G20: Obama said major economies had not acted assertively to address global economic imbalances and left little doubt that he considered China the source of the problem

PEL
Los Angeles

China as the source of the problem? What problem? The humongous US deficit? The total lack of competitiveness of US industries? The crumbling infrastructure of the US? The pathetic education received by US children? The feudalistic health care system? The quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan? Did China cause all or any of that?

Who wants to bet that, even if China appreciates the Yuan, the US kids will continue to receive the same lousy education as before, that the bridges in the US continue to crumble, that 10 of millions of uninsured will only increase, that the US deficit will continue to grow, that the US industries competitiveness will continue to slide?

Take heed to what Angela Merkel said, do not force other competitive nations, countries that are doing things right, to conform to the lowest common denominator. You got it, the US is the lowest common denominator. Ouch.


Spoonless Eddie
CT, USA

People say he is a smart man. Certainly he is credentialed. That's not smart though.

How does he think China got all of our jobs and money? Does he think they sneaked up and stole them? For that matter, how do any of the rest of you think they got these?

It's bad enough that we look like fools to one another. Do we have to look like fools to the whole world?

Wise up people. The other party didn't do this to us. The president didn't do it. Your neighbor didn't do it. The Corporation did it. If we don't snap out of our sleep walk we'll lose this place permanently.


PF
Darien IL

When are the Americans going to wake up to the lies and distortions expounded by our politicians and big businesses.

Big business and the politicians in 2002 pass the tax law giving business the green light to ship their operations oversea by allowing them not to pay income tax on profits earn overseas as long as they do not bring the profits back into this country. This is why our businesses that operated overseas pays less income tax than our middle class worker (in fact most do not pay any income tax because they keep the profit in their overseas subsidiaries and past the costs to to the parent company here in the US).

Our businesses buys the merchandise from China at less than $7.00 and sell them here at a $100.00 less processing expenses and reflect the profit in the subsidiaries companies book so no income tax is paid here in the US.

Our individual taxpayers are subsidizing big business overseas and they are blaming countries overseas for the fraud on the American public.


yawning thunger
NY

Condemning other nations for not consuming too much. Is this today's America? Why don't you consume less and grow slowly? growing slowly is not bad as it sounds. it is all about distribution and healthy social system, not about the big nation with big money and jobless people.


len
san diego

Mr. Obama appeared to remove the remaining wiggle room he had on the subject of the renminbi, declaring: “It is undervalued. And China spends enormous amounts of money intervening in the market to keep it undervalued.”---
Does this mean Mr Obama wants China to stop financing our
enormous budget deficit by purchasing U.S. Treasury bonds? Be careful here and do not bite the hand that feeds you.


watchingchina
Shanghai

This is the first time the world has been strong enough to stand up to the US and refuse to be bullied into accepting the pain for US economic illnesses.

The extent of US denial is astonishing. America has huge trade deficits because they buy too much on credit and can't sell anything to anyone. But instead of curbing their purchases and making things the world wants to buy, they demand that the world stop making and selling.

It's always someone else's fault. The US apparently has no ability to accept responsibility for its own actions and the flaws in its system, and persists in bullying the rest of the world to suffer for its own sins.

Lest we forget, this entire recent worldwide financial crisis was entirely made in the USA. It was the US excessive liquidity fuelled by credit instead of savings, free money and blind greed in their deregulated banking system that combined to create and burst yet one more bubble.

But it's all China's fault.

Here is an editorial you might enjoy reading that will help to explain more of the details of the current economic scene:

US Harry Potter-Nomics
http://www.bearcanada.com...


Igidur
Kansas City

I am not sure how he intends to get Americans to consume less AND get growth in the economy that is heavily dependent on that spending.

I suppose TARP was a good start because it at least invested in infrastructure. But what now?

We finally have to apply some import taxes for Chinese companies. They do not play fair (currency, wages, environment, copyright infringements) so we should not allow them to export into the USA until they clean up their house.

Short term: Who will really hurt if we do that?

1. Johnny that can't get his XBOX
2. Mary that will have to pay more for clothes
3. Dad that won't get 56" TV for mancave
4. Mom that will not be able to equip the dream kitchen with made in China electronics and appliances
5. US Retail Corporations that will have their profits sag
6. Cell phone and computer manufacturers
...

But long term, this is all worth it. Current level of consumption is not sustainable and we have to do something about it. All in Washington should concentrate on fundamentals of strong economies: manufacturing and producing things of real value; not the nebulous exports of "financial services".


LZ
Pennsylvania

Mr. Obama, along with a majority of our politicians from both parties and the media (this includes the NYTimes) want to blame all of our economical problems on China--if only China raises their currency then our problems are solved--but the American public is not that stupid.

Many of our problems today are resulted from our own undoing. The huge deficit is still growing in an unsustainable rate, and our public schools are still having too many drop-outs, just to name two of the many problems. To become stronger again economically, instead of blaming and picking fights with another country, we need to invest more in ourselves and our future while living within our means. We can start that process by increasing the investment in our dismal public school systems and by stop risking the lives of our brave men and women in ill-afford and unnecessary military adventures overseas.

If we continue to follow the same kind of policies as before (Obama disagreed w/ Bush about the wars, but he didn't stop them once he was elected. He just shifted them), I am certain that we will be even worse off in five, ten, or twenty years from today. When that time comes, I wonder are we still going continue to point fingers at China then?

Mr. Obama and the rest of the US Congress, it is time to wake up. Instead of gridlocks and working for the special interests, let's get to work. We need some genuine reform in this country now. Blaming another country may confuses some of us and buy you some more time, but it does not help us in any meaningful and fundamental way. Let's stop postponing what needs to be done.


curt k
ny

LOL! Strong Chinese currency solves US problems? It will do virtually nothing except raising prices of everyday goods.
So how are we doing in Europe where a euro's nearly $1.40? We must be having a trade surplus with Japan now that a US dollar's 80 yens. Right? Why is it that when it comes to politics, we abandon our common sense? I guess it's easier to blame someone than be honest and tell the truth.


peace4all1
Middletown, NJ

President Obama’s demand of an appreciation of Chinese Yuan up to 20% or more is amount to half-trillion dollars of debit forgiveness from our Chinese Banker. So what did our President bring to the G20 summit as collateral? Continuously sailing advanced weapons to Taiwan despite there is a biggest peace-boom across the Taiwan Straits in the last sixty years? Or constantly stirring up issues in South China Sea between China and its neighboring countries and ganging up with Japan against China in the recent bumping incident between Japanese patrol ship and Chinese fishing boat near the disputed island? Or promoting India as a counter -weight against China even though those two were never natural rivals? Until there is mutual trust between USA and China, there will be no significant progress on the global economic issues between USA and China.


Rodrigo de Posa
Lisbon, Portugal

I'm afraid the structure of the American economy is heavily dependent on an enormous artificial growth designed to feed a financial sector worthing 40% of the GDP.

It's no use blaming China and least of all Germany (who is able to export real industrial goods even with a very strong currency). It is for the US to dismantle its own casino economy and implement a real productive economy with realistic growth. It is for the US to make the correspondent efforts and make the necessary sacrifices.

But are contemporary Americans prepared to make those sacrifices? I would like to believe that the common American is ready for that call. But is that industrious "common man", who worries not only with himself but with community and future generations, still out there?

If he is still out there he is facing a gigantic effort. Not only he has to assert his virtue, he must also fight against a deeply corrupted association between the financial elite and the political elite. I mean, he must fight against the constant efforts of that elite to corrupt him, to ease his will and his virtue with stimuli and the illusion that prosperity will derive from consumption.

If, sadly, that man is no longer there and if he no longer believes in his ability to exercise his virtue, nothing will keep the US from decline and fall. And seen from the outside, accusations against China or Germany will be simultaneously ridiculous and suspicious.


Roland Nicholson, Jr
Xian, China

I recently exchanged dollars for Yuan @ a Bank of China office in Xian.
When I first came to China I got a much better exchange rate. Too many folks in the US think a weaker Yuan will bring certain jobs back to the States. In the short term the effect would be minimal. Manufacturing firms that rely on a cheap labor model would simply move to places like Vietnam in Asia or maybe even Africa. They are not going back to South Carolina or Upstate New York. Additionally, a lot of the things some people think we could sell to increasingly more affluent Chinese, as a result of a weaker RMB are being made in China by Chinese firms. Think again.