Free Republic

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent rival teams to Washington for talks with the Trump administration as ceasefire negotiations for the war in Ukraine are underway, according to an independent investigative Russian news outlet. On Thursday, Kirill Dmitriev, a businessman and Putin's investment envoy, announced that he is in Washington this week to hold talks with U.S. officials. The official, who runs Russia's sovereign wealth fund, is meeting Trump ally Steve Witkoff at Putin's request, he said. Putin also gave the go-ahead for another rival team to engage in talks with Washington, news site Agentstvo reported on Thursday. The two teams...

The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Félix Tshisekedi, has reached out directly to President Donald J. Trump with a historic proposal: help defeat a brutal rebel force terrorizing his nation, and in return, America will gain direct access to one of the world’s richest untapped troves of critical minerals—worth an estimated $24 trillion. According to a letter obtained by The Wall Street Journal, President Tshisekedi offered Trump exclusive mining opportunities through the newly launched U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund, a Trump-led initiative aimed at reshaping global investment through pro-American partnerships. “Your election has ushered in the golden age...

Norway boosts spending on Ukraine by NOK 50 billion ($4.6 billion) Has benefited from high gas prices Norway lags Nordic neighbours on Ukraine aid OSLO, March 6 (Reuters) - Norway will more than double its financial pledge to Ukraine this year while also hiking its own defence spending, the prime minister said on Thursday, declaring the Nordic country faced its most serious security situation for 80 years. Norway, home to the world's largest sovereign wealth fund with assets of $1.8 trillion, has seen soaring income from gas sales to Europe as a result of Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion, and faces...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said his country won't accept peacekeeping forces from Nato countries in Ukraine under any peace deal, following high-level talks with the US in Saudi Arabia. "Any appearance by armed forces under some other flag does not change anything. It is of course completely unacceptable," he said. Russia and the US said they had agreed to appoint teams to start negotiating the end of the war. "Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey, but an important one", US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said following the meeting. Ukraine was not invited...

TIMECODES 00:00 Trump signs executive order for a U.S. sovereign wealth fund 00:32 The risks of a government-controlled investment fund 01:07 How sovereign wealth funds breed fraud and corruption 02:37 Why politicians have no skin in the game with public funds 03:24 The dangers of unlimited government-controlled capital 05:24 Historical lessons from the Mississippi Bubble 07:00 Could the U.S. sovereign wealth fund trigger hyperinflation? 08:48 The potential benefits of a sovereign wealth fund 10:05 The role of U.S. gold reserves in funding the program 12:14 Challenges in funding and implementing the sovereign wealth fund 13:17 Political greed and the risk...

OSLO (Reuters) - Everyone in Norway became a theoretical crown millionaire on Wednesday in a milestone for the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund that has ballooned thanks to high oil and gas prices. Set up in 1990, the fund owns around 1 percent of the world's stocks, as well as bonds and real estate from London to Boston, making the Nordic nation an exception when others are struggling under a mountain of debts. A preliminary counter on the website of the central bank, which manages the fund, rose to 5.11 trillion crowns ($828.66 billion), fractionally more than a million times...

http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/01/hyperinflation-will-begin-in-china-and.html The conventional wisdom on China is dead wrong. Specifically, there is a widespread belief, as expressed by Goldman Sachs, that "China will keep the yuan trading within a narrow range in 2009 due concerns about exporters." Worse still, others are even predicting that China will devalue its currency! The sheer wishful thinking is astounding! The idea that "China will keep the dollar peg to help its exporters" ranks all the way up there with "Housing prices always go up" and "You can spend your way to prosperity".

IMF urges action on sovereign wealth By John Burton in Singapore and Chris Giles in Davos Published: January 24 2008 21:53 | Last updated: January 24 2008 21:53 Singapore, Norway and Abu Dhabi have been asked by the International Monetary Fund to take the lead in drawing up disclosure benchmarks for sovereign wealth funds, Lee Kuan Yew, the former Singapore prime minister and chairman of one of the world’s biggest sovereign funds, has said. The IMF’s move comes as countries with sovereign wealth funds and recipient states skirmished at the World Economic Forum in Davos over the need for a...