Shocker! Today on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, a guest was unable to say what people in China did with renminbi.

by Joe

The choices were:

* Eat it.
* Wear it.
* Spend it.
* Listen to it.

When China cashes in all its Treasuries, and takes over, he might not thrive.

(And obviously he didn’t have what it takes to be a millionaire.)

Simon Black: “The price of a Big Mac is going up in China by 7%. In fact, Chinese state media outlets are reporting that prices for all items at McDonalds fast food restaurants across China are going up by 1/2 to 1 renminbi (RMB), roughly 7.5 to 15 US cents.”

Let’s hope that China does not stop importing the US’ biggest export: inflation. Otherwise, our own regime may soon be forced to see just what it means when runaway inflation (ahem, oil) ends up creating just a little popular unrest. And, in the most ironic of boomerang effects, should China start reexporting our own inflation back to us, via increased prices for beads and trinkets, [...]

China, Russia quit dollar in trade settlement

According to peopledaily:

St. Petersburg, Russia – China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.

Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.

“About trade settlement, we have decided to [...]

China “illegally subsidizing its industry?”

The Obama administration says it will investigate a complaint filed by the United Steelworkers accusing China of illegally subsidizing its clean-energy industries, in another sign of its newly assertive posture over China’s trade and commercial policies.

The Obama administration announced Friday that it would investigate a complaint accusing China of illegally subsidizing its clean-energy industries, in another sign of its newly assertive posture over China’s trade [...]

Disappearing Stores Of Value

by Martin Hutchinson

Brazilian minister of finance Guido Mantega last week accused the major economies of starting “currency wars.” To a large extent he was trying to divert attention from his own overspending misdeeds. However this week’s decision by the Bank of Japan to enter more “quantitative easing” and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao’s aggressive response to the EU/US campaign to force up the renminbi suggest that he’s right. Such a currency [...]

China is angry

“Do not work to pressurise us on the renminbi rate,” Mr Wen said, departing from prepared remarks. He said Chinese export companies had very small profit margins, which could be wiped out by actions such as the currency import tariffs the US Congress is threatening to impose.

“Many of our exporting companies would have to close down, migrant workers would have to return to their villages,” Mr [...]