We're Right on Schedule to Print $1T

Brad Setser has the early 2009 data on our biggest lender, China, and the news isn't good for those who want to borrow and spend.

(T)he pace of growth in China’s reserves clearly has slowed. Quite dramatically. Reserve growth — counting all of China’s hidden reserves — has gone from nearly $200 billion a quarter (if not a bit more) to less than $50 billion a quarter. Indeed, reserve growth over the last several months, after adjusting for valuation changes, has been smaller than China’s trade surplus.

The flat part at the end of the curve is China's ability to lend money to us. That's going away. All of their money is already loaned out. Unless their reserves start growing a whole bunch and soon, we're going to be printing the money we spend. Once the Democrats see how easy it is to hand out cash that they can just print up, there will be no stopping them.

Err, I guess there's no stopping them now, is there?


Never mind.