Badgers, China, and Atmosphere

Video: My favorite video to watch before the Marquette/Wisconsin basketball game every year. This is a priceless scene from an underrated movie, UHF. I love how many people know this obscure line from obscure movie... where Kramer (Michael Richards) had his first notable movie role, by the way Problem Child was his next movie in 1990 (thanks IMDB)



Article: Revalued Yuan Good Is for U.S. ... NOT!

I am surprised more politicians in the United States don't realize all the benefits we are getting from China's cheap currency, I guess it is easier to blame others than thank them. Most of the products we buy on a daily basis are much cheaper than if the yuan floated freely... imagine walking into Best Buy and everything cost 25% more, don't you think that would effect the American economy in a negative way. Since China creates so many of our products for so little, the American consumer is able to live a better life.

The pegged yuan is not hurting employment in America, as evidenced by the 4.5% unemployment... if unemployment goes to 6% we will certainly here plenty of people complaining about jobs and blame the Chinese, but incorrectly. Our economies are quite different, manufacturing in China vs a service economy in the U.S. That is changing as more Chinese passed the CFA this last year than Americans... but the Chinese economy is still dominated by manufacturing.

Our interest rates have also been very low thanks to the Chinese buying all of our Treasury Bonds... if they didn't, we would be paying 1-3% more on mortgage payments every year...along with every business paying 1-3% more on every loan they take, which would be passed to the consumer...

In summary, I think the Chinese should let the yuan float but for their own reasons... and maybe have a target for 7 years, where year by year slowly let it reach its true value, so not to crash their tender economy, until that time, Americans are benefiting tremendously from cheap goods and should be thankful. Some of these points are debatable, but no matter how you look at it, both nations have tremendously dependant on each other... I suggest picking up this week's Economist... there were so many articles that interested me that were not free... a lot on banking and China... may not interest everyone.. but I love it.

Song: Guns and Cigarettes, Atmosphere

A great song by a great group...behind 2Pac probably my favorite hip/hop group.. I like listening to this song when I am making dinner...This video made me laugh because the guy tried to be hard when lip synching the song, and it just rubbed me the wrong way... but I suggest closing your eyes if you want to hear the song and actually enjoy it...