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ABC filed A Closer Look explainer on the $1.4tr that China holds in American debt. Robert Krulwich used his hallmark animated cartoons (here are similar animated Krulwich explainers on deflation, the credit crunch, the housing bubble and faulty stock investments) to demonstrate why Beijing does not "take the profits that China has made in America and sell US stocks and bonds and dollars and turn them into Chinese money so China can fix some of the problems they have got at home." NBC's Savannah Guthrie noted that the federal debt that China holds is "money largely used to fund stimulus efforts" to reverse the recession here.
ABC's Jonathan Karl followed up on Monday's expose of errors in recovery.gov, the White House's Website documenting jobs created--layoffs prevented--thanks to that deficit spending. Monday he told us about hiring in non-existent Congressional districts. Now Karl documents exaggerations: the sale of nine pairs of work boots to the Army Corps of Engineers was documented as nine jobs; a pay raise for 317 Head Start workers was counted as 317 extra jobs. CBS' Chip Reid covered similar fudges last month, with a hat tip to the Associated Press.
Back in Beijing, CBS' Celia Hatton offered glimmers of hope for the United States' trade deficit with China. "Older generations still save half their paychecks but that trend is reversing as a nation of young shopaholics is born." Hatton hinted that many of young China's favorite brands are American: "She drives a Buick, chats on an iPhone, eats at McDonalds, wears Nikes," was her profile of Zhao Mengyao, a credit card wielding twentysomething.
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