Thomas Ostrem ch.11 Q. 5

The metaphor about Farmer China and Farmer America struck me as significant. The metaphor allowed me to visualize the trading that goes on between America and the USA. It also was a good way to show how the United States produces and borrows a lot (The USA owed China $13 trillion in 2010). I learned about China's export-oriented economy and how it feeds the USA. This strikes me as scary and odd and surprising. Odd, because I don't understand why we are okay with having such a huge debt and our government keeps on spending a lot. Scary, because it scares me how reliant we are on China's exports and we can't be self-reliant. Surprising because the book said that China was worse off than we are and it suggested that we could shorten some of our debt in inflation which seems unfair.