U.S. Treasuries

[agstar77]

China is worried about the security of their 698 Billion of treasuries. Maybe they should have thought about that before selling us all that junk. Hillary says don't worry be happy!

[jensend]

i don't think it's just as simple as saying the chinese took the risk so too bad. the japanese are major buyers as well as interests in other industrialized countries so the us treasuries are a big factor around the world. if you read that article i think you're referring to, it is a message from china saying the us has handed over some control by going so heavily into debt and it will be watched closely. the chinese acknowledge their risk but they are also telling the us that it will have to be responsible in foreign and financial affairs.

[Fransisco]

A couple of interesting things about China.

They have no debt of their own. Think about that. Not only can they afford to pay for all their government spending themselves they can also, on top of that, afford to lend out money to countries all over the world. At some point they will realize that they are not going to get paid back, say screw it, and start lending more of that money to its own people who will actually use it to produce something and thereby be able to pay it back with interest.

China also has no income tax.

Mao is long dead and communism with him. China is setting up to be the next Capitalist superpower in the world. While the western world is trying desperately to resurrect a Maoist command and control economy the Chinese are throwing extra dirt on his grave to make sure he stays buried forever.

http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com/2009/03/blame-capitalism.html#comments

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CQyU4ayBifw/SbnX70stRlI/AAAAAAAACGo/7fVIuuimy9g/s1600-h/Middle.jpg

[dmlfarmer]

F. I would like to know where got your information that China has no debt. The government of China website says it had an external debt of USD $392.589 billion as of March 31, 2008. The China Daily newspaper last summer said China's foreign debt rose to USD $392.6 billion. And the CIA world fact book claims China had external debt of USD 420 billion at the end of 2008. It also shows public debt at 15.7% of China's GDP.

Furthermore reports are China is instituting a stimulus package of over USD 400 billion as over 20 million chinese migrant labors alone have lost their jobs.

[Fransisco]

My apologies, I should have said virtually no debt. And I was referring to external debt only.

For comparison's sake, using the CIA data you cited:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

Canada has a population of 33,212,696 GDP of $1.336 trillion and an external debt of $758.6 billion.

China has a population of 1,330,044,544 a GDP of $7.8 trillion and an external debt of $420.8 billion.

For further comparison lets look at the USA with a population of 303,824,640 a GDP of $14.58 trillion and an external debt of $12.25 trillion

So yes, comparatively speaking, China really doesn't have a whole heck of a lot of debt.

Here's another interesting comparison the GDP growth rates for 2008. Canada= .7%, USA= 1.4 % China= 9.8%

The Chinese balance sheet is whole lot healthier than western countries and it's all thanks to them going Capitalist while we're going the other way.

[mustardman]

What I heard about China's growth rate is that they need at least 9% or they have mass unemployment. With such a huge population ,they have to find jobs for millions of students who come out of school each year. 9% growth is a disaster for them.

[Fransisco]

So then, .7% for us is...?