Inflation in China May Limit U.S. Trade Deficit

choi

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(1) Keith Bradsher, Inflation in China May Limit U.S. Trade Deficit. New York Times, Jan 31, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/business/global/31trade.html?scp=1&sq=china%20keith%20bradsher&st=cse

My comment: This is a terrific report. Pay more attention when you reach the second paragraph from the bottom of web page 1.

(2) Paul Krugman, A Cross of Rubber; Don't give in to demands of higher rates. New York Times, Jan 31, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/opinion/31krugman.html?scp=2&sq=krugman%20rubber&st=cse

My comment:
(a) Th author explains the title in the last paragraph. The rubber is his shorthand for commodities.
(i) William Jennings Bryan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Bryan
(1860-1925; a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States (1896, 1900 and 1908) [He lost all three]; against gold standard)

(ii) Cross of Gold speech
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_gold_speech
(delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 8, 1896; advocated bimetallism [silver as well as gold]./ Following the Coinage Act (1873), the United States abandoned its policy of bimetallism and began to operate a de facto gold standard./  
United States adopted the monometallic gold standard de jure in 1900 [under Bryan's opponent, Pres. William McKinley]./ By the first decade of the twentieth century, among major nations, only China and Hong Kong remained on the silver standard./ section 3 Origin of the name)
(c) Why do bankers at Davos clamor for higher interest rates?  See paragraph 2. The short answer is to fight inflation. But US inflation is extremely low (see (1)). Mr Krugman does not care about inflations in other nations--particuarly China--because inflations aborad are their (those nations') own making. See paragraphs 6 and 7.
(d) Mr Krugman has consistently championed both low interest rates and injection of money to jump start economy and slay the beast of unemployment (US).
(e) There is no need to read the rest of this article.  

(3) 中国公司出巨资入股美国油页岩项目. VOA Chinese, Jan 31, 2011.
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20110131-CHINA-US-SHALE-114922159.html

(4) 美中夏威夷包机带来观光商机. VOA Chinese, Jan 31, 2011.
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20110131-hawaii-US-china-114923789.html

My coment: The report states, "此前台湾开放中国观光客的时候，原本也预计会带来巨额消费，但之后利润却不如预期." There is no explanation or statistics. So I do not give it much thought.

(5) 专家：新国8条难堵房市泡沫. VOA Chinese, Jan 30, 2011.
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20110130_HOUSING_POLICY-114893259.html

(6) 中国劳工成本增加 竞争力让位墨西哥. VOA Chinese, Jan 28, 2011.
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20110128-China-Mexico-114838789.html
("墨西哥工厂经理卡斯特罗(Cesar Castro)自豪地对美国之音说，工人工资现在与中国相差无几，今年年中就可能拉平了 * * * [Mexico] 官方统计显示，墨西哥的工人薪资现在只比中国平均高出14%，似乎验证了卡斯特罗的判断")

My comment:
(a) Meco Corporation, of Greeneville, TN, began in 1959 "when we were known as Metals Engineering Company."
http://www.mecofurniture.com/pages.php?pageid=1

Greene, Tenessee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeneville,_Tennessee
(county seat of Greene County[3]. The town was named in honor of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene. Incidentally, it is one of the few towns with this spelling in the United States, although there are numerous U.S. towns named Greenville)

(b) Jabil Circuit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabil_Circuit
(Headquarters  St. Petersburg, Florida; founded in 1966 by William E. Morean and James Golden; The Jabil name comes from the combination of the founder's first names (James and Bill))
(c) VOA misspells. California has City of Monterey. Mexico has Monterrey--two R's. The latter is capital city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuevo_Le%C3%B3n

The one in California and the one in Mexico both derived their names the same: municipality of Monterrei of Spain. See
Monterey Bay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey_Bay
(section 1 1 Toponymy)
(d) The VOA report is basically based on

Jason Lange, Mexico benefits from China's rising labour costs. Reuters, Jan 26, 2011.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Mexico+benefits+from+China+rising+labour+costs/4172075/story.html

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