they can't make any money since their costs are greater than their profits that the whole system will blow up in their face. Geez these guys sound like dhimocrats.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2007-09-20 08:06|| 2007-09-20 08:06|| Front Page Top

#6 This seems to be a freeze on items the government already controls the price of.

This will just slow down the pace of increase in inflation. The only thing that will stop inflation is a recession, probably severe. Interesting times.

Posted by phil_b 2007-09-20 09:21|| 2007-09-20 09:21|| Front Page Top

#7 Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. It results from the power that controls money supply, in our case the Fed, increasing the supply of money to quickly. Money is subject to the laws of supply and demand, just like any other commodity. Increase the supply of anything and the price will decline. It's just that when the supply of money is increased, it's the price of everything else that increases while the nominal price of money remains constant. That is why price freezes never work; they only create black markets.

To stop inflation, stop growing the money supply. This will usually induce a recession, but not always. And a recession will not necessarily stop inflation if money supply continues to grow too quickly.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2007-09-20 09:51|| 2007-09-20 09:51|| Front Page Top

#8 freeze prices to control inflation in the food costs and avoid a price generated famine in the process.

Posted by 3dc 2007-09-20 10:19|| 2007-09-20 10:19|| Front Page Top

#9 Geez these guys sound like dhimocrats.

Yup. Just like the most recent American president to impose a price freeze. What was his name? Oh yeah, Richard Nixon.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-09-20 11:44|| 2007-09-20 11:44|| Front Page Top

#10 At a certain point there's going to be either a rebellion or one hell of an inventory control problem.

I hear they've had that for several years now.

Posted by Abdominal Snowman 2007-09-20 13:05|| 2007-09-20 13:05|| Front Page Top

#11 took a page out of the Zimbobwae playbook, did they?? should work out just about as good.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2007-09-20 14:37|| 2007-09-20 14:37|| Front Page Top

#12 Price freeze to ~~force shortages~~ control anything.

Yeah, that'll work.

Brilliant guys, these Chinese. Wonder why we never thought of doing that....

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2007-09-20 15:24|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/page/15bk1/Home_Page.html]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/page/15bk1/Home_Page.html] 2007-09-20 15:24|| Front Page Top

#13 My friend owns a couple of businesses in northern (remote, not far from Siberia) China. The price of staple foods like eggs and grains has doubled in the past couple of years. As the south gets richer, rural folks are getting hammered. He used to be able to hire unskilled labour for $50/mo, now they make more than twice as much. His plant manager gets $1k/mo, which would be unheard of 10 years ago.

Posted by Canukistan 2007-09-20 15:49|| 2007-09-20 15:49|| Front Page Top

#14 Before you know it they'll have to hire Mexicans to do the jobs the Chinese won't do.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2007-09-20 15:58|| 2007-09-20 15:58|| Front Page Top

#15
Inflation means money buys less comodities. I don't suppose the dollar peg has anything to do with this?

Since the dollar is tanking, pegged currencies will tank along with it.

Price freezes mean shortages, not good for a peacetime economy.

Posted by flash91 2007-09-20 16:57|| 2007-09-20 16:57|| Front Page Top

#16 Exactly my thoughts flash. I remember when 1 = $0.85 in the late 1990s, now $1.40. On the plus side, hopefully our leaders will soon realize just how stupid it was to ship our industrial base overseas and will also mandate producing our energy needs domestically.

Posted by ed 2007-09-20 17:38|| 2007-09-20 17:38|| Front Page Top

#17 BTW, the Canadian and US dollars hit parity. Those worthless slugs you sometimes get as change from vending machines are now worth something, or the dollar isn't worth crap.

Posted by ed 2007-09-20 17:48|| 2007-09-20 17:48|| Front Page Top

#18 Wonder why we never thought of doing that....

We did and it taught American industry an irreversible lesson in how to shave down what was once superior American quality to the marginal crap we see so much of today. Nixon's price and wage freeze installed quality fade as a permanent fixture in domestic manufacturing. Our national reputation has been suffering for it ever since.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-09-20 19:13|| 2007-09-20 19:13|| Front Page Top

#19 hopefully our leaders will soon realize just how stupid it was to ship our industrial base overseas

So long as assholes like Hsu can funnel Chinese funds into our political campaigns, don't count on it. Our politicians may as well be Beijing's sock puppets.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-09-20 19:15|| 2007-09-20 19:15|| Front Page Top

23:59 Eric Jablow
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