Manhattan, KS - not Manhattan, NY
This is the time of year when I stop being a New York-based international economist/ blogger and return, briefly, to being a full-time Kansan.
Concretely, that means I won’t be foraging for food on the streets of New York. Instead, I will be pampered by my mother’s amazing talent with flour, sugar, butter (lots of butter, alas) and nuts. I am not entirely cut off from modern electronic communication but this blog won’t be my top priority …
I expect to start posting regularly again toward the end of next week. I trust China won’t release its November reserve data – a data point I am eagerly awaiting, for a host of reasons - the day after Christmas.
If it fits, Merry Christmas. To all, happy holidays.
Season’s greetings to our good host and all the comments section regulars. (Our regular programming of global economic imbalances will return shortly.)
“I will be pampered by my mother’s amazing talent with flour, sugar, butter (lots of butter, alas) and nuts.”
I’m predicting a substantial increase in your reserves over the festive season, Brad.
A very Merry Christmas to you, and to everyone who reads and comments on this fine blog.
If you are looking for some “light” reading over the holidays you might consider a book by a retired professor of Kansas State, Richard Coleman, on “The Kansas City Establishment: Leadership though Two Centuries in a Midwestern Metropolis” (KS Publishing, Manhattan: 2006). It contains vast amounts of data about social mobility in and out of the upper class in KC. And why some people got to be upper class and why others did not.
Happy holidays to you and all! Looking forward to another year’s worth of great blogging.
I went through Manhattan a couple weeks ago on a business trip out to Hutchinson. Nice town, I’d move there.
It was right as that cold front went through changing highs of 10 degF to highs of 65 degF in like one day. That is about all you have to know about Kansas winters.
Great blog - a solid contribution to all our understanding and of course a Merry Christmas to you as well.
Wishes for a “Meri Kurisumasu” from one on left side of the Pacific (DOR and PC, how are things down south?)
Dr. Setser, your work ethic is a marvel and your patience a revelation.
Eat early, eat often.
seasonal greetings from ireland. an interesting and year ahead. in a landscape that is looking bleak for democracy and true freedom, this blog is a shining beacon amidst the gloom - best free education on the internet.
gillies
gillies macbain
also readable at :
http://darkbrownriver.blogspot.com/
Why Santa Claus is Chinese, and Christmas is made in Shenzhen China
by Lester R. Brown
December 18, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1218-25.htm
I know Santa Claus is Chinese because each Christmas morning after all the gifts are unwrapped and things settle down I systematically go through the presents to see where they are made. The results are almost always the same: roughly 70 percent are from China. After some research, it seems that my one-family survey is representative of the country as a whole.
The Christmas tree itself may come from China. While real Christmas trees are grown in every state in the United States and are marketed locally, many families now gather around artificial Christmas trees. Eight out of every 10 artificial Christmas trees sold in the United States are made in China. Last year Americans spent over $130 million on plastic Christmas trees from China.
This year Americans will spend over $1 billion on Christmas ornaments from China. And in perhaps the greatest irony of all, even nativity scenes are made in China. Last year Americans spent more than $39 million buying nativity scenes shipped in from the East. China’s success in attracting foreign investment capital and mobilizing this huge workforce has made it the workshop of the world.
That the U.S. Christmas is made in China is a metaphor for a far deeper set of economic issues affecting the United States. Today Christmas is celebrated in both the United States and China—but for different reasons and with far different economic consequences. For the Chinese, the manufacturing bonanza means record profits, rising incomes, and, in a society where people save some 40 percent of their income, a sharp jump in savings. In the United States, Christmas shopping expenditures, headed for another record high this year, contribute to rising credit card debt and a soaring trade deficit.
Underneath the American Christmas spirit and good cheer is a debt-laden society that appears to have lost its way, marred in the quicksand of consumerism. As a society, we seem to have forgotten how to save so we can invest in a better future. Instead of leaving our children a promising economic future, we are bequeathing them the largest debt burden of any generation in history.
China plans to invest its reserves in hard assets:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061227/D8M91CK00.html
Stephen Roach: Irresponsible Ben Bernanke provides Ammunition For Trade War
http://www.forbes.com/facesinthenews/2006/12/25/roach-bernanke-china-face-cx_rs_1221autofacescan02.html
New York - Stephen Roach has a bone to pick with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
In the aftermath of Bernanke’s trip to China in which he accompanied U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for an economic dialogue, Roach, the chief economist at Morgan Stanley (nyse: MS - news - people ), said in a note last week that the former Princeton professor has provided major fodder to protectionist forces in the United States.
“The use of the world ’subsidy’ is a highly inflammatory accusation - in effect, putting the Chinese on notice that America’s most important macro policy maker believes” that an undervalued yuan ” provides the Chinese with an unfair advantage in the world trade arena,” he said.
In reality, said Roach, China is revaluing its currency at an appropriate pace, as the country has “highly-fragmented” banking system and capital markets.
Manhattan, Kansas, I was born and raised there, called the “Little Apple”. I’m sure it will be a breath of fresh air going back, Brad, the real America.
I too was born and raised in MHK/ “the little apple”. MHS, class of 89. Somehow tho I had the impression growing up that “real America” or at least “real Kansas” started about 15 miles to the west of Manhattan, after you passed JC. Guest –thanks for the KC/ Richard Coleman reference. I’ll have to look it up.
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