Friday, January 21, 2011

Mr. Hu and Mrs. Watanabe

I’d like to note on President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington D.C. Of course, he was greeted with questions on human rights, which he remained silent about and was forced to say that a lot is “still remained to be done.” He was also criticized on trade policies, especially the currency manipulation that Americans believe to be one of the bottom-line forces that drive up our unemployment rate. It’s true that United States needs a surge of demand to lift it out of, completely out of, recession, but counting Chinese consumption of goods made in U.S. seems a little out of scope. This is because Chinese fiscal policy also astutely prevents consuming imported goods with high tax on import. Thus, Mr. Hu’s trip to U.S. only accomplished two things: first, China is patient and will be sitting calmly while dealing with all criticisms and questions; second, China can obtain “respect” from a powerful developed country, especially after spending skyrocketed advertising fees showing off its USD 6 trillion GDP in 2010 at Times Square. However, who knows if China is not stepping on the brake to slow down the heat of its “unhealthy” growth? It almost kind of sounds silly to me how growth is “unhealthy” only because it is too high that a government needs to “do something.” But “do something” is easy in China, because it has only one party and wouldn’t have to go through debates and criticisms to design and execute any policies, just as how its CPI was controlled through an effective decrease of vegetables’ prices.

Being vaguely tangible to what was broadcasted on TV yesterday, the stock market decided to go through a decline just for the sake of selling off a new high. There wasn’t any obvious reason why market should experience a dip. Some blamed it on GS’s below-estimate profit; some blamed it on Steve Job’s medical leave; some blamed it on BAML’s clichéd loss on its heavy position in mortgages; and some blamed it on what was discussed by Mr. Hu. But to me, it was just a selling off of new high of technical analysts. Of course, my personal portfolio suffered as I didn’t think there should be a selling off for no obvious reasons. I probably could have been in a better position if I were Mrs. Watanabe, a term that vividly describes Japanese day trading housewives.

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