> China's got us by the balls alright.
Not sure about that. I think debtors have more power than creditors. After you have a client refuse to pay you, you start to see creditor/debtor power balance in a different light.
In the short term possibly, but in the long term refusing to pay a debt such as that would make it impossible for America to source credit.
Not sure about that either. I am not sure what I need to google to find this, but I seem to recall reading about countries that devalued their currency, but still were able to get financing. It doesn't necessarily need to be a refusal to pay per say. China asserts that it is their right to keep their currency artificially pegged to the dollar. On the same token, we can devalue our own.
When Bernanke starts recklessly printing money the way he did recently- that seems like a panic-driven survivalist effort to me, and I begin wondering if this isn't more of the same.
China's got us by the balls alright. I'm sure there's some twisting going on that only the government higher-ups can see, to warrant these reactions of late.