Origin XT Blog

I will make some basic corrections with bold. (Words in brackets are my additions for clarity) Italics are used by me to emphasize some interesting parts.

Funny that you mention Brazil, and Mexico, both countries where I worked and both countries that [HAD] fixed exchange rate regimes that ended badly. I am well aware that China widened the band under which the yuan trades, and it [HAS] allowed for a 2 percent strengthening of the dollar vis a vis the yuan. I think you would agree that amounts to very little. Over the past several years the dollar’s behavior against the Euro has changed pretty dramatically, the yen less so given Japan’s own deflationary problems and their approach to get from under those problems.

The article rightly stated that China’s fixed rate is causing problems with the United States [COMMA] and did not state that the EU has the same problem with China. I won’t trade insults with you [SEMICOLON] time will tell if China can maintain a fixed exchange rate and survive all the anomalies in its closed system that have created an internal wealth gap, as well as heightened corruption and class differences. To be sure, no political or economic system is perfect, but in today’s world China’s fixed exchange rate is an anachronism and is clearly a source of tension with most of its trading partners, not just the United States.

Thanks for you input, however sarcastic.

Kevin G. Hall

Yes, he did make a typo. And yes, so did I. But I justified it thus in my responding email:

P.S. My typo of your last name was not a sarcastic insult; it was a typo as justly done as your typo in your concluding paragraph (”Thanks for –>you”)

Anyway, my email:

Mr. Kevin Hall:

I am sorry for the previous email. I had the impression that the only way to elicit a response is with a tint (although I admit that was a bit more than a “tint”) of sarcasm.

But the fact is, last summer China officially declared its currency to be floated on a “basket of currencies,” according to many sources including the BBC: “The yuan will no longer be pegged to the dollar, but will float against a basket of currencies.” ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4703477.stm for example; notice the “July, 2005″ date? ) After the revaluation of the Yuan, many other currencies followed, including the Yen. Maybe I was unclear as to what the problem was.

You said in your article that “the –>”

Yes, I addressed his name correctly this time. Hey, I didn’t get shot. Anyway, I noticed these three names in the “CC” field:

“Walcott, John” ( jwalcott@krwashington.com ), “Schoof, Renee” ( rschoof@krwashington.com ), “Rankin, Robert” ( rrankin@krwashington.com )

Tell me they’re not assassins he sent the email to …

Anyway, I knew he would reply if I diss him like hell Anyone notice that I used “Sincerely” instead of “Kindly, with full regard?” Rhetorical strategies!! But I didn’t address the deflationary problems of Japan Japan’s actually getting inflation first time in several years. Damn, he’s not keeping up with the times again.

Our rules are to CC the bosses on reader email and response, believe it or not when you get into topics like the war in Iraq and politically sensitive issues sometimes there are actually threats from readers. So generally we try to keep the bosses in the loop.

I can understand readers becoming frustrated reading material they do not believe 100%, and emailing or mailing to ask for confirmation on the validity of some topic, but threats? What are readers going to get out of threatening a news reporter?

One of the most wonderful thing about this country is the freedom of the press; there are those who use it well (in order to notify the readers of accurate up-to-date information), and those who abuse it well (by assuming that free press means freedom to publish any material without assurance of validity).