Thursday, March 12, 2009

Here's Your Sign Folks

This is exactly the news that we need to signal the beginning of an economic recovery: rather than staying dependent on exports, Chinese manufacturers are beginning to push to sell to Chinese consumers rather than American.

For the last decade, the U.S. consumer has been the engine that drove not only the U.S. but the global economy. This recession has made plainly obvious that we can't do it alone any more. Once China increases domestic consumption and stops being so reliant on the U.S. market, then trade with China can become trade again, something it hasn't been for decades:

Liu Dequan says he has had to alter the ornamental lamps his firm had fashioned for the US market. He’s changed the plugs to fit Chinese sockets.

“Since the financial crisis happened I have had no foreign business at all,” Mr. Liu laments. “I decided that I have to work on the domestic market no matter how difficult it is.”


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another view: The Chinese see the U.S. economy getting worse and are preparing...

Did you see the China premiere's comments on U.S. Treasurys Nick?

Sorry about the way the BSB thing went down. It all seemed way too dramatic to me, as these things usually are.

Nick D said...

Thanks Jeff for coming over.

Yes I did just read about the Chinese premier's comments about the dollar and U.S. Treasuries. There's no doubt that once this recession is over we need to get our financial house in order after our national debt went from $5.4 Trillion to $10 Trillion under GWB.

I really do, honestly, wish that more GOPers had been talking about that during the Bush administration. Especially because our GOP Senator, George Voinovich, was shouting about it, but it seemed like no one listened to him.