But only as long as the rest of the world accepts either dollars or yuan for the raw materials that go into the Chinese manufacturing plant...

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

Wal-Mart is the low cost retailer in the US and has relentlessly squeezed the cost out of their supply chain. China is the most important supplier of clothing, artificial Christmas Trees, low end hand tools, low end electronics, etc. and Wal-Mart sales are up 3% over last year.  But Wal-Mart also is also a major grocer and druggist in many states.  Where it sells groceries, it usually has the broadest selection in town, (usually small to medium sized towns--<50,000.)

Some of its increase may be due to grocery and drug sales to customers that previously shopped more up-scale shops.  Those stores, J.C.Penny, Macy's, etc have been hit hard, down double digits in many cases.  They also bought from China and are cutting back hard.    It will get much worse, and soon.  Unemployment is accelerating.  Can China live by Wal-Mart alone?

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."