China says, "You Want What?"

In Washington, trade talks with China ended… badly . Eh, not so much “badly” as “totally useless.”
The U.S. has asked that China let new securities firms enter the Chinese markets. And once there, that they be able to do more joint ventures. The U.S. also wants more Wall Street schmendricks to be able to throw their money around on Chinese trading floors.
The Chinese are going to buy more “energy and environmental technology” from the United States, and take “unspecified steps” to fight piracy of DVDs and other goods. Yeah, right.
After three days of chatting, pounding coffee and snuffing out cigarettes, nary a word in the agreement about the yuan’s trading band with the U.S. dollar or the historic trade imbalance between the two nations.
“Those talks were such a disaster that Hank Paulson came out and started reading his statement to the media before the Chinese rep ever walked in the room,” observed Dave Gonigam, a writer in residence here at The 5 and a 20 year vet of the news media. “Either Paulson is clueless about diplomacy or he dissed them big-time.
“China's economic growth continues to rock the boat,” notes Chuck Butler, “and as long as they continue to grow at hyperspace speed, their trade surplus will continue to soar... And the U.S. trade deficit will keep having sand kicked in its face... And that will bring the lawmakers out of the woodwork with their protectionism bills.”