Economic post #3; the North Pole and China

News reports lately indicate that the Russians, Americans, Canadians, and others are in a race to claim sovereignty over the North Pole. I guess they're all tired of getting coal and nails for Christmas, and they figure lobbing a few rounds at Santa will remedy the situation.

Oops, just kidding. What the contestants really want is full rights to whatever minerals might be there, and quite frankly, I'm perplexed that there is that much fighting to be done over it. Reality is, economically speaking, that whoever might develop whatever resources are there is going to benefit the whole world by developing them.

So boys, quit fighting over it and let's figure out how whether it's even possible.

And then there is concern that the Chinese might try to "get" our country by having a fire sale of dollars--over a trillion of them--they now own. As if they can outdo the Fed in inflating the dollar. :^)

More seriously, what would they achieve? Well, they'd reduce the dollar's value, and in the process throw away several hundred billion dollars in equity they currently possess--causing a deep recession or even a depression in China, because they rely on those dollars to purchase western capital for their new industries.

In the short and long run, it would be penny wise and pound foolish, to use another currency as a picture. My hunch is that the saber keeps rattling in the scabbard this time.