China, The IMF and Freedom

Investor Jim Rogers says to invest in China, and drop the US dollar, but that doesn’t seem sensible to me, notwithstanding my limited knowledge of these issues. According to CBS Noose, China wants to have a bigger role with the IMF.  Meanwhile, Rep. Ron Paul says that foreign aid to the IMF amounts to an international bailout. (Dr. Paul also wrote “The IMF Con” in 2004.) Here is a very useful report on China’s Economic Freedom Index from Heritage.org. As much as China in recent years seems to have increased freedom of markets, there is still very little, if any, political freedom. As Dr. Sanity very well noted, you really need political freedom to have actual economic freedom and prosperity.

I wouldn’t move to China, but given such a reduction in both political and economic freedom in the US, and getting worse, perhaps it really is time to start learning Mandarin, as Mr. Rogers has done, and is teaching his daughter. I think we started calling the city of “Peking” “Beijing” in the 1980s because it was becoming obvious how their government is “Peking” into their people’s private lives, although I think that’s increasing over here as well. (Peking, D.C.)