Quote from bali_survivor:
If these two "little" countries upped their prices tomorrow 100% then the US would have not choice but pay up because they have lost the skills to do it themselves.
You are coming off as quite ignorant. If India and China upped their prices, they can forget US demand for offshoring & cheap sweatshop products. I mean, I thought it was kinda obvious, but the reason China and India are getting US & Europe business if because of the COST SAVINGS. Once it's too expensive, the corps will revive US operations for that labor & production, a few big name companies have in the recent years.
I think a simple look at trade figures would show that US is a major consumer of India's and China's boom. It's the corporations pushing the demand, not China and India. If you think these corporations would not just turn to a new country or continent (like Africa) if the prices from China and India stop making sense, you need to recheck your basic 1,2,3s and ABCs.
Did you even know that the sweatshop factories in China operate on very low margins? A huge chunk of money flowing in China is just foreign capital, not profits. There are a lot of bad loans, still, floating around. Chinese government wants the Chinese employed and producing first, actually being profitable maybe second or third.
Do you even know the kind of work environment that Indian "IT" sweatshops are like? It's ironic, but these workers are more scared for their jobs than their counterparties scared of being offshored in US.
These two economies seem to be more exploited than booming.
US seems like it is just recycling dollars, give them to China & India for goods & services, while offering investment products, mostly US bonds but others as well. Similiar to the game of recycling petrodollars, printed dollars to buy oil, then sell overpriced old military equipment to the Middle East, as well as offering US investment opportunities to park their dollars.