Hilary Clinton has admitted that eye-level talks (with China) have become difficult. After all, Beijing has bought a mountain of US government bonds and has long been America's biggest creditor.No one in the West should be smiling.
"How do you deal toughly with your banker?" a somewhat resigned Mrs. Clinton asked former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
It's a question that has ushered in a new century.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Der Spiegel's Take
Der Spiegel has a long article on the meaning of Washington's diplomatic correspondence. The bottom line:
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6 comments:
There's an old joke about how if you owe the bank a million $ the bank owns you but if you owe the bank $100 million you own the bank. Add a few zeros and figure out who owns who? What will the Chinese do if the US doesn't pay (or - same thing - inflates its currency into worthlessness)? "Here's that $1 billion I owe you - now you can buy a cup of coffee."
K
China is larger, wealthier and has more productive industrial sector than the USA. How do you deal though with a bigger boy in the neighborhood?
The Wikileaks sound like a rehash of internet chatter in right-of-centre blogs over the years. The anarchist Assange aims to ruin US interests, so far his revelations have if anything strengthened the position of the US, Israel and the West in general. Chicoms and Iranians are going to bed dreading the morning news. Perhaps it truly was a leak, but if not whoever is behind this has played it brilliantly. I notice that there no cables where any Western leader is put in an embarrassing position.
J just don't buy his gizmos, stick to the old cathode-ray TVs, avoid upgrading to touchscreen handphones. Get the kids wooden toys. Throw out the PS2 and Nintendo players. Buy your combed cotton shirts from India. Use your PC for two more years. Kill Kindle. Avoid electronic crap and buy Japanese if you simply have to.
And yet we read stuff saying we aren't made a lackey by this debt the way Britain was our lackey in the Suez crisis.
And again many Europeans, including Winston Churchill, wanted to tear down the bolshies in 1919 when it would have been an absolute breeze. Probably a wise idea, but there was no dough in the whole of Europe, only debts to the US.
Hahaha. The cables were made by Americans for Americans. How do you expect them to say something offensive to the Secretary or her friends? In the case of Israel, it is such a transparent society that everything is known five minutes after the "secret meeting". Frequently, even before the meeting. There will be no surprises regarding Israel.
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