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

  • From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 16:37:31 -0800

Yeah.  The information about China investing in the U.S. is interesting.
China, despite its supposed competition with the U.S. still feels (as do
many other nations) that the U.S. is just about the safest place in the
world to invest their money.

 

As to China needing more energy, that has also been a concern for awhile.
Their need is going to surpass that of the U.S. very quickly.

 

China seems to be ambivalent about Iran, but it doesn't want Iran to obtain
nuclear weapons.  I don't see the justification for the Washington Post's
slant.  China endorsed the February 4th IAEA resolution reporting Iran to
the U.N. Security council.  

 

The U.S. seems ready to play hard ball over this issue.  According to an
article by Kenneth Timmerman in the National Weekly Edition of the
Washington Times, wrote that the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton
"Behind closed doors . . . made it clear the Bush administration will watch
and judge the U.N. Security Council performance very closely as it takes on
Iran's case.  If the Council cannot rally to punish a regime that has openly
called for destroying two U.N. member states (Israel and the United States),
the U.N. may not be worth preserving.  The notion the United States could
pursue 'other venues' besides the U.N. for international crisis management
and cooperation - such as a Council of Democracies - has been sobering."

 

Lawrence

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of John McCreery
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 3:45 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Iran, China, Oil, US National Debt: For Lawrence

 

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

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