Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is in China today, doing whatever it takes–no matter how shameless and sordid– to make sure that the Chinese don’t pull out of American bonds, which are tanking in value thanks to Geithner’s multi-trillion-dollar gift to Wall Street. The Chinese are not happy, and since the Chinese loaned America all the money it’s now blowing, they call the shots.
The Tim Geithner lifting ass today in China sounds a lot different from the Tim Geithner who recently played the role of alpha Chinaman Dominator when he was trying to impress the wannabe macho men in Congress. The Treasury Secretary’s old self was captured perfectly in a NY Times article headlined “Geithner Hints At Harder Line on China Trade.”
Geithner Hints at Harder Line on China Trade
WASHINGTON — Timothy F. Geithner, who moved closer to confirmation as Treasury secretary on Thursday, told senators that President Obama believed China was “manipulating” its currency, suggesting a more confrontational stance toward that country than under the Bush administration.
“Hard.” Uh-huh-huh. He said “hard.” Uh-huh-huh-huh.
Today, Geithner got his first chance to show off his new “harder line” in his trip to China, as reported in Bloomberg:
In his prepared remarks, Geithner repeated the U.S. desire for a more flexible yuan. He has avoided a showdown on the issue, declining to repeat comments he made in written remarks to lawmakers after his Senate confirmation hearing in January that China was “manipulating” its currency.
Oo baby, that’s gotta make the Chinese rock-hard, yeah baby.
It gets even sexier. Last decade, Geithner, working in the Treasury under Clinton, led the disastrous IMF bailouts of the Asian Crisis victims, forcing them to cut budget deficits by raising taxes and cutting social programs (in other words, doing what it took to take care of the Western banks that owned their debts).
Today, the Chinese are demanding–and Geithner is acquiescing–that we do for them what we made Thailand, Indonesia and the rest do for us:
“The Chinese public is worried about the safety of its foreign-exchange reserves,” said Yu Yongding, a senior researcher at the government-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a former central bank adviser. “If America fails to adjust its economy by increasing its saving rate and reducing its current account deficit another financial crisis triggered by a dollar crisis could be inevitable,” Yu said in an e-mail.
Geithner said that China’s investments in U.S. financial assets are very safe, and that the U.S. is committed to a strong dollar.
“We are going to have to bring our fiscal deficit down to a level that is sustainable over the medium term,” Geithner said. “This will mean bringing the imbalance between our fiscal resources and our expenditures down to the point — roughly 3 percent of GDP — where the overall level of public debt to GDP is definitely on a downward path.”
The U.S. will need to phase out the tax cuts and bank rescue programs set up to help the economy recover from a deep recession, Geithner said. Spending cuts also will be needed, along with health care reform and new budget constraints like pay-as-you-go rules.
Geithner will meet tomorrow with Wen, who in March called for the U.S. to “guarantee the safety of China’s assets”–meaning our Treasury Secretary is going to have a hard time sitting on his flight back to America, not to mention the bareback clips he’ll be carrying home as souvenirs. We’re getting rock-hard already just thinking about it.
Geithner’s eagerness to play bottomer, no-vaseline-style, shows the degree to which he represents the banking industry’s interests, even over those of his own country. This trip is all about deciding who picks up the tab for his mega-bailout to Wall Street: should it be Wall Street and their billionaire chiefs? No. Should it be the Chinese, who own so much debt? Guess not. That leaves only one group left to pick up the tab: us. When Geithner comes back to America, he’s going to be in a very angry, violent mood, and you can bet that when he comes up with new schemes to protect China’s investments, it’ll be the most brutal ass-raping of local Americans since the Jamestown colonials set their eyes on Pocohantas.