Remember the huffing and puffing by Cheney that the American way of life was not negotiable, in the face of mammoth oil prices that proved that it certainly was?
It now seems that negotiability might be wishful thinking. The Chinese, who buy our debt, are making noises that sound awfully like they are about to try and dictate the American way of life. This is what the Chinese premier is saying about America, and it doesn’t sound like he’s ready to bargain:
“their unsustainable model of development, characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption; excessive expansion of financial institutions in blind pursuit of profit; lack of self-discipline among financial institutions and ratings agencies and ensuing distortion of risk information and asset pricing; and the failure of financial supervision and regulation to keep up with financial innovations, which allowed the risks of financial derivatives to build and spread”