'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Stock markets around the world suffered through one of the worst days of trading in months Tuesday, as a number of U.S. companies reported weak earnings because of a slowdown in the global economy and as concerns mounted over Spain's role in the European financial crisis.
President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney risk offending China if they continue to bash the Asian giant in efforts to score political points with voters, according to economic analysts and experts.
A Chinese conglomerate announced Monday it will buy a major U.S. cinema chain, AMC Entertainment Holdings, for $2.6 billion in China's biggest takeover of an American company to date.
After two decades of nonstop development that devastated the environment in many areas, Chinese leaders now say they want to clean up and restore the nation's fabled rivers and ancient lands.
Everyone knows about China's economic "miracle." High economic growth rates and rising incomes have given many parts of the country all the trappings of a "nouveau riche" society — from luxury-car traffic jams to stylish tourists traveling the world.
The Obama administration is lowering expectations ahead of the first state visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao during the Obama presidency.
China is set to become the world's second-largest economy in a resurgence that is changing everything from the global balance of military and financial power to how cars are designed.
China, which will soon surpass the United States as the world's top manufacturing economy, has begun to focus more efforts on promoting a service-based economy.
There's lots of loose talk these days about how China will some day "rule the world." Some people who look forward to a "post-American world" seem to assume that China will either emerge as a great power equal to the United States or take on sole outright leadership of the world.
Derek Scissors, an economist at the Heritage Foundation, blamed the drop-off on the money that the Federal Reserve injected into the economy over the past month, which he says artificially inflated the markets.
"To me, the markets are overvalued," he said. "This is just about money flashing around. A bunch of money gets dumped into the system, it's got to go somewhere, so we get stock market run-ups, which makes it vulnerable to sharp drops like this. But money can flow out of the market just as easily."
