[lit-ideas] Iran, China, Oil, US National Debt: For Lawrence

  • From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 08:45:15 +0900

Peter Goodman of the Washington Post writes,

"SHANGHAI, Feb. 17 -- China is hastening to complete a deal worth as
much as $100 billion that would allow a Chinese state-owned energy
firm to take a leading role in developing a vast oil field in Iran,
complicating the Bush administration's efforts to isolate the Middle
Eastern nation and roll back its nuclear development plans, according
to published reports.

"The completion of the agreement would advance China's global quest
for new stocks of energy. It could also undermine U.S. and European
initiatives to halt Tehran's nuclear plans, possibly generating
friction in Beijing's relations with outside powers."

Why don't we, then, get over there and kick some Chinese butt? 
Well...for one thing...according to a Congressional Research Service
report in November 2005,

"the three top-estimated foreign holders of federal debt by country,
ranked in descending order as of September 2005, are Japan ($687.3
billion), China ($252.2 billion), and the United Kingdom ($182.4
billion). Based on these estimates, Japan's portion of the investment
in U.S. federal debt constitutes approximately 33.3% of all foreign
investment in U.S. federal debt; China's, approximately 12.2%; and the
United Kingdom's, approximately 8.8%."

And China's share of U.S. federal debt has been growing steadily,
while the total share of federal debt owned by non-US creditors had
risen to 1.89 trillion dollars (51.6%) as of December 2004. We don't
own the world any more. The world owns us, and China is getting to be
an ever bigger part of that world.





--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd.
55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama 220-0006, JAPAN
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. lit-ideas
  3. Archive
  4. 02-2006