Reading those, isn't the real point for the Chinese that the U.S. should stop inflating the dollar? We buy stuff they make and pay them with our dollars, which they have been holding. We inflate our dollar and their dollars lose value. Really, where are they going to go with that? Yet, Geithner is, apparently, saying the U.S. dollar is irrelevant. I must be reading those articles incorrectly. Aside from undercutting our president, our Treasury secretary is undermining our currency and its importance to the world? Dollars, schmollars!

Just a couple of months ago I was hearing about how this guy, Geithner, is brilliant. I know I am not. So, someone should, please, be able to explain to me how these things he is saying are brilliant, because I just do not see it. I see a disaster forming, dribbling out of that guy's mouth.

well since i flat out do not understand this IMF-stuff Geithner and this Chinese bank-governor are talking about, I'll make the obvious conservative populist demagogic point, and enjoy doing so to the hilt: PUT JOHN LENNON ON THE ONE-WORLD EURO-YEN-ON!!!

Thank you, Carl. Let's all sing Imagine together. Then we'll feel better.

Don't we have a reliable global currency--gold?

Gold can also be discovered and mined, in the future we might even be able to create it by using nano-technology, biologists working at Cargill and universities nationwide are developing plants that absorb it in micro-form in soil that can then be burnt and smelted...the Japanese are working on technology to extract gold from sewage(apparently they have golden poo, that isn't just charms)...If you need an interesting vacation you can go try to pan for it at mines near rivers and streams that have converted themselves into tourist spots(Colorado and California have some) Still gold is a good store of value in times like these(albeit good luck figureing how much its current price reflects future financial difficulties).

Yesterday Geithner said he believed in a "strong dollar" but in order to finance this government debt we are dependent upon China. It is as simple as that. Since US savings rates are so low Geithner has to appeal to the real shareholders who will finance this stimulus plan/gov debt(CHINA). This was the real reason the stock market changed territory yesterday...unease about how these bond sales would go...when the British had a hard time financing some debt this reverberated in our markets bringing the question of financing debt to the fore. There is nothing Geithner or Goolsby said that wasn't politic and Kate is absolutely right that it really is China who is most worried about the US becomming a bannana republic.

Geithner and Goolsbee have to literally sell the Obama plan to the Chinnese, so they have to be politic and at the same time reiterate that this is only a short-term fix...which is what Geithner tried to do, and why he reiterated that he believes in a strong dollar.

Basically Geithner has to say, what I am doing is deflating the US dollar, but I am only doing this short term in order to fund a program that will shore up the economic strengh of the United States so that freight from Japan and China can once more flow into american ports...Once the american economy is on its feet my next priority will be to ensure a strong US dollar because fighting inflation is easier than fighting deflation.

"We inflate our dollar and their dollars lose value. Really, where are they going to go with that?" Well they go in and buy US treasuries and bonds(they also buy the Gilt, the failure of which spooked markets)...China finances our governments deficit spending, which is why Geithner and Goolsbee have to be politic...something that economists in general are somewhat poor at doing no matter how brilliant they are...

Call it a conservative or a liberal point...Or as I prefer and enjoy thinking, just the ramblings of a fool trying to untangle a gordian knot, with a rusty swiss army knife in a hall of broken mirrors.

I see your John Lennon and raise you David Bowie, or maybe Nirvana...The Man who Sold the World in any case....For years and years I roamed...I gazed a gazeless stare with multi-millionaires...who knows not me, we never lost control...

Yes, though maybe not about the music. I looked up your song and found it on YouTube. My youngest son gives me music full of unbelievable idealism, so there is no shortage of it. That boy doesn't believe in money, though he does love stuff.

But to your main point, yes, the Chinese are buying up our debt and that does protect their investment in our dollar - somewhat. I do not blame them at all for being worried about US monetary policy.

Our college campuses seem to have been full of Chinese students for the past many years. Maybe all of this we are discussing is the result of that?

Is this not just a crazy conspiracy theory?

Our college campuses seem to have been full of Chinese students for the past many years. Maybe all of this we are discussing is the result of that? huh??

No, no. I meant perhaps the current good relations we have with China are a result of the attitude towards the U.S. of those returning students. My experience of them is that they have a positive perspective on the U.S. They seem, in many ways, far more traditionally conservative than the average student on campus, even, maybe especially, on economic matters. I was just speculating about something very good for the US coming from our campuses and influencing foreign relations. Brutus, I am sorry I was not clear.

I meant the irony of the golobal currency finally being mainstream for the conspiracy part. I was just curious what you ment, I agree with what you say about students from china. The people from there that I have personally known all seemed like good people, as opposed to commie zombies or something. I even used to play an online game with a guy from china who was going to school in London. He seemed like a good guy, but I did not want to get into a political discussion because for some reason it just seemed wrong. I did learn that Kobe Bryant is more popular than Yao Ming in china from him.