Why did Chinese students laugh when Treasury Secretary Geitner tried to assure them that “Chinese assets are very safe?”

Why did Chinese students laugh when Treasury Secretary Geitner tried to assure them that “Chinese assets are very safe

BEIJING, June 1 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday reassured the Chinese government that its huge holdings of dollar assets are safe and reaffirmed his faith in a strong U.S. currency.A major goal of Geithner’s maiden visit to China as Treasury chief is to allay concerns that Washington’s bulging budget deficit and ultra-loose monetary policy will fan inflation, undermining both the dollar and U.S. bonds.China is the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury bonds. U.S. data shows that it held $768 billion in Treasuries as of March, but some analysts believe China’s total U.S. dollar-denominated investments could be twice as high.“Chinese assets are very safe,” Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s.His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting scepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home.

So, are they laughing with him or at him? I think the latter, but you can voice your opinion in this poll. Some highlights of Geitner’s stand-up routine brilliant speech include these gems:In his speech, Geithner renewed pledges that the Obama administration would cut its huge fiscal deficits and promised “very disciplined” future spending, possibly including reintroduction of pay-as-you-go budget rules instead of nonstop borrowing.

“We have the deepest and most liquid markets for risk-free assets in the world. We’re committed to bring our fiscal deficits down over time to a sustainable level.“We believe in a strong dollar … and we’re going to make sure that we repair and reform the financial system so that we sustain confidence,” he said.

OK – maybe Geitner really believes that these happy-go-lucky students haven’t a clue about what’s going on with our economy. Does he really believe that they didn’t hear about the Trillion Dollar Promise to the health care industry? The even more Trillions in deficits or the Billions to take over GM? Does he think they wouln’t remember that the last time the “Fools on the Hill” tried pay-as-you-go they had to abandon it because they couldn’t agree on how to raise the money, so they just spent like drunken sailors instead?

C’mon, Timmy – you can do better than that!According to an article in PRAVDA, even the Russians know what’s going on here. Here are a few condensed highlights:

“First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classicsThen their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the “winning” side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another.The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.”

So, why do you think these students thought Tim Geitner’s speech was so funny?

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