Some Chinese economists have argued for years for direct transfers, cash, or vouchers put into consumers’ hands. The official deficit ratio is 4 percent of GDP, the highest on record, with 1.3 trillion yuan of ultra-long special treasury bonds and 4.4 trillion yuan of local special bonds on top of it; a 10 trillion yuan program is moving hidden local debt onto public books. China ran a goods trade surplus of 3.99 trillion yuan in the first half of this year, with exports up 17.6 percent in dollar terms. But if the household is the constituency that Beijing has already decided it can disappoint, then these pressures are moot. When the G-7 pressured China to let its currency appreciate a decade earlier, Beijing ceded only some limited ground.