BRICS - alternative or complementary to IMF & World bank (Bretton woods institutions)?

BRICS: Progressive Rhetoric, Neoliberal Practice.

Published on 19 Jul 2014 | Patrick Bond: All the governments behind the New Development Bank practice intense neoliberalism.

Yuan Passes Euro as 2nd-Most Used Trade-Finance Currency

 Dec 3, 2013  | China’s yuan overtook the euro to become the second-most used currency in global trade finance after the dollar this year, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.

The currency had an 8.66 percent share of letters of credit and collections in October, compared with 6.64 percent for the euro,Swift said in a statement today. China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany and Australia were the top users of yuan in trade finance, according to the Belgium-based financial-messaging platform.

The yuan had the fourth-largest share of global trade finance in January 2012 with 1.89 percent, while the euro’s was the second-biggest at 7.87 percent, Swift said.

“It’s true that overseas exporters are using the renminbi more as the contract currency to increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of goods or services sold to China,” said Cynthia Wong, the Hong Kong-based head of emerging-market trading for Singapore andHong Kong at Societe Generale SA.

The U.S. dollar led all currencies with an 81.08 percent share of letters of credit and collections in October, down from 84.96 percent in January 2012, according to data compiled by Swift. The yen slipped from the third-most used global currency to fourth over the same period, declining from a 1.94 percent share to 1.36 percent.

Yuan Deposits

China is seeking a greater role for its currency in global trade and investment as the state loosens controls on the exchange rate and borrowing costs in the world’s second-largest economy. People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Yi Gang said Nov. 20 it is no longer in the nation’s interest to keep building up its foreign-exchange reserves, which totaled a record $3.66 trillion at the end of September.

Yuan deposits in Hong Kong, the largest pool outside China, rose the most since April 2011 to a record 782 billion yuan ($128 billion) in October. Agreements were announced this quarter to start directcurrency trading between the yuan and both the British pound and Singapore dollar.

“The renminbi is clearly a top currency for trade finance globally and even more so in Asia,” Franck de Praetere, Swift’s Singapore-based head of payments and trade markets for Asia Pacific, said in the statement.

The Chinese currency ranked No. 12 for transactions in the global payments system in October, unchanged from the previous month, according to Swift figures. Payment value for the currency rose 1.5 percent that month, less than the 4.6 percent growth for all currencies, the Swift data showed. That saw the yuan’s market share drop to 0.84 percent from 0.86 percent in September.

Trading Volume

Daily yuan transactions surged to $120 billion in April from $34 billion in 2010, making it the ninth most-traded currency in the world, according to a September report by the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.

The yuan has appreciated 2.3 percent against the greenback this year, the best performance in Asia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The currency closed at 6.0924 per dollar today inShanghai, little changed from yesterday.

China accounted for 59 percent of the trade finance denominated in yuan in October and Hong Kong’s share was 21 percent, Swift data showed. Singapore had 12 percent with Germany and Australia having 2 percent each.

“I’m not surprised as cross-border trades between China and Hong Kong have been quite dominantly denominated in yuan,” Raymond Yeung, a Hong Kong-based senior economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said by phone today. “Yuan trades usually increase when there are strong expectations for yuan appreciation.”

Wider Usage

International use of the yuan is increasing as China opens up its capital markets. In the first nine months of this year, about 17 percent of China’s global trade was settled in the currency, compared with less than 1 percent in 2009, according to Deutsche Bank AG.

China and the U.K. will begin direct trading between the yuan and the British pound, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said on Oct. 15. China also approved an 80 billion yuan quota allowing investors in London to buy onshore assets. Singapore inked a similar agreement with China a week later. Direct trading between the currencies of Japan and Australia started in the past two years.

The European Central Bank and the People’s Bank of China agreed to establish a bilateral currency swap line of as much as 350 billion yuan, the Frankfurt-based central bank said in October.

Trading Restrictions

The Chinese central bank limits the yuan spot rate’s daily moves to 1 percent on either side of a fixing it sets every day. The trading band was widened in April 2012, after being expanded from 0.3 percent in May 2007. The yuan in Shanghai has traded 0.7 percent stronger than the fixing on average this quarter, down from 0.8 percent in the first nine months of the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The People’s Bank of China will “basically” end normal intervention in the foreign-exchange market and broaden the yuan’s daily trading limit, Governor Zhou Xiaochuan wrote in an article in a guidebook explaining reforms outlined following a Communist Party meeting that ended Nov. 12.

source bloomberg 

MIT's prophesy : Next Great Depression?

MIT study predicting ‘global economic collapse’ by 2030 still on track.

A renowned Australian research scientist says a study from researchers at MIT claiming the world could suffer from a "global economic collapse" and "precipitous population decline" if people continue to consume the world's resources at the current pace is still on track, nearly 40 years after it was first produced.

The Smithsonian Magazine writes that Australian physicist Graham Turner says "the world is on track for disaster" and that current research from Turner coincides with a famous, and in some quarters, infamous, academic report from 1972 entitled, "The Limits to Growth." Turner's research is not affiliated with MIT or The Club for Rome.

Produced for a group called The Club of Rome, the study's researchers created a computing model to forecast different scenarios based on the current models of population growth and global resource consumption. The study also took into account different levels of agricultural productivity, birth control and environmental protection efforts. Twelve million copies of the report were produced and distributed in 37 different languages.

Most of the computer scenarios found population and economic growth continuing at a steady rate until about 2030. But without "drastic measures for environmental protection," the scenarios predict the likelihood of a population and economic crash.

However, the study said "unlimited economic growth" is still possible if world governments enact policies and invest in green technologies that help limit the expansion of our ecological footprint.

The Smithsonian notes that several experts strongly objected to "The Limit of Growth's" findings, including the late Yale economist Henry Wallich, who for 12 years served as a governor of the Federal Research Board and was its chief international economics expert. At the time, Wallich said attempting to regulate economic growth would be equal to "consigning billions to permanent poverty."

Turner says that perhaps the most startling find from the study is that the results of the computer scenarios were nearly identical to those predicted in similar computer scenarios used as the basis for "The Limits to Growth."

"There is a very clear warning bell being rung here," Turner said. "We are not on a sustainable trajectory."

Correction: This post has been edited to reflect that MIT has not updated its research from the original 1972 study.

original here >>

What Needs To Be Done To Fix The Global Economy

Published on 22 Sep 2013 | Patrick Bond: For a recovery to occur, national governments must assert economy sovereignty.

BRICS Countries Beset By Economic Problems

Published on 22 Sep 2013 | Patrick Bond: Slow growth and inflation are taking a toll in developing countries

See more videos: http://therealnews.com

Syria free from Rothchild's Central Banking system?

Published on Sep 29, 2013 | Bank of International Settlement and IMF

25 Fast Facts About The Federal Reserve

September 15, 2013 | Source: Michael Snyder, Guest Post

As we approach the 100 year anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve, it is absolutely imperative that we get the American people to understand that the Fed is at the very heart of our economic problems. It is a system of money that was created by the bankers and that operates for the benefit of the bankers. The American people like to think that we have a "democratic system", but there is nothing "democratic" about the Federal Reserve. Unelected, unaccountable central planners from a private central bank run our financial system and manage our economy. There is a reason why financial markets respond with a yawn when Barack Obama says something about the economy, but they swing wildly whenever Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke opens his mouth. The Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy than anyone else does by a huge margin. The Fed is the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world, and if the American people truly understood how it really works, they would be screaming for it to be abolished immediately. The following are 25 fast facts about the Federal Reserve that everyone should know...

#1 The greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history was when there was no central bank.

#2 The United States never had a persistent, ongoing problem with inflation until the Federal Reserve was created. In the century before the Federal Reserve was created, the average annual rate of inflation was about half a percent. In the century since the Federal Reserve was created, the average annual rate of inflation has been about 3.5 percent, and it would be even higher than that if the inflation numbers were not being so grossly manipulated.

#3 Even using the official numbers, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by more than 95 percent since the Federal Reserve was created nearly 100 years ago.

#4 The secret November 1910 gathering at Jekyll Island, Georgia during which the plan for the Federal Reserve was hatched was attended by U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Department A.P. Andrews and a whole host of representatives from the upper crust of the Wall Street banking establishment.

#5 In 1913, Congress was promised that if the Federal Reserve Act was passed that it would eliminate the business cycle.

#6 The following comes directly from the Fed's official mission statement: "To provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. Over the years, its role in banking and the economy has expanded."

#7 It was not an accident that a permanent income tax was also introduced the same year when the Federal Reserve system was established. The whole idea was to transfer wealth from our pockets to the federal government and from the federal government to the bankers.

#8 Within 20 years of the creation of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. economy was plunged into the Great Depression.

#9 If you can believe it, there have been 10 different economic recessions since 1950. The Federal Reserve created the "dotcom bubble", the Federal Reserve created the "housing bubble" and now it has created the largest bond bubble in the history of the planet.

#10 According to an official government report, the Federal Reserve made 16.1 trillion dollars in secret loans to the big banks during the last financial crisis. The following is a list of loan recipients that was taken directly from page 131 of the report...

Citigroup - $2.513 trillion Morgan Stanley - $2.041 trillion Merrill Lynch - $1.949 trillion Bank of America - $1.344 trillion Barclays PLC - $868 billion Bear Sterns - $853 billion Goldman Sachs - $814 billion Royal Bank of Scotland - $541 billion JP Morgan Chase - $391 billion Deutsche Bank - $354 billion UBS - $287 billion Credit Suisse - $262 billion Lehman Brothers - $183 billion Bank of Scotland - $181 billion BNP Paribas - $175 billion Wells Fargo - $159 billion Dexia - $159 billion Wachovia - $142 billion Dresdner Bank - $135 billion Societe Generale - $124 billion "All Other Borrowers" - $2.639 trillion

#11 The Federal Reserve also paid those big banks $659.4 million in fees to help "administer" those secret loans.

#12 The Federal Reserve has created approximately 2.75 trillion dollars out of thin air and injected it into the financial system over the past five years. This has allowed the stock market to soar to unprecedented heights, but it has also caused our financial system to become extremely unstable.

#13 We were told that the purpose of quantitative easing is to help "stimulate the economy", but today the Federal Reserve is actually paying the big banks not to lend out 1.8 trillion dollars in "excess reserves" that they have parked at the Fed.

#14 Quantitative easing overwhelming benefits those that own stocks and other financial investments. In other words, quantitative easing overwhelmingly favors the very wealthy. Even Barack Obama has admitted that 95 percent of the income gains since he has been president have gone to the top one percent of income earners.

#15 The gap between the top one percent and the rest of the country is now the greatest that it has been since the 1920s.

#16 The Federal Reserve has argued vehemently in federal court that it is "not an agency" of the federal government and therefore not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

#17 The Federal Reserve openly admits that the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks are organized "much like private corporations".

#18 The regional Federal Reserve banks issue shares of stock to the "member banks" that own them.

#19 The Federal Reserve system greatly favors the biggest banks. Back in 1970, the five largest U.S. banks held 17 percent of all U.S. banking industry assets. Today, the five largest U.S. banks hold 52 percent of all U.S. banking industry assets.

#20 The Federal Reserve is supposed to "regulate" the big banks, but it has done nothing to stop a 441 trillion dollar interest rate derivatives bubble from inflating which could absolutely devastate our entire financial system.

#21 The Federal Reserve was designed to be a perpetual debt machine. The bankers that designed it intended to trap the U.S. government in a perpetual debt spiral from which it could never possibly escape. Since the Federal Reserve was established nearly 100 years ago, the U.S. national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger.

#22 The U.S. government will spend more than 400 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt this year.

#23 If the average rate of interest on U.S. government debt rises to just 6 percent (and it has been much higher than that in the past), we will be paying out more than a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.

#24 According to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Congress is the one that is supposed to have the authority to "coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures". So exactly why is the Federal Reserve doing it?

#25 There are plenty of possible alternative financial systems, but at this point all 187 nations that belong to the IMF have a central bank. Are we supposed to believe that this is just some sort of a bizarre coincidence? 

TPPA adalah 'Global Front' Neo Liberal Policy America.

UNDP sebagai perunding telah menasihati/syorkan agar Malaysia tidak tanda-tangani perjanjian TPPA? MP Kelana Jaya bahas titakh di Raja 2013.

Wealth Inequality Around The World

Published on Apr 17, 2013 : The extreme truth about how wealth is divided globally. Inspired by the amazing "Wealth Inequality in America" video.

Does High Public Debt Stifle Economic Growth?

Published on 18 Apr 2013 : New study refutes Reinhart and Rogoff analysis that underpins austerity policy around the world; shows no relation between debt and lack of growth

Gailbraith and Panitch: Is a New "New Deal' Possible?

Intro - Published on 19 Mar 2013 : James K. Gailbraith and Leo Panitch discuss the 80th anniversary of the election of FDR and the significance of the New Deal.

Part 2 - Published on 21 Mar 2013 : James K. Gailbraith and Leo Panitch discuss the 80th anniversary of the election of FDR and the significance of the New Deal

Part 3 - Published on 24 Mar 2013 : James K. Galbraith and Leo Panitch imagine what a genuinely reform minded US government might do about the economy

What Obama Must Look into Improve Opportunity & Employment

Published on Nov 9, 2012 by ForaTv:


What Obama Must Do to Improve Opportunity & Employment

The panel of political experts discuss what steps the Obama Administration and the Federal Government need to take to get the U.S. economy back on track.

Complete program available for free at HERE*
* the listener has to decide the speakers political persuasions or ideology.

Obama : President by design

Published on Nov 9, 2012 by enqilab : President Barack Obama had a mission or one was given to him. To keep American capitalism intact in a manner fitting to the American political system and acceptable by the American public.

Have We Reached the End of Cheap Manufacturing in China?

Published on Oct 20, 2012 by ForaTv : While discussing the past, present and future of manufacturing abroad Senior Manager of Global Business Operations for New Balance Gabriella Wortmann predicts the coming end of cheap manufacturing in China.

Quadrillion Dollar Derivatives Market 20 Times Global GDP.

Published on Sep 25, 2012 by TheRealNews : Markus Stanley - Derivative bets not a zero sum game, have far reaching real world consequences.

Prof :Seize This Moment or Capitalism Will Not Be Cured!

Published on Sep 20, 2012 by ForaTv : Richard Wolff, Professor of Economics Emeritus and author of Democracy at Work: a Cure for Capitalism, urges the public to openly criticize and analyze capitalism at this time of financial crisis.

Scenarios on the Future of the International Monetary System

Published on Sep 7, 2012 by WorldEconomicForum : Euro, Dollar, Yuan uncertainties - Scenarios on the Future of the International Monetary system.

Thailand's rice Cartel initiative?

Rice Payment Scheme Threatens Thailand's Status as World's Top Exporter

Published on Sep 3, 2012 by VOAvideo : Thailand is risking its status as the world's biggest rice exporter because of a controversial government-purchasing policy to boost farmers' incomes. VOA's Daniel Schearf reports that rice industry insiders say the costly program is inefficient and money would be better spent on long-term investment.

Thailand rice prices stir up debate

Published on Aug 24, 2012 by EnglishNewsToday : Thailand's governing Pheu Thai party won last year's election partly based on a promise to improve the income of rice farmers. The government introduced a scheme which currently pays them around 50 to 60 per cent more than market prices. The International Monetary Fund estimates that this could amount to $3.8bn, excluding the cost of storage. Despite the cost, the government says it will continue with the programme, because it has a duty to look after farmers. But not everyone agrees that the benefits are worth it.

Russia joins World Trade Organization

Published on Aug 23, 2012:

National Debts & International Law : Odious Debts.

(there are precedence before)

Published on Aug 23, 2012 by TheRealNews : Leonce Ndikumana: Tunisia to audit foreign debt and reject loans embezzled by former dictator.