[Shaun @ Tru6]

When party A owes money to party B, B has the power in the relationship especially when party B has options that lessen the value of party A.

you are mixing cause and effect here. but you already answered your own question and just don't know it:

"...we got the shaft." Did our economy crumble when they went belly up? no. Just as China's won't if we try to negotiate from our traditional source of strength because every day that we borrow more and more and the trade deficit increases while the rest of the world strengthens it's own currencies and one-time manufacturing economies cross the line to consumer economies means our economy has less and less value on the world stage.

Will it happen tomorrow? no. 5 years from now. yes. India and China will both be buying more goods from within and from each other than selling to the U.S.

What does that give China? Leverage. Leverage to align themselves with our enemies because they have oil. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but for the past 3 years China has been making friends all over the world and buying up raw material assets all based on checks coming in from Walmart.

What have we been doing? Congratulating Moldava for their part in the Coalition of the Willing while making enemies all around the world.

I'm sending you a game of RISK for Christmas.