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China sells US bonds to 'show concern'
Breitbart ^ | 6/17/09

Posted on 06/17/2009 6:51:29 PM PDT by FromLori

A decision by China to reduce its US Treasury holdings suggests concern about the US attitude towards its economic woes, Chinese economists were quoted as saying in state media Wednesday.

The remarks, coming after US data showed a modest decline in Chinese investments in US government bonds, were in contrast to an earlier statement in Beijing which had said the recent sell-off was a routine transaction.

"China is implying to the US, more or less, that it should adopt a more pragmatic and responsible attitude to maintain the stability of the dollar," He Maochun, a political scientist at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times. According to US Treasury data issued Monday, Beijing owned 763.5 billion dollars in US securities in April, down from 767.9 billion dollars in March. It was the first month since June 2008 that Beijing failed to purchase more US T-bills. Zhang Bin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China's move showed a more cautious attitude. "It is unclear whether the reduction will continue because the amount is so small. But the cut signals caution of governments or institutions toward US Treasury bonds," Zhang told Xinhua news agency.

China's foreign ministry said Tuesday that its purchases of US Treasuries remained based on "security, liquidity and value preservation". For Zhao Xijun, deputy director of the Finance and Securities Research Institute of People's University, China may have reduced its holding of US Treasuries simply because it needed the money.

Zhao said the sell-off could have been in order to pay for its own economic stimulus package. "The reduction was a result of composite factors, such as the investment need and the market change," Zhao told Global Times.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: bonds; deficits; economy; thecomingdepression
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To: dragnet2
" Compound this with the fact we owe them big time, and now can't continue to buy their garbage, shipped with their fleets of super freighters. And they have the ability to send our economy into a bottomless pit?
Not a real good scenario.

Maybe that's why China has been working real hard developing new trade deals with other countries, and not bothering with US markets. They plan on making us go down for the count, as are others.

21 posted on 06/17/2009 7:44:35 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
Yeah, but the global economony is in a tail spin...New trade deals with other countries will be slow and bitter.

Will it be enough for the Communist and their billions of people? In such crowded house, things can get ugly fast.

22 posted on 06/17/2009 7:49:42 PM PDT by dragnet2
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To: dragnet2
And when Obama said "buy American", and now all his union pals launching their buy American propaganda, it's sparking retaliation from unions in Canada and elsewhere to do the same thing. Now china is saying buy China. If this escalates and spreads across the pond to Europe, We will have a carbon copy of what caused the 30's depression.
Not good.
23 posted on 06/17/2009 7:50:13 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary

It’s a complicated business. People have to park their money somewhere, and if the economy tanks, they may consider moving back out of stocks and into bonds. Money market pays almost nothing at the moment, so people might be tempted into long bonds at the right levels.

There was a bullish MACD crossover a while back, followed almost immediately by a reversal and a couple of weeks of correction. Today it looked as if that correction might be over—until this news hit the fan.

Now, I don’t know what to expect. Stocks are very risky at the moment.


24 posted on 06/17/2009 7:52:40 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: dragnet2
"Will it be enough for the Communist and their billions of people? In such crowded house, things can get ugly fast."

I doubt it. But they could use an uprising anyways. After a taste of capitalism, they won't want to taste commie anymore.

As for the rest of the world, There just going to have to lump it as well, and if they make it worse with a trade war, so be it. They'll (and we, or the closed border society in America at least) will learn soon enough that's not the smartest thing to have done.

25 posted on 06/17/2009 7:57:27 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
And when Obama said "buy American", and now all his union pals launching their buy American propaganda, it's sparking retaliation from unions in Canada and elsewhere to do the same thing.

The problem is, nobody can afford the unions anymore. It's really a mess, mostly brought to us by terrible incompetent American leadership, with some calling it, down right traitorous leadership, that is intentional in nature.

26 posted on 06/17/2009 8:00:03 PM PDT by dragnet2
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To: Cicero
"Now, I don’t know what to expect. Stocks are very risky at the moment."

I know, it was a long day trying to get rid of stuff and get into a safer position and hunker down and see what the next two days brings.

27 posted on 06/17/2009 8:01:40 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
They'll (and we, or the closed border society in America at least) will learn soon enough that's not the smartest thing to have done.

America will always have a few close alleys they can trade with, and actually trust somewhat...We probably should have picked our trading partners better, or at least severely limited trade with some of these countries, instead of having a free trade orgy with countries where it's leaders would likely enjoy seeing us all dead.

Getting in over our heads with countries like Red China, will probably not end well, in fact, it could very possibly end in a war with China, some years down the road.

28 posted on 06/17/2009 8:11:35 PM PDT by dragnet2
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To: razorback-bert

heh, good one


29 posted on 06/17/2009 8:14:13 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: dragnet2

Uncertain times to be sure. Lots of edgy businessmen out there. When you’re meeting with people all day, you can see who isn’t wearing their stress very well, even though they are trying to sound like they have the world by the tail.


30 posted on 06/17/2009 8:17:34 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: FromLori; All

Interesting post & thread. Thanks to all.


31 posted on 06/17/2009 8:23:57 PM PDT by PGalt
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To: dragnet2
As far as China goes, they only business we do with them that we shouldn't is food processing. WhyTF are they processing ALL our food?

That's just plain suicidal.

32 posted on 06/17/2009 8:30:39 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
"Maybe that's why China has been working real hard developing new trade deals with other countries, and not bothering with US markets. They plan on making us go down for the count, as are others. "

Could it be that they know we are already 'down for the count' no matter what we do and they are just acting in self-defense?

33 posted on 06/17/2009 8:34:29 PM PDT by blam
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To: Nathan Zachary
Why TF are they processing ALL our food?

Because there are a few select people out there, in both the U.S. and China, that are making billions off it, and they are undoubtedly paying off certain political insiders here.

34 posted on 06/17/2009 8:35:50 PM PDT by dragnet2
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To: Nathan Zachary
"As far as China goes, they only business we do with them that we shouldn't is food processing. WhyTF are they processing ALL our food?"

Really. 80% of the garlic consumed in the US is from China.

It wasn't that long ago that Gilroy, California was The Garlic Capital Of The World


35 posted on 06/17/2009 8:39:11 PM PDT by blam
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To: Nathan Zachary
Man that was a short economic recovery! We are back into another recession LoL!

That was just a dead cat bounce. Now one has to imagine how hard the bottom will be with a cat bouncing that high. Best business right now is buying up assets from companies closing. Very good assets for a few dimes on the dollar. In the future these assets might be difficult to buy new since some of the companies making them will be gone. My 2 cents anyway.

36 posted on 06/17/2009 9:56:28 PM PDT by justa-hairyape
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To: FromLori
I can find no better example than this on what I've been trying to say all along, that China is damned if they do and damned if they don't. When they were buying US treasuries and their holdings were growing, people here vilified them. Now, they are slowly (and I stress slowly) reducing their treasury holdings, and yet again, they are vilified.

......amazing......absolutely amazing.....

37 posted on 06/19/2009 12:48:38 PM PDT by ponder life
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