James Fallows: "The $1.4 Trillion Question"

James Fallows is an American journalist most currently associated with The Atlantic Monthly. Living in China for the last several years, he has published many articles about U.S.-China relations. His January/February 2008 article, titled "The $1.4 Trillion Question" reveals the strange underlying economic relationship between the U.S. and China. He says,

"... Chinese leaders have deliberately held down living standards for their own people and propped them up in the United States. This is the real meaning of the vast trade surplus—$1.4 trillion and counting, going up by about $1 billion per day—that the Chinese government has mostly parked in U.S. Treasury notes. In effect, every person in the (rich) United States has over the past 10 years or so borrowed about $4,000 from someone in the (poor) People’s Republic of China. ... " [For the full article, see: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/fallows-chinese-dollars]

See also James Fallows' blog at: http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/