Wednesday, December 23, 2009
China Wrecked the Copenhagen Deal
Mark Lynas wrote in The Guardian How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room. "Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful 'deal' so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen."
It's a must read.
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4 comments:
Dealing with China appears to have devolved into a game of chicken.
China chooses not to cooperate because they see the risk reward ratio coming out clearly on the side of "NO".
Until the West, and the US in particular, starts to indicate to China that there will be strong economic sanctions (i.e., tariffs) as a result of their non-cooperation in such efforts as reducing greenhouse gases, they will continue to do what is in their best short-term interests.
If they won't volutarily reduce greenhouse emissions, then we need to reduce their emissions for them by reducing their market access.
TT
Which all sounds good until the economic impact in the US of no longer cheap goods from China and no more buying of US Bonds to prop up our deficit. And then my head starts hurting when I try to figure out how their pegging their currency to the dollar impacts this.
You are correct. We should not be running such enormous deficits that we have to have the Chinese finance our government. But you can mostly thank Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush for that.
As far as the currency thing goes, yeah I get headaches too thinking about it. So to simplify... no deficit, no bonds to pay off, no real currency issues. My guess is that the wizards are planning on inflating our way out these enormous long-term debt obligations.
The question is simply are Americans, collectively and individually, willing to pay 10% more for TV's, IPHones, sneakers and almost everything else made in a factory, so that we help save the planet, and bring back some good paying manufacturing jobs to the US at the same time?
Sounds like a good (and sorely needed) approach to me.
TT
It sounds good to me too, but I think it's much more than a 10% increase.
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