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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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« on: December 26, 2011, 05:19:48 pm »

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-25/china-japan-to-promote-direct-trading-of-currencies-to-cut-company-costs.html

12/25/11

China, Japan to Back Direct Trade of Currencies

Japan and China will promote direct trading of the yen and yuan without using dollars and will encourage the development of a market for companies involved in the exchanges, the Japanese government said. Japan will also apply to buy Chinese bonds next year, allowing the investment of renminbi that leaves China during the transactions, the Japanese government said in a statement after a meeting between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing yesterday. Encouraging direct yen- yuan settlement should reduce currency risks and trading costs, the Japanese and Chinese governments said.

China is Japan’s biggest trading partner with 26.5 trillion yen ($340 billion) in two-way transactions last year, from 9.2 trillion yen a decade earlier. The pacts between the world’s second- and third-largest economies mirror attempts by fund managers to diversify as the two-year-old European debt crisis keeps global financial markets volatile.
“Given the huge size of the trade volume between Asia’s two biggest economies, this agreement is much more significant than any other pacts China has signed with other nations,” said Ren Xianfang, a Beijing-based economist with IHS Global Insight Ltd.
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« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2011, 09:19:28 am »

12/31/11

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's central bank governor argued in comments published on Saturday that Beijing does not control the yuan's flow across borders as tightly as some think and that it is natural for the currency's trading band to be widened over time.
 
Zhou Xiaochuan said in an interview with Chinese magazine Caixin that China did not fare badly on an International Monetary Fund measure of currencies' convertibility under the capital account.
 
But he stopped short of calling for a fully convertible currency.
 
"If the highest standard of measurement is to have wholly unrestricted convertibility, then so many developed countries have not achieved 100 percent full convertibility," Zhou told the magazine.
 
Investors increasingly expect that China will give them more freedom to trade the tightly controlled yuan.

http://news.yahoo.com/china-moving-more-convertible-yuan-central-banks-zhou-132144101.html
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« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2012, 08:18:24 pm »

Biggest China banks ramp up loans in Dec.: report
6 January 2012, by China Bureau - Shanghai (MarketWatch)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/biggest-china-banks-ramp-up-loans-in-dec-report-2012-01-06

China's four largest banks issued CNY210 billion (US$33 billion) of new yuan loans in December, the 21st Century Business Herald reported Friday, without citing a source.

The report said CNY80 billion of the new yuan loans were issued at the last five working days of the month, because a surge in the banks' deposits allowed them to extend more credit.

New yuan deposits in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. , Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. , China Construction Bank Crop. and Bank of China Ltd. increased by CNY1.25 trillion in December,

the largest monthly increase in nearly three years, said the report.

A large portion of the new deposits came from the Ministry of Finance, the report added, without elaborating.

Between January and November, financial institutions in China issued around CNY6.84 trillion of new yuan loans.

Newspaper website: http://www.21cbh.com
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« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2012, 02:30:40 pm »

S&P: China developers getting closer to "downgrade thresholds"

http://news.yahoo.com/p-china-developers-getting-closer-downgrade-thresholds-104503411.html

3/8/12

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tough operating conditions and heightened refinancing risks in China's property market are pushing more developers closer to their downgrade thresholds, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said in a report on Thursday.

In the report titled "The Worst Is Yet To Come For Chinese Developers In Asia's Shaky Property Sector," S&P warned that more credit downgrades are likely in the next six months.

"Many developers in China may be at increased risk of refinancing due to weaker property sales, high funding costs, and tightened liquidity. And that will increase the pressure on ratings," S&P credit analyst Bei Fu said in a news release.

The company in the past month downgraded Yanlord Land Group, Coastal Greenland, Yuzhou Properties and Zhong An Real Estate. The rating agency says small developers that are highly concentrated in certain cities and projects are vulnerable to policy risk while bigger, diversified developers stand to benefit.

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« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2012, 05:11:52 pm »

China foreign investment falls 6.1% in March
16 April 2012, by V. Phani Kumar - Hong Kong (MarketWatch)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-foreign-investment-falls-61-in-march-2012-04-16

China received $11.76 billion as foreign direct investment in March, 6.1% lower than in the year-earlier period, according to data released Tuesday.

The inflow was greater than the $7.7 billion FDI in February.

FDI inflows in the first three months of this year stood at $29.5 billion, down 2.8% from the amount received in the year-earlier quarter.
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« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2012, 03:20:06 pm »

China home prices fall in March, raising concerns
18 April 2012, by Chris Oliver - Hong Kong (MarketWatch)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-home-prices-fall-in-march-raising-concerns-2012-04-18

March home prices in China fell in a majority of the cities tracked by the government, data released Wednesday showed, with one analyst saying the price activity suggested a deepening slowdown in construction activity.

Out of the 70 cities surveyed by the National Bureau of Statistics, 46 reported weaker prices from the previous month, up slightly from 45 cities that reported declines in February.

Prices were little changed in 16 cities, while 8 cities saw prices gains, according to bureau’s data.

Compared to prices from March 2011, 38 cities saw lower property values, compared to 27 cities that reported year-on-year price drops in February, according to the survey.

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« Reply #6 on: May 08, 2012, 12:24:51 pm »

China buying oil from Iran with yuan
8 May 2012
China is buying crude oil from Iran using its currency the yuan.
Oil transactions are usually settled in dollars but US sanctions make it difficult for Iran to accept payments in the US currency.
Iran is using the revenue to buy goods and services from China, Mohammed Reza Fayyad, Iran's ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, confirmed.

China is the biggest buyer of Iranian crude oil exports.
The US has been pressuring Beijing to join an international boycott of Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The Iranian ambassador's comments, reported by the Reuters news agency, confirmed a report in the Financial Times that claimed that Unipec - a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned oil firm Sinopec - was buying the oil through a trading unit called Zhuhai Zhenrong.

Meanwhile, China has been trying to promote usage of yuan as an international currency as a rival to the dollar, including the establishment of a new offshore trading centre in London alongside the existing centre in Hong Kong.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17988142
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« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2012, 04:15:56 pm »

China’s economy continues to cool off - Some analysts see cause for optimism amid otherwise bleak data
9 June 2012, by Chris Oliver and Sam Mamudi - Hong Kong (MarketWatch)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-economy-continues-to-cool-off-2012-06-09

Excerpt:

Chinese economic data for May released Saturday showed a broadening deterioration in conditions, with the numbers coming on the heels of a surprise interest-rate cut meant to help the nation’s slowing economy.

China’s industrial production grew 9.6% in May from a year earlier, versus 9.3% growth in April, the Statistics Bureau said.

The result missed a 9.9% rise expected in separate surveys by Dow Jones Newswires and Reuters.

Fixed-asset investment in urban areas was up 20.1% in the January-to-May period, compared to a 20.2% rise in the January-to-April period.

The result outpaced expectations for a 20% rise, according to Dow Jones Newswires survey.

On the inflation front, consumer and wholesale price gains eased more than expected.

The May consumer price index rose 3%, cooling from a rise of 3.4% in April, while the producer price index fell 1.4%, signaling a deepening of the deflation seen in April’s 0.7% contraction.

The data compared to forecasts for a 3.2% increase for the CPI and a 1.1% contraction in wholesale prices.

“These data confirm a softening inflation in China, which will provide more room for further policy stimulus measures and utility price hikes,” said Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts in an email to clients Saturday.

“Moreover, the widening gap between year-on-year CPI and [wholesale] inflation suggests that profit margin could be improved for downstream manufacturing sectors.”

The analysts predicted CPI could fall to 2.5% in the coming months, but suggested that, absent a global financial crisis, there could be a rebound after August “on lower bases and a recovery of growth.”

Meanwhile, retail sales rose 13.8%, compared to a 14.1% gain in April, and weaker than analyst expectations for a 14.2% rise.

Analysts on Friday had been bracing for a disappointing batch of data, cued in part by a surprise interest-rate cut Thursday by People’s Bank of China (PBOC), marking its first policy easing since the 2008 global crisis.
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« Reply #8 on: June 11, 2012, 04:37:20 pm »

China data show growth slowing, analysts say
11 June 2012, by Chris Oliver - Hong Kong (MarketWatch)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-data-show-growth-slowing-analysts-say-2012-06-11

Excerpt:

China’s economy appears to be stabilizing at a slower level of growth, according to analysts, though government stimulus could be supportive in the second half of the year.

Citigroup analysts said on Monday the May data indicated that economic growth in the second quarter is set to cool to 7%-7.5% on an annualized basis unless there is a pick up in the June data.

While the May data release over the weekend included export growth that was much stronger than expected, some other sets disappointed, including a 13.8% rise in retail sales, compared to a 14.1% gain in April, and weaker than analyst expectations for a 14.2% rise.

See report on China data release. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinese-trade-numbers-up-but-economy-sags-2012-06-10

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« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2012, 11:02:25 am »

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-growth-flags-may-exports-045615360.html?l=1

China loans rise could show government steps gain traction
Reuters – Mon, Jun 11, 2012 7:51 AM EDT

By Lucy Hornby and Langi Chiang

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's bank lending in May rose more than expected, suggesting fast-tracked infrastructure projects were creating loan demand and that measures to counter a sharpening economic slowdown may be taking affect.

New loans figures followed a flurry of May data at the weekend, which reinforced the view China is heading for its sixth quarter in a row of slowing growth and helping to explain a surprise interest rate cut last week - Beijing's boldest action yet to underpin economic activity.

The central bank said on Monday that banks issued more than 793 billion yuan ($124 billion) in fresh loans in May, up from 682 billion yuan in April and stronger than 720 billion yuan expected by financial markets.

"The rise is due to monetary easing and, more importantly, the government's quickening approval for new investment projects," said He Yifeng, an economist at Hongyuan Securities in Beijing.

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« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2012, 09:23:53 am »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9510058/Chinas-fears-grow-over-eurozone-crisis.html

China’s fears grow over eurozone crisis
China has expressed deep alarm at the escalating crisis in Europe and warned against austerity overkill as Europe's crumbling demand sends shock waves through Asia.


8/30/12

Premier Wen Jiabao told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Europe must "strike a balance" between fiscal tightening and measures to promote growth. "Europe's debt crisis has continued to worsen, giving rise to serious concerns in the international community. Frankly, I am also worried," he said.

His comments mark a shift in Chinese policy. Beijing has until now backed austerity across Euroland, but the severity of China's own downturn has begun to rattle policymakers.

Exports of electronic goods to Italy crashed 43pc in July from a year earlier, and sales to Germany fell 11pc. Caixin reported that processing trade to Europe fell 21pc.

The country's two largest shipping groups COSCO and China Shipping both reported a drastic losses today. The Shanghai composite index of stocks threatened to break below 2000 today, the lowest since the Lehman crisis.

Mr Wen asked for clarification over whether Italy and Spain would adopt "comprehensive rescue measures" needed to unlock the EU bail-out machinery - and open the door to bond purchases by the European Central Bank.

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« Reply #11 on: September 21, 2012, 10:51:10 am »

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-20/firstenergy-chief-sees-canada-clearing-cnooc-nexen.html

9/20/12

FirstEnergy Chief Sees Canada Clearing Cnooc-Nexen

Cnooc Ltd. (883)’s $15.1 billion bid for oil and natural-gas producer Nexen Inc. (NXY) will probably get approval from the Canadian government, said FirstEnergy Capital Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jim Davidson.

“My personal belief is they will find a way to allow this transaction to go forward,” Davidson said today in an interview at Bloomberg’s Toronto office.

Nexen shareholders approved the $27.50-a-share takeover in a vote today. The deal still needs approval from the U.S., U.K. and Canadian governments. Canada reviews foreign acquisitions valued at more than C$330 million ($338 million) to ensure there’s “net benefit” to the country.

The government said Aug. 29 it had received Cnooc’s application to buy Nexen. Canada has 45 days to examine the deal and may extend that deadline by 30 days. Cnooc, China’s largest offshore oil and gas producer, announced the agreed offer July 23.

Closely held FirstEnergy, based in Calgary, is an oil and gas boutique investment dealer with about 130 employees in Calgary and London. It ranked 10th in Canada for equity and equity-linked sales last year, raising $772 million in 11 deals, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The firm ranks 22nd this year with four deals.

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« Reply #12 on: February 11, 2013, 07:24:03 am »

40 Ways That China Is Beating America

China is wiping the floor with the United States on the global economic stage, and most Americans are so clueless that they have absolutely no idea what is happening.  The number one global economic superpower is in an advanced state of decline, and the number two global economic superpower is becoming stronger with each passing day.  Unless something truly dramatic happens, it is only a matter of time before China overtakes America and become the dominant economic force on the planet.  In fact, China is already exercising economic superiority over the United States in a whole host of ways.  China produces more goods than we do, China does more total trade in goods with the rest of the world than we do, China produces more cars than we do, China produces more gold than we do, China consumes more energy than we do, China produces more coal than we do and China produces more steel than we do.  Every single year, we buy far more from them than they buy from us, and this has made them exceedingly wealthy.  Our politicians regularly make trips over to China to beg them to lend us back some of the money that they have taken from us.  Today, we owe China more than a trillion dollars and the Chinese are sitting on the biggest pile of foreign currency reserves that the world has ever seen.  All of this wealth has fundamentally transformed the nation of China over the past couple of decades.  Just check out the startling photographs of China from space in this article that show how China dramatically changed between 1992 and 2010.  As China continues to become stronger and as America continues to become weaker, will our children some day wake up in a world where the Chinese are telling them what to do?

China became the number one exporter of goods back in 2009, but now China has reached another milestone on the road to global economic dominance.

When you total up all exports of goods and all imports of goods, China now conducts more total trade in goods with the rest of the globe than the United States does.

China’s emerging role as the dominant player in global trade is shaking things up all over the planet.  The following is a brief excerpt from a recent Bloomberg article…

China’s growing influence in global commerce threatens to disrupt regional trading blocs as it becomes the most important commercial partner for some countries. Germany may export twice as much to China by the end of the decade as it does to France, estimated Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Jim O’Neill.

“For so many countries around the world, China is becoming rapidly the most important bilateral trade partner,” O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs’s asset management division and the economist who bound Brazil to Russia, India and China to form the BRIC investing strategy, said in a telephone interview. “At this kind of pace by the end of the decade many European countries will be doing more individual trade with China than with bilateral partners in Europe.”
If current trends continue, what will the world look like in 10 years?

Will the Chinese dominate the entire global economy?

What would that mean for America?

Sadly, Chinese dominance is already having very serious negative consequences in this country.

The following are 40 ways that China is beating America…

#1 As I mentioned above, when you total up all imports and exports of goods, China is now the number one trading nation on the entire planet.

#2 During 2012, we sold about 110 billion dollars worth of stuff to the Chinese, but they sold about 425 billion dollars worth of stuff to us.  That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.

#3 Overall, the U.S. has run a trade deficit with China over the past decade that comes to more than 2.3 trillion dollars.

#4 China now has the largest new car market in the entire world.

#5 China has more foreign currency reserves than anyone else on the planet.

#6 China is the number one gold producer in the world.

#7 China is also the number one gold importer in the world.

#8 The uniforms for the U.S. Olympic team were made in China.

#9 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.

#10 The new World Trade Center tower is going to include glass that has been imported from China.

#11 The new Martin Luther King memorial on the National Mall was made in China.

#12 One of the reasons it is so hard to export stuff to China is because of their tariffs.  According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs.

#13 The Chinese economy has grown 7 times faster than the U.S. economy has over the past decade.

#14 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#15 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

#16 Overall, the United States has lost a total of more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.

#17 According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.

#18 China now produces more than twice as many automobiles as the United States does.

#19 Since the auto industry bailout, approximately 70 percent of all GM vehicles have been built outside the United States.

#20 After being bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, General Motors is currently involved in 11 joint ventures with companies owned by the Chinese government.  The price for entering into many of these “joint ventures” was a transfer of “state of the art technology” from General Motors to the communist Chinese.

#21 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China’s share had soared to 20 percent.

#22 The United States has lost more than a quarter of all of its high-tech manufacturing jobs over the past ten years.

#23 China’s number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment, but the number one U.S. export to China is “scrap and trash”.

#24 The U.S. trade deficit with China is now more than 30 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#25 China now consumes more energy than the United States does.

#26 China is now the leading manufacturer of goods in the entire world.

#27 China uses more cement than the rest of the world combined.

#28 China is now the number one producer of wind and solar power on the entire globe.

#29 There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined.

#30 Today, China produces nearly twice as much beer as the United States does.

#31 Right now, China is producing more than three times as much coal as the United States does.

#33 China now produces 11 times as much steel as the United States does.

#34 China produces more than 90 percent of the global supply of rare earth elements.

#35 China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.

#36 A recent investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services found more than one million counterfeit Chinese parts in the Department of Defense supply chain.

#37 15 years ago, China was 14th in the world in published scientific research articles.  But now, China is expected to pass the United States and become number one very shortly.

#38 China now awards more doctoral degrees in engineering each year than the United States does.

#39 The average household debt load in the United States is 136% of average household income.  In China, the average household debt load is 17% of average household income.

#40 The Chinese have begun to buy up huge amounts of U.S. real estate.  In fact, Chinese citizens purchased one out of every ten homes that were sold in the state of California in 2011.

Are you starting to get the picture?

And in the years ahead China is projected to become even more powerful economically.

In fact, the IMF is projecting that China will surpass the United States and become the largest economy on the planet in 2016.

That is just three years from now.

Nobel economist Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago is projecting that if current trends continue, the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

Could you imagine a world where China has vastly more economic power than the U.S. does and dictates the direction of the global economy?

That is where we are heading.

The dragon is rising and the torch is being passed.

So how do you think all of this will end?  Please feel free to post a comment with your opinion below…

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/40-ways-that-china-is-beating-america
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« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2013, 04:46:31 pm »

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/china-america-1-cyber-threat-u-govt-report-150621517.html

2/11/13

China Is America’s #1 Cyber Threat: U.S. Govt. Report

A new report by the National Intelligence Estimate confirms that China is America's biggest cyber threat.
 
The report is classified, but people with knowledge of the findings spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity.
 
"The United States is the target of a massive, sustained cyber-espionage campaign that is threatening the country’s economic competitiveness," according to the article. "The report, which represents the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence community, describes a wide range of sectors that have been the focus of hacking over the past five years, including energy, finance, information technology, aerospace and automotive."
 
But other industries have been targeted as of late, including the media and the U.S. Federal Government.
 
In recent weeks, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg disclosed cyber attacks traced back to China. Twitter was also hacked, but the origins of that attack remain unknown. But perhaps the most disturbing case of cyber-espionage involves the Federal Reserve and Department of Energy.
 
Related: Federal Reserve Gets Hacked!
 
These types of attacks threaten the economic competitiveness of America. While the intelligence report does not put a dollar figure on the financial impact of these cyber attacks, some experts believe it is upwards of $10 billion, according to WaPo.
 

For decades, China has been trying to speed up its technical prowess by both stealing technology and data from America and buying up U.S. companies. A recent Wall Street Journal article details how China has been trying to acquire American assets at a faster and faster clip.
 
While many of the bigger deals pursued by China have been rejected by the U.S. government due to security concerns, many of the smaller acquisitions have managed to be approved.
 
"Last year, Chinese buyers agreed to spend more than $10 billion in 46 deals to acquire U.S. companies or stakes in U.S. firms, according to Dealogic," the WSJ reports. "The volume was higher than the Chinese total from 2009 through 2011 combined."
 
The sale of battery maker A123 in January to China's largest automotive components manufacturer for roughly $250 million is the latest deal to get approved by the U.S. government. A123 makes batteries for commercial electric cars, but it also develops technology used by the military. The acquisition of a company with military ties was worrisome; thus the sale to the Chinese firm only involved A123's commercial division. But many experts assert that there is much overlap between the technologies used for commercial and military purposes.
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« Reply #14 on: February 14, 2013, 02:53:49 pm »

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article38784.html
Wake-Up Call for America: China’s Currency Growing Worldwide

2/1/13

Sasha Cekerevac writes: While many people are aware that the Chinese economy is now the second-largest in the world, China’s currency, the yuan or renminbi, is also moving upward in the world rankings in terms of global transactions.
 
According to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), the world’s global payment system, the yuan has moved up from 20th in the rankings in January 2012 to 14th position in December 2012. The Chinese yuan is now above the Danish kroner in terms of global payments. (Source: “RMB Tracker: January 2013,” Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication web site, January 24, 2013.)

That is a significant move and an indication that the Chinese economy is becoming more integrated worldwide.
 
Why does this matter to the average American?
 
For a long time, America’s economy has been the global leader and the U.S. dollar has been the global reserve currency. Every other nation was seen as secondary to America’s dominance. This is now starting to shift.
 
As the U.S. national debt level continues to grow, the strength of the Chinese economy is enabling considerable efforts to be made at developing globally interconnected markets that can survive and thrive without the U.S. dollar.
 
While the Chinese economy is certainly not perfect, it doesn’t have to be. With the rising level of U.S. national debt, the Chinese economy just needs to be relatively better than the U.S. economy, though not in absolute terms.
 
The point is that the rise of the Chinese economy over the past decade and the looser restrictions that the Chinese government is placing on the yuan mean that global businesses and investors have an alternate choice to the U.S. dollar.
 
With the U.S. national debt level rising to mountainous status, business leaders and investors will begin to raise serious questions about the viability of America’s currency.
 
No longer is America the only formidable player in town.
 
Many investors have begun piling into the Shanghai Composite Index recently, believing that the Chinese economy is about to rebound. Chinese government officials have continued loosening restrictions on foreigners investing in that nation, which continues to help internationalize the yuan.
 
Recently, there are reports that Taiwanese investors might be able to invest directly in Chinese stocks and bonds. The China Securities Regulatory Commission has continued to eliminate any hurdles for foreign investors. (Source: Lim, W., “Shanghai Composite Enters Bull Market on Economic Growth,” Bloomberg, January 29, 2013.)
 
The fewer the restrictions, the more international investors and businesses will continue to adopt the yuan; this will establish greater legitimacy and potential for the Chinese economy over the long run.
 
China’s actions and the growing popularity of the yuan should be a wake-up call for America’s politicians. The Chinese economy will continue to expand over the next decade, along with the growing use of the yuan for international business transactions.
 
The real issue regarding the rising U.S. national debt level is the politicians in Washington who continually believe that somehow the U.S. national debt will magically disappear so long as they keep spending money.
 
While I’ve heard talk about reducing government expenditures, I see little evidence of any real change or action.
 
As American politicians bicker and fight with each other, the U.S. national debt level continues to grow, the Chinese economy continues to expand, and the Chinese yuan continues to increase its global use.
 
Einstein once stated that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. Politicians talk a good game; but talk is cheap, and action counts.
 
The U.S. national debt continues to rise, and more businesses globally are using the yuan to conduct transactions. These are not ideas or theories, but hard facts.
 
Unless we decide as a nation to get our fiscal house in order, do not be surprised to see the Chinese yuan continue rising in status globally.
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« Reply #15 on: February 16, 2013, 09:41:05 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/u-hopes-finalize-imf-vote-reforms-soon-u-171040639.html

2/16/13

U.S. hopes to finalize IMF vote reforms soon: U.S. official

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Obama administration is hoping to move ahead shortly with legislation to finalize IMF voting reforms agreed in 2010, which will make China the third-largest voting member in the global financial institution, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday.
 
The official, speaking at the end of a Group of 20 meeting of finance ministers in Moscow, said the administration was actively discussing legislation with relevant members of Congress.
 
The 2010 package cannot be finalized until it gets the go-ahead from the United States, which has effective veto power over the historic deal that was meant to have been approved by all IMF member countries in October last year, but was stalled by the U.S. presidential election.
 
It is part of a broader plan by the IMF to give emerging market powers greater voting clout in the organization.
 
China, Brazil and other large emerging market economies have long contended that the IMF's voting set-up unfairly benefits Europe and the United States, which dominated the IMF since its founding after World War Two.
 
(Reporting By Lesley Wroughton, editing by Mike Peacock)
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« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2013, 02:17:35 pm »

http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=303304

China's power plays in the Middle East

02/15/2013 16:57

The Chinese New Year – the Year of the Snake – began auspiciously for the People’s Republic this week with China eclipsing the US as the world’s biggest trading nation. Its combined imports and exports reached $3.87 trillion in 2012, edging past the US’s $3.82 trillion in goods.

The American economy remains twice the size of that of China, but as the latter hurtles toward parity, its thirst for energy knows no limits. While the US is still by far the world’s largest consumer and net importer of energy, China is catching up fast. At the same time, developments in the international energy market, in particular new technologies and the discovery of huge shale oil and gas reserves in the US, mean that the America is moving toward energy independence, while China is becoming ever more dependent on Middle East oil. Within the next 20 years its consumption of Middle East oil is expected to dwarf that of the US.

That shift from West to East, say analysts, creates a common interest between the world’s only superpower and the world’s emerging superpower for regional stability.

Shraga Biran, a Tel Aviv-based lawyer and entrepreneur with diverse energy interests, who heads the The Institute for Structural Reforms, a think tank that promotes structural and political reforms based on technological advances or economic, social changes, argues that the shifting map of the global energy market creates historic strategic opportunities..

“The US is becoming energy independent, fulfilling its dream for energy security, while China has taken the place of the US in being dependent on Middle East oil, importing over 60% of its consumption from the region,” says Biran.

“Moreover, the two superpowers are coordinating and cooperating in the exploitation of new oil production technologies supplied by the American giants that have been the supply forefront of oil to the US in the past and today to China. The fate and the solution of the problems in the Middle East will be from now on dependent on the renewed interest of the US in the Middle East and its new partner in the energy game – China.”

Biran sees this as no less than a “historical political revolution” taking place in the Middle East. “It is,” he says, “creating an opportunity that must not be missed, an opportunity for peace in the region thanks to an alignment of interests that did not exist in the past between the two powers, the US and China, representing the West and the rising East.”

That alignment of interests, says Biran, derives inter alia from an interdependence between the two powers based on the one hand on the US’s military dominance in the region and protection of maritime routes vital for the transport of oil and on the other the fact that China is not only the US’s second largest trading partner, but also holds more than $1.2 trillion in US debt.

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« Reply #17 on: March 13, 2013, 08:54:16 pm »

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-will-keep-the-world-on-edge-2013-03-13-101033057?siteid=yhoof2
3/13/13
China will keep the world on edge
Commentary: State Council needs a steady hand on the tiller


The 30 or so officials that the National People’s Congress will this month name as new five-year members of that powerful cabinet body will oversee a sweeping economic transformation with global consequences. How smoothly they manage China’s planned transition from an unsustainable growth model that’s been based on exports and state-directed investment toward an open, consumer-driven economy will have vast implications for the rest of the world.

The 30 or so officials that the National People’s Congress will this month name as new five-year members of that powerful cabinet body will oversee a sweeping economic transformation with global consequences. How smoothly they manage China’s planned transition from an unsustainable growth model that’s been based on exports and state-directed investment toward an open, consumer-driven economy will have vast implications for the rest of the world.

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« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2013, 11:57:25 am »

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0322/With-US-Russia-relationship-toxic-Moscow-looks-to-strengthen-ties-with-China?nav=87-frontpage-entryNineItem
3/22/13
With US-Russia relationship toxic, Moscow looks to strengthen ties with China

China's new President Xi Jinping chose Moscow, where he arrived Friday for a three-day visit, to be his first foreign destination, highlighting strengthening ties between China and Russia.


It's probably no coincidence that newly-minted Chinese leader Xi Jinping chose Moscow, where he arrived Friday for a three-day visit, to be his first foreign destination.

Over the coming weekend Mr. Xi will huddle in the Kremlin with President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and other Russian officials to discuss the usual list of items on the two countries' burgeoning bilateral trade agenda: Russian gas, oil, arms, and engineering goods in exchange for Chinese consumer products. Official sources say they expect about 30 agreements to be signed, mainly in the field of energy.

But underlying that is a growing sense that the two countries are being driven together by shifting geopolitical winds, which are alienating each from the West while intensifying the need for more reliable partnerships. As Xi arrived in Moscow Friday, Mr. Putin stressed that ties between Russia and China have never been stronger, and they are set to grow warmer still.

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« Reply #19 on: April 25, 2013, 12:23:22 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/china-france-vow-promote-multipolar-103717842.html
China, France vow to promote 'multipolar' world

Chinese, French leaders vow to seek 'multipolar' world as French president visits China

4/25/13

BEIJING (AP) -- China's President Xi Jinping and France's President Francois Hollande pledged to push for a world free of domination by any superpower Thursday as the French leader visited the Chinese capital on a mission to boost trade amid his country's worsening economic woes.

Both leaders stressed their desire for a "multipolar" world that would dilute Washington's influence — though they did not mention the U.S. in their comments.

"China and France are both great countries with a strong sense of independence," Xi said at a news conference, adding that the two countries would "actively promote a multipolar world and the democratization of international relations."

Xi and Hollande, who is traveling with a delegation representing scores of French businesses, spoke to reporters after meeting at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

"China and France both want a multipolar world. We want there to be a balance. We refuse a world of powers, and of superpowers," Hollande said. "When China and France agree on a position, we can drive the world."

Officials from the two countries signed an agreement for China to buy 60 planes from France-based Airbus. In addition, French nuclear giant Areva signed an agreement with China National Nuclear Corp. to build a used fuel treatment and recycling facility in the country.

French businesses hit by domestic declines are hoping for additional deals in China in areas including car making, nuclear energy and food exports. France registered a $34 billion trade deficit with China last year and accounts for less than 2 percent of the Asian giant's foreign trade.

"There is an imbalance in our foreign trade, and we hope to correct that," Hollande said. "Not by reducing our investment and exports, but by increasing them further, and we will be discussing this throughout our meetings and this trip."

At a second news conference later in the day, Hollande said his talks with Xi had touched on human rights and the recent string of self-immolations among Tibetans protesting Chinese rule.

"Let me say again, we discussed all the issues. Moreover, it was in a very frank and mutually respectful manner. This entirely serves the friendly relations between the people of our countries," he said.

China is extremely sensitive to criticisms of its human rights record and uses diplomatic and economic means to retaliate against countries it sees as lacking in respect. China lashed out at France after Hollande's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, met with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in 2008.

Chinese officials have also shunned high-level exchanges with British counterparts since Prime Minister David Cameron met the Dalai Lama last May, and ties with Norway remain frozen following the awarding of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo.
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« Reply #20 on: April 26, 2013, 04:57:11 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-becomes-partner-china-russia-led-security-bloc-193111942.html
4/26/13
Turkey becomes partner of China, Russia-led security bloc
ALMATY (Reuters) - NATO member Turkey signed up on Friday to became a "dialogue partner" of a security bloc dominated by China and Russia, and declared that its destiny is in Asia. "This is really a historic day for us," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty after signing a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev. "Now, with this choice, Turkey is declaring that our destiny is the same as the destiny of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries."

China, Russia and four Central Asian nations - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - formed the SCO in 2001 as a regional security bloc to fight threats posed by radical Islam and drug trafficking from neighboring Afghanistan. Since then, Central Asia's former imperial master Russia has watched with unease China's economic expansion in the resource-rich region, with Beijing investing billions of dollars in oil and gas and issuing large loans to local governments.

Turkey has displayed interest in closer ties with the SCO at a time when it is upset by the slow progress of accession talks with the European Union. Ankara began talks on joining the EU in 2005 but has only completed one of the 35 policy areas, or "chapters", every candidate must conclude to be allowed entry due to disagreements largely over the divided island of Cyprus. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has called Turkey's wait to join the bloc "unforgivable" and has accused Brussels of not being a fair or genuine negotiating partner.

While China vies with Russia and the West for access to Central Asia's vast natural resources, some analysts view the SCO as a potential counter-balance to NATO. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan speak Turkic languages, and while pledging to cooperate with the SCO economically and in fighting terrorist threats and drug trade together, Davutoglu stressed common historic roots. "Turkey will be part of a family, which is composed of the countries which lived together not for centuries - for millennia," he said. Turkey's "dialogue partner" status, also granted to Sri Lanka and ex-Soviet state Belarus, is below that of observer status held by India, Pakistan, Mongolia, Iran and Afghanistan which participate in SCO meetings but have no right to vote.

Davutoglu, upbeat and smiling, stressed however that this status was "just the beginning". "I hope at the next summit in (the Kyrgyz capital) Bishkek we will be present, as well as at ministerial meetings," Davutoglu said. "This is the beginning of a long way, walking together, hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder."
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« Reply #21 on: August 31, 2013, 11:37:44 am »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23910137
8/31/13
China chemical leak in Shanghai 'kills 15'

A chemical leak of liquid ammonia from a cold storage unit in Shanghai has killed 15 people, according to China's official news agency.

There were also 26 people injured in the leak at around 11:00 local time (03:00 GMT), Xinhua reports.

Local media published pictures of firefighters at the scene.

China's industrial safety regulations are sometimes ignored by local authorities focused on boosting economic development, observers say.

Local media say that the incident occurred in the city's northern district of Baoshan at a refrigeration unit owned by a seafood company, AFP reports.
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« Reply #22 on: September 12, 2013, 09:16:37 pm »

USDA: Chicken Processed in China Can be Sold in the US Without Labels to Say So
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/china-chicken-usda/
9/4/13

Catching up to this news, which dropped quietly just before the holiday weekend: In a first, the US Department of Agriculture has given permission for chicken products processed in the People’s Republic of China to be sold in the United States without labeling that would indicate where the chicken products came from.

The news was broken by Politico, whose writers obtained USDA documents before the agency released them, and then followed up by the New York Times, with some no-holds-barred analysis by Bloomberg Businessweek.

If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll know that food safety in China is well below US standards. (See this post for stories of toxic vinegar, glow-in-the-dark pork, and more.) So it may be a surprise to hear that birds grown and slaughtered outside that country, but cooked and made into products in it, would be acceptable for sale here. Especially since the plants that USDA has approved for sales into the US market will not have USDA inspectors on site.

Here is the USDA notice, in the form of an audit issued by the Food Safety and Inspection Service.


This development fascinates me; it touches so many issues that have been percolating through food production and food safety.

First, there’s the decade of maneuvering between the US and China over meat exports in both directions. China, along with a number of other Asian nations, blocked US beef imports in 2003 after a Washington state cow tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy,  “mad cow” disease. Then in 2004, avian influenza flared in Asia; the US blocked imports of Chinese poultry, and in 2009 China brought a restraint-of-trade action against the US in front of the World Trade Organization. It won in 2010 — at about the same time that it accused the US of dumping chicken parts at below-market prices and slapped American poultry with tariffs of more than 100 percent.

The audit process that approved the Chinese plants began after the WTO decision; the USDA inspected, asked for corrective actions, inspected again, and finally approved the deal on Aug. 30. The audit allows China to sell back to the US only poultry that was raised and slaughtered in the US, or (as the audit documents say) a country “that FSIS determined to have a poultry slaughter inspection system equivalent to the US system.” But the magazine World Poultry notes: “Experts suggest that this could be the first step towards allowing China to export its own domestic chickens to the US.”

Second, there are the most recent moves around ensuring that imported food is safe. Most of the food consumed in the US is overseen not by USDA but by the Food and Drug Administration, which has been struggling for years with guaranteeing the safety of imports. Reports by the Government Accountability Office, the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Pew Charitable Trusts and Center for Science in the Public Interest all found that the FDA could not keep up with the task; estimating that its inspectors were able to lay hands on no more than 2 percent of imported foods. The massive Food Safety Modernization Act tried to revamp the system for policing imports, which make up about 15 percent of the US diet; last July the FDA proposed regulations under that new law which said the best way forward was for companies handling imports to police their foreign suppliers themselves. The FDA rule is not final, but the USDA China audit seems to be following a similar pattern.

Third, there’s the already-contentious topic, “country of origin labeling,” known as COOL for short. The USDA has been implementing COOL for the past few years, requiring that retailers label meats, fish and shellfish, fruits and vegetables, and some nuts if they originated outside the US. Much of the US meat industry has been fighting COOL in court; the most recent hearing (covered by Food Safety News) was Aug. 27. Yet according to the USDA, the Chinese processing allowed under the new audit elides COOL requirements, because — no matter what is done in processing — the chicken meat originated in the US.

Last, there’s how neatly this spotlights the global nature of food production, especially the way that inexpensive transport has changed how food is raised and made. Just to reiterate what’s going to be allowed: chickens raised in the US (or “equivalent” countries), and slaughtered in the country where they were grown, are going to be shipped across the globe to be turned into processed products, and then shipped back to be sold. Developing-world labor, and containerized shipping (so well explained by Rose George in the new book Ninety Percent of Everything), are both so inexpensive that it is cheaper to send a chicken nugget around the world to be ground, formed and breaded than to do all that in the place where the chicken was raised.

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« Reply #23 on: September 13, 2013, 04:49:00 am »

Debtors don't have much choice do they? They do the bidding of their creditors.

Quote
...containerized shipping...are both so inexpensive...

Wait, what? Inexpensive? I thought oil prices are about high as they have ever been! So who's lying?  Roll Eyes
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« Reply #24 on: December 30, 2013, 07:47:16 pm »

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-says-local-govt-debt-084408772.html
China $3 trillion local government debt stirs alarm
12/30/13

By Aileen Wang and Koh Gui Qing

BEIJING (Reuters) - Calls for China to accelerate financial reforms grew louder on Monday after figures showed its indebted local governments owe nearly $3 trillion in a debt build-up that some analysts called alarming.

The National Audit Office, China's state auditor, said in a report local governments had total outstanding debt of 17.9 trillion yuan at the end of June, a sum that includes contingent liabilities and debt guarantees.

The debt load is in the middle of market forecasts and leaves China with total government debt of around 58 percent of gross domestic product.

Analysts said this suggested China is not on a verge of a fiscal crisis - the figure is less than half the debt burdens in Japan and Greece where public finances are strained - but warned the world's second-biggest economy needed to urgently reduce debt if it wanted to safeguard growth and financial stability.

This is especially because the long-awaited report showed some governments were using new loans to repay more than a fifth of their debt, and that authorities still relied heavily on selling land to pay off old loans.

China's mountain of local government debt is among the biggest threats to its economy as investors worry a good part of it cannot be repaid since most of the money borrowed had paid for non-lucrative public infrastructure.

The prospect of defaults have raised fears that they could saddle Chinese banks with a load of bad debt and destabilise China's financial system.

"While China's total government debt remains low by the OECD standards, the pace of the rise is still alarming," ANZ economists Liu Li-Gang and Zhou Hao said in a note.

"This national debt audit result could indicate that China's local government debt almost doubled in about 2-1/2 years."

NEW POLICIES

Beijing acknowledges the risks and have promised to curtail fiscal dangers by revising policies. New policies include letting investors pay for the building of some public works, allowing governments to tap more financing sources, and pegging performances of governments to total debt incurred.

Monday's results are a first step in China's latest efforts to tidy its public finances. Beijing had ordered the audit in August, the first of such since 2011, amid growing public scepticism about the accuracy of official debt data.

Despite reiterations from Beijing that China's local government debt levels had stabilised in the past three years, Monday's results showed debt incurred by local authorities was up 67 percent compared to the 2011 audit.

However, the audit is more comprehensive than 2011's because it includes money borrowed by more than 33,000 township governments. In all, the auditor reviewed the finances of nearly 36,300 local governments to compile the latest figures.

Prior to Monday, the most pessimistic market estimates of what local governments owe have been close to $4.1 trillion.

"China's government debt risks are in general under control, but some areas have certain dangers," the state auditor said.

It said risks include fast rising debt levels, with county governments seeing the quickest increase in leverage, heavy debt burdens in some unnamed regions and sectors, and government dependence on land sales to repay loans.

About 37 percent of debt owed by provincial, city and county governments are backed by land sales revenues, it said. Of all debt directly incurred by China's central and local governments, 5.4 percent are overdue and have not been repaid.

"Although current overall risks of local government debt are under control, risks would definitely increase sharply if the debt continues to rise so quickly," said Pan Xiangdong, chief economist at Galaxy Securities in Beijing.

"We expect the (central) government to restrict the borrowing behaviours of local governments."

Under China's laws, local governments are barred from borrowing directly from banks or investors to protect the country's fiscal health.

Yet despite not being able to borrow, local authorities are responsible for most of China's public spending but take only half of fiscal income. Local governments in 2010 received 48 percent of total fiscal income but were responsible for 80 percent of public spending.

The funding shortfall has forced local authorities to set up firms over the years to borrow on their behalf, leading to a rapid rise in government debt outside official balance sheets.

"We expect the government to unveil detailed plans for fiscal reform," said Shen Jianguang, an economist with Mizuho Securities in Hong Kong.

"The key to solving the debt (problem) depends on changing the distribution system for fiscal income between central and local governments, as well as (changing) local governments' over-reliance on land sale revenues." Shen said.

RATING IMPACT?

No credit rating agency was immediately available for comment on Monday about whether the figures would have an impact on China's sovereign credit rating.

Fitch, which cut China's long-term local currency credit rating to A-plus from AA-minus in April, estimated then that China's government debt was equivalent to 49 percent GDP.

At 58 percent of GDP, China's total debt is a long way from Japan's 240 percent and Greece's 160 percent, ANZ data showed.

Still, if Beijing forces local governments to reduce their debt and borrowings in coming months, that may deal another blow to China's already slowing economy, ANZ warned.

As it is, China's $8.5 trillion economy is forecast to grow at its slackest pace in 14 years this year at 7.6 percent.

To keep its economy on an even keel, Ting Lu from Merrill Lynch-Bank of America said Beijing should aim instead to pick up some of the debt burden from local authorities, and replace short-term borrowings with longer-duration loans.

"To maintain both economic growth and financial stability, China should avoid simplistic deleveraging and debt reduction," Lu said. ($1 = 6.0686 Chinese yuan)
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« Reply #25 on: January 16, 2014, 10:59:52 am »

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-15/china-s-treasury-holdings-rose-to-record-in-november-data-show.html
1/15/14
China’s Treasury Holdings Climb to Record in Government Data

China’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries increased $12.2 billion to a record $1.317 trillion in November, data released on the Treasury Department’s website showed.

The figures, scheduled for release at 9 a.m. tomorrow in Washington, were inadvertently posted on the Treasury’s website. Japan’s holdings rose $12 billion to $1.186 trillion, the figures showed.

China’s swelling foreign-exchange reserves, reported today to have reached a world record $3.82 trillion at the end of December, may sustain the nation’s appetite for U.S. debt. Capital inflows and intervention to limit gains in the yuan have contributed to China building up currency holdings that are a third of the global total.

“Large interest-rate differential and steady appreciation of the renminbi contributed to large arbitrage inflows into China, a situation made all the more easy with China’s increasing financial integration and renminbi internationalization,” UBS AG Hong Kong-based economist Wang Tao wrote in a report on China’s data.

China’s pace of foreign-exchange reserve accumulation will be slower this year due to the Federal Reserve’s monetary tapering, likely widening of the yuan’s trading band and tighter controls on arbitrage activities, Wang said.

Early Release

A Treasury spokeswoman said that because of an error, limited amounts of data were posted on the department’s website ahead of the official release, and were removed as soon as it was discovered. The full November 2013 data will be released as previously scheduled at 9 a.m. tomorrow, she said.

The yuan this week reached 6.0406 per dollar, the strongest since the government unified the official and market exchange rates at the end of 1993. The latest data on China’s foreign-currency holdings contrasted with Yi Gang, a deputy governor at the central bank, saying in November that it was “no longer in China’s favor to accumulate foreign-exchange reserves.’

The U.S. data showed net long-term portfolio investment outflow was $29.3 billion in November after a revised inflow the month before of $28.7 billion, the Treasury’s figures showed. The total cross-border outflow in November, including short-term securities such as Treasury bills and stock swaps, was $16.6 billion, after a revised inflow of $188.1 billion in October, the data showed.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) gained 2.8 percent in November. Investors in Treasuries lost 0.4 percent that month, according to Bloomberg World Bond (BUSY) Indexes. The Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the greenback’s value against 10 major currencies weighted by liquidity and trade flows, gained 0.9 percent in November.
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« Reply #26 on: January 24, 2014, 10:03:01 am »

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-23/china-bank-run-beginning-farmers-co-op-unable-pay-depositors
Is The China Bank Run Beginning? Farmers Co-Op Unable To Pay Depositors
1/23/14

While most of the attention in the Chinese shadow banking system is focused on the Credit Equals Gold #1 Trust's default, as we first brought to investors' attention here, and the PBOC has thrown nearly CNY 400 billion at the market in the last few days, there appears to be a bigger problem brewing. As China's CNR reports, depositors in some of Yancheng City's largest farmers' co-operative mutual fund societies ("banks") have been unable to withdraw "hundreds of millions" in deposits in the last few weeks. "Everyone wants to borrow and no one wants to save," warned one 'salesperson', "and loan repayments are difficult to recover." There is "no money" and the doors are locked.

The locked doors of one farmers' co-op...

Via China CNR,

Shadow Banking has grown remarkably...

...in recent years, opened dozens of Yancheng local "farmers mutual funds Society", these cooperatives approved the establishment by the competent local agriculture, and received by the local Civil Affairs Bureau issued a "certificate of registration of private non-enterprise units."

As savers are promised big returns...

Deposit-taking and lending by cooperatives operated operation, and to promise savers, depositors after maturity deposits not only can get the interest, you can also get bonuses.

But recently things have turned around...

However, beginning in early 2013, Yancheng City Pavilion Lakes region continue to have a number of co-op money people to empty, many savers deposits can not be cashed, thus many people's lives into a corner.

Dong-farmers in Salt Lake Pavilion mutual funds club, a duty officer's office, told reporters, because many people take money, put out loans difficult to recover, leading to funding strand breaks.

Rough Google Translation:

Salesperson: ...the money has been slowly falling and in the end is difficult to ask for money, right? And now there is no money coming in, now people don't want to save money, and take all the money.

Reporter: But it's their money, they should be able to...

Salesperson: I know I should [given them money]; however, when the turn started, their is no money, we get cut off and lenders and borrowers took off...

One depositor blames the government (for false promises):

The bank has a deposit-taking his staff, he would say that he is a government action that has the government's official seal, to give you some interest, as well as the appropriate dividends, because we believe that the government, so we fully believe him , we put the money lost inside, who thought in November, Xi Chu who told us that something was wrong.

But don't worry - this should all be settled by 2016...

Yu Long Zhang: we put all of his certificates of deposit are received out. You are only responsible for the loan out of the money back to the people against. The people's money has been invested in other projects go, we have to be tracked to ensure no loss of capital assets, can dispose of his assets disposed of, can recover quickly come back.

Reporter: There is a specific timetable yet?

Yu Long Zhuang: 2014 cashing out the entire program.

Reporter: When did all of these things can be properly resolved?

Yu Long Zhuang: the latest is 2015, 2015, all settled.

So, for the Chinese, their bank deposits have suddenly become highly risky 2 year bonds...
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« Reply #27 on: January 24, 2014, 10:08:17 am »

http://www.businessinsider.com/some-chinese-banks-halt-lending-2013-6
6/26/13
Two Of China's Biggest Banks Have Stopped Lending At Some Of Their Branches

Branches of Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have stopped lending amid the country's current liquidity squeeze, according to Caixin Online. 

The two banks, are part of the country's Big Four. Bank of China was reportedly having a hard time meeting loan-to-deposit requirements before the liquidity squeeze and it plans to resume lending on July 15.

Meanwhile, ICBC's headquarters set a cap on lending, but what was unusual was that "headquarters had cut down on the quotas to make room for its own operations," according to Caixin. Other sources however said this wasn't a major problem.

Chinese interbank rates, or the rates at which banks lend to each other, began spiking before the Dragon Boat festival earlier this month.

The People's Bank of China alleviated some of the pressure by injecting liquidity into some banks and saying that it would use various tools like short-term liquidity operations to help stabilize rates.

But it's important to remember that the "PBOC promised more liquidity but not enough to support the equity markets or enough to drop rates below 4%," according to Robert Savage at FX Concepts.

And the Chinese central bank's initial decision to let rates peak is still being interpreted as its way of punishing certain banks that had runaway credit growth. From Société Générale's Wei Yao:

The PBoC makes clear that it wants more responsible and less risky behavior from financial institutions, including the strengthening of liquidity and asset-liability management, and calls on large banks to help stabilize markets. Secondly, the PBoC calls on financial institutions to balance liquidity and profitability and other business objectives according to macroprudential requirements. Lastly, it calls on financial market participants to strengthen market discipline, particularly related to Shibor.

Jim O'Neill said China was never at risk of a genuine liquidity crunch. But there definitely are concerns of a credit bubble so we will be following these developments closely.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/some-chinese-banks-halt-lending-2013-6#ixzz2rFKPCHuI
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« Reply #28 on: January 26, 2014, 03:59:07 pm »

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-23-trillion-credit-bubble-in-china-is-starting-to-collapse-global-financial-crisis-next

The $23 Trillion Credit Bubble In China Is Starting To Collapse – Global Financial Crisis Next?

 By Michael Snyder, on January 20th, 2014

Did you know that financial institutions all over the world are warning that we could see a "mega default" on a very prominent high-yield investment product in China on January 31st?  We are being told that this could lead to a cascading collapse of the shadow banking system in China which could potentially result in "sky-high interest rates" and "a precipitous plunge in credit".  In other words, it could be a "Lehman Brothers moment" for Asia.  And since the global financial system is more interconnected today than ever before, that would be very bad news for the United States as well.  Since Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, the level of private domestic credit in China has risen from $9 trillion to an astounding $23 trillion.  That is an increase of $14 trillion in just a little bit more than 5 years.  Much of that "hot money" has flowed into stocks, bonds and real estate in the United States.  So what do you think is going to happen when that bubble collapses?

The bubble of private debt that we have seen inflate in China since the Lehman crisis is unlike anything that the world has ever seen.  Never before has so much private debt been accumulated in such a short period of time.  All of this debt has helped fuel tremendous economic growth in China, but now a whole bunch of Chinese companies are realizing that they have gotten in way, way over their heads.  In fact, it is being projected that Chinese companies will pay out the equivalent of approximately a trillion dollars in interest payments this year alone.  That is more than twice the amount that the U.S. government will pay in interest in 2014.

Over the past several years, the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England have all been criticized for creating too much money.  But the truth is that what has been happening in China surpasses all of their efforts combined.  You can see an incredible chart which graphically illustrates this point right here.  As the Telegraph pointed out a while back, the Chinese have essentially "replicated the entire U.S. commercial banking system" in just five years...

Overall credit has jumped from $9 trillion to $23 trillion since the Lehman crisis. "They have replicated the entire U.S. commercial banking system in five years," she said.

The ratio of credit to GDP has jumped by 75 percentage points to 200pc of GDP, compared to roughly 40 points in the US over five years leading up to the subprime bubble, or in Japan before the Nikkei bubble burst in 1990. "This is beyond anything we have ever seen before in a large economy. We don't know how this will play out. The next six months will be crucial," she said.

As with all other things in the financial world, what goes up must eventually come down.

And right now January 31st is shaping up to be a particularly important day for the Chinese financial system.  The following is from a Reuters article...

The trust firm responsible for a troubled high-yield investment product sold through China's largest banks has warned investors they may not be repaid when the 3 billion-yuan ($496 million)product matures on Jan. 31, state media reported on Friday.

Investors are closely watching the case to see if it will shatter assumptions that the government and state-owned banks will always protect investors from losses on risky off-balance-sheet investment products sold through a murky shadow banking system.

If there is a major default on January 31st, the effects could ripple throughout the entire Chinese financial system very rapidly.  A recent Forbes article explained why this is the case...

A WMP default, whether relating to Liansheng or Zhenfu, could devastate the Chinese banking system and the larger economy as well.  In short, China’s growth since the end of 2008 has been dependent on ultra-loose credit first channeled through state banks, like ICBC and Construction Bank, and then through the WMPs, which permitted the state banks to avoid credit risk.  Any disruption in the flow of cash from investors to dodgy borrowers through WMPs would rock China with sky-high interest rates or a precipitous plunge in credit, probably both.  The result?  The best outcome would be decades of misery, what we saw in Japan after its bubble burst in the early 1990s.

The big underlying problem is the fact that private debt and the money supply have both been growing far too rapidly in China.  According to Forbes, M2 in China increased by 13.6 percent last year...

And at the same time China’s money supply and credit are still expanding.  Last year, the closely watched M2 increased by only 13.6%, down from 2012’s 13.8% growth.  Optimists say China is getting its credit addiction under control, but that’s not correct.  In fact, credit expanded by at least 20% last year as money poured into new channels not measured by traditional statistics.

Overall, M2 in China is up by about 1000 percent since 1999.  That is absolutely insane.

And of course China is not the only place in the world where financial trouble signs are erupting.  Things in Europe just keep getting worse, and we have just learned that the largest bank in Germany just suffered " a surprise fourth-quarter loss"...

Deutsche Bank shares tumbled on Monday following a surprise fourth-quarter loss due to a steep drop in debt trading revenues and heavy litigation and restructuring costs that prompted the bank to warn of a challenging 2014.

Germany's biggest bank said revenue at its important debt-trading division, fell 31 percent in the quarter, a much bigger drop than at U.S. rivals, which have also suffered from sluggish fixed-income trading.

If current trends continue, many other big banks will soon be experiencing a "bond headache" as well.  At this point, Treasury Bond sentiment is about the lowest that it has been in about 20 years.  Investors overwhelmingly believe that yields are heading higher.

If that does indeed turn out to be the case, interest rates throughout our economy are going to be rising, economic activity will start slowing down significantly and it could set up the "nightmare scenario" that I keep talking about.

But I am not the only one talking about it.

In fact, the World Economic Forum is warning about the exact same thing...

Fiscal crises triggered by ballooning debt levels in advanced economies pose the biggest threat to the global economy in 2014, a report by the World Economic Forum has warned.

Ahead of next week's WEF annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the forum's annual assessment of global dangers said high levels of debt in advanced economies, including Japan and America, could lead to an investor backlash.

This would create a "vicious cycle" of ballooning interest payments, rising debt piles and investor doubt that would force interest rates up further.

So will a default event in China on January 31st be the next "Lehman Brothers moment" or will it be something else?

In the end, it doesn't really matter.  The truth is that what has been going on in the global financial system is completely and totally unsustainable, and it is inevitable that it is all going to come horribly crashing down at some point during the next few years.

It is just a matter of time.
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« Reply #29 on: January 27, 2014, 03:59:24 am »

Interesting article. An incredibly complex topic with SO many factors in play, it's hard to pin down who really is doing what. Personally, I'd expect the Chinese as a policy, would be seeking to "pump and dump" the US, take whatever assets they can get their hands on, and run to the bankruptcy courts. That's how western business does it, so the Chinese are just doing what the west has been doing all along.

I do agree that the current situation isn't sustainable. It's clear now that a "debt-based economy" only work for the main lenders (and the big banks just keep getting "fined"wink wink and promising changes and nothing changes). Everybody else loses. Watch how this all plays out with China.

Scripture makes it clear what happens when the people are motivated by the love of money. As Jesus says, what people sow is what they will reap, no matter what their "financial advisers" tell them.
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