And while I’m complaining why in the world would anybody think that a U. S. policy that concentrates on growth (read: consumption) while the rest of the world concentrates on balancing their budgets (read: production) can possibly work out well for us? We may well create jobs by spending another trillion and putting ourselves another trillion dollars in debt but the jobs will be in China and Germany.
My point here is that targeting our policy isn’t enough. We’ve got to recognize how the other guy is likely to respond to our policy and what he’s going to do.
Aren’t there some suggestions that China might be moving towards a domestic growth model as well?
Listening to some talking heads on CNBC this morning that seemed to be the consensus view (though the timeline was very hazy), and Europe was descending into a lost decade.
Do the Chinese like American-style Chinese food?
Simple arithmetic dictates that, if China is to continue to grow and prosper, it must turn increasingly to domestic consumption. The economy of a country with a GDP of $188 billion as it was in 1980 can quadruple on the basis of exports alone. A country with a GDP of $5 trillion can’t. The rest of the world can’t import that much.