COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, October 28, 2011

A Game of a Lifetime: Game 6 World Series 2011



Freese's jersey, bat headed from Game 6 to Hall of Fame



ST Louis Today

DOWNTOWN • The keepers of baseball history were waiting for David Freese shortly after he made it Thursday night at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals' third baseman slugged a game-winning home run in the 11th inning of Game 6 to force the World Series to a winner-take-all Game 7 on Friday at Busch Stadium. Freese had two of the most pivotal hits (so far) in the Cardinals' season, as he went down to his final strike before delivering a game-tying triple in the ninth inning and then hit the clout that won the game, 10-9, in the 11th.
His teammates were there at home plate to to greet him and, in the language of the realm, "shred" him.

That is: Tear the very jersey from his shoulders.
What's left of the jersey is headed to Cooperstown.
Representatives from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., met Freese shortly after he came off the field and were able to acquire the bat he used to hit the homer and the tattered remains of the jersey he wore. The Hall reps left the ballpark with both items in their possession.

The jersey is torn because of the "shredding" practice that the Cardinals have adopted for some late-season celebrations. The "Shredder" is the nickname given to Nick Punto, who this season has gone up to teammates, grabbed them by the top button of their dresse shirts and yanking. The result is a spectacularly explosion of buttons, collars, and thread -- or a "shred."

Now, the shredded is going to the Hall of Fame to represent this game, easily the most compelling (best?) in Busch Stadium III's short history.

59 comments:

  1. They just don't get any better. Sorry you missed it.

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  2. I enjoyed the game! Can't watch tonight as I'm driving the family down to South Carolina so I'll have to treat my son to the old fashion American pastime - baseball on the radio.




    Blogger Deuce said...

    Rat is more right than wrong. Look at what happened to the liquidity produced by QE 1 and 2. First, where was the liquidity injected? The banks.




    I'm not sure you are understanding what Rat is proposing. He is simply proposing that the US stops issuing debt instruments through the Fed and simply print the money to pay the bills. It will still be the banks getting the cash and the banks deciding what to do with it they just won't have newly issued treasuries to buy.



    Deuce continued:

    "Had that same liquidity bypassed the banks and been returned to tax payers it would have been used to reduce debt and spent in the domestic market"

    I agree they would have gotten a much bigger bang for their TARP buck if they had sent the money directly (i.e. a tax holiday or send a check) to folk but that wouldn't have saved the financial system from seizing up. They could use other stimulus programs that way but you could argue that pushing the money through infrastructure projects injects cash into the economy and builds valuable assets.

    QE1 and QE2 were Fed programs buying Treasuries and not stimulus programs per se but rather a means of keeping interest rates low and the US bond market liquid.

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  3. Quirk said...

    "It's always cool to have a surprise guest at the bar."

    Right. Especially if she wears a skirt?


    The more the Mary-er.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. What I am proposing is using the law, as written and codified, to take action.

    No new legislation required.

    No consensus needed.

    No debate nor delay.

    We will soon see if Mr Obama is the radical he was portrayed to be.

    "So I’m here to say that we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job," Obama said.

    "Where they won’t act, I will."



    We will soon see if he is true to his word, or a poser, wholly owned, as Joe Starbucks says, by Wall Street.

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  6. Michael Shear, chief writer for The New York Times political blog, The Caucus, said this:
    ...
    "These are actions that will have some effect, particularly depending on which cohort you're in some of this may help," Shear said.

    "But the problem the president is in is that none of the actions he's able to take himself are big enough to fix the problems that we're in."


    Only because Mr Sheer's eyesight is limited, by the blinders that he wears.

    There is an unilateral action that Mr Obama CAN take that is "big enough" to shake the system out of its' lethargic malaise.

    The effect of taking decisive action, it is more psychological than economic. Public perception is what the stimulus "shock" treatment must address, to be successful.

    Taking the Federals requirement for sucking $1.2 trillion out of the bond markets, would certainly help to maintain their liquidity.

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  7. Pascal: In God We Trust began appearing on our coins just after the Civil War.

    And the boys in blue were the last American army to march into combat with the name of our Savior on their lips.

    In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
    With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
    As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
    While God is marching on.

    (Chorus)
    Glory, glory, hallelujah!
    Glory, glory, hallelujah!
    Glory, glory, hallelujah!
    While God is marching on.

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  8. DR: There is an unilateral action that Mr Obama CAN take that is "big enough" to shake the system out of its' lethargic malaise.

    Why not just issue a $15 trillion dollar coin and pay off the whole debt? Why pussyfoot around with those one trillion dollar coins?

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  9. The country needs a shock, like the one Nixon supplied when he killed Betton Woods.

    A Presidential announcement that a "New Day has Dawned"

    That the Congress will be limited, by Presidential veto, to balanced budgets, as long as the minting program is in place.

    Ross Perot, with his grease boards, could sell the program to the electorate.

    Professor Obama could well do it, too.

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  10. That "shock" would be disruptive, Ms T.

    The liquidity has to be added, incrementally, lest the economy drown.

    Things must be done, in moderation.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It has taken decades to get "here".

    There is no remedy that is instantaneous.

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  12. So if China holds $2 trillion in US Treasury debt, and we give them a couple trillion dollar coins to get squared away, what do they do when they want to make change in Benjamins? There's only a trillion dollars in cash in circulation. If we tell them to go to hell, then the coins are worth less than laundry tokens.

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  13. Charlie holds $1.1 trillion in Federal debt, Ms T. Not $2 trillion, but regardless, they do not get the coin, only the interest owed them, in an electronic transfer.

    If they wish to resell those notes, good on them.

    The US government will be "out of the market".
    Our schedule of payments will be met, on time, with dollars.
    As promised, in the note.

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  14. .

    Things must be done, in moderation.


    Come on rat, now you are really being silly. You know how things are done in Oz.

    First, you say this is a one-time deal. Now, you say the practice must be used in moderation.

    Funny.

    Even if we ignore the political reality; even if we ignore the various arguments against the plan that have been listed here; it still comes down to one thing: money for nothing, the proverbial money tree.

    Even if we ignore the objections and assume the coin plan works (and it wouldn't even have to work fully but just appear to have 'some' positive effects.) the idea that it would be used in moderation is pure Pollyanna.

    In every year preceeding a presidential election, you would see a few more coins pop up to build up the incumbants cred. Everytime there was a Dem in office, coins would be printed to give us a new 'department of something'. Everytime a neocon was in office, we would get a few more coins to pay for a war, build up our military, or do a little nation building.

    Why not? It's money for nothing.

    To get some idea of where your idea could lead, you should look at a history of the German economy before the hyperenflation of the Weimar Republic. The general meme is that the cost of WWI war reperations was the cause of the hyperinflation in Germany. But in fact it was merely a broad expansion of a process that had been going on in Germany since at least 1914.

    The trend was hidden somewhat because there were a number of poitive as well as negative cycles during that period, but one thing was constant, the printing of money in ever larger amounts.

    Money for nothing.

    .

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  15. .

    Naturally, I'm not suggesting the US would end up a Weimar Republic only that the same principles applies.

    You can't get money for nothing for any length of time and if you do create the additional fiat money its only value, for stimulus, is questionable.

    ,

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  16. The other 'value' is to relieve a nation of it's same dollar denominated debt.

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  17. .

    The other 'value' is to relieve a nation of it's same dollar denominated debt.

    True enough.

    But then, that wouldn't be moderate.

    :)




    The hyperinflation went on in Germany until you couldn't carry enough money to pay for a loaf of bread. Then Germany merely switched over to a new currency.

    Tons of the old was carted away to be recycled.

    France (and the UK) were not pleased.

    (So there are some positives to the idea)

    :)

    .

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  18. Over the last 4 weeks, Gasoline Demand is Down by 2.7%

    But, the price at the pump is UP by 23%.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I just saw a blurb on CNBC; Small Business Formation is down by 23% the last three years.

    Small business formation is, in reality, where almost All job growth originates.

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  20. .

    In our bifurcated and antagonistic political system, someone to watch.


    Elizabeth Warren

    .

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  21. What is most alarming is that 30 years ago the spike in gasoline led to a 12 percent reduction in the demand for gasoline as consumers drove less, switched to smaller cars, and sort of adhered to the 55 mph speed limit that had been put in place to save gasoline. It is now more than three years since the $4+ price spike of 2008 and demand has only fallen some 3 percent.

    The problem starts with the nation's collective gasoline bill which is on track to reach a new high of nearly $500 billion this year. This, of course, is only for gasoline; if we add in the other oil products we burn here in America each year - diesel for trucks and trains, jet fuel for planes, propane for heating, and numerous other uses the total is in the vicinity of $1 trillion.


    Peak Oil Crisis - The Energy Trap


    Bottom Line: At a certain point, the demand for gasolione becomes pretty Inelastic.

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  22. I've been watching Warren for a little while, now. She takes no prisoners. She'll win Brown's seat in a cakewalk. It'll be a "run for fun."

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  23. The US is not Germany, and $1.2 trillion is not that much.

    Not enough to fill wheelbarrows.

    You think it better that the Federals stay in the capital markets, manipulating the rates, while sucking it dry.

    ReplyDelete
  24. There's 200 North Koreans in Libya who are stuck there, with orders not to return home, because they might tell people there's been, a, you know, Arab uprising.

    ReplyDelete
  25. "If I can't fix the economy in three years, you can call me former President Obama" BHO, Feb. 2009 to Matt Lauer.

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  26. Yes , yes and yes, the GOP is keeping millions unemployed to put one man out of work and the Dems are seeing green. I'm waiting for souped-up photosynthesis, as green as green can be . . . for chlorophylls, at least. We can still quibble about carotenoids and phycobilins.

    While we wait, slash-and-burn budget cuts are meant to create jobs, so we are told. In fact they will probably destroy them. I, will focus on preserving my own.

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  27. .

    You think it better that the Federals stay in the capital markets, manipulating the rates, while sucking it dry.

    Another straw man.

    You offer it up as an either/or choice.

    I have been a major critic of FED policy for a while now. That doesn't restrict me from saying the 'mint the coins' idea is ill-advised.

    .

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  28. The good news? Exxon-Mobile discovered a significant find of gas while drilling the in South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam. The bad news? It's the South CHINA Sea.

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  29. No, not an either or solution.

    But that is the point.

    A political attempt at a solution.

    The $1.2 trillion will be got, almost for free, through the current system.

    With no physiological impact.

    While mining the coin, will bring focus.

    There are few other options currently available to the President, shovel ready, as it were.

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  30. .

    ...carotenoids and phycobilins...

    Not sure I like this jenny chick.

    It's been a long time since high school biology class and I'm too old to be hitting the dictionary every other post.

    .

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  31. .

    A political attempt at a solution.

    Yet, you ignore the political reality. It ain't going to happen.

    With no physiological impact.

    Nonsense.

    While mining the coin, will bring focus.

    Undoubtedly.

    There are few other options currently available to the President, shovel ready, as it were.

    True enough. But the problems with are political system aren't going to be solved by minting a few coins.

    .

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  32. Now, I think she's just "showing off." :)

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  33. Either that, or I'll bet she has some kids that hate the word, "Nutrition." :)

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  34. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  35. Bellingham man accidentally cuts off arm with homemade guillotine.

    Sure the Occupy Phoenix movement is JUST LIKE the Tea Party. That's why they have a flier that goes:

    When Should You Shoot A Cop?

    That question, even without an answer, makes most “law-abiding taxpayers” go into knee-jerk conniptions. The indoctrinated masses all race to see who can be first, and loudest to proclaim that it is NEVER okay to forcibly resist “law enforcement.” In doing so, they also inadvertently demonstrate why so much of human history has been plagued by tyranny and oppression.

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  36. .

    Sure the Occupy Phoenix movement is JUST LIKE the Tea Party. That's why they have a flier that goes:

    When Should You Shoot A Cop?


    What, T, no biblical text showing the OWS as the devil's spawn?

    I read the article quickly but it seems like it referred to a pamplet put on a table with other pamplets. Didn't say who placed it there. Didn't say it was OWS. The only ones mentioned reading it were the cops. No incidents reported resulting from it.

    You will recall the one picture taken at an early Tea Party rally showing Obama as Hitler. That one picture was shown for weeks on various news outlets. Also, because there weren't many blacks shown at the rallies, old Chris Matthews and others said the Tea Party had to be rascist. Then there was that guy walking around with a gun at one of the rallies just to show he could. Since it was in the same city as Obama was speaking in, not only was the TP called a bunch of rascist right wing gun nuts, but also a danger to the security of the president.

    I defended the Tea Party then and continued to defend them (with the exception of a couple of wig-jobs they had running in some of the 2010 congressional races) until their reps in the House went bat-fuck crazy over the debt limit.

    I will continue to give the OWS the same benefit of the doubt I gave the Tea Party until proven wrong.

    That you don't like the campers or the fact that they don't bathe regularly (if in fact that is true)
    is understandible.

    Like the Patriot-costume wearing TP before them they are called many names. There are plenty of articles out there in the right wing press that accuse them of being, racist, anti-semitic, jobless, marxist, dirty, anti-American, clueless, etc., etc., commies.

    Most of the claims, like those previously aimed at the TP, are laughable.

    As I said, I can understand your dissing the hundreds camping out around the country, but the fact that you ignore that the same frustrations OWS is protesting about is shared by millions across the country including a number of Tea Party activists tells me you have been drinking a little too much Kool-aid lately.

    You cited a 'mere' 37% approval rating (since higher in other polls) for the OWS while ignoring the fact that those who disapproved of OWS numbered somewhere in the 20%'s. You also ignore other polls showing the majority of Americans generally agree with the OWS's focus on big business.

    .

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  37. .

    I'm still pissed off at this one T.

    Desecrating the American flag, no wonder Obama and the liberals on the EB bar support the fleabaggers.

    Who here at the EB, liberal or otherwise, supports desecrating the America flag? When I asked that simple question, you gave me this chickenshit answer,

    Teresita said...

    Quirk: It would be interesting to have you identify the 'liberals' you are talking about.

    If the gun grabbin' Captain Planet watchin' NPR listenin' UTNE Reader readin' commie pinko, red diaper doper baby, leave flyover country Americans defenseless and penniless union thug shoe fits, wear it!"


    Cute but unresponsive. No names.

    On the off chance you were referring to me, here's my answer.

    I’ve got five handguns and a couple of long guns. How does that compare to you? Not sure what Captain Planet is so I have to assume you have watched him more than me. I haven’t listened to NPR since they took my nightly jazz program off. I admit to reading the Onion but while I know there is an Utne Reader, I have no idea what it’s politics are. Commie Pinko? Let’s face it, to your kool-aid lubricated brain anyone left of Ghengis Khan would be considered a commie pinko. Leave flyover country defenseless and penniless? Hell, I live in flyover country. You are the one that lives on the left coast. Union thug? Well you got me there. I was in a union for a couple years, about forty-five years back. On the other hand, you have been been working for the man for how long now? I remember your comments about how rough it was going to be when Obama put on that pay freeze. As I recall, that was right after a year that saw a 9% (12%) average increase in government wages. Yea, those damn unions. Always looking out after themselves.

    I don't know T. Adding this up it appears you look a little more liberal than me. Desecrated any flags lately?

    .

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  38. .

    Sorry I din't throw in a comment on "red diaper doper baby".

    Haven't a clue as to what that means.

    Sounds clever though.

    .

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  39. Game Seven - The "Next" Lifetime.

    Ten minutes.

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  40. Jeez, Freeze

    Two Run Double

    Tied Game

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  41. Not ezzackly a "Pitcher's Dual." :)

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  42. Bloomberg - ‎

    US stocks rose this week, driving the Standard & Poor's 500 Index toward the biggest monthly gain since 1974

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  43. The Texas governor, who has indicated he may skip some of the remaining Republican debates, joked about his debating shortfalls and sought to minimize the importance of debate performances.

    "Shoot, I may be a great debater before it's all over," he said.

    "We have a very very good debater and a slick politician in the White House right now, and it's not working."

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  44. PARIS — A day after European leaders unveiled their latest plan to save the euro, top officials opened talks with China in an effort to lure tens of billions of dollars in additional cash, giving China perhaps its biggest opportunity yet to exercise financial clout in the Western world.

    China is expected to demand significant concessions, including financial guarantees and limits on what Beijing sees as discriminatory trade policies, in exchange for any investment in Europe’s emergency stability fund.

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  45. Since the Europe crisis worsened two years ago, regional leaders once wary of China’s influence have rolled out the red carpet in hopes that China might be a savior for their ailing economies. China has already made deals to expand its footprint into choice Western European countries like Italy and Spain. Now, Chinese-owned companies run the biggest shipping port in Greece. They own highways and other crucial infrastructure, and are working to snap up other strategic businesses to anchor their presence on European soil.


    As they did in Panama & Costa Rica.

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  46. Nothing like a pocketful of cash when you're dealing with a bunch of "brokes."

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  47. Most of the economic market share that China has gained, came at the expense of the Europeons.

    Much more negative impact in Europe, than here in the US, from the ascension of China to the global stage.

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  48. I'm starting to feel sorry for gag, over his Texas Teams.

    I had high hopes for their success.

    They just do not seem to be able to score, enough.

    Errors did 'em in.

    Though still, at this point, the game is still being played.

    In baseball and politics.

    Bottom of the 8th for the Rangers.

    Top of 2nd, for Mr Perry.

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  49. Oakland Police’s Tear Gas Gives Occupy a Victory

    OAKLAND, Calif. — The city of Oakland, California enlisted police officers from 18 California police departments Tuesday, hoping to rid itself of the Occupy movement that had set up camp in a downtown plaza.

    But the police forces’ violent tactics worked only temporarily, and have, for the moment at least, handed the Occupy movement a moral and political victory so big that not even Occupy protestors seem to recognize it.


    Wired.com

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  50. (Reuters) - Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who was booed out of a public square by protesters against economic inequality on Thursday, apologized for a clash between police and demonstrators that badly injured an ex-Marine.


    The police flash banged a small group, after the injured man was down and they, of the Occupation Forces, were attempting to medivac the fellow. They were posing no visible threat to the police. The attention of those targeted by the grenade was upon the down man.

    Quite a piece of video.

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  51. Do the police TRY to look like Darth Vader clones?

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  52. .

    Oil that would have gone west from those regions will instead flow in increasing volumes to the east — to the booming emerging markets of Asia. And those markets will be in urgent need of additional supplies. China, which today consumes half as much oil as the United States, could by the beginning of the next decade overtake America as the world’s largest oil consumer. All of this points to a major geopolitical shift, with Asian economies having an increasing stake in the stability of Mideast oil supplies. It also raises a very significant question over the next several years: How will responsibility be shared among the great powers for the stability of the Persian Gulf?

    Oil's New World Order

    .

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  53. .

    It's not the crime so much as the widespread acceptance of it as business as usual that is surprising.

    Officers Jeer at Arraignment of 16 Colleagues in Ticket-Fixing Investigation

    A three-year investigation into the police’s habit of fixing traffic and parking tickets in the Bronx ended in the unsealing of indictments on Friday and a stunning display of vitriol by hundreds of off-duty officers, who converged on the courthouse to applaud their accused colleagues and denounce their prosecution.

    As 16 police officers were arraigned at State Supreme Court in the Bronx, incensed colleagues organized by their union cursed and taunted prosecutors and investigators, chanting “Down with the D.A.” and “Ray Kelly, hypocrite.”


    Cops say, It's a Courtesy. Not a Crime.

    .

    .

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  54. .




    PARIS — A day after European leaders unveiled their latest plan to save the euro, top officials opened talks with China in an effort to lure tens of billions of dollars in additional cash, giving China perhaps its biggest opportunity yet to exercise financial clout in the Western world.

    China is expected to demand significant concessions, including financial guarantees and limits on what Beijing sees as discriminatory trade policies, in exchange for any investment in Europe’s emergency stability fund...

    China has a $3.2 trillion nest egg in foreign reserves, by far the largest hoard of foreign currency in the world, and it needs to find places to park those reserves rather than convert them all to Chinese renminbi, a step that could set off domestic inflation and lead to sharp appreciation in the currency’s value. Europeans know that China is eager to move some of the money out of its vast pile of United States Treasury securities, and they are pushing the Continent’s crisis as a good opportunity to invest on the cheap...


    Europe Goes Hat in Hand to China

    .

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