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Growth in China has been wildly overexaggerated as indicated by a recent report: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/09/29/a-study-of-lights-at-night

Growth in China has been wildly overexaggerated as indicated by a recent report: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/09/29/a-study-of-lights-at-night-suggests-dictators-lie-about-economic-growth https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/09/29/a-study-... (And that isn’t even considering the sharp drop in population growth China is about to experience) Plus the GDP (per capita and otherwise) in Africa and India lead me to believe there really isn’t much money being reallocated to them.

kennend3 4y ago
You entirely missed their point. - The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $310.3 billion in 2020 - The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $355.3 billion in 2021 I think their choice of "growth" was bad, but their point of "sucking up money" was spot on. It is not an accident that China maintains a surplus, they are intentionally extracting money from them.
- master_crab 4y ago
  What point? That America runs a trade deficit with China? That isn’t news. Have you looked at our trade relationship with Japan? Germany? It’s been negative by tens of billions for decades. No one claims they are depleting America of money. Trade deficits aren’t a zero sum game. Countries end up putting those earnings back in American securities, burning that money on useless investments (particularly relevant to China right now) and many of the inputs/outputs (like services which America excels at) aren’t ever properly recorded.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Trade deficits are wonderful. We print worthless dollars and other countries give us real valuable things in exchange. Win!
    - master_crab 4y ago
      Lol. Worth-less to that buyer from Wichita, but worth-more than Renminbi to that seller from Guangzhou.
      - bombcar 4y ago
        Oh, sure, there’s reasons they’ll take our bucks. And if what we’re buying is “value add” and not basically raw resources, there can be other issues. But slurping up the middle East’s oilshake whilst sitting on our giant reserves is a good trick whilst it works.

kennend3 4y ago

You entirely missed their point. - The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $310.3 billion in 2020 - The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $355.3 billion in 2021 I think their choice of "growth" was bad, but their point of "sucking up money" was spot on. It is not an accident that China maintains a surplus, they are intentionally extracting money from them.

master_crab 4y ago
What point? That America runs a trade deficit with China? That isn’t news. Have you looked at our trade relationship with Japan? Germany? It’s been negative by tens of billions for decades. No one claims they are depleting America of money. Trade deficits aren’t a zero sum game. Countries end up putting those earnings back in American securities, burning that money on useless investments (particularly relevant to China right now) and many of the inputs/outputs (like services which America excels at) aren’t ever properly recorded.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Trade deficits are wonderful. We print worthless dollars and other countries give us real valuable things in exchange. Win!
  - master_crab 4y ago
    Lol. Worth-less to that buyer from Wichita, but worth-more than Renminbi to that seller from Guangzhou.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      Oh, sure, there’s reasons they’ll take our bucks. And if what we’re buying is “value add” and not basically raw resources, there can be other issues. But slurping up the middle East’s oilshake whilst sitting on our giant reserves is a good trick whilst it works.