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Dollar Declines to Lowest Since November on Wagers Fed Will Lag Behind ECB
The dollar fell to its lowest level since November against the currencies of six U.S. trade partners on bets the European Central Bank will be more aggressive than the Federal Reserve about controlling inflation.
The euro rose against the dollar on speculation ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet may indicate this week a readiness to increase borrowing costs while Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may signal economic stimulus will continue. Sweden’s krona climbed to a 30-month high after Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves said interest rates may be raised at every meeting this year.
“The big driver for the euro has been short-term interest- rate differentials, which had moved against the dollar,” said Paresh Upadhyaya, head of Americas G-10 currency strategy at Bank of America Corp. in New York. “Since the beginning of the year it’s been pretty much a one-way trend.”
IntercontinentalExchange Inc.’s Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against six currencies, decreased as much as 0.7 percent to 76.756, the lowest level since Nov. 9, before trading at 76.893 at 5 p.m. in New York, down 0.5 percent. The gauge, which is weighted 57.6 percent on euro movements, fell 1.1 percent in February. Read more…
The Chinese government started stockpiling food 3 years ago: What has the US government been doing beside spending money we don’t have?
I wrote this three years ago, when the Chinese were reportedly stockpiling food in their cities. The world economic and political situation has worsened. With rising food prices, massive unemployment, union protests and government debt driving states to the brink of shut down and bankruptcy, the situation has worsened–and we owe the Chinese more than ever. ED.
by Monica Davis
Rumor has it that the Chinese government is advising its cities to start stockpiling food and fuel. The government news agency reports that the central government has told the largest cities to stockpile at least two weeks of food, until the world economic turmoil caused by the banking industry’s foreclosure woes slows down. Lots of luck on that.
With China’s exposure in the twitchy American financial markets, it is no wonder that the Chinese are getting nervous. They have a lot at stake in the American economy, as do many foreign investors, past and present.
In a historical analysis of foreign investment in the United States, one writer notes that: Read more…
Need Versus Greed
NEW YORK – India’s great moral leader Mohandas Gandhi famously said that there is enough on Earth for everybody’s need, but not enough for everybody’s greed. Today, Gandhi’s insight is being put to the test as never before.
The world is hitting global limits in its use of resources. We are feeling the shocks each day in catastrophic floods, droughts, and storms – and in the resulting surge in prices in the marketplace. Our fate now depends on whether we cooperate or fall victim to self-defeating greed.
The limits to the global economy are new, resulting from the unprecedented size of the world’s population and the unprecedented spread of economic growth to nearly the entire world. There are now seven billion people on the planet, compared to just three billion a half-century ago. Today, average per capita income is $10,000, with the rich world averaging around $40,000 and the developing world around $4,000. That means that the world economy is now producing around $70 trillion in total annual output, compared to around $10 trillion in 1960.
China’s economy is growing at around 10% annually. India’s is growing at Read more…
Paul Craig Roberts: CIA May Assassinate Julian Assange
Late last week the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court ordered the extradition of Julian Assange from England to Sweden under a European Arrest Warrant. Assange will likely be extradited to Sweden and questioned about a trumped-up rape allegation, two allegations of sexual molestation, and an allegation of unlawful coercion by two Swedish women who have been variously described as hoenytraps.
The Wikileaks founder is afraid that he will be extradited from Sweden to the United States where his lawyers argue he could be sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility or face the Read more…
Gadhafi’s $30 Billion In US Assets Blocked By Treasury
Libya’s people have taken most of the country, Gadhafi still controls Tripoli – Getty Images via @daylifeIn addition to having his assets frozen by the Swiss and British governments, Colonel Muammar al-Gadhafi’s holdings in the United States have been blocked by the Department of the Treasury, which claims to have located at least $30 billion in Libyan assets.
After an executive order signed by President Barack Obama on Friday declared the “actions of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi [sic], his government, and close associates, […] an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the U.S. Treasury began to track down Libyan assets in Read more…
GOP budget cuts would kill 700,000 jobs: report
WASHINGTON – The Republican budget proposal to sharply cut federal spending would cost 700,000 jobs through 2012, according to the independent analyst Moody’s.
In a new report obtained Monday by the Washington Post, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi analyzes the House Republican budget proposal cutting spending by $61 billion this year and projects that it will curtail job growth.
“The House Republicans’ proposal would reduce 2011 real GDP growth by 0.5% and 2012 growth by 0.2%. This would mean some 400,000 fewer jobs created by the end of 2011 and 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012,” Zandi concluded.
The numbers challenge the Read more…
China tamps down Middle East-inspired protests before they can gain momentum
The Chinese government met protesters with a show of force Sunday. In Shanghai, police converged whenever a group of more than a dozen people seemed to be forming. (Peter Parks)
BEIJING – Police and security officials displayed a show of force here and in other Chinese cities Sunday, trying to snuff out any hint of protests modeled on the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. In Shanghai, several hundred people trying to gather were dispersed with a water truck.
Premier Wen Jiabao, meanwhile, used a morning Internet chat to promise to purge senior officials who are corrupt and to rein in inflation and rising home prices, directly addressing some of the most common grievances of ordinary Chinese.
Since a January uprising in Tunisia spurred similar anti-government protests across the Arab world, threatening long-entrenched authoritarian regimes, China’s Communist rulers have reacted nervously, with both defensive and aggressive tactics.
Officials have used state-run media outlets to dismiss any comparisons of those regimes with China. At the same time, they have stepped up public comments on the need to address “social conflict” and to tackle problems such as the growing income disparity between the rich and poor. They also have Read more…
Proof the government is preparing for a catastrophe
Libya: West ready to use force against Col Gaddafi amid chemical weapon fears
The Prime Minister disclosed that he would not rule out “the use of military assets” as Britain “must not tolerate this regime using military forces against its own people”. Britain and America are also thought to be considering arming rebel forces in Libya.
Adding to growing concern about the crumbling regime’s ability to commit last desperate acts of mass murder, British sources have disclosed that Libya still has stocks of mustard gas chemicals.
Mr Cameron told MPs that Britain and its allies were considering using fighter jets to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, patrolling and shooting down Libyan aircraft ordered to attack protesters.
The Pentagon announced that the Americans had begun “repositioning forces” around Libya to provide “flexibility”. The French also announced that they would back a possible military intervention with Nato partners.
The warnings were sounded after Gaddafi was accused of ordering Libyan aircraft to attack a Read more…
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