2008 October 16 « The Long Run Blog

China, Debt and Currencies- huh?

We received an interesting question via email. I will paraphrase:

1) Is it true that China owns a significant portion of America’s debt, and if so what are the implications of this? Is having China as one of our primary backers a necessarily bad thing, or are bonds bonds, regardless of the holder?

2) Is it true that China’s currency is artificially tied to the value of the dollar, and should they choose to remove this pin from the cork board, it could drastically devalue the dollar even more than it already has? Read more »

October 16, 2008 Posted by Brett | Economics, Markets | China, currency, debt, peg | 6 Comments

About

Brett Spurr has been on and around Wall Street since the age of 19, nearly half a lifetime ago. He helped make investment decisions for a $15 billion mutual fund complex. While locking horns with CEOs was fun, he now runs a personal financial planning firm helping individuals navigate their financial lives. Brett is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™ certificant and investment manager by day and a full-time geek who delights in debating all things financial or economic.

Karl Mamer is host of The Conspiracy Skeptic podcast, a 12-part look at conspiracies of today and the not too distant past. Karl is also the world’s greatest living proponent of Franglais. He also likes to bait Nigerian Bank Scammers and hosted his own podcast about teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. Karl lives in Toronto, Canada and works as a senior technical writer to pay the bills.

Julio Guardado is a former tech CEO who after surviving a tech start-up during the dot com bust decided to join the dark side and become an investment banker. While wining and dining CEO’s (we call it “locking horns”) is great, he enjoys getting inside their heads and companies even more. Julio also runs RV Investor, a web site that specializes in the recreational vehicle industry. Julio lives in Silicon Valley.

Jon Blumenfeld has been on and around Wall Street since 1989, as a trader and researcher in interest rates and their associated financial products. Most recently he was an Interest Rate Strategist at Bear Stearns and Co., where he was named to Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-America Fixed Income Research team for Interest Rate Derivatives in 2007. He is looking forward to starting a new career, the details of which are in the final stages of negotiation. Ahem.

Leave us a comment on the about page or feel free to email your suggestions, comments, ideas and hatemail to thelongrunblog@gmail.com. Thanks for visiting.