Many corporate executives are likely trying to emulate the phenomenon of a country that behaves like a modern corporation that China has become as suggested in these reviews of this book on the subject.

We in the USA are attempting to compete with the worlds largest, wealthiest and most influencial company as though we were living in a worldwide free market.

The managers of China, Inc have no such illusions. They know that the world market is a human-made entity that can only be manipulated by humans to benefit humans - it doesn't just operate on its own.

It is for this reason that we are unlikely to change China's behavior toward the world markets by asking nicely that they change their behavior. Name a USA company that would willingly act against its own best financial interests...

Our so-called Founding Fathers wrestled with what do do about the influence of a powerful private sector that potentially weakens a federal government, seen as a competitor rather than a protector, by starving it of funds. It was the foresight of Alexander Hamilton that allowed the federal government (headed by a publicly elected official in the president) to survive and thrive, thereby allowing the domestic "free market" to flourish. Regressives wish to destroy that.

If you remember the lessons in biology (or wherever they teach animal behavior now...or do they?) about ants herding aphids to suck off their waste you already have some idea of the relationship between the USA's and China's economies.

When Timothy Geithner has the gall to flatly state that “We are not going to have a trade war” and "he was not sure “what that means” to talk about a “currency war.”" when both are already raging among the worlds economies it reminds me of the USA's reticence to enter WWs I and II.

Eventually you will not have a choice. We either find a way to fix this or serve as dinner for the ants.

Congress may lead the horse to water by giving the administration ammunition to fight, but if they do not also give it direct instructions to drink by defending the USA economy, it doens't look like they will. Heaven forbid the Repubs fight the war. They have already started two and have a pretty nasty track record for fighting or even choosing enemies. I would like to believe that Geithner is either confused or intimidated. But with one of the sharpest intlellects among young economists, and behind the cushion and protection of a wealthy, if bloated USA economy, it is hard to rationalize either. The only explanation I can think of is that he is depending on that golden parachute that he will eventually get when he jumps ship from the Obama administration as others are doing.

A serious problem with our relationship with China is that we can not regulate potentially dangerous products nearly as well if they are made overseas, even by companies based in the USA.

China suppresses democracy as is demonstrated by their treatment of its internal proponents such as Liu Xiaobo.

While corruption within our own political system can threaten our own internal regulation of industry, a vibrant democratic process and open press have helped to prevent a return to the days before industry was regulated here.

The authoritarian Chinese administration has done a better job of promoting its domestic industry and financial system because it benefits those in power. But should the Chinese military-industrial complex continue to become corrupt as is happening, that regulation will not benefit consumers anywhere.

The power to regulate products sold in the USA and worldwide would not be in the hands of elected officials but those of worldwide oligarchs who manage industry for profit.

We will all suffer from that sort of undemocratic process, whether it happens in the USA, China or elsewhere.

With a dependency on unenforceable goals and the behavior of other nations, the recent G-20 agreements seem like a poor substitute for resolute unilateral action by the USA, as was taken during the Depression by FDR and Roosevelt.

Even a conservative Republican administration was tougher with Japan during an earlier recession caused by USA over-dependence on Japanese exports.

From the article:[quote]The Chinese are convinced that the Plaza Accord [under which Washington convinced Tokyo to revalue the yen to reduce the large U.S. trade deficit] led to Japan's collapse and have vowed to avoid the same mistake. As one high official of the People's Bank of China told me, "We're not going to be crazy like the Japanese."

So we may be seeking in vein to expect the Chinese to act against their own economic interest, especially when we depend on them to purchase so much of our debt. Geithner may be on Wall Steet when it blows.

China's continued booming growth is largely dependent on USA purchases with money essentially borrowed from them. An entire self-perpetuating cycle may become politically unsustainable well before election 2012.

An interesting experiment for the holiday season would be to create a a requirement that all credit cards shows how much of the borrowed money, represented by a purchase with that card, actually is borrowed indirectly from China, and how much of the product purchased was made in China.

Should such a card make the same revelation about all sources of finance and goods, regardless of which country the financing and goods come from, USA citizens might realistically be considered to be making informed "free" choices about their purchases, and be able to buy "responsibly".

Of course our political system would never allow it due to the influence of marketers dependent on our trade imbalance with the world to make a profit off our economic decline.

But reality bites. And we may be in for a severe mangling.