Saturday, September 02, 2006

You Gonna Spend That?

So Japan and China have almost $1 trillion in foreign reserves each. And while I admire such fiscal austerity contrasted with the US' version of imitating a sorority girl with daddy's credit card, there's something to be critiqued about just holding onto cash and not investing it.


I'd be very curious to see if the Chinese government through all its SOE's (state owned enterprises) decides to go on a shopping spree.

5 comments:

Gabriel M said...

That's too small. I can't read that. Try doubling the width of the image.

Anonymous said...

Ummm... Where's Canada on that list? I don't see Canada. Did they just include Canada in the U.S.A. numbers? I feel broke. sigh...

Captain Capitalism said...

Gabe, I reposted the chart, should work now. Blogger is as chaotic and random as a crossed woman when it comes to the format that it defaults to when uploading images.

Anon- You'll have to take it up with the Brits that made the chart.

Anonymous said...

Even worse, most of these balances are likely in dollar denominated assets. What happens if/when these countries convert these dollars back to their own currencies or trade them for other assets, such as gold, euros, or other?

Anonymous said...

The only outcome is devaluation of dollars. Appreciation of Chinese yuan and Japanese yen will become inavitable.