Know Thy Banker

Nearly every business owner has received that piece of advice at one time or another. Well, here's a question: Should such advice apply to countries too? Should America know its banker?

I'd say when you spend  roughly $1 trillion more than you make, it probably is an excellent idea to know your banker.

In America, there's no doubt the country's leading banker is the Chinese government. The Chinese government directly owns about $1.2 trillion in U.S. debt.

Think about what would happen if the U.S. got a call from its banker and was told its $1.2 trillion line of credit had been revoked. What would be the aftermaths?

Those of us here at The Chinese Banker got to thinking about that very subject in 2008 when the world was standing at the edge of a financial cliff. We tried to imagine what would falter, what would crumble and who would be left standing. Finally, we wrote it all down and it became The Chinese Banker, a novel of an America ravaged by a Chinese-induced financial crisis.

I hope you check the book out on www.amazon.com/author/dustinhill.  But I also invite you to check this blog on a regular basis, and subscribe to our completly free financial news service on U.S.-Chinese relations. Simply like our facebook page at www.facebook.com/TheChineseBanker.

Nearly every weekday, we'll offer you a daily news tip. We call it our Banker News Byte. We search through interesting news items of U.S.-China financial matters, and pass along the one that may have slipped under your radar screen.

So, let's get to it. Let's get to know our banker -- even if it scares the hell out of us.

Here's today's Banker News Byte:

A rivalry is not exactly what you want to have develop with your banker, but the U.S. and China certainly have on brewing. Southeast Asia is ground zero for the tensions at the moment:
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/264785/news/world/booming-southeast-asia-in-a-quandary-over-us-china-rivalry