Word: china
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...debt-laden U.S. consumers are learning to save - and those factories have a lot less to do. During the downturn, the rates at which industrial capacity was being utilized in the U.S. and Japan, the world's two largest economies, plummeted to the lowest levels on record. In China, the world's workshop, tens of thousands of factories making mostly low-end merchandise have shut down...
...There's evidence that this dire scenario is uncomfortably possible. Although China's economy is growing relatively strongly, the government is so concerned about excess capacity that it recently banned investments in aluminum production and imposed stiffer conditions on new projects in the steel, coal and petrochemical sectors. Without such controls, "it will be hard to prevent vicious market competition and increase economic benefits, and this could result in facility closures, layoffs and increases in banks' bad assets," a government statement said...
...Retooling is not impossible. Germany's Volkswagen is converting part of a car-engine plant to produce "green" electrical generators. And if you buy into the great Asian growth story, then there is a chance that spending by wealthier consumers in countries like China and India can offset at least some of the decreased demand in the West. HSBC economist Frederic Neumann said in a September report that some Asian manufacturers have gained back the power to raise prices, implying that the impact of excess capacity in the region might not be as severe as some fear. "What...
...Others are not so sanguine. HSBC's China economist, Qu Hongbin, worries that his country is full of manufacturers trying to hang on while waiting for overseas demand to recover. "There still is hope that we'll go back to the old days," Qu says. But "demand in the future will be lower than in the past," he says. "That means the factory owners have to face reality" - the reality of them no longer cranking out ever more widgets in a widget-weary world...
...does well - deterrence and containment. To deter, we must maintain a small, residual capability in Afghanistan for a few years, as well as offshore air and missile capabilities to inflict harsh punishment when necessary. To contain threats, Washington needs to form alliances with neighboring states like Pakistan, India, China, Russia and even Iran, which supported us in the early days of the war. All share an interest in combatting Sunni-based religious extremism as well as the drug trade...