Metzenbaum Scissors

U.S. Records Another Huge Current Account Deficit

Rabble,
China is a polluted prison filled with illiterate peasants trading their miserable agrarian subsistence for a slightly less miserable (but still Dickensian) 'life' on an assembly line on the coast.
PJ O'Rourke paraphrase on Purchasing Power Parity: saying the Chinese quality of life is in any way gaining on ours is like saying you can have a better house in a crime-ridden, crack district. Yes, it's a better house, but most folks would not choose it.

I think you over-estimate internal Chinese demand for 99% of their population. The rich 1% want to buy anything but tainted food, counterfeit brake pads, soy sauce made from hair, etc,

U.S. Records Another Huge Current Account Deficit

If your dumb-a** leaders insisted the Chinese buy a dollar of US goods for every dollar they sell here, and all their containers were inspected, it would accomplish two things: balanced trade deficit and a whole lot less drugs on US streets.
China needs America; America can get on without China... so why the kowtowing?

Asset Class Correlations

More Lep in more places.

What passes for valid numerical analysis is appalling.