China’s Economy to Reap Benefits That Once Flowed to U.S

Re:China’s Economy to Reap Benefits That Once Flowed to U.S by hackeraccount on Tuesday December 25, 2018 @09:09AM (#18757459)

What happens to $10 sent to China? It's dollars after all. Do they use it to buy Chinese goods? They need Yuan for that so they'd have to exchange it for Yuan from someone with dollars. At some point that money would come back to the U.S. in exchange for good because ultimately that's what dollars are for - purchasing U.S. stuff.

To some extent the dollar is a reserve currency; people are willing to use it in place of their own currency so in some sense it will never come back to the U.S. To the degree this happens it's the equivalent of people taking paper from the U.S. and giving goods in return - which is to say, it's hard to understand how the U.S. loses on that deal.

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Re:China’s Economy to Reap Benefits That Once Flowed to U.S by rohit2412 on Tuesday December 25, 2018 @02:29PM (#18758833)

I'm not talking about the currency, but it's monetary value. As such, you can imagine australia and China trading in us dollars. Is free trade always beneficial for Australians?

If you still want to consider only usd and USA and China trade. Then usd is not just for purchasing us stuff. It is also a reserve currency that china holds.

It wasn't a question of currency at all, any wealth/money sent in a different economy is a loss to the original economy. A sizable gain in efficiency can offset that, but not every gain in free trade is of the required size, which is why tariffs should be desirable.

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