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Treasuries purchases will depend on risk: China's Wen (threatens Obama)
reuters ^

Posted on 01/31/2009 3:51:38 PM PST by maccaca

Future purchases of U.S. Treasuries by China will depend on its need to protect the value of its foreign investments and a stable yuan is in everyone's interests, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Saturday. The United States said this month that all its major trading partners should operate flexible exchange rates, expressing concern that China was manipulating the value of the yuan to boost its exports. But analysts say there may be a limit to the pressure that the United States can put on China as it is the single biggest foreign investor of U.S. Treasuries, with $681.9 billion as of November, according to U.S. data. "This is a very sensitive question and a question that President Barack Obama will want to ask," Wen said at an event in London in response to a question over future Chinese demand for U.S. government bonds. "In recent years, our foreign reserves have been growing very fast. We are trying to bring more diversification to the holdings of the foreign exchange reserves. Buying U.S. Treasuries bonds is a major part of it. "Whether we will buy more U.S. Treasury bonds, and if so by how much -- we should take that decision in accordance with China's own need and also our aim to keep the security of our foreign reserves and the value of them."

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bho44; bhotreasury; china; chinaobama
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1 posted on 01/31/2009 3:51:38 PM PST by maccaca
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To: maccaca

Wow...refreshing...a nation that looks out for it’s own national interests!


2 posted on 01/31/2009 3:57:01 PM PST by The Duke (I have met the enemy, and he is named 'Apathy'!)
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To: The Duke

be careful of China, if they did stop their buying of US Treasuries, rates would go up VERY QUICK, supply ( a lot ) demand ( ? )


3 posted on 01/31/2009 4:00:20 PM PST by peace with honor
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To: maccaca

They are in control at this point and we have to pay the vig!


4 posted on 01/31/2009 4:01:22 PM PST by spyone (ridiculum)
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To: maccaca

Was it just yesterday that the Chia-pet was making threats?

Today, China.

Tomorrow, The Duchy of Grand Fenwick?


5 posted on 01/31/2009 4:02:17 PM PST by null and void (We are now in day 12 of our national holiday from reality.)
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To: maccaca

Seems our credit card might be close to it’s limit.

How much longer before they demand immediate payment in full?


6 posted on 01/31/2009 4:03:13 PM PST by Gator113 ("Noli nothis permittere te terere.")
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To: Gator113
How much longer before they demand immediate payment in full?

How would that work, exactly?

7 posted on 01/31/2009 4:05:16 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: Gator113

My understanding is that there is a severe discount involved for early maturation on T-Bills. At that, it’s a voluntary transaction, we don’t have to agree to it.

More likely, if China wanted to hurt us badly and quickly, they could dump their U.S. cash currency on the open market, or exchange it outright. Of course, it would hurt them, too, but I think we’d be BK long before they would even feel the pain of their losses.


8 posted on 01/31/2009 4:15:12 PM PST by papasmurf (Impeach the illegal bastard!)
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To: Gator113
How much longer before they demand immediate payment in full?

They wouldn't do that as it would stop the need for us to buy all their worthless crap. We buy their crap and they use the money to buy our treasuries - mutually beneficial. They won't renege on their part of the bargain.

They're posturing, hoping to intimidate the Fed into an interest rate hike. The Fed will ignore.

9 posted on 01/31/2009 4:21:20 PM PST by randita (Starve the beast - earn as little as you can get by on and spend even less.)
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To: maccaca

Sounds like China is going to stop its regular program of buying US treasuries, so Obama got what he asked for. Now how long do you think it will be before he starts to complain about it?


10 posted on 01/31/2009 4:22:48 PM PST by Brilliant
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To: 1rudeboy

Chinese gallions on our shores extracting the gold from our fillings i think.


11 posted on 01/31/2009 4:26:29 PM PST by festus (Politics makes for strange bedfellows)
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To: Brilliant
Think this through.

What happens if they stop buying treasuries?

We stop buying their products because their actions will deepen the recession.

Interest rates will go up.

Whereas that will look good to foreign investors that have cash, it will dry up the credit available for purchases of anything purchased in large dollar volume, such as cars, cameras, furniture, etc.

They might threaten it but they are too smart to do it.

If we do not wish to lose our freedom, we must learn to tolerate our
neighbor's right to freedom even though he might express that freedom
in a manner we consider to be eccentric.

12 posted on 01/31/2009 4:28:17 PM PST by old curmudgeon
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To: maccaca

No worries, we have a tax cheat to advise BHO.


13 posted on 01/31/2009 4:31:01 PM PST by razorback-bert (Save the planet...it is the only known one with beer!)
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: old curmudgeon

“They might threaten it but they are too smart to do it.”

If they were smart, they would not have been buying US treasuries in order to manipulate the exchange rate to begin with. They can’t sustain this no matter what Obama says. China’s chickens have come home to roost. Guys like me who’ve been saying all along that the Chinese were idiots to buy so many dollars in that it only benefited us are about to be vindicated, but in a way that no one anticipated. Obama has threatened the Chinese, and now the Chinese are going to give Obama what he’s asked for, but not because he asked for it. Rather, they are going to stop buying dollars because they have no choice. They have finally figured out that it was foolish to invest in dollars to begin with. But to the average guy, it’s going to look like Obama engineered this, and that will be interesting, because it means that all those cheap Chinese TVs and computers are going to become a thing of the past, and Obama will get the blame.


15 posted on 01/31/2009 4:36:12 PM PST by Brilliant
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To: maccaca
Zero's in between a rock and a hard place. Either he kowtows to the ChiComms, or he lets them destroy our economy even faster than he could do it by himself.

I'm betting on the latter.

16 posted on 01/31/2009 4:38:13 PM PST by hunter112 (SHRUG - Stop Hussein's Radical Utopian Gameplan!)
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To: 1rudeboy

If you check some of the other responses to my post, I guess it wouldn’t work.


17 posted on 01/31/2009 4:42:06 PM PST by Gator113 ("Noli nothis permittere te terere.")
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To: 1rudeboy
How would that work, exactly?

It's really quite simple. First you get a big pile of paper from Crane Paper. Then you employ a third shift over at the Treasure. Insert the paper into the press, run the press full speed 24/7 and presto, out come brand new $1,000 bills in sufficient quantity to pay off the debt to the Chinese.

If that transpires, you had better hide in a very deep hole!

18 posted on 01/31/2009 4:47:13 PM PST by An Old Man (Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without.)
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To: An Old Man

I was thinking of how the debt would get “called.” When I borrowed $12K from a bank to buy a car, I wasn’t afraid the bank was going to call me out of the blue and ask for it all back at once.


19 posted on 01/31/2009 4:49:42 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: maccaca

Whether they are EE Bonds or Ten Year treasuries, the holders of these instruments are doing themselves NO FAVORS financing this baloney. We are reaching a financial tipping point soon; we have a third world ruling class and we’re about to get a third world currency.


20 posted on 01/31/2009 5:02:32 PM PST by MSF BU (++)
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