Chinese currency

Romney, Republicans Again Side With China Over US Companies

Dave Johnson — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:35:36 -0400

China and the US are in a fight to win a share of the millions of jobs and trillions of dollars that will come from the new alternative-energy industries that are gearing up to replace oil and coal. But Mitt Romney has told Republicans to remove an extension of wind-energy tax credits from an "extenders bill." This is about oil and coal company domination of our economy and the Republican Party -- even as it gives China an economic advantage over us. Romney also is not asking the House to vote on the bill that fights Chinese currency manipulation. What's going on?

Competition For Alternative-Energy Jobs

We are in a worldwide competition to build the post-oil economy. This is a competition for millions of jobs and trillions of dollars. Every country wants a share of the design and manufacturing of wind turbines, solar panels, geothermal systems, biofuels, electric cars, high-speed rail, urban and suburban light rail, advanced batteries, smart-grid power transmission systems, and all of the rest. And there is also the fight for the construction, installation and maintenance contracts for all of these systems.

China is fighting particularly hard for a dominant share of these new industries. The US is falling behind. Oil- and Wall Street-backed Republicans again and again are siding with China.

The news reports tell the wind-tax-credit story:

The Hill: Romney campaign: Let wind energy credit die this year

Mitt Romney’s campaign said Monday that he wants longstanding tax credits that help finance wind energy projects to expire at year’s end, providing a stark political contrast with President Obama, who is pushing Congress to renew the incentive.

... The wind industry calls the production tax credit vital to financing new power projects, and says uncertainty about its future is already spurring layoffs along the wind energy supply chain and that tens of thousands of jobs are at risk.

President Obama and top administration officials have repeatedly called for extension of the credit in recent months.

The number of new wind power installations have fallen off sharply in the past when the credit has been allowed to lapse, which last happened in 2004.

NY Times: Wind Credit on the Block

A longstanding tax credit for wind power that has broad bipartisan support was caught Wednesday in presidential politics when Senate Republicans removed it from a usually routine package of business tax breaks to show their loyalty to their presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.

Mr. Romney on Monday came out in favor of letting the wind production tax credit lapse at the end of the year, just as Senate Finance Committee members were nearing completion of a hard-fought package of business tax breaks they hope to pass out of the committee on Thursday. Those negotiations were largely about paring back the package, which routinely passes without much scrutiny.

... But for now, according to committee sources, Republicans who had favored the credit believed that they needed to unite against it for Mr. Romney’s sake.

The Hill: Obama official: Ending wind credit could have 'devastating effect',

Letting the wind production tax credit (PTC) expire at the end of this year “could have a devastating effect” on the wind energy industry, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said Tuesday.

Wind, or any other energy industry, needs “some level of certainty” about incentives they bake into business plans, Wellinghoff said in response to a question from The Hill at the Platts Energy Podium in Washington, D.C.

He advocated that, if the wind credit were to end, it should happen in a phased manner rather than with an “arbitrary and immediate cutoff.”

Examiner: Energy officials say renewal of wind energy tax credit key to American jobs,

As Asian countries, especially energy-hungry China, ramp up their use of renewable energy sources, American wind energy equipment and parts jobs will flow to countries not frozen in place by warring political parties, as is the case in the United States, according to Former Secretary of Energy Federico Pena, Former Iowa Governor Chet Culver, Pennsylvania wind developer Brent Aldefer and Mark Shanahan, former Director of the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, each of whom drew sharp contrasts today between President Obama and Mitt Romney on wind energy.

The quartet of energy experts used GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s “Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth” as a point of reference as they laid out their case on differences between what Mr. Romney would do on alternative energy like wind and solar—end them but continue tax subsides for very profitable oil and gas companies—and what President Obama would do—continue the tax credit if Congress approves it before it expires at the end of the year.

Under "Research and Development" in Mitt Romney's "Pro-Jobs, Pro-Market, Pro-American" economic plan, he makes it clear that he thinks wind and solar are the wrong places to make investments going forward.

Republicans Again Siding With China

This latest wind-energy battle is only the latest example of China-backing.

The Senate has passed a bill that cracks down on Chinese currency manipulation. But House Republicans are blocking a vote on this bill -- even though more than 60 of them are co-sponsors. Mitt Romney says he supports cracking down on China, but will not ask House Republicans to bring this bill up for a vote. A word from his campaign blocks wind energy tax credit renewal -- but no word from his campaign on this!

Chinese Money Influencing Election?

The Supreme Court has allowed billionaires and corporations -- even non-US-owned corporations -- to pump unlimited amounts of money into influencing our elections. But various loopholes prevent us from even learning which billionaires and corporations are behind many of the ads. There is one billionaire, however, we do know about.

Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, has already given $10 million to Mitt Romney's campaign and promises a "limitless" amount -- $100 million or more. Adelson has $25 billion, largely thanks to China granting him an exclusive license to operate casinos in their territory.

This exclusive Chinese-granted casino license is worth billions, and Adelson has in the past used his influence with Republicans in Congress to help China. Adelson influenced Republicans to help China get the Beijing Olympics and then received the license to build casinos in Chinese territory. From the New Yorker, The Brass Ring: A multibillionaire’s relentless quest for global influence,

In July, 2001, Adelson met with a Vice-Premier of China, Qian Qichen ... [and] met with the mayor of Beijing, who asked Adelson for help with a matter pending in the U.S. House of Representatives, which he believed was threatening China’s chance to host the Olympics.

Adelson ... immediately made calls on his cell phone to Republican friends in Congress—including Tom DeLay, then the majority whip—who had received generous support from Adelson. DeLay told him that there was indeed a resolution pending ...opposing China’s Olympic bid, saying, “China’s abominable human rights record violates the spirit of the games and should disqualify Beijing from consideration.” ... Three days later, the International Olympics Committee voted in China’s favor. [Adelson received the casino license soon after, in early 2002 - dj]

[...] In May, 2004, the first gamblers entered the Sands Macao. Its construction costs were two hundred and sixty-five million dollars, and Adelson made back his initial investment in a year. In December, 2004, Adelson took Las Vegas Sands public (according to Forbes, he owns sixty-nine per cent of the stock) and became a multibillionaire, overnight.

McCain: Adelson funding Romney Super PAC with 'foreign money',

Senator and Romney presidential campaign surrogate John McCain (R-AZ) said Thursday that casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is indirectly injecting millions of dollars in Chinese "foreign money" into Mitt Romney's presidential election effort.

Adelson used his influence with the Republicans in Congress to help China get the Olympics, and then got a casino license worth billions to him. What else has he helped or will he help China get? Is this influence -- not just oil-company domination -- what is behind Romney and the Republican party continually siding with China over American companies and interests?

Action

The Blue Green Alliance has a number of things you can do to help save American wind-energy jobs. )lease visit their SAVE AMERICAN JOBS page:

Right now, Congress is sitting on critical tax incentives for renewable energy that would create thousands of jobs and boost American competitiveness in the global economy. Clean energy tax incentives like the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind, the 1603 Treasury grant program, and the Advanced Energy Project Credit (48C) have created and saved thousands of jobs, and extending these incentives will create many more.

However, failure to act on these important tax credits threatens the very jobs we need right now.

Click through, and click here to see their full-page ad about renewing the Production Tax Credit.

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China's Currency Manipulation Manipulates The World

Dave Johnson — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:23:58 -0400

China's currency manipulation is a worldwide problem, not just a job-killer here.

U.S. Ambassador Calls China’s Currency Stance ‘a Real Concern’,

In a speech to students at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, the ambassador, Jon Huntsman, said that economic problems in the United States had increased pressure there for a change in the value of the renminbi, which China currently ties to the value of the dollar. That has kept Chinese exports comparatively cheap and, critics say, hampered other nations’ recovery from the global recession.

“My Chinese friends like to pitch this as just an American issue. I like to say that there are many countries that feel the same way,” Mr. Huntsman said. But he focused on the growing political backlash from Americans who feel the currency policy is hurting them. [emphasis added]

The managing director of the IMF - the 'I' stands for "International" - agrees. IMF Head Says Yuan Remains Undervalued

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Wednesday that China's currency remains undervalued.

The resulting huge trade imbalance is hurting the entire world. From the NY Times editorial that I linked to yesterday, Will China Listen?,

China’s decision to base its economic growth on exporting deliberately undervalued goods is threatening economies around the world. It is fueling huge trade deficits in the United States and Europe. Even worse, it is crowding out exports from other developing countries, threatening their hopes of recovery.

In the Financial Times, Martin Wolf writes in China and Germany unite to impose global deflation,

[. . .] Surplus countries insist on continuing just as before. But they refuse to accept that their reliance on export surpluses must rebound upon themselves, once their customers go broke. Indeed, that is just what is happening. Meanwhile, countries that ran huge external deficits in the past can cut the massive fiscal deficits that result from post-bubble deleveraging by their private sectors only via a big surge in their net exports. If surplus countries fail to offset that shift, through expansion in aggregate demand, the world is inevitably caught in a “beggar-my-neighbour” battle: everybody seeks desperately to foist excess supplies on to their trading partners. That was a big part of the catastrophe of the 1930s, too.

The United States is not alone here. If the United States takes a stand the world will be behind us. We need to do what is right. On April 15 the President should declare China to be the currency manipulator that it is. Then trade can start to rebalance.

Chinese Currency Manipulation: "Not A Small Issue"

Dave Johnson — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:33:43 -0400

The Chinese currency manipulation issue continues to make news.

Economist Paul Krugman lays out the stakes,

China is in effect imposing an anti-stimulus of that magnitude — which plausibly means 1.5 percent of GDP. This is not a small issue.

Senators Schumer, Graham and Brown revive legislation to push China: Schumer, Graham Push Bill to Pressure China on Yuan

Senators Charles Schumer, Lindsey Graham and Sherrod Brown revived U.S. legislation that would increase pressure on China to raise the value of its currency.

. . . “President Obama has outlined a plan to double exports but you simply can’t do that if you don’t address the currency issue,” Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said at a news conference in Washington today. “China’s current policy is out-and-out protectionism.”

130 Members of Congress call on the President to act,

Today a bipartisan group of 130 members of Congress, ranging from Dennis Kucinich on the left to Joe Wilson on the right, wrote to President Obama asking him to stop Chinese currency manipulation.

. . . The crisis has gotten so severe that economists who have long fought for conservative ideology and against tariffs are saying we need them to correct the imbalance.

NY Times editorial shows that establishment opinion is moving against China, Will China Listen?,

China’s decision to base its economic growth on exporting deliberately undervalued goods is threatening economies around the world. It is fueling huge trade deficits in the United States and Europe. Even worse, it is crowding out exports from other developing countries, threatening their hopes of recovery.

[. . . ] The world’s battered economy is certainly in no shape to keep absorbing China’s exports, subsidized through a cheap currency policy. The more countries that say this, the more likely Beijing will consider changing course — and the less likely this disagreement will escalate into a fight that no one can win.

China says this is all just "scapegoating": Senior Chinese diplomat rejects currency move,

"I don't think the call by over 100 congressmen from the U.S. is well founded on facts. They should not blame the problems they have by finding a scapegoat in China," He Yafei, China's new ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told a briefing.

Wall Street takes China's side: Congress Is Playing ‘Football’ on China Currency, O’Neill Says,

U.S. lawmakers are playing political football by pressing China to boost the value of its currency, which isn’t particularly undervalued, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Economist Jim O’Neill said.

. . . The concern in Congress “is sort of understandable but it misses the point,” O’Neill said today at a press conference in London. It’s “the equivalent of a football” and is part of “the usual hobby of bashing China,” he said.

CAF's Bob Borosage discusses the Showdown With "Chermany",

... The Chinese continue unprecedented measures to manipulate their currency, now starkly undervalued against the dollar. This is a centerpiece of a comprehensive mercantilist policy to grow by dominating export markets.

. . . China’s Premier Wen Jiabao scorned US pressure on the Chinese to revalue its currency, summoning up the wondrous gall to accuse the US and other countries of “protectionism” for seeking to depreciate their currencies.

. . . The Chinese, meanwhile, are openly recruiting US companies with subsidiaries in China to lobby against any US action. The China lobby – think tanks, multinational companies and banks – will unleash a howl about US protectionism, warn of trade wars, discount the importance of Chinese mercantilism, and remind us of the benefits of a cheap yuan. Chinese threats to dump dollars from their $2.4 trillion cache will rattle financial markets (even though a declining dollar will cost the Chinese bigtime).

This could easily get out of hand, but the showdown with Chermany can’t be avoided. We can’t go back to a world in which the US is the consumer of last resort, borrowing $2 billion a day to buy goods from abroad. ... Rebalancing is best done cooperatively but it must be done. And it can no longer be delayed.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing issued the following statement:

“The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) strongly supports efforts designed to end China’s ongoing currency manipulation, which is harming American manufacturing and its workers. In the last week, a bipartisan group of Senators have introduced legislation, and more than 130 Members of Congress have signed a letter urging the Obama Administration to take action, strong indications that the mood in Congress is growing more proactive.

“The United States has lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs in the past decade. Tackling the currency issue is imperative in saving America’s industrial sector. Economists of all backgrounds agree that an undervalued Yuan continues to make Chinese imports cheaper and American exports more expensive.

“The next step is for the U.S. Treasury Department to list China as a currency manipulator in its semi-annual report on currency exchange, due by April 15. Naming China as a currency manipulator, and taking further steps to hold them accountable, would be an important first step toward stopping the systematic dismantling of our industrial base.”