Author; Sima Nan Channel Meng Ran
A global COVID-19 pandemic has not only triggered a global humanitarian catastrophe and a global recession, but more importantly, the resulting global inflation has exacerbated humanity in multiple crises. CNN reported that steel, wood, plastic and fuel. Corn, soy sugar and peanut oil. House, car, diaper toilet paper. Prices are soaring in almost everywhere.
The outbreak of the global inflation crisis, which originated in the full swing of economic recovery in the post-epidemic era, during the outbreak of the epidemic, due to the closure of enterprises and the unemployment of workers, resulting in a cliff-like decline in production capacity, which became a major inducement for rising raw material prices and severe shortage of commodities. Stimulus from governments and well-stocked consumers has seen a retaliatory rebound in demand. So, Patterson, head of commodity strategy at ING, said: "This is a perfect inflation storm."
The first target of this inflation storm that has affected the world is undoubtedly the United States, the world's largest consumer power. Because of the hollowing out of industry, the United States has become the country that imports the most goods in the world today. Therefore, the main shooters of the global inflation storm include the United States. In this regard, the Wall Street Journal complained that more and more manufacturers began to pass on the rise in raw material prices and wage costs to consumers.
If this were to be put aside in peacetime, this state of affairs in the United States is precisely the maximum capital for the authorities to use the hundreds of billions of dollars of trade deficits every year to pick up the stick of sanctions against other countries at every turn. But when a serious global crisis breaks out and inflation is severe, it is a catastrophe for the United States, as the world's major consumer power.
Today, Biden is clamoring to build its own supply chain, but the Republican resistance has led to a $2.3 trillion infrastructure budget, which has been slashed to $800 billion. Even so, it is not yet known that it will be implemented in the Year of the Ox. Therefore, Biden's plan to return manufacturing to the United States, even if it can be successfully implemented, will not be too late to deal with this sudden inflation storm.
Inflation in the United States has soared to 3.9 percent, but that's just the beginning. A few days ago, an authoritative agency warned Biden that if the White House cannot properly solve the problem of INFLATION in the United States, it is expected that the inflation rate in the United States may soar to about 20% in the next two or three years. Once the prophecy becomes a reality, the dollar will be printed more, but if the goods cannot be bought, it will be worthless at best.
When the United States has a big problem, the first thing that comes to mind is not allies such as the European Union and Japan, but directly to China to solve the problem. Counting the phone call made by US Secretary of State Blinken to State Councilor Yang Jiechi on the 11th, the United States has called the Chinese side 4 times in succession in the past half a month. Among them, including U.S. Trade Representative Dai Qi, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo, and all of these calls to relevant Chinese departments, all of which cannot avoid one issue: how to ensure that the trade relationship between China and the United States is not affected by tensions between the two countries.
The United States is a superpower and has always sought little attention. In their minds, countries all over the world are working for the United States. In terms of trade alone, Washington holds more than $500 billion in trade deficits in the world's countries, and has never been asked for his share by others, and he does not need to take the initiative to show weakness to other countries.
But now the situation has changed dramatically, the inflation storm has broken out, and the United States itself cannot bear it. In contrast, China is not only the world's second-largest economy after the United States, but also the world's unique "world factory". The united States has recently been actively engaging with China in the hope of persuading China to overcome the difficulties of raw material shortages and increase production capacity to alleviate the terrible situation of global material shortages, so as to prevent inflation in the United States from continuing to soar.
In fact, when the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in the United States last year, we should have thought of today's results. The long-term hollowing out of U.S. industry has led to the fact that even if the United States has the most developed and perfect health care system in the world, it is nonsense if it does not have a large amount of material support in response to the new crown epidemic. To put it bluntly, during the outbreak in the United States, there is absolutely no balance without China's sufficient supply of materials.
However, in addition to empty talk, U.S. policymakers are trying to dump the responsibility for the U.S. crisis on China. For the crisis we are facing, we have rarely focused our energy and resources on solving it. This is the main reason why the United States has become a superpower of the epidemic. The outbreak of the US inflation crisis is also the evil result of Biden's excessive expenditure through crazy printing of money in order to establish his own "face project".
The fact that the United States has made four consecutive phone calls to China in half a month is enough to show their urgency to strengthen trade ties with China. Therefore, the Biden administration has not stopped suppressing China on the surface, but in fact, it does not dare to fight to the level of tearing the skin, at best, it is maintained in a category of fighting and not breaking. The reason is simple, Biden wants to solve the domestic inflation crisis and make the US economy better, inseparable from cooperation with China in the field of trade.
The United States is now at the center of the inflation storm, although it is not to say that the small life is pinched in China's hands, but at least without China's cooperation in the economic and trade field, Biden's life will certainly be difficult.