Chap 8

         I, personally, thought that the eighth chapter of this book was the most compelling one so far. Not to say that this chapter was drastically different in comparison to the other chapters and that the setup and framework he normally uses wasn’t being applied, but just finding out that the specific subject in which he talked about, as well as how he talked about it, was one that sparked my interest a tad bit more than his previous topics.

       I would have liked to have been able to say that I knew a lot about China before reading this book, but it was blatantly apparent to me while reading it that I knew nothing at all, well at least nothing significantly noteworthy or commendable. One area in particular in which I assumed that I knew much about in relation to China was just how weighty their currency was in comparison to the U.S dollar. I don’t know why, but up until reading this book I could have sworn again and again that the value of the American dollar in other countries was decreasing, and I especially didn’t expect the value to be as high as it is now. I must say that I was not shocked to hear about the undervaluing of the Yuan compared to the dollar. In the chapter it states that, “The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that the Yuan is undervalued by between 20 and 40 percent”. This undervaluing of the Chinese Yuan, says Dodson, could quite possibly negatively impact jobs in America. In the chapter, it states that, “Some in congress believe that pressing China to increase the value of its currency would help protect remaining manufacturing jobs in America”. He claims that this will do so by allowing the American manufacturers to “compete more effectively with China in terms of production cost”. This is viewed as somewhat of an outlandish idea by most, as some claim it to not be as effective as thought out to be. This fact does strike a surprising blow to what I would have possibly thought, not knowing how much the value of another countries products could leak over onto my plate of worries as well.