The Obama Trip To China Was A Disaster

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Obama Hits a Wall on His Visit to China,"* "... Mr. Obama was met by a salvo of criticism from top banking regulator Liu Mingkang, who argued that the U.S. was threatening the global recovery with near-zero interest rates that, he said, were inflating speculative bubbles around the world."

This message from a top Chinese official bodes especially bad because China is the U.S.'s largest lender, a lender so big that the U.S. can no longer pay its bills without them.

This means they have the leverage not only to dictate to Mr. Obama but to directly affect U.S. policy. And China will do everything it can to prevent the U.S.'s wild and irresponsible spending from destroying the value of its U.S. investments.

They are not claiming Mr. Obama is at fault for there is blame enough to go around, from Congress and to the prior administration. This was a confrontation long in the making as China has been loudly appealing for the U.S. to control its spending for at least the last 11/2 years without success. It was as if no-one was listening.

Although I called Mr. Obama's China trip "a disaster," the opposite is also contained within. We don't have the will to control our spending and so our major lenders will now help us to control it.

Going forth, at first subtly, China will affect lobbyist created expensive Congressional legislation, such as the health care bill, for America can't afford to pay for it. And it will quietly impact out of control military spending on weapons and wars.

China will also influence Social Security and Medicare spending for it's not their fault the U.S. didn't secure those vital programs, but it is their money that pays many of our bills.

Without comment, even little things likely irritated them, such as Mr. Obama having a mile long motorcade. Our nation is going broke and this far over-sized motorcade showed the Chinese people the U.S government doesn't have a clue.

Through our government's lobbyist controlled corrupted practices, its war mentality and financial irresponsibility, our nation has sunk into financial dependence. China in affect, told Mr. Obama the emperor [America] has no clothes.

At the end of Mr. Obama's four day China visit, he and Chinese President Hu Jintao sat together for a media "availability." As they briefly posed for pictures, neither man commented, nor did they take questions. This is highly unusual.

But behind them were U.S. and Chinese flags, ironically both were probably made in China, as are so many other goods sold in America.

Ten years ago, would you have thought such a great nation as the U.S. could fall so far and so fast? Yet it is not too late to resurrect our nation, however it will require you and I and others to raise our voices demanding moral and fiscal sanity.

But even if they don't listen to us, don't lose hope. As happened during the Great Depression, we will come together as a people to help each other through the hard times to come.

Dick

11/21/09 Update: Yesterday, Germany's Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaube stated European fears the U.S. is setting off market bubbles that could crash any global recovery. This is what China's chief bank regulator, Liu Mingkang just told President Obama and the rest of the world.

* "Obama Hits a Wall on His Visit to China," http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125857743503654225.html