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For years, American importers and Chinese factory managers have been having the same conversation. The importers would demand lower prices for products destined for American shelves. Factory managers would counter with a long list of reasons why they needed to charge more. Most of the time, the American importers would prevail, and Wal-Mart shoppers would rejoice.

Not anymore. The era of cheap Chinese consumer goods may finally be ending, thanks to irrepressible inflation. Now when the Chinese present their lists, some American importers are conceding higher prices, meaning that American shoppers, for the first time in years, are starting to pick up the tab for rising costs in China. Some Chinese factories are now asking their American customers for price increases of as much as 20 percent to 30 percent.

A store manager at a young women's clothing store in Boston tells me the prices of some camisoles are rising. An executive in the athletic shoe industry says that Chinese factories and buyers are now negotiating about spring 2009 shoe lines, and that is where consumers will really start to see the impact of Chinese inflation. A manager of several discount stores confides his company has started raising prices of certain goods while putting others on sale. This is only the beginning: We'll be paying higher prices for Chinese goods for years to come.

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ORIGINAL: Level

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For years, American importers and Chinese factory managers have been having the same conversation. The importers would demand lower prices for products destined for American shelves. Factory managers would counter with a long list of reasons why they needed to charge more. Most of the time, the American importers would prevail, and Wal-Mart shoppers would rejoice.

Not anymore. The era of cheap Chinese consumer goods may finally be ending, thanks to irrepressible inflation. Now when the Chinese present their lists, some American importers are conceding higher prices, meaning that American shoppers, for the first time in years, are starting to pick up the tab for rising costs in China. Some Chinese factories are now asking their American customers for price increases of as much as 20 percent to 30 percent.

A store manager at a young women's clothing store in Boston tells me the prices of some camisoles are rising. An executive in the athletic shoe industry says that Chinese factories and buyers are now negotiating about spring 2009 shoe lines, and that is where consumers will really start to see the impact of Chinese inflation. A manager of several discount stores confides his company has started raising prices of certain goods while putting others on sale. This is only the beginning: We'll be paying higher prices for Chinese goods for years to come.

http://www.slate.com/id/2188409/?GT1=38001

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ORIGINAL: SugarMyChurro

Right. Because we all know that people being squeezed at the gas pumps have 20-30% more free cash to blow on Walmart goods. In the U.S. even door greeters, barristas and waitresses at the local diner all make over $100K a year, drive SUVs and live in the lap of luxury. Also, everyone in the U.S. lives in fantastically spacious flats on Manhattan.

Makes sense...

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ORIGINAL: lronitulstahp

Look people, for how long did you think you were going to get all the lead paint, glass bits, toxic toothpaste and tainted animal food on the cheap??? 

Nature seeks balance in all things.

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ORIGINAL: Sanity

What's the rest of the story, Level. Is George Bush pushing a button to make gas prices go up in China too? He's evil, isn't he.

Or maybe, the Chinese are demanding higher wages. Will we be able to start exporting to them soon?

What's causing the inflation. Could it be the lower dollar, doing what the Chinese government has long resisted doing by making the Yuan more accurately reflect its value?

Oh! You provided a link. Perhaps all the answers lie there...

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ORIGINAL: Level

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ORIGINAL: lronitulstahp

Look people, for how long did you think you were going to get all the lead paint, glass bits, toxic toothpaste and tainted animal food on the cheap??? 

Don't you feel the sketchy harvest of donor organs kinda made up for the cheap stuff, though?
 
Nature seeks balance in all things.

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ORIGINAL: Sanity
Will we be able to start exporting to them soon?

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ORIGINAL: SugarMyChurro

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ORIGINAL: Sanity
Will we be able to start exporting to them soon?

Because we manufacture or grow what precisely?

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ORIGINAL: SugarMyChurro

They make it cheaper over there, otherwise they don't need or even want it.

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ORIGINAL: Sanity

You guess wrong. The yuan is being forced higher, the Chinese people are becoming more affluent, and they are beginning to want goods that aren't the shitty Chinese-made variety.

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ORIGINAL: DesFIP

And in a couple of years the factories will move to poor African countries. This isn't new. After WWII, cheap good were made in Japan, when Japanese wages rose, the factories moved to Taiwan. Then Korea, and now China.  What's the average wage in Botswana or the Sudan? Because when the goods cost too much, it becomes cheaper to build new factories someplace else.

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ORIGINAL: Sanity

Assuming we're successful in wiping out Communism, what happens when we run out of cheaper places to build new factories...

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ORIGINAL: DesFIP

And in a couple of years the factories will move to poor African countries. This isn't new. After WWII, cheap good were made in Japan, when Japanese wages rose, the factories moved to Taiwan. Then Korea, and now China.  What's the average wage in Botswana or the Sudan? Because when the goods cost too much, it becomes cheaper to build new factories someplace else.