Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Debt, the President, and China

The Financial Times Reports with a headline "Obama warns on US public debt pile" that in an interview with a FOX correspondent that the US may face a second recessionary slump resulting from the excessive debt. One is tempted to say "You can't make this stuff up!" It is not as if anyone has not been screaming about this for the past year. Yet one suspects that there may have been some lecturing in the wood shed by the Chinese as regards to the less than sterling economic policy rendered from the White House. The venue, namely FOX, the former outcast, and the statement, namely curtailing Government spending, is interesting to say the least.

The FT gives the following quote:

"“It is important though to recognise if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the US economy in a double-dip recession,” said Mr Obama."

The issue simply is that the debt, and its ongoing growth, is a direct result of the current Administration. The FT further states:

"The timing of Mr Obama’s remarks, which came at the end of his trip to China, is likely to fuel speculation that his Chinese hosts delivered stern private warnings about the consequences of continuing high US budget deficits. China, the biggest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds, has become increasingly vocal in its fears on the value of its dollar assets."

This is akin to the CEO of some start-up meeting his investors who see his business running out of funds with nothing to show for it and having the "come to meet the Lord" meeting. The problem is that anyone experienced in the real world would and should have seen this much earlier. Hopefully the Bankers to the US, namely China, got the message across.