Yesterday, U.S. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner spoke by phone with his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, to discuss the challenges facing global markets after a tumultuous week for the U.S. economy. China’s stock market plunged on Monday (along with the U.S.’s), following the news that Standard and Poor downgraded America’s credit rating. Chinese investors are concerned that the current poor economic climate in the U.S. will lead to decreased demand for Chinese exports. China is the largest U.S. foreign creditor, but over the weekend on Chinese websites many people were calling for China to invest less money in the U.S. Niall Ferguson is the Laurence A. Tisch professor of history at Harvard University, William Ziegler professor at Harvard Business School, and author of “The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World” and the forthcoming “Civilization: The West and the Rest.” He talks about how what role China will play in the U.S.’s economic recovery and whether this is a turning point in world financial history.
The story you just read is available for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
Make a gift today, and you’ll get us one step closer to our goal of raising $25,000 by June 14. We need your help now more than ever!