HAPPY HALLOWEEN

It started to snow today.

clan of the kevlar

Kev and fam stopped by 2 weeks ago today.

A fine time had by all.

This was when Kev was a tree.

On-line Advertisement

Taiwan political parties To learn about Taiwan politics from reliable, official sources!

www.taiwan.gov.tw

Seriously?

1) Why is a democratic government doing advertising this on the internet?

2) Who in their right mind considers "official sources" reliable for political information.

I did not even click the link.

Blast from the past

It's been a while since I've been on here. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hopefully everyone is well. Not sure how often people check things out here. Is Frenchie still around?

Anyways, I received an email a couple of weeks ago from Jim. We were able to get caught up this past Thanksgiving weekend. Great turkey feast out at my father's place. Just like old times, we recorded the Eagles- 49ers game and came back home to watch late night. We managed to avoid the score in the early evening, fast forward all the commercials and made it to bed just before sunrise. Excellent game! I won't ruin it for those of you heading over to PJ's later.

Just wanted to send a shout out to everyone. We both miss the late night card games, early morning Superbowl's and random evenings spent tipping back bottles of Qing Dao. No need to worry as we caught up on a few missed beers over the years and shared what we had to share about the writers of this blog.

Hope all is well for those left in the ROC and for those who have moved on!

China will increase minimum wages

I just read an article in the Taipei Times that says China is planning to raise their minimum wage substantially. The analyst said this was as good as a revaluation of the Yuan.

I just googled around and it seems this has already been happening. (Its also interesting that China allows cities and regions to set their own minimum wages.)

Does this mean they are going to raise the minimums again? I know Vietnam did that for a while, which angered people who invested based on certain labor cost assumptions.

My big question is if raising minimum wages is really as good as revaluing the Yuan.

If it is, then I can see China doing this instead of revaluing. You get the same effect (supposedly) but your US treasuries still come due at the original amount in Yuan terms, and your working populace feels richer, too.

Of course, its comical that the same article says that revaluing the Yuan by 20-40% would destroy the export industries...but raising labor costs by 20-30% is fine?

May have to start closing down my RMB accounts if this is the new plan in China. If they export less due to higher wages, the Yuan might depreciate even. Still, I have to wonder if this is really the same as a revaluation.

Damn Straight

Work in Taichung City - www.hess.com.tw/ - Cheaper Living Than Taipei Convenient and Laid Back Lifestyle

Yahoo Headlines

Caterpillar to raise prices up to 2 percent

Prediction: The price increases will mainly be in China for their Chinese made product line as cost of labor and other raw materials have gone up. China may get their currency appreciated via localized inflation if they aren't be careful.

Just imagine if China had bought made in the USA Caterpillar products with their export earnings in past years instead of US Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds. China wouldn't have to worry about losing money on the mountain of financial assets. They would have a bunch of earth-movers they need and the USA would have more jobs and consumers for Chinese products.