Comments on: Bloomberg Misses Real Story on Latest Official Chinese Comments on Dollar

By: Greg Hall

Greg Hall — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:36:23 +0000

The Chinese are watching and waiting to see if we melt down. That said, they have A LOT of problems in their own yard.

By: Jr Deputy Accountant

Jr Deputy Accountant — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:10:00 +0000

I have noticed a similar pattern not just over at Bloomberg… as if the media outlets are scrambling to write this phony story so hard that they can't even keep track of their own comments from minute to minute. MarketWatch had three contradictory updates this morning within a 15 minute timeframe on gold, Treasury yields, and job data that didn't even make sense.

Call it "the wheels falling off" the media machine.

By: cindy

cindy — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:57:28 +0000

The foreign ministry deals w/ foreign affairs and has no jurisdiction over economic policies. Perhaps it's the finance ministry?

Everybody likes to be a China commentator these days but most have no idea what they're talking about.

By: In Debt We Trust

In Debt We Trust — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:53:18 +0000

You are absolutely on pt about an internal debate being made public for domestic audiences. There is a power struggle going on in the PRC.

By: Brick

Brick — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:01:19 +0000

Yes I think you are right that the foreign ministry and the central bank don't agree, but I notice the terminology used. The Foreign Minister hoping the dollar remains stable seems sensible considering their reserves, but that is not quite the same as saying that we will not explore alternatives. It does not help of course that the foreign ministers actual words have been somewhat truncated again by Bloomberg for which we have the china daily news to thank for the actual quote. "He said that Beijing hoped the dollar, the main global reserve currency remained stable but added that China "of course" hoped for reserve currency diversification in the future."
Now while there is some very good reporting done at Bloomberg this kind of reporting might lead to legal action in Europe.

The treasury warrants announcement is interesting and I notice that it says.
"If an issuer chooses not to repurchase the warrants according to its existing contractual rights, Treasury has the discretion to dispose of the warrants as it sees fit over time. In these instances, Treasury will sell the warrants through an auction process over the next few months."
I guess this is a message to Citibank that if they want to pay big bonuses they had better repay the taxpayer first. I expect the likes of Citibank shares to come under pressure once those auctions take place and I am not sure whether that could be the last straw for them. As with everything else I expect this to be watered down so the auctions will take place sometime/never.

By: sukiewa

sukiewa — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:33:20 +0000

they need to get chinese staff to write stories about china

By: Hugh

Hugh — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:25:42 +0000

Bloomberg has some good stuff but not a lot of quality control.

I was wondering if you had seen this post about the Treasury's selling of warrants. Perhaps it is just me, but it seemed a fairly loopy approach. I don't know enough about the process to evaluate it though in any detailed way.

http://www.ustreas.gov/news/index3.html