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Obama, Geithner and Bernanke: America's Top Bond Salesmen Pitch No. 1 Client

Posted Nov 19, 2009 12:47pm EST by Heesun Wee in Investing, Newsmakers, Recession, Banking
Related: ^dji, ^gspc, dia, UDN, FXI, PGJ, TBT

As President Obama wrapped up his first trip to China this week, there was plenty of talk about partnerships but few concrete agreements reached on (1) whether or not China will let its currency float freely (2) and China's concerns about U.S. debt.

"Obama, Geithner and Bernanke, they're the three bond salesmen of the U.S. They're going to see our best client and hoping our client is happy," says Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. "Apparently they're not happy and the question is what do we do to make them happy?," Boockvar tells Aaron.

Of course, Boockvar is talking about the fact that China is the largest foreign lender to the United States. With Obama heading to visit America's largest creditor, it was no coincidence both Bernanke and Geithner publicly expressed support for a strong dollar during the past week, he says.

But Boockvar says anger about a depreciating dollar is aimed at the wrong direction. "Blame the Fed, don't blame the Chinese," he said. "The Fed is the one that's artificially depressing the dollar."

Furthermore, chatter about China allowing the renminbi to float is a "red herring," Boockvar says, noting Americans can't afford a price spike in imports. 

Bottom line: There's growing global competition for capital and the U.S. ultimately will have to play ball. So who will blink first?

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