Entries for December 15, 2006

What, maybe you expected Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to come home from China with a pledge from Beijing to let the yuan strengthen, say, 30 or 40 percent against the dollar? If so, you were probably disappointed with the results of this initial "strategic dialogue" meeting between American and Chinese economic policymakers. Instead, China merely agreed to make its currency more flexible. Then again, if you expected dramatic results, you've probably never done business in China. Any U.S. salesperson or marketing executive with experience there surely understood just where Paulson was coming from when he said that the two groups of officials "agreed on many principles" and that the talks fostered "mutual understanding and trust."