MATT HOLZMANN: The China Currency Farce In Congress.

We are watching the spectacle of one of America’s great kabuki plays unfold this week on Capitol Hill. Harry Reid and his confederates are trying to blame China for America’s current ills and retaliate with the tools of Smoot Hawley. But the only problem is that they are 20 years too late and a trillion dollars short. That’s how much of our debt the Chinese government now holds.

15 years ago I trekked up Capitol Hill and across to the Pentagon with my colleagues in the electronics manufacturing industry to plead with Congress and the Department of Defense that China had undervalued their currency and was beginning to destroy America’s manufacturing base. At the time the RMB Yuan was 8.6/$. Today is 27% stronger at 6.3/$.

At the time, the American printed circuit manufacturing industry which we were representing was selling $10 Billion/year of product globally with a 60% market share. Today, that industry in North America is @ $ 2.6 Billion in a global industry worth $56 Billion. The United States industry’s market share is @ 5%. And this is a very high technology business. There are no excuses for this loss.

No, but there are explanations.