"internal documents from IBM indicate that for internal IBM accounting purposes, a programmer in China with three to five years experience would cost about $12.50 an hour, including salary and benefits. A person familiar with IBM's internal billing rates says that's less than one-fourth of the $56-an-hour cost of a comparable U.S. employee, which also includes salary and benefits. ".
Another article analyzing the impact of China mentioned that 80% of Alcatel's product will compete against Huawei, and that's bad news for communication company's pricing power and margin. Cisco won't be immune, either. The good, old, fat days for the telecom/network equipment industry are forever gone.
Programmers and engineers, especially the expensive ones, will either got cheaper or be gradually extinct in the US.
Wheeler-dealers, brokers, bankers, BS artists and operators will thrive in this fast-changing new envrionment. (don't they always do? Interest rate and inflation will stay low for an extended period of time. China's admission to the WTO in Dec 2001 will be remembered as the watershed event for this exciting new era, till RMB and the buck reach parity
Interest rate and inflation will stay