Antitrade activists frequently suggest that free trade is a "race to the bottom" and lobby for currency depreciation in order to improve the exportposition of American firms.
Not every Chinese citizen is in the position to export cash, so the next best tactic for the nervous is to buy gold, a refuge from plunging property prices and declining stock markets as well as an anticipated depreciation of their currency.
In the aftermath of the computer decontrol fiasco, Mr. Kloske (who was then awaiting Senate confirmation for his present position as Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration) promised to develop an interagency mechanism for eliciting and incorporating the views of technical and intelligence experts throughout the U.S. government with a view to avoiding the sort of problems that arose in the earlier case.