9:49AM
WPR's The New Rules: Globalization's Massive Demographic Bet
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 9:49AM 
By calling the Chinese out explicitly on their currency manipulation in his concluding address to the G-20 summit last week, President Barack Obama may have torpedoed his relationship with Beijing for the remainder of what China's bosses most certainly now hope is his first and only term. Burdened by a Republican-controlled, Tea Party-infused House, and bathed in hypocrisy thanks to the Fed's own, just-announced currency manipulation (aka, QE2), Obama seems not to recognize either the gravity of his nation's long-term economic situation or the degree to which his own political fate now hinges on his administration's increasingly stormy ties with China.
Read the entire column at World Politics Review.
Reader Comments (4)
So how do we influence Obama to get it right on China? How do we get the masses to embrace the win-win not the zero-sum?
Dear Mr. Barnett,
Well written, you say exactly the opposite of what I think the US's attitude towards China should be. If you would send me an email address, I can send you the reasoning behind this thinking. I would hope this might be useful to you, since you obviously are interested and busy with the subject.
Yours with best regards,
Edouard Prisse, edouard.prisse@planet.nl
Why doesn't anybody say anything about what amounts to "currency manipulation" by Germany? Germany has built an economy that is highly export-oriented and which has withstood the recession much better than other countries in Europe. However, Germany also takes the position that it has little responsibility to bail out the failing economies of Europe, such as Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, etc. As a result, the Euro - which is both the German currency and the currency of these failing European economies - has undergone substantial devaluation. This in turn boosts German exports by making them cheaper. This is the fundamental problem with the EU. If you have a common currency without also having much stronger political integration, you effectively wind up with what amounts to currency manipulation.
QE2 bears only a faint (and accidental at that) similarity to China's blatant and aggressive currency manipulation. See Alam Blinder in today's WSJ. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704658204575611052418939656.html
Obama will receive cheers around Asia (and especially from India) for this non-aggressive (and non-protectionist) counter-measure.
You're sounding more like anti-Obama than you are pro-world lately. Do you not agree that only the US can bring Israel to choose between endless expansion and peace? And do you not agree that Obama, by his latest offer, may have done just that?