4 ms·
I don't mean to suggest it would be illegal. I just think that if they refuse to sell us these minerals, then we might refuse to sell them BMWs or the video gam
by d4nt 17y ago
I don't mean to suggest it would be illegal. I just think that if they refuse to sell us these minerals, then we might refuse to sell them BMWs or the video games... and so on until somebody sees sense.
- cglee 17y agoAren't BMWs German? And no one in China buys video games. They all play online versions. We could stop selling them Starbucks, McDonald's and Coke I guess.
- warfangle 17y agoWe (the US, at least) also have to tread carefully around China. They hold a majority of our government's debt...
- bwhite 17y agoThis isn't right. China holds between 22-25% of US debt, which is a plurality, not close to a majority (http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt). China has also indicated that it would prefer to buy less US debt, though it's unclear if this is posturing or not. Both countries are over each other's barrels, to mangle the metaphor. If you owe the bank $10,000 and you walk in and tell them you're struggling, they'll just look at you funny. If you owe the bank $10,000,000,000 dollars and you walk in and tell them you're struggling, you better believe they'll want to work with you. The USD makes up about 65% of foreign reserves (down from about a steady 70-ish% between 2001-2007). China doesn't keep buying USDs for fun. They buy them for profit, stability, and for preventing the appreciation of the yuan.