by Anonymous Cowardon 5:49 Monday 16 November 2009 (#30110460)
Actually, that's not at all how international trade works. It's more akin to:
1. An American company wishes to buy shitty goods manufactured in China. 2. The American company buys renminbi using American dollars. 3. The American company spends the renminbi to buy the shitty Chinese goods. 4. The Chinese send to America the shitty goods that come broken, or end up breaking soon after. 5. The Chinese have both the dollars and the renminbi, and all the Americans got was some shitty, poorly-manufactured plastic toys. 6. The Chinese use those American dollars, as they still have perceived value in some areas of the world, to buy land, factories, natural resources and other property in Africa. 7. The Americans still just have shitty plastic toys and the Africans have near-worthless currency, but the Chinese have African land, factories, gold, oil, coal, and even people under their control now.
The Americans lost. The Africans lost. The Chinese won.
Re:It's good to be owed money! (Score:5, Insightful)