We have borrowed trillions of dollars from China, are they friends too? I don't think so. Are they enemies? Not necessarily. The Chinese, the Arabs, the Europeans all do what's in their best interests. Let's not fool ourselves, I don't have any illusions about the Europeans or our other traditional allies but the Arabs are certainly not any better, they do what they believe is best for them.
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That is exactly my main point. The supposedly friends are afraid. But the real friends boarded the same boat at their friends. Singapore, the arabs, and some others in asia who boarded the same boat are the real friends. The other supposedly friends do not lack money. They are rich, and if they believe in friendship, they would loan money until the system is back on its feet.They are not doing it. Conclusion: the return on their money is more important than friendship to America and Americans! Singapore/Arabs/the others who showed support are the example to follow in measurement of friendship.
Should we borrow from Israel instead? Do they ever lend us any money? Or are they just a perpetual drain of taxpayers money?
China is different. They buy treasuries. It does not hurt, but it is certainly not the same as money put straight in banking systems in a financial crisis.
This is absurd, what does it have to do with friendship? Different business decisions, different risk tolerance, different circumstances. JPM bought BSC, MSFT wanted to buy YHOO, some arabs bought C stock, the Chinese bought our treasuries. You know what these transactions have in common - they are all business, nothing personal.
It's the same to them, the Chinese actually do give us money unlike the Arab governments that buy what they like and want to have.
We should not borrow from others as a nation. The friendly nations/groups and anyone who believe and is a real friend of American can go and help the financial corporate system directly to get back on its feet in any form (loans, equity, what have you). Banks need cash to stay alive. Bear Sterns died because of lack of loans, not because it wanted money for free. If the Singapore and Arabs did not help us, maybe Citi, Merill, etc could have fallen as well.
The only thing foreign money is interested in right now is treasuries. They just got screwed with subprime CDO's. It's going to be a while before the corporate sector gets any big $ from overseas.