Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Trading the US Treasury for the IMF?

What's not being reported (FT), was that not only does China not trust in the value of the US dollar, they're arguing "for reducing the dominance of a few individual currencies, such as the dollar, euro and yen, in international trade and finance" (WSJ).

Was China serious? Apparently, the journalists at Chinastakes don't think so - at least not entirely. I figure that in the short run, China doesn't have a choice but with what the US Administration is planning, can anyone blame them? (Besides, a currency created by the IMF - a multinational organization accountable to member states (ie no one)? If they really think they'd be trading up, we may all be in serious trouble).

Update: The American response - per Paul Volcker (WSJ's China Blog), "They hold all these dollars because they chose to buy the dollars, and they didn’t want to sell the dollars because they didn’t want to depreciate their currency." Frankly, the response sounds a bit insane considering the the US will at least in part be depending on China's continued appetite for American debt as the US debt multiplies over the next few years.

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