Like an errant college student pleading with mom and dad to keep his credit card account and bank account open after an orgy of drunken spending, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is in China pleading with our Chinese bankers to keep holding that U.S. government debt... Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!
"Geithner will meet with Premier Wen Jiabao, who in March called for the U.S. to ‘guarantee the safety of China’s assets.’ China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, which so far this year has handed investors the worst loss since at least 1977 on forecasts for ballooning federal budget deficits."
Reports Bloomberg.
"’I hope Geithner’s visit can soothe our nerves,’ said Yu Yongding, a senior researcher at the government-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a former central bank adviser. ‘The Chinese public is worried about the safety of its foreign- exchange reserves,’ Yu said in an e-mail."
Oh, how the once-mighty U.S. has fallen; and how the once-laughable China has risen to global leadership and prominence.
Let's wish Tim Geithner every success on convincing China to keep holding that U.S. debt, and let's hope that China continues to feel so altruistic toward the U.S. If China gets fed up, we're fucked.