Dollar Falls Sharply in Asian Trading

Looks like the Europeans and Asians will be buying more Linden Dollars
as there home currency can buy more US Dollars.



AP
Dollar Falls Sharply in Asian Trading
Monday April 17, 5:35 am ET
Dollar Falls Sharply Against the Euro and Yen in Asian Trading

TOKYO (AP) -- The dollar fell sharply against the euro and yen in Asia Monday on a media report suggesting that China might reduce its purchases of U.S. Treasury holdings, and amid speculation that U.S. interest rates may have peaked.

The U.S. dollar fell as low as 118 yen at one point before trading at 118.28 yen in Tokyo midafternoon, down 0.36 yen from late Friday in New York. The euro rose to $1.2178 from US$1.2108.

Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, was quoted in a Chinese state-owned newspaper Monday as saying that China should cut the amount of U.S. Treasury bonds it buys.

China has $875.1 billion in foreign currency reserves, much it in Treasuries. A reduction in that amount could undermine the dollar.

Sentiment toward the dollar also took a hit after an article in The Wall Street Journal said not all Fed officials are convinced that much more monetary tightening is required, traders said.

Some dealers say the euro could rise as high as $1.2240 in Asia on the dollar-selling momentum generated by the reports.

The reaction to the reports underlines sensitivity to U.S.-China relations especially ahead of a meeting in Washington between U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Chinese leader Hu Jintao later in the week, traders said. China has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves and is a major investor in U.S. Treasuries.

The Federal Reserve boosted a key interest rate, the federal funds rate, to a five-year high of 4.75 percent, and many analysts expect another rate increase on May 10, the Fed's next meeting.

The European Central Bank has also been raising interest rates. Concerns that more money is flowing around the EU economy led the ECB to raise rates for the first time in five years last December from 2 percent to 2.25 percent, with a second hike in March to 2.5 percent.

The Bank of Japan has said it will start to raise interest rates, although they remain at zero for now -- a measure the central bank took to encourage lending during economic stagnation.

But focus on central banks has still tended to boost the dollar because interest rates in the U.S. are still higher.

The dollar was mixed against other regional currencies, rising to 51.30 Philippine peso from 51.28 the previous day, but slipping to 1.6032 Singapore dollar from 1.6083. It also declined to 37.92 Thai baht from 38.050.

All hail the Euro. I'm already up 19.3/pips since I bought
some Euros at $1.2237. Thanks to the Chinese saying they
are cutting back on buying TNotes, the world is selling Dollars.
Much like SLers are selling L$...

Who needs a job when you can make money trading world
currencies for a living..

Lol RBD...and chuckle as well.

I will trade the Dow for $10 per point via cfd's but even I leave currencies alone....

Read over the weekend that China is intending to allow the Yuan to move again, was mulling to myself about my client commodity holdings in collectives, I love averaging up but should I sell or should I believe those pundits who tell me there could be a 5/20 year bull market in the sector, .... difficult one that.

If you are a trader or experienced private investor RBD I will be interested in your views

By the way....everybody else,...... this has very little to do with Second Life

I'm still bullish on gold. Particularly with this move, I'd expect it to keep moving toward $650+ by year end.

I'm bullish on oats. I bought 4500kg of them back when they were $6.30 per hundredweight. They are now at $6.35 per hundredweight, so I've already made 0.8% return on my investment. If they go up to $6.40, I will have made enough for two very fine cups of chain-store lattes!

I really wish my significant other would stop complaining about the 10 cubic meters of oats in the living room though. Sheesh!

Hell, Gold is over $600oz now. Gold is on fire and the question
one must ask themselves is, "Why"?

Are markets hedging the greenback with Gold?

Gold is a classic hedge against the US dollar falls

RSB..... whats with the St Andrews cross in your signature..... just asking?

Could I interest you in some pork futures?

It mean less Euro per L$

My Heritage.... Why do you ask?

Perthshire, Scotland

Forget about the Euro.. its the good old Queens Head you want! I'm loving buying my L$ cheaper everyday... now when the lack of traffic kicks in I'm a cashing out! WOOT WOOT!! Of yeah, wish I owned oil instead of working for an oil company, although this years bonus should be a whoot! (70.08 and going up!).
x

I don't need to buy L$...
I don't even know what to do with all my L$, so i sell them.

i have around 20000sqm of unused/non-profit land, "almost free-rental".
tons of Avatar, gadget, vehicle, weapons, useless stuff, ...
i gave money to non-profit organization, tips, projects, charity, ...

What would you do if San Francisco was rocked by a
7.9 Earthquake and Linden Labs was wiped off the face of
the earth?

RBD, I'll respect you when it comes to L$vUS$ or Inflation v Deflation, but if your now telling me you can predict the future in Geology...LOL

What you going to do when Florida declares independance from the US? Or when the US go into Iran and all LL peeps get drafted (knowing my luck the UK will be there and I'll be called up as well!).

But I'm willing to put money (as I said I was) that the L$ will slowly grow back to 250L$ish.. Buying at 300 .. sell at 250 means for every 5 transactions I get one free, Its worth the risk and its only costing me a small amount of charges. Although it would move quicker if it was stripend and not dwell! (now we punish those that do something while those on SS (social Security) don't get effected!

Lets assume the L$ is moving higher as of today April 18th, 2006.
If it moves up at the same rate it fell, it won't be until Christmas Time
that you'll see L$250...

But honestly, I don't see any upward movement any time soon.
There are still too many Linden Dollars in Circulation. Well over
half a billion Linden Dollars. That is L$2820 for every man and woman
in SL today...

I asked because from youre posts, Id assumed you were transatlantic, and cause I myself am Scottish.
A great country till the ultra capitalist bitch Thatcher fucked us over.

Maggie did a great job for the Kingdom. She brought jobs and
prosperity to the island. Instead of Socialists dogma that would have
crippled the economy.

Thanks to Maggie, the UK doesn't have the same problems France has.
Be thankful....

Bwahahahahaha

Let me guess, you used to be a member of the National Union of Mineworkers?
Broken like a stick over Maggie's knee...


The Miners' Strike, 1984-85

UK miners' strike (1984-1985)

In 1984, under the leadership of Arthur Scargill, a Marxist, the NUM went on strike in response to the decision by the National Coal Board to close twenty allegedly unproductive pits. The strike lasted a full year, during which there were violent clashes between police and miners, before workers were forced back to work without a deal and was an era-defining moment in British politics. The British coal-mining industry never recovered. Today there are very few mines still left and it is alleged by some that it is only a matter of time before they too are closed.

The effectiveness of the strike was reduced because of over its legal position and the difficulty of measuring miners' support for the action. The membership of the NUM were not formally balloted on strike action. The union had a history of voting by public meeting and an open show of hands, and the leadership presented the law requiring a private ballot as an attack on its right to conduct internal affairs. Critics claimed that a ballot was not taken because the union could not be certain of support for the strike and that the action was illegimate. The lack of a ballot also had implications for the government's powers to counter the strike.

I hated maggie (was too young to vote then) but by god we can look at europe (and maybe the reset of the world) now and go thanks Maggie... Ok the Poll Tax was when she had already lost it! On the other hand she did pick on Scotland like we had the pox!

And if the scottish socialist get any more seats at Hollyrood then I'm outa here!

Damn Socialists...

Agreed with slight reservations.

Gordon Brown has done two good things since he came to office.....he gave the Bank of England control over interest rate settings thus removing political decision making from economics, and he had the sense to apply the £25 billion pound windfall from the 3G telecoms auctions to repay national debt.

Now I wish he would complete the hat trick, and do the third good thing by pissing off -

That is actually a good model that nations should follow when
it comes to Central Banks. Central Banks should be independent
of any political arm of the government. At least when it comes to
setting rates, controlling money supply, etc...

Now if only Linden Labs would give up control over the
Central Bank of SL to its members, life would be grand.

All Citizens could cast 1 vote at quarterly meetings to adjust
the Stipends up or down by 25/pts for Premium and L$5 for Basic
accounts.

Now, if the economy sucks and the general feeling is that stipends
need to be cut back, the "citizens" get to cast their vote accordingly.
And do it in a way which slowly adjusts the pain/gain...

Maybe a April/2006 meeting cuts the Premium to L$475 from L$500.
Then a August Meeting from L$475 to L$450.

Good idea, btw. have you noticed that metals are actualy not moving much, it's the currencies that are declining. Like they've been since The FED (The Foreign Corporate Reserve - their excelent business idea: to profit off useless americans through madman deficit spendings) and the FED's been doing quiet a good job, the US now owes foreign corporations (the international banks that holds all of the FED's stock and receive dividends wich you pay for), once the FED is unable to pay their dividends they don't have much of a choice than printing more dollars into the economy wich will only continue, till the monthly debt payments are totaly unpayable.

And we're getting close... smell these trillions:

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 19 Apr 2006 at 08:28:37 PM GMT is: $8,376,401,385,685.67

The estimated population of the United States is 298,548,223
so each citizen's share of this debt is $28,057.11.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$2.20 billion per day since September 30, 2005!

source: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
Also take a look at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5282521
Prety awesome graph there, Federal debt has risen from $542 billion to more than $8 trillion since 1975. Debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, once at 34.7%, is now above 60%... so what will it be in 2015 ... 260% of GDP ? Would eventualy mean that our grandchildrens grandchildren will still be paying for our govt's gambling games, and this only coninues endlessly since we can't afford this debt we need more, and more more beeing printed. Once debt's percentage of gdp's passes 80-90% theres absolutely no way to fix it longer.
Here are some vital facts...:

------
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks...will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. -Thomas Jefferson

History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance. -James Madison

If congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given them to use themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations. -Andrew Jackson

The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity. -Abraham Lincoln

Despite these warnings, Woodrow Wilson signed the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. A few years later he wrote: I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. -Woodrow Wilson


Wouldn't it be great to get a president again that not only can construct and accomplish a whole sentence, but also tell us about the future the way it is, instead of the way they dream it should be.

The lesson i've learned from life is that: money is good when you receive it on regular basis, but only if you convert it to comodities otherwise you're the loser (i'm not talking short term trading, look at int. currencies over each decade since 1900. Conclusion, the most ineffective and consuming component in our economy is our money, and it's not without reason it is like that.