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Business

I even fill jobs in my free time

By
John Crudele
Published March 14, 2010, 5:00 a.m. ET

Dear John: We currently need to hire a driver with a commercial license for our paper company in the Bronx. The job pays about $45,000 per year plus family medical coverage. We would like to give the job to a vet. Do you know anybody? Thanks for your time and keep up the good work going after all the crooks. Ralph

Dear Ralph: Thanks for allowing us to help fill this job. As you know by now I forwarded your note to New York City’s social service agency and it sent you four candidates for this job. And you picked a 40-year old Gulf War vet with two decades in the service who was having trouble finding work now that he’s back home.

The man, who asked that his name not be used, has a child but he’s been living in one of the city’s short-term veteran housing. Cross one unemployed person off the list.

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Dear John: I am told that the national debt is $13 trillion and that China is our biggest creditor at $800 billion. So who do we owe the rest of the money to? And if China is owed about 6 percent of the total debt, why do all the pundits say they’ll own us if they call our debt? D.H.

Dear D.H.: First off, nobody believes China will “call” our debt in the way a bank can. And it isn’t even like the Chinese are going to say, “hey, give us Alaska and we’ll call it even.” The Chinese, in a sense, are our partners in this mess.

They have dollars in their pocket – or, more precisely, invested in US government securities and other dollar-denominated investments. And they don’t want to see the value of those US assets go down any more than we do. The problem is that the US continuously needs to borrow money to fund its budget deficit. So the problem has more to do with the Chinese willingness to lend us more money.

Think of it as a fat guy at an all-you-eat buffet. The obese man is okay if they keep refilling the steam trays and he can keep gorging. But what happens if the food stops coming and he suddenly can’t get his required – and expected – amount of daily calories? In this example, America is the fat guy. China is the chef who may be getting tired of filling our bellies.

The fat guy could, of course, go on a diet just like America could suddenly start practicing fiscal responsibility. But that’s a tough option when there’s a recession and there is a desire to keep the guy fat because his eating habits are creating jobs.

Recently, Washington disclosed that China had quietly sold $34 billion worth of US government securities. That country now holds $755 billion worth of our debt, second to Japan with $768 billion. Russia and the OPEC nations are other big holders.

If China continues to sell US government bonds — or not buy more — the fat man is going to need others to pick up their purchasing. That’s a problem, however, because a lot of the world is experiencing its own shortage of cash.

Over the past year there’s been another troubling development. The US, using an untested monetary policy called “quantitative easing,” has been picking up the slack and buying its own bonds. In essence, it has been printing money to pay back the money we’ve already printed and spent.

Send your questions to Dear John, The N.Y. Post, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, N.Y., N.Y., 10036, or [email protected].