Strangewalk

How Much of China's Export Industry Is Owned by U.S. Corporations?

"There is no reason America can't do that"...Yes, but our free zones would also need to be lawyer free to protect companies from endless lawsuits, labor union free as the Japanese transplants are...and you'd need to find people that were not too obese to work and that weren't so full of themselves that they could actually cooperate with others--good luck on those points.

International ETF Update: China, India

As the consumer driven Euro and Dollar zones continue to severely weaken, havoc will visit China's export sector--a full 75% of its economy, with massive layoffs occurring even now in the prison factories sprawling over the Pearl River Delta. I'm also wondering how enthusiastically the denizens of Beijing will welcome a return to normal, after they've actually been able to breath air that's only rated 50% carcinogenic for three weeks. Of course, you can always follow Mr. Roger's lead and invest in the world's most technologically advanced counterfeiting, illegal copying and copyright infringement infrastructure--good returns there indeed.

China's Global Impact: Inflation Exporter or Deflation Trendsetter?

Most of China's output comes from foreign firms 'on wheels'. In fact there has recently been a small but significant transfer of production from China to lower wage Vietnam and Indonesia, a trend that possesses a lot of potential depth. In addition, in some production categories there is really not that much of an advantage to manufacturing in China as one might think, after factoring in shipping and other costs, along with almost certain future tariffs being imposed by China's largest export markets. These factors together with a stronger RMB, fast rising domestic inflation, and contraction/falling demand from abroad, will force China's factories to increase efficiency just to maintain current pricing on exports, or even to reduce prices. Unfortunately, the move toward automation in a manufacturing sector structurally dependent on exports will negatively impact China's ability to create new jobs, which even now are only being generated at half the rate which govenment planners deem necessary to insure social stability.