Project Syndicate - China's bad debtor
Friday, March 19, 2010
China's foreign-exchange reserves, indeed, are facing a triple whammy: a decline in the US dollar's purchasing power, a fall in the prices of US government securities, and possible inflation in the longer run.
The bulk of China's $2.3 trillion in foreign reserves are held not for the purpose of protection against negative external shocks, but as savings in the form of US Treasury notes. China thus needs to preserve the value of its savings.
But there is no question whatsoever that the US dollar will go south in the long run - a depreciation that started in April 2002 and, after a short interval, resumed in March 2009. Unless the US economy improves its trade balance, the dollar will fall. But the US cannot improve its trade balance unless the dollar falls.
Sadly, the country seems not to have proper tools and the extent to which women and the girl-child are being abused is not adequately measured.Almost every week there are reports of women being attacked by their significant others and while men are attacked as well, women seem to be more on the receiving end.On May 24, 2023 news broke that a woman who was receiving support from the Botswana Gender-Based Violence Prevention Centre in Gaborone, was...