Snow Shifts His Demands on China

[Rose Siding]

For two years, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow has pushed and prodded China to let its currency float more freely. On Monday, he declared his satisfaction and changed the subject.

After a week of meetings from Shanghai to Beijing, Mr. Snow buried his specific demands for the yuan beneath a broader call for China to overhaul its system of banking and investment.

The stance sounded bolder and more ambitious, a demand for China to clean up its banks, build a sophisticated market for trading currencies and let Wall Street firms become full-fledged players in the stock market.

But the new call was also a retreat. By closely linking the narrow issue of the currency to long-term goals of "financial modernization," Mr. Snow implicitly gave Chinese leaders years to adopt anything close to a floating exchange rate.
....
Earlier this summer, President Bush and Mr. Snow declared that China was ready for flexible rates "now." But here in Beijing, Mr. Snow all but ruled out the possibility that he would accuse China of currency manipulation when he reports to Congress in early November.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/18/business/worldbusiness/18china.html

[On the Road]

1. Just Like the Bush Administraiton

Talk tough, but on the slightest restistantce walk away with their tails between their legs. Then pretend nothing ever happened.

[Mojorabbit]

2. I'd love to have been

a fly on the wall in those meetings. China could bring us to our knees in a heartbeat financially.

[cliss]

3. What a jerk he is.

John "Snowjob" Snow. He stood by as the U.S. dollar went into the ICU unit. He twiddled his thumbs as the dollar started flat-lining.

Interesting, isn't it? That he now backs down. Of course, he knows it and China knows it: we're a Paper Tiger. We're mortgaged to the hilt and we are now flat-lining....