|
Henry Paulson's Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED®) may not be working.
Chinese officials seem to be galled by the apparent hypocrisy of
Americans telling them what to do while the American economy is at best
stagnant. China, on the other hand, has maintained its feverish growth.
Some officials are promoting a Chinese style of economic
management that they suggest serves developing countries better than
the American model, in much the same way they argue that they are in no
hurry to copy American-style multiparty democracy.
Hmmm. Certainly the U.S. developed best by taking care of our
own economy and people. Ditto the Asian Tigers. I can't
think of any country that developed without managing its economy.
The Americans have a laundry list of complaints, among them that
the Chinese use regulations to favor domestic companies over foreign
rivals and that Beijing does too little to police the theft of
copyrights and patents held by Western companies. ...
“U.S. credibility and the credibility of U.S. financial markets is
zero everywhere in the world,” said Joseph E. Stiglitz, a professor of
economics at Columbia University who has sharply criticized the Bush
administration and praised China’s economic management in the past.
“Anybody looking at this from the outside says, ‘There’s been a lot of
hot air coming out of the U.S., so why should we listen to these guys
when they didn’t know how to manage risk?’ ”
Why do you manage your economy? To protect the balanced growth
and development of your country. To be able to respond in
crisis. To add a little more here and a little less there, as the
case may be.
“In practice, they tend to overestimate the power of the market
and overlook the regulatory role of the government, and this warped
conception is at the root of the subprime crisis,” said Mr. Liao,
director general of the [China Banking Regulatory Commission].
We try to convince other countries to take action. But let
them do what they want, and we can merely respond if it is unfair.
Consider this Principle adopted by the Coalition for a Prosperous America:
Economic Regulation: CPA supports the right of all countries to
transparently regulate their currency, tax regimes and domestic
policies in a nondiscriminatory manner. We also support the right of
countries to respond appropriately to trading partner policies that
distort trade.
If China wants to regulate their currency, they can go ahead and do
it. But we can countervail it if it harms our domestic
interests. That's what the Stabenow-Bunning-Bayh bill (S.796) and
the Ryan-Hunter bill (H.R. 2942) do in Congress. China can do
what they want, we protect our interests, and China can consider if it
is still worth it.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed