The Next Best Thing

“The Chinese have already forged agreements amongst the BRICS and the ASEAN nations to use the yuan as the currency of trade, with countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the UK agreeing to trade in the yuan in future.  It may well be that China intends to sew up the world with yuan agreements, with the US as the last man standing, then pull the plug by simply by refusing outright to accept any further US debt of any kind. At that point, the US would be isolated and, in order to trade, would be forced to cave to the yuan as the currency of world trade.  If this were to take place, the remaining question would be whether the dollar would remain as the US currency.”

http://www.internationalman.com/articles/the-next-best-thing

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Russia Threatens To Dump US Treasurys If Sanctions Imposed

“Russia is playing the money card.  Sergei Glazyev, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Tuesday that the country could sell all the U.S. government bonds it owns should the country impose sanctions on Russia.  ‘Most of the sanctions against Russia will bring harm to the United States itself, because as far as trade relations with the United States go, we don’t depend on them in any way,’ Glazyev said, adding that the country is a creditor to the United States. ‘We hold a decent amount of treasury bonds – more than $200 billion – and if the United States dares to freeze accounts of Russian businesses and citizens, we can no longer view America as a reliable partner,’ he said.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/ukraine-crisis-takes-new-spin-russia-threatens-dump-us-treasurys-if-sanctions-imposed-1559238

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Russian Banks Experience Foreign Cash Crunch

“Russian banks raised dollar and euro exchange rates to record highs on Sunday following the Kremlin’s threat to send troops to Ukraine.  ‘We don’t have foreign cash, the last was taken five minutes ago. Now we are only buying foreign currencies but not selling,’ said an operator at a Moscow exchange office.  Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, moved its the dollar rate to 38.50 rubles, which far exceeds the dollar’s all-time high of 36.73 rubles reached at the end of the crisis-driven ruble devaluation in March of 2009. The ruble stood at 35.89 versus the dollar at the end of the trading session on the Moscow exchange on Friday, losing more than 8% so far this year.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304585004579415122628094230

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Fed Signals End of Easy Money — Ready for A Massive Shift in Rates?

“Specifically, the Fed said it would shrink its QE program by another $10 billion, to $65 billion. Policymakers also strongly implied they will continue reducing their bond buys going forward. The ramifications of these moves will be widespread and severe for both the interest rate markets and the markets that take their cues from them — which, frankly, are pretty much every market on the planet.  We’re already seeing vulnerable emerging markets impacted by the Fed’s moves. Central banks in Turkey and South Africa have been forced to respond to the Fed’s policy shift by jacking up their interest rates. Other countries as far flung as Indonesia and Brazil have already done the same.”

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/fed-signals-end-of-easy-money-are-you-ready-for-massive-shift-in-rates-57889

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Faber Sees `Gigantic’ Asset Bubble, Slowing Growth

“Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, talks about the impact of Federal Reserve policy on the global economy, Bitcoin and financial markets. He speaks with Trish Regan and Adam Johnson on Bloomberg Television’s ‘Street Smart.'”

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/faber-sees-gigantic-asset-bubble-slowing-growth-O4LPyOs9SGmVjZXlNc442Q.html

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

China Awash in Money; Leaders Start to Weigh Raising the Floodgates

“Move over, Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke. Step aside, Mario Draghi and Haruhiko Kuroda. When it comes to monetary stimulus, Zhou Xiaochuan, the longtime governor of the People’s Bank of China, has no rivals.  The latest data show that the country’s rapid growth in money supply has continued. Mr. Zhou and his colleagues at the Chinese central bank have only begun the difficult and dangerous task of reining it in.  The amount of money sloshing around China’s economy, according to a broad measure that is closely watched here, has now tripled since the end of 2006. Housing prices have soared, feeding fears of a bubble while leaving many ordinary Chinese feeling poor and left out.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/business/international/china-dwarfs-us-in-monetary-stimulus.html?emc=eta1

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Venezuela Devalues Bolivar By Another 44%; Inflation Rages At 50%

“Venezuelans traveling abroad and airlines will use Sicad FX rate which was last 11.36 bolivars per dollar. Those spared from the most recent devaluation, for now, are students abroad, pensioners, retirees, consular and diplomatic services who will continue using 6.3 bolivars/USD rate. This follows comparable steps taken in late December, when the Bolivar was devalued by the same amount for any non-residents and tourists entering the nation, as the nation unrolled its centrally-planned currency regime in which the Bolivar is offered through a dollar-auction system called Sicad.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-22/venezuela-devalues-bolivar-another-44-some-still-600-higher-black-market-due-50-infl

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Contagion Spreads in Emerging Markets as Crises Grow

“The worst selloff in emerging-market currencies in five years is beginning to reveal the extent of the fallout from the Federal Reserve’s tapering of monetary stimulus, compounded by political and financial instability.  The Turkish lira plunged to a record and South Africa’s rand fell yesterday to a level weaker than 11 per dollar for the first time since 2008. Argentine policy makers devalued the peso, allowing the currency to drop the most in 12 years to an unprecedented low.  While Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were the engines of global growth following the financial crisis in 2008, emerging markets now pose a threat to world financial stability.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-24/contagion-spreads-in-emerging-markets-as-crises-grow.html

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Argentina Devaluation Sends Currency Tumbling Most in 12 Years

“Argentina devalued the peso the most in 12 years after the central bank scaled back its intervention in a bid to preserve international reserves that have fallen to a seven-year low.  President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who said May 6 that the government wouldn’t devalue the peso, is struggling to hold onto dollar reserves which have fallen 31% amid annual inflation of more than 28%.  Fernandez has put into effect more than 30 measures to keep money from leaving the country. Her policies have included blocking most purchases of foreign currencies, taxing vacations abroad and online purchases, banning units of foreign companies from remitting dividends, and restricting imports.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/argentina-s-peso-plunges-17-as-central-bank-scales-back-support.html

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin

Argentina restricts online shopping as foreign reserves drop

“Anyone buying items through international websites will now need to sign a declaration and produce it at a customs office, where the packages have to be collected.  The procedure will need to be repeated for every new purchase.  Argentina’s reserves of hard currencies dropped by 30% last year.  The government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has introduced a number of restrictions on transactions with foreign currency.  Items imported through websites such as Amazon and eBay are no longer delivered to people’s home addresses. The parcels need to be collected from the customs office, to make it easier for customs officials to enforce the import tax.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-25836208

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin