On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 3:17 PM, Xiaofan Chen wrote: > On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 11:59 PM, Gordon Williams wrote: >> On foreign ownership: "...U.S. Treasury statistics indicate that, at the end >> of 2006, foreigners held 44% of federal debt held by the public. About 66% >> of that 44% was held by the central banks of other countries, in particular >> the central banks of Japan and China. In total, lenders from Japan and China >> held 47% of the foreign-owned debt". Better be nice to Japan and China. >> > > Actually US now have China and Japan in hostages. China's foreign > reserves (managed by the central banks and finance ministry and > invests a lot in US bonds including significant portion in bonds of > Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) have been estimated to lose tens of billions > of US dollars (or even more if counting the losses of other Chinese state > owned banks). I should mention that if these money in put in the Chinese stock market, the lost will be even greater... > And yet China is still a poor country with average GDP per capita about > US$2000 Those money would be much better to put into education and > build basic infrastructures in the poor western region. > > Japan is in a different situation. It is a rich country. So they are > supposed to benefit in the current situation as they have cash > rich companies. Still they should not forget the lessons learned > from the earlier 1990s. > > Xiaofan > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist