Raise zeros from the Iraqi currency ...
March 2011
_Raised the proposal to delete the zeros of the Iraqi currency, which was adopted by the CBI, a sensation with government agencies and economic development in Iraq regarding the extent of its implementation, and Alatharwalanekasat currency on the current Iraq under the circumstances faced by the Iraqi economy, in time, who raised the subject of deletion of zeros from the Iraqi currency sensation between the pros and cons about what can be consequent effects in the economic sector, especially the volume of currency in circulation in the Iraqi market estimated at up to 30 trillion dinars.
Where he sees specialists in economic affairs that in the implementation of this proposal serious consequences begin to appear on the market that will occur upon changes in hit and suffer the consumer is the biggest loser of this process, especially if the implementation of the resolution in a sudden and rapid, and this does not mean the absence of optimistic this project and require the Iraqi Central Bank to adopt the implementation of this proposal is progressive and in turn so as not to be the effects of this decision serious consequences on the market and the consumer, and warned of the consequences of the implementation of the proposed rapid and sudden, as well as the proposal to delete the zeros of the Iraqi currency if it is implemented in a sudden and quick decision will have serious implications for the consumer.
_And about the views of opposition to the project to delete the zeros proclaimed defenders that the opponents of the resolution providing justification is unacceptable objectively, by some definitions, one of the axioms of monetary theory, which put in front of senior professors of theory of monetary policy-makers the central bank, such as: that the central bank aimed at the events (they cash) of the public and Sestdrj emotional feelings about the sense of the improved value of the dinar nominal not real, and the right that it is not this argument a large merit by virtue of the availability of scientific expertise and practical cadre developed in the central and this according to the views of advocates for the project raise zeros, In addition, the Proponents argue that raising the zeros will create psychological effect to the citizen through the strengthening of its currency and adopted more widely, rather than foreign currency, which is demand for them as it is the value of the high and the ease in pregnancy and the difficulty of counterfeiting.
Not to mention that the process of lifting of the zeroes will contribute to raise the value of the currency and reduce the rate of demand for hard currency, which is characterized by force and will lead to re-balance between the value of local and foreign currency and give it market power at home and abroad. While oppose the process of lifting of the zeroes believe that the dinar will lose its value and depend on the price index in the local market. Revealing that through the gradual rise of prices would lead to high rates of inflation, so that the bank has to raise zeros will increase prices and rising inflation rate and we have to repeat the same process again.
Therefore Opponents believe the postponement of this process at the moment because it will create confusion in the Iraqi market and will cost the Central Bank of huge amounts of money through the process of drawing, printing, replacement, especially the amount of currency in circulation in the Iraqi market is currently estimated at up to 30 trillion dinars compared to what it was the amount of currency on our web site in 2004 and which $ 4 trillion dinars. Noting that the approach to support market stability and the national currency will be better and more effective than replacing them with new value and other currency
_This has begun to Iraq is witnessing a great and inflation gradually since the outbreak of war with Iran in the early eighties of the last century and the subsequent siege and invasion and zeros have been added as a kind of control on the Iraqi market has led to a doubling of the cash block several times.
_Ilhoud so that there is a split among economists between opposition and supporters of the deletion of the Iraqi national currency Alasfreetn
_And we will try to identify by searching for these divergent views , with the adoption of the view that the process of lifting the zeros need to tan and the development of initial test results before proceeding with implementation, and there is a simple example, we can test the market, a process of converting balances mobile phones from the dollar to the Iraqi dinar .. Here we find that the negative effects caused to a particular category are the agents of foreign companies, while the conversion and to deal in dinars and became a confusion in the discharge process the existence of small currency.
Not to mention the increase zeros are not night and overnight but started since the beginning of the nineties of the last century means that we are dealing, up zeros currency Twenty years ago, and it must be the change gradually rather than abruptly so as not to affect the value of the new currency to be deducted in the local market " . Aim: By identifying the views of specialists in the economic affairs of Iraq, determine the pros and cons of the proposal to delete the zeros from the currency value of the Iraqi National _Research problem:
_Ambiguity effects and implications on the value of the national currency of Iraq, and the price of foreign exchange under the variation and differences in the economic views.
_Hypothesis:
_Inflation in the Iraqi economy in the levels of non-disturbing, than for Aidawa to implement the proposal to delete the zeros, which may cause the increase of demand for goods and services in light of the emergence of the phenomenon of monetary illusion
_First research
_Monetary policy in the face of inflation
_Is the monetary policy pursued by the Central Bank of Iraq after 2004's admired by those interested in economic affairs of Iraq, which contributed to this policy in stabilizing the national currency, which was reflected in the stability of the overall level of prices and low inflation rate of around 50% to 3%, according to statistics from the World Bank Central, and the attic in this section we will discuss the origins and evolution of the national currency and the Iraqi Central Bank and its policy in the face of inflation.
_The first requirement: the origins and evolution of the Iraqi currency
_The national currency is the Iraqi dinar has been the issuance of such national currency for the first time in 1931, the Dinar was at the time equal to (7.32382) of a gram of gold according to the law of the version in the year 1931, and in this period and the period of the previous Iraq was under British control. And the rest of the year 1947, stressing that a state of dependency cash for England, The value of the dinar foreign vary according to the change in value of the pound sterling and regardless of the circumstances and economic conditions and the local cash in Iraq, the most important reasons for this dependency due to political reasons and other economic The first is the subordination of Iraq to control the British colonial and the second in severe economic and trade ties between the two 0 (1)
_In 1959 a new law of the national currency of Iraq, which became under which the dinar currency and monetary union background of the Republic of Iraq (2),equal in value (2.48828) of a gram of pure gold, and this represents progress in breaking the cycle of dependency monetary shift "important and essential to build a monetary system independent Iraqi for international currencies and continued monetary system and banking development in Iraq, that started the Iraqi currency to decline with the wars waged by the political system in Iraq, not to mention the economic blockade as it reached the dollar equivalent of three thousands of dinars, and to higher levels when approaching strike coalition military dictatorship, which ended a 0 and it began a new phase of Iraqi currency, which went through several changes in its history, most recently in 2004 when the former Governing Council replaced the previous currency, which was a symbol of the former regime. To put on new laws to the Bank's work in light of an independent body and mind emerged as the role of the Iraqi Central Bank through Aalajraouat effective and affecting market liquidity (cash basis), namely:
- 1. Auction of foreign currency and where to buy or sell the Iraqi Central Bank of the dollar or to the market in the light of its political objectives.
2. a list of the legal reserve requirements and the banks are in the possession according to customer deposits and any differential levels of deposits with the Central Bank of Iraq, cash in the safes and securities of the Ministry of Finance.
3. facilities exposure of banks that have balances of reserve accounts in the Central Bank of Iraq, but not sufficient to settle the obligations at the end of banking day.
_Hence monetary policy has an important role in maintaining the value of the Iraqi currency
_It may be useful to point out here that what determines the value of the currency is linked to development of the economy as a whole state of scales external deficit or surplus is one of the most important factors as the existence of the old man in the external balances help to lower the value of the currency by increasing the demand for foreign exchange in order to fill the shortfall and obligations and which are in foreign currency this process, "any increase in demand for foreign exchange" is that directly affect the valuation and economic status. Bamahsalp by the currency to strengthen it depends on a combination of factors are in the end, the strengthening and development of the economy and its sectors. Therefore, the zeroes would not be a play to save as much as address the currency in cash.
_The currency has two values value of internal and external value and either foreign currency is the Iraqi dinar exchange rate against foreign currencies, we are currently witnessing the exchange rate stability and a clear value (1170) dinars to the dollar and this stability works to promote investment opportunities and facilitate and strengthen the planning for the future and makes the citizen Mtmona will be busy of any fluctuations in the exchange rate unlike the years before the year 2003, which was changing the exchange rate five times during the day (1)
_But now price of exchange is stable and this is the success of monetary policy in place to bank in the stability of the external value of the Iraqi dinar either at the level of the value of Interior of the dinar is difficult to separate the values of internal and external of the dinar, but the goal is to address the overall level of prices, and this level Homwhrat inflation in the Iraqi economy is to be adopted by the World Bank Central is the basis because the index of consumer prices Deleted Menna fuel prices and some food Kalkhaddr.
_Hence, the bank economist praises Iraqi and policies that have contributed to the stability of the value of the Iraqi currency, the country is enough political problems and security, to the stability of the currency, which contributed to maintain the general level of prices in the consequent social stability, which contributes to economic stability.
http://al-iraqnews.info/new/studies/56519.html
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Iraq Oil ~ Shell, Done Deal ~ Shell To Start Drilling At Iraq Majnoon Oil Field In July ...
March 31, 2011
Shell To Start Drilling At Iraq Majnoon Oil Field In July
Basra, Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) along with its partners, Malaysia's Petronas and the Iraqi state Missan Oil Co., will start drilling the first new well in the super-giant Majnoon oil field in July, a company executive said Thursday.
"Shell is targeting July 2011 to spud the first well," Ole Myklestad, managing director of Shell in Iraq told reporters in Basra. Between 15 and 20 wells will be drilled in Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq and some 27 others will be refurbished to bring output to 175,000 barrels a day by the end of next year from the current 60,000 barrels a day, Myklestad said.
The new wells and the refurbish work is part of an early production plan. The well drilling is part of a contract Shell and its partners signed with U.S. service giant Halliburton Co. (HAL) and the state-run Iraqi Drilling Co. last year.
The executive also said that Shell has opened a new office in Basra to manage its projects in Iraq. The office is to make sure that "we have the human resources and all the supports required by an international company in Basra."
Myklestad said that there are some 300 Iraqis working on the Majnoon project and they are from the state-run South Oil Co. Some 50 Shell expatriate personnel are also working on the project, he said. Shell and Petronas won the right to develop Majnoon oil field, located in Basra governorate in southern Iraq, at an auction held in Baghdad December 2009.
Shells owns 45% of the venture and Petronas 30%, with Iraq's Missan Oil Co. the remaining 25%. Shell also will start constructing a 75 kilometer pipeline to connect Majnoon with the crude oil depots in Faw, as a stop before shipping the crude into vessels in the Gulf.
Myklestad said that Shell and its partner would provide the finance for building the pipeline. The Anglo-Dutch giant is also planning to commence a seismic survey but after clearing mines left from the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war. "We want to get results of a seismic survey in the next two years," he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110331-710198.html
Shell To Start Drilling At Iraq Majnoon Oil Field In July
Basra, Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) along with its partners, Malaysia's Petronas and the Iraqi state Missan Oil Co., will start drilling the first new well in the super-giant Majnoon oil field in July, a company executive said Thursday.
"Shell is targeting July 2011 to spud the first well," Ole Myklestad, managing director of Shell in Iraq told reporters in Basra. Between 15 and 20 wells will be drilled in Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq and some 27 others will be refurbished to bring output to 175,000 barrels a day by the end of next year from the current 60,000 barrels a day, Myklestad said.
The new wells and the refurbish work is part of an early production plan. The well drilling is part of a contract Shell and its partners signed with U.S. service giant Halliburton Co. (HAL) and the state-run Iraqi Drilling Co. last year.
The executive also said that Shell has opened a new office in Basra to manage its projects in Iraq. The office is to make sure that "we have the human resources and all the supports required by an international company in Basra."
Myklestad said that there are some 300 Iraqis working on the Majnoon project and they are from the state-run South Oil Co. Some 50 Shell expatriate personnel are also working on the project, he said. Shell and Petronas won the right to develop Majnoon oil field, located in Basra governorate in southern Iraq, at an auction held in Baghdad December 2009.
Shells owns 45% of the venture and Petronas 30%, with Iraq's Missan Oil Co. the remaining 25%. Shell also will start constructing a 75 kilometer pipeline to connect Majnoon with the crude oil depots in Faw, as a stop before shipping the crude into vessels in the Gulf.
Myklestad said that Shell and its partner would provide the finance for building the pipeline. The Anglo-Dutch giant is also planning to commence a seismic survey but after clearing mines left from the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war. "We want to get results of a seismic survey in the next two years," he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110331-710198.html
Forgiveness: Releasing Your Karmic Bonds ...(suggest viewing video in full width ~ very beautiful) ...
also, make sure to read ~ link ~ Forgiveness ~ Choosing to Overcome Your Desire for Revenge
Forgiveness isn't just an altruistic attribute designed to make you feel good about yourself – it's a prescription for breaking those karmic chains that have been wound around you for many lifetimes.
We've heard all the platitudes about the consequences of not forgiving – it hurts only ourselves, it can make us physically ill – but sometimes we just don't feel forgiving and we want that person who hurt us to feel sorry. We hold onto resentment, even though we realize it's not benefiting our spiritual journey and know it's keeping us from finding love that's nurturing & harmonious. But let's face it: Sometimes human emotion takes center stage and overrides spiritual wisdom; our noble aspiration toward granting forgiveness falls short in the face of our need to dole out a little retribution, so we arm ourselves with enough resentment to use as both a weapon and a cloak of defense. But when resentment and demanding comeuppance are patterned behaviors that repeat themselves over and over, more than likely karmic bonds and not human inclinations are perpetuating our behaviors.
Resentment is a negative energy that will attract us to negative situations, even in our casual relationships. Holding a grudge against a former friend or spreading gossip about that co-worker who treated us unfairly will restrict harmonious interaction in all our relationships. Because we often tend to wrap old hurts around us like a cocoon, we stay cloistered inside that bubble of resentment and lash out at everybody when we feel maligned; we keep emotionally returning to situations that wounded us, falsely believing that if somebody pays for the pain, it will go away. The problem is, it doesn't go away because collecting a debt on emotional injustice doesn't belong to our human existence, it belongs to our soul existence; and the key to releasing the karma attached to our soul is learning to forgive. The difficulty, however, can be figuring out whom to forgive.
Complications within a particular relationship are sometimes the result of karmic debt, but they may also be the result of soul memories from a former life. There's a difference: Karma is a soul debt that has to be repaid; soul memories are subconscious inclinations that motivate behavior based on events that happened in a former life – carryover memories – and these carryover memories can be the culprit that affects all our relationships, regardless of karma. A good way to start releasing karmic bonds and letting go of those soul memories is to call a psychic for a reading and get some help sorting the memories from the actual karmic debt.
It's doubtful you would be able to accomplish this karmic unraveling by yourself; it's like the old saying "You can't see the forest for the trees," because it's almost impossible to separate your own feelings from the facts. Your opinions have been colored by your experiences, thereby making them unreliable. Most psychics will tell you that although they have remarkable accuracy reading for their clients, they don't often read for themselves or close friends and relatives for that very reason. You need a neutral third party who is able to identify the karma without being influenced by familiarity. A psychic provides an insightful and unbiased evaluation about behaviors that may be affecting your relationships.
It may be that a person with whom you're having difficulty continually levied hurt and injustice on you in a previous life, and throughout that lifetime you were unable to forgive. Perhaps in the afterlife evaluation you both agreed to do the relationship again in order for that person to have the choice to change the behavior and to give you the opportunity to experience being forgiving. In this case, your inability to forgive in this life may be keeping the both of you from spiritually progressing. Or maybe in a former life, you were the one who inflicted pain and you agreed to come back and experience being on the receiving end so that your soul could understand the damaging consequences of that behavior.
In both these cases, once you experience the painful disharmony in this life, the karmic debt is paid; you can let go of patterned behavior based on those old hurts and move on without guilt or negative spiritual consequence. Emotional pain can be a powerful imprint that attaches itself to your spiritual energy and follow you for many lifetimes. A psychic helps you recognize and identify the barriers that may be keeping you from finding love that's fulfilling (including self-love, an important element of your spiritual evolution) and will help you release the karma that's affecting your happiness.
Karma has had many lifetimes to wrap its effects around you layer by layer. It must be traced back to its beginning in order to evaluate the consequence it has had on your ability to find love that's balanced and nurturing, and on its perpetuating disharmonious relationships. Clearly, you must have help in deciphering your karmic trail and that's what psychics do – they trace your karma back to its origin and help you unwrap those layers of resentment that have been keeping you under karmic lock and key.
Accepting continual disharmony in your life and harboring resentment about it doesn't equate to forgiveness. You should never stay in a dysfunctional relationship, but you must forgive the actions so that you can spiritually evolve; that doesn't mean you have to feel warm and fuzzy in order to forgive, nor do you have to forget about any injustice done to you; you just have to stop demanding continual payment for it. Forgiveness is a spiritual choice, not an emotional feeling; you don't have to stay buddies with that person who wronged you in order to lighten your karmic load. Choose to forgive, let it go and move on. Your spiritual energy will change to a positive energy and lead you toward harmonious relationships.
Forgiveness is a simple concept that's complicated by karma. Learn how to release those karmic bonds and move your soul up from the karmic dungeon!
http://www.keen.com/documents/works/articles/spiritual/forgiveness-releasing-your-karmic-bonds.asp
Forgiveness isn't just an altruistic attribute designed to make you feel good about yourself – it's a prescription for breaking those karmic chains that have been wound around you for many lifetimes.
We've heard all the platitudes about the consequences of not forgiving – it hurts only ourselves, it can make us physically ill – but sometimes we just don't feel forgiving and we want that person who hurt us to feel sorry. We hold onto resentment, even though we realize it's not benefiting our spiritual journey and know it's keeping us from finding love that's nurturing & harmonious. But let's face it: Sometimes human emotion takes center stage and overrides spiritual wisdom; our noble aspiration toward granting forgiveness falls short in the face of our need to dole out a little retribution, so we arm ourselves with enough resentment to use as both a weapon and a cloak of defense. But when resentment and demanding comeuppance are patterned behaviors that repeat themselves over and over, more than likely karmic bonds and not human inclinations are perpetuating our behaviors.
Resentment is a negative energy that will attract us to negative situations, even in our casual relationships. Holding a grudge against a former friend or spreading gossip about that co-worker who treated us unfairly will restrict harmonious interaction in all our relationships. Because we often tend to wrap old hurts around us like a cocoon, we stay cloistered inside that bubble of resentment and lash out at everybody when we feel maligned; we keep emotionally returning to situations that wounded us, falsely believing that if somebody pays for the pain, it will go away. The problem is, it doesn't go away because collecting a debt on emotional injustice doesn't belong to our human existence, it belongs to our soul existence; and the key to releasing the karma attached to our soul is learning to forgive. The difficulty, however, can be figuring out whom to forgive.
Complications within a particular relationship are sometimes the result of karmic debt, but they may also be the result of soul memories from a former life. There's a difference: Karma is a soul debt that has to be repaid; soul memories are subconscious inclinations that motivate behavior based on events that happened in a former life – carryover memories – and these carryover memories can be the culprit that affects all our relationships, regardless of karma. A good way to start releasing karmic bonds and letting go of those soul memories is to call a psychic for a reading and get some help sorting the memories from the actual karmic debt.
It's doubtful you would be able to accomplish this karmic unraveling by yourself; it's like the old saying "You can't see the forest for the trees," because it's almost impossible to separate your own feelings from the facts. Your opinions have been colored by your experiences, thereby making them unreliable. Most psychics will tell you that although they have remarkable accuracy reading for their clients, they don't often read for themselves or close friends and relatives for that very reason. You need a neutral third party who is able to identify the karma without being influenced by familiarity. A psychic provides an insightful and unbiased evaluation about behaviors that may be affecting your relationships.
It may be that a person with whom you're having difficulty continually levied hurt and injustice on you in a previous life, and throughout that lifetime you were unable to forgive. Perhaps in the afterlife evaluation you both agreed to do the relationship again in order for that person to have the choice to change the behavior and to give you the opportunity to experience being forgiving. In this case, your inability to forgive in this life may be keeping the both of you from spiritually progressing. Or maybe in a former life, you were the one who inflicted pain and you agreed to come back and experience being on the receiving end so that your soul could understand the damaging consequences of that behavior.
In both these cases, once you experience the painful disharmony in this life, the karmic debt is paid; you can let go of patterned behavior based on those old hurts and move on without guilt or negative spiritual consequence. Emotional pain can be a powerful imprint that attaches itself to your spiritual energy and follow you for many lifetimes. A psychic helps you recognize and identify the barriers that may be keeping you from finding love that's fulfilling (including self-love, an important element of your spiritual evolution) and will help you release the karma that's affecting your happiness.
Karma has had many lifetimes to wrap its effects around you layer by layer. It must be traced back to its beginning in order to evaluate the consequence it has had on your ability to find love that's balanced and nurturing, and on its perpetuating disharmonious relationships. Clearly, you must have help in deciphering your karmic trail and that's what psychics do – they trace your karma back to its origin and help you unwrap those layers of resentment that have been keeping you under karmic lock and key.
Accepting continual disharmony in your life and harboring resentment about it doesn't equate to forgiveness. You should never stay in a dysfunctional relationship, but you must forgive the actions so that you can spiritually evolve; that doesn't mean you have to feel warm and fuzzy in order to forgive, nor do you have to forget about any injustice done to you; you just have to stop demanding continual payment for it. Forgiveness is a spiritual choice, not an emotional feeling; you don't have to stay buddies with that person who wronged you in order to lighten your karmic load. Choose to forgive, let it go and move on. Your spiritual energy will change to a positive energy and lead you toward harmonious relationships.
Forgiveness is a simple concept that's complicated by karma. Learn how to release those karmic bonds and move your soul up from the karmic dungeon!
http://www.keen.com/documents/works/articles/spiritual/forgiveness-releasing-your-karmic-bonds.asp
Emboldened Gulf Arabs Speak Out Against Iran & Kuwaiti Gov't Resigned ...
Snip ~ "Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti government resigned on Thursday to avoid a grilling by parliament of three ministers, all members of the ruling al-Sabah family, amid calls for political and economic reform" ...
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sectarian strife has emboldened Sunni Arabs to defy Tehran, experts say
Kuwait recalled its ambassador to Iran, making the second Gulf Arab country to do so in less than two weeks, amid signs that the region’s Sunni governments are growing concerned about alleged Iranian influence in their domestic affairs and acting promptly and publicly to squelch it.
The Kuwaiti action, taken on Wednesday, came less than 24 hours after the country’s criminal court condemned two Iranians and a Kuwaiti to death following their conviction of spying for Iran. Two weeks ago, Bahrain ordered back its ambassador to Tehran and not long afterwards entered into a war of words with the leader of Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shiite movement allied with Iran,, and cut off air links with Lebanon.
"There is much fear of Iranian expansionism," Ali Al-Saffar, an Iraq expert at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told The Media Line. "Whether this fear is true or perceived is debatable." The Gulf lies at fault line between Islam’s Sunni and Shiite sects, with Iran regarding itself as the center of world Shiism. The Arab emirates are ruled by Sunni monarchs, but in Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia, Shiites are a restive minority.
Amid the turmoil across the Middle East, fears of the Gulf’s Arab rulers of an Iranian-led Shiite insurgency have intensified. Arabs and Iranians even dispute the proper name of the Gulf, with Arabs calling it the Arab Gulf and Iranians preferring the term the Persian Gulf. The United Nations officially confirmed the latter in 2006.
The three Kuwaiti men, who served in the army, as well as two others sentenced to life in prison, were accused of transferring photographs, videos and sketches of Kuwaiti and American military installations in Kuwait to Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Muhammad Al-Sabah said that any Iranian diplomat implicated in the alleged spy ring will be banished from the country.
*** Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti government resigned on Thursday to avoid a grilling by parliament of three ministers, all members of the ruling al-Sabah family, amid calls for political and economic reform.
The news service of Al-Watan newspaper, which is owned by a member of the ruling family, said the foreign minister was set to face a question that could "provoke sectarianism."
"The government was ready to face any questioning except that of Saleh Ashour," it said, referring to a Shiite member of parliament. Ashour accused Kuwait's foreign minister of failing to defend Shiite Kuwaiti's against accusations that they funded the Shiite insurrection in Bahrain.
Some 45,000 Iranians live in Kuwait, with significant Iranian nationals in other gulf countries as wall. The Arab monarchs have long feared Iranian expansionism, but usually confined to closed-door diplomatic discourse.
The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Abu-Dhabi had all urged the U.S. to use military force against Iran's nuclear program, diplomatic correspondence revealed last year by the Wikileaks website exposed. Political unrest in Bahrain has acted as a flashpoint for sectarian tensions.
Opposition protestors, led by the disaffected Shiite majority, paralyzed the island kingdom for weeks as they pressed for political reforms before the government called in security forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the so-called Peninsula Shield Force, to restore order. But it also transformed a largely domestic dispute into an international and religious one, analysts say.
"The Iranian response to violence in Bahrain was swift and provocative, followed by similar provocations from Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon," Salman Sheikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center, told The Media Line. "Senior Shiite clerics in Iraq have also spoken out against the repression in Bahrain, including Sheikh Ali Sistani." Al-Saffar said Bahraini leaders traditionally fanned fears of Iranian expansion into their country when speaking to Americans, but never provided any evidence of that.
He said the U.S. feared Iran and Arab regimes took advantage of that to legitimize brutal repression of Shiite opposition. On Wednesday, a Bahraini Shiite Arab leader, ostensibly loyal to Iran, who asked the Islamic republic not to intervene in Bahrain's internal affairs. "We do not want Bahrain to turn into a battleground between Saudi Arabia and Iran," Shiite opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman told reporters Wednesday. "We therefore ask the Saudis to withdraw the Peninsula Shield Force, and Iran no to intervene in the Bahraini matter.”
Concerns about Iran aren’t confined to the Gild emirates. In Iraq, which has been riven by sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiite, lawmaker Haidar Al-Malla called on President Nuri Al-Maliki to cut diplomatic ties with Iran. He criticized "Iran's negative intervention in Iraq," the Iraqi daily Baghdad, affiliated with Iyad Allawi's Al-Iraqiyah bloc, reported Tuesday.
Al-Saffar said the Iran threat is used by Arab leaders to scare Sunni Arabs and increase their sense of an external threat, thereby justifying a tough hand in internal politics. "Iran has taken the mantle from Israel as the regional bogyman," Al-Saffar said.
Kuwaiti columnist Abdullah Al-Hadlaq framed his scathing critique of Iran's foreign policy in ethnic terms, fanning primordial Arab fears of "Persians.” "The media of Tehran's fascist Persian regime didn’t report the uprising of the Syrian people against the Ba’ath regime in Damascus," Al-Hadlaq wrote Wednesday in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan.
"While that dictatorial regime continues to intervene in the affairs of Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Egypt, "Palestine", and the Arab Gulf … it opens fire on its oppositionists and kills many of them and exterminates its people." Sheikh said Iran had reached the zenith of its popularity amongst Arabs in 2007-2008 following Hizbullah's war with Israel, but since that time public opinion, especially in the Gulf, has taken a more negative view of it.
http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=31791
Thursday, March 31, 2011 Sectarian strife has emboldened Sunni Arabs to defy Tehran, experts say
Kuwait recalled its ambassador to Iran, making the second Gulf Arab country to do so in less than two weeks, amid signs that the region’s Sunni governments are growing concerned about alleged Iranian influence in their domestic affairs and acting promptly and publicly to squelch it.
The Kuwaiti action, taken on Wednesday, came less than 24 hours after the country’s criminal court condemned two Iranians and a Kuwaiti to death following their conviction of spying for Iran. Two weeks ago, Bahrain ordered back its ambassador to Tehran and not long afterwards entered into a war of words with the leader of Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shiite movement allied with Iran,, and cut off air links with Lebanon.
"There is much fear of Iranian expansionism," Ali Al-Saffar, an Iraq expert at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told The Media Line. "Whether this fear is true or perceived is debatable." The Gulf lies at fault line between Islam’s Sunni and Shiite sects, with Iran regarding itself as the center of world Shiism. The Arab emirates are ruled by Sunni monarchs, but in Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia, Shiites are a restive minority.
Amid the turmoil across the Middle East, fears of the Gulf’s Arab rulers of an Iranian-led Shiite insurgency have intensified. Arabs and Iranians even dispute the proper name of the Gulf, with Arabs calling it the Arab Gulf and Iranians preferring the term the Persian Gulf. The United Nations officially confirmed the latter in 2006.
The three Kuwaiti men, who served in the army, as well as two others sentenced to life in prison, were accused of transferring photographs, videos and sketches of Kuwaiti and American military installations in Kuwait to Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Muhammad Al-Sabah said that any Iranian diplomat implicated in the alleged spy ring will be banished from the country.
*** Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti government resigned on Thursday to avoid a grilling by parliament of three ministers, all members of the ruling al-Sabah family, amid calls for political and economic reform.
The news service of Al-Watan newspaper, which is owned by a member of the ruling family, said the foreign minister was set to face a question that could "provoke sectarianism."
"The government was ready to face any questioning except that of Saleh Ashour," it said, referring to a Shiite member of parliament. Ashour accused Kuwait's foreign minister of failing to defend Shiite Kuwaiti's against accusations that they funded the Shiite insurrection in Bahrain.
Some 45,000 Iranians live in Kuwait, with significant Iranian nationals in other gulf countries as wall. The Arab monarchs have long feared Iranian expansionism, but usually confined to closed-door diplomatic discourse.
The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Abu-Dhabi had all urged the U.S. to use military force against Iran's nuclear program, diplomatic correspondence revealed last year by the Wikileaks website exposed. Political unrest in Bahrain has acted as a flashpoint for sectarian tensions.
Opposition protestors, led by the disaffected Shiite majority, paralyzed the island kingdom for weeks as they pressed for political reforms before the government called in security forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the so-called Peninsula Shield Force, to restore order. But it also transformed a largely domestic dispute into an international and religious one, analysts say.
"The Iranian response to violence in Bahrain was swift and provocative, followed by similar provocations from Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon," Salman Sheikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center, told The Media Line. "Senior Shiite clerics in Iraq have also spoken out against the repression in Bahrain, including Sheikh Ali Sistani." Al-Saffar said Bahraini leaders traditionally fanned fears of Iranian expansion into their country when speaking to Americans, but never provided any evidence of that.
He said the U.S. feared Iran and Arab regimes took advantage of that to legitimize brutal repression of Shiite opposition. On Wednesday, a Bahraini Shiite Arab leader, ostensibly loyal to Iran, who asked the Islamic republic not to intervene in Bahrain's internal affairs. "We do not want Bahrain to turn into a battleground between Saudi Arabia and Iran," Shiite opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman told reporters Wednesday. "We therefore ask the Saudis to withdraw the Peninsula Shield Force, and Iran no to intervene in the Bahraini matter.”
Concerns about Iran aren’t confined to the Gild emirates. In Iraq, which has been riven by sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiite, lawmaker Haidar Al-Malla called on President Nuri Al-Maliki to cut diplomatic ties with Iran. He criticized "Iran's negative intervention in Iraq," the Iraqi daily Baghdad, affiliated with Iyad Allawi's Al-Iraqiyah bloc, reported Tuesday.
Al-Saffar said the Iran threat is used by Arab leaders to scare Sunni Arabs and increase their sense of an external threat, thereby justifying a tough hand in internal politics. "Iran has taken the mantle from Israel as the regional bogyman," Al-Saffar said.
Kuwaiti columnist Abdullah Al-Hadlaq framed his scathing critique of Iran's foreign policy in ethnic terms, fanning primordial Arab fears of "Persians.” "The media of Tehran's fascist Persian regime didn’t report the uprising of the Syrian people against the Ba’ath regime in Damascus," Al-Hadlaq wrote Wednesday in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan.
"While that dictatorial regime continues to intervene in the affairs of Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Egypt, "Palestine", and the Arab Gulf … it opens fire on its oppositionists and kills many of them and exterminates its people." Sheikh said Iran had reached the zenith of its popularity amongst Arabs in 2007-2008 following Hizbullah's war with Israel, but since that time public opinion, especially in the Gulf, has taken a more negative view of it.
http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=31791
Iraq AK-News Headlines for Thursday, March 31, 2011 (some prior articles included)
Finance
Fishing seasons ends in Kurdistan
Agriculture Ministry announces 420,000 ton date harvest
Basra Fishermen complain of continued harassment from neighboring countries
Four Iraqi provinces participates in mineral investment conference in Karbala
Basra Investment Commission's bid to reduce unemployment
Oil committee casts shadow on Iraq’s forecasted 12m bpd exports
Agriculture ministry imports planes to help rehabilitate Iraq’s palm groves
Opening two new lines of dairy products in Qadisiyah
Compensation for internally displaced Iraqis rose
Turkey central to major Baghdad development projects says provincial council
Politics
Kurdish opposition denies scheduling meetings with ruling parties
Kurdistan’s ruling parties plan second meeting with opposition group
Barzani asks govt to bring protest culprits to justice
KBC backs moves to augment provincial council powers
Maliki: reconciliation in Tal Afar was delayed due to terrorism
Conference to address problems between local govt and Iraqi federal govt.
Bolani calls Maliki to protect scientific competencies from assassinations
PM’s nominee for Defense ministry faces stern opposition
Kurdistan ruling parties meet again with opposition today
Kirkuk assings new governor and council chairman
France, US call for flexible exchange rates at G20 ...
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (C) and China's Vice Premier Wang Qishan (R) greet participants at the opening a one-day meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G20 nations in Nanjing on March 31, 2010.
Thursday, March 31,2011
France, US call for flexible exchange rates at G20
NANJING, China, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday called for more flexible exchange rate regimes as G20 nations met on global monetary reform in China.
The pair, speaking at the start of the talks in the eastern city of Nanjing, also urged a widening of the basket of currencies underlying the IMF's international reserve asset, while keeping the dollar and euro stable.
The West wants to see the yuan become part of the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket as part of its efforts to prod Beijing into opening up its tightly managed and controversial currency regime. "It's clear we must move towards a more flexible exchange rate system that would allow the world to absorb shocks.
But this system cannot evolve without rules, coordination and oversight, or instability will prevail," Sarkozy said. Geithner echoed his comments, saying the gap between flexible and managed exchange rate policies -- and the problems such a divide creates -- was "the most important problem to solve in the international monetary system today".
"This asymmetry in exchange rate policies creates a lot of tension," Geithner said, noting that it "magnifies upward pressure" in emerging markets with flexible exchange rates and "intensifies inflation risk in those emerging economies with undervalued exchange rates" -- a clear reference to China.
The one-day seminar -- bringing together ministers and central bankers from the world's leading economies, as well as a select group of academics -- has been organised by France, which holds the Group of 20's rotating presidency. The meeting, which comes as the global recovery faces major hurdles such as Japan's quake-tsunami disaster and the ongoing eurozone debt woes, aims to hone in on key ways to reform the monetary system.
China had ruled out any discussion of its tightly managed exchange rate regime despite ongoing criticism that the yuan is massively undervalued, giving its exporters an unfair trade advantage, but the issue nevertheless surfaced.
Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan vowed Beijing would "work with the rest of the international community" to ensure the "economic order will move towards a just and equitable and win-win direction". Sarkozy called on the G20 to agree on a timetable for widening a basket of currencies determining the value of the SDR, which now only includes the dollar, euro, yen and pound.
"Isn't it time to agree on a calendar for the expansion of the SDR basket to new currencies from emerging nations such as the yuan?" Sarkozy said. "We must support the inevitable internationalisation of the world's major currencies," he added. "This of course does not mean calling into question the crucial roles of the dollar and euro, which must remain stable."
Geithner said the United States supports "reforms to change the composition of the SDR", adding that those countries whose currencies eventually become part of the SDR basket "should have flexible exchange rate systems". Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Mundell agreed, telling reporters that an expansion would enable the IMF to "help Europe more and other countries that are in financial difficulties."
In a meeting between Sarkozy and Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday in Beijing, Chinese authorities said they supported a "heightening of the internationalisation of the yuan," a French official said. But the Chinese side also said there was "some way to go" before the yuan could be integrated into the SDR basket, according to the French source.
Including the yuan in the basket would "entail a hefty appreciation" of the unit and China is "unlikely to be able to stomach the necessary steps", Alistair Thornton, a Beijing-based analyst for IHS Global Insight.
The conference was to feature closed-door group sessions on global capital flows -- which emerging economies including China say are fuelling inflation and driving up the value of their currencies -- and a speech from IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Aides close to Sarkozy have said that no concrete decisions are expected from the seminar. At a meeting in Paris in February, the G20 agreed to a set of indicators to measure economic imbalances between surplus exporters such as China and nations with structural deficits such as the United States.
In Nanjing, though, such imbalances "will not be at the centre of discussions," one Western diplomat said earlier.
Iraqiya, Allawi ~ Future of Iraq's non-sectarian bloc in doubt and What about the Nat'l Council for Strategic Policies ...
March 31, 2011 Future of Iraq's non-sectarian bloc in doubt
Baghdad, A decision by former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to refuse a post in Iraq's government has cast doubt over the future of his non-sectarian political bloc a year after it won the most seats in parliament.
Some analysts say Allawi is facing the fact his attempt to lever Iraq out of sectarian-based government is doomed to fail.
Allawi's Iraqiya is the only big political bloc in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq that enjoys support across sectarian and ethnic divides. It won 91 of parliament's 325 seats last year, but failed to build a coalition to unseat Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
When it became clear that Maliki, a Shi'ite from a party with religious roots, had cobbled together enough support to stay in power, Iraqiya agreed to join the governing coalition. Allawi was offered the post of head of a national advisory body, but this month he rejected it, saying it lacked real power.
Iraq's politicians are looking ahead to a June deadline set by Maliki last month after street protests, for members of his new cabinet to show results or be sacked. Only then will the final makeup of Iraq's government become clear.
Allawi's decision has left his bloc split, with some members enjoying the perks of power and others, like Allawi himself, seeming more comfortable in opposition. Eight Iraqiya lawmakers say they are leaving the group and other defections are expected.
Seven of the eight are Shi'ites. They complain the bloc is losing its non-sectarian character and becoming a vehicle for Sunnis, setting back its goal of bridging the divides in Iraq that fuelled eight years of war.
Allawi, who briefly ran Iraq under a U.S.-installed interim administration from 2004-05, is himself a Shi'ite. But the bloc earned much of its support from Sunnis who felt excluded from a government dominated by overtly Shi'ite and Kurdish groups.
Under the new coalition deal hammered out in December -- nine months after the election -- Iraqiya was mostly given posts reserved for Sunnis in the previous government. Most of those jobs went to figures who joined Iraqiya from Sunni factions.
"The bloc lost its secular character when it accepted joining the government on a sectarian basis, not secular," said Hassan al-Alawi, one of the Shi'ite lawmaker's who quit Iraqiya. _"Look at the top posts that were given to the bloc. They are the same as the ones given to the Sunni Accordance bloc in the election of 2005."
SETBACK
Allawi remains Iraqiya's leader for now, but he lacks the clout that would come from an official post such as that of Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, a veteran Sunni politician who folded his National Dialogue Front into Iraqiya.
Allawi himself is often abroad, and critics see him as little engaged in the day-to-day wrangling of Iraqi politics.
The walkout by eight members has set Allawi's non-sectarian project back and shows his own role weakening, but does not necessarily hurt Iraqiya, said Yahya al-Kubaisy, an Amman-based researcher for the Iraqi Center For Strategic Studies.
"This withdrawal has weakened Allawi, rather than the Iraqiya bloc. Those lawmakers who withdrew are from Allawi's faction. In practical terms, Allawi is no longer the most powerful figure inside the bloc. He is still the head of it, but this only gives him moral authority inside the bloc," he said.
In a move that made political waves, Allawi travelled this month to Najaf to meet anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose decision to support Maliki for a second term proved decisive in last year's scramble to form a government.
Some Iraqiya lawmakers have suggested Allawi could seek to lure Sadr into opposition at the end of the prime minister's 100-day deadline and expected cabinet shakeup in June.
An alliance with Sadr, whose now-suspended Mehdi Army militia was one of the most feared forces at the height of sectarian fighting, hardly seems like a step forward for Allawi's dream of a non-sectarian basis for Iraqi politics.
Kubaisy said Allawi was simply coming up against reality.
"Maybe he is starting to realise that the Iraqi political scene is still governed on a sectarian basis. And any manoeuvre out of this basis will certainly fail."
( http://en.news.maktoob.com/20090000663108/Future_of_Iraq_s_non-sectarian_bloc_in_doubt/Article.htm
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
G20 ~ Different reform agendas at China forum
NWO? ~ Snip~ "The meeting in the eastern city of Nanjing is billed as a seminar to air ideas, not to take decisions. In that spirit, Sarkozy asked whether it was not time to broaden the Group of Seven industrial countries, one of whose principal purposes is to Police the Global Currency Markets"
Sarkozy (L) and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan attend the opening of the G20 seminar on the international monetary system, in Nanjing, Jiangsu province March 31, 2011.
March 30, 2011
G20 lays bare different reform agendas at China forum
NANJING, China pushed back on Thursday against pressure from Paris and Washington for swift reform of a global monetary system that French President Nicolas Sarkozy said is so unstable that it could tip the world economy back into crisis.
The diverging views, on display at the start of a meeting of the Group of 20 leading economies, underscored the difficulty Sarkozy faces to meet his goal of drafting a blueprint for the overhaul of the global monetary order by the end of the year.
"Without rules, the international monetary and financial system is incapable of forestalling crises, financial bubbles and the widening of imbalances," Sarkozy told a gathering of finance ministers, central bankers and prominent academics. "Without rules and supervision, the world runs the risk of being condemned to increasingly serious and severe crises." France is the chairman this year of the G20, which brings together developed and emerging economies accounting for some 85 percent of global output.
Beijing, despite being asked to host the forum, has not shown great enthusiasm for the initiative or for Sarkozy's broad plans for reform. China fears the thinly veiled aim is to force it to let the yuan trade more freely and to dismantle its capital controls more quickly than it wants to.
"The reform process will be long-term and complex," Chinese Vice-Premier said in his opening remarks.
TALKING SHOP - The meeting in the eastern city of Nanjing is billed as a seminar to air ideas, not to take decisions. In that spirit, Sarkozy asked whether it was not time to broaden the Group of Seven industrial countries, one of whose principal purposes is to police the global currency markets.
The group reasserted its role earlier this month when G7 central banks acted in concert to sell the yen. In doing so, it reversed a surge in the currency that threatened to deepen the damage to Japan's economy, already reeling from a devastating earthquake on March 11.
A senior German official, who declined to be identified, said Berlin was also in favor of currency questions being addressed by a broader group than the G7, perhaps incorporating the four BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China -- along with Mexico.
But U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner questioned whether an international effort was really needed to cure the ills in the global monetary system.
Inconsistency in exchange rate policies was the biggest flaw, he said. Without naming China, he noted that some emerging countries ran tightly managed currency regimes that fueled inflation risks in their own economies, magnified appreciation pressures in others and also generated calls for protectionism.
"This asymmetry in exchange rate policies creates a lot of tension," Geithner said. "This is the most important problem to solve in the international monetary system today." But he said the solution was not complicated. "It does not require a new treaty, or a new institution. It can be achieved by national actions to follow through on the work we have already begun in the G20 to promote more balanced growth and address excessive imbalances," he said.
AT OUR PACE Wang, the Chinese vice-premier, said Beijing was indeed taking steps to wean its economy off exports by boosting domestic demand. He was speaking shortly after the People's Bank of China, the central bank, let the yuan rise to its strongest level yet against the dollar since it allowed the Chinese currency to resume climbing higher last June.
The yuan has gained more than 4 percent against the U.S. currency in the interim, somewhat dampening U.S. complaints about the way Beijing manages the currency. But senior Chinese academics echoed Wang in stressing that Beijing would change at a pace of its own choosing. Reform of the global monetary system must be gradual and China's priority is to avoid an abrupt fall in the dollar, said Li Daokui, an academic adviser to the Chinese central bank who is attending the seminar.
Sarkozy, who later left for Japan, floated the idea of letting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) float bonds on the global capital markets. In his audience was the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is widely expected to run for president against Sarkozy next year.
Sarkozy also suggested it was time to lay out a timetable for emerging currencies like the yuan to become part of the IMF's Special Drawing Right (SDR). The SDR, a quasi-currency used as the Fund's unit of account, is currently composed of the dollar, euro, yen and sterling. Economists say that adding the yuan to the basket would make it more representative and credible and could set the stage for the SDR to play a greater role as an international reserve asset in future, thus giving countries an alternative to accumulating huge reserves of dollars. Although China regularly voices criticism of U.S. monetary policies and the dominance of the dollar, it has acted cautiously as France has ratcheted up the calls for global monetary reform.
In talks with Sarkozy on Wednesday, Chinese President Hu Jintao said only that his government was willing to "strengthen communication and coordination" with France ahead of the main G20 summit later in November. Beijing's caution stems, in large part, from being the country with the most to lose should the dollar suddenly lose its status as the anchor of the global economy.
China has the world's biggest pile of foreign reserves, $2.85 trillion and rising, and about two-thirds are estimated to be held in dollar-denominated assets.
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre72u0ln-us-g20/
Sarkozy (L) and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan attend the opening of the G20 seminar on the international monetary system, in Nanjing, Jiangsu province March 31, 2011. March 30, 2011
G20 lays bare different reform agendas at China forum
NANJING, China pushed back on Thursday against pressure from Paris and Washington for swift reform of a global monetary system that French President Nicolas Sarkozy said is so unstable that it could tip the world economy back into crisis.
The diverging views, on display at the start of a meeting of the Group of 20 leading economies, underscored the difficulty Sarkozy faces to meet his goal of drafting a blueprint for the overhaul of the global monetary order by the end of the year.
"Without rules, the international monetary and financial system is incapable of forestalling crises, financial bubbles and the widening of imbalances," Sarkozy told a gathering of finance ministers, central bankers and prominent academics. "Without rules and supervision, the world runs the risk of being condemned to increasingly serious and severe crises." France is the chairman this year of the G20, which brings together developed and emerging economies accounting for some 85 percent of global output.
Beijing, despite being asked to host the forum, has not shown great enthusiasm for the initiative or for Sarkozy's broad plans for reform. China fears the thinly veiled aim is to force it to let the yuan trade more freely and to dismantle its capital controls more quickly than it wants to.
"The reform process will be long-term and complex," Chinese Vice-Premier said in his opening remarks.
TALKING SHOP - The meeting in the eastern city of Nanjing is billed as a seminar to air ideas, not to take decisions. In that spirit, Sarkozy asked whether it was not time to broaden the Group of Seven industrial countries, one of whose principal purposes is to police the global currency markets.
The group reasserted its role earlier this month when G7 central banks acted in concert to sell the yen. In doing so, it reversed a surge in the currency that threatened to deepen the damage to Japan's economy, already reeling from a devastating earthquake on March 11.
A senior German official, who declined to be identified, said Berlin was also in favor of currency questions being addressed by a broader group than the G7, perhaps incorporating the four BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China -- along with Mexico.
But U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner questioned whether an international effort was really needed to cure the ills in the global monetary system.
Inconsistency in exchange rate policies was the biggest flaw, he said. Without naming China, he noted that some emerging countries ran tightly managed currency regimes that fueled inflation risks in their own economies, magnified appreciation pressures in others and also generated calls for protectionism.
"This asymmetry in exchange rate policies creates a lot of tension," Geithner said. "This is the most important problem to solve in the international monetary system today." But he said the solution was not complicated. "It does not require a new treaty, or a new institution. It can be achieved by national actions to follow through on the work we have already begun in the G20 to promote more balanced growth and address excessive imbalances," he said.
AT OUR PACE Wang, the Chinese vice-premier, said Beijing was indeed taking steps to wean its economy off exports by boosting domestic demand. He was speaking shortly after the People's Bank of China, the central bank, let the yuan rise to its strongest level yet against the dollar since it allowed the Chinese currency to resume climbing higher last June.
The yuan has gained more than 4 percent against the U.S. currency in the interim, somewhat dampening U.S. complaints about the way Beijing manages the currency. But senior Chinese academics echoed Wang in stressing that Beijing would change at a pace of its own choosing. Reform of the global monetary system must be gradual and China's priority is to avoid an abrupt fall in the dollar, said Li Daokui, an academic adviser to the Chinese central bank who is attending the seminar.
Sarkozy, who later left for Japan, floated the idea of letting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) float bonds on the global capital markets. In his audience was the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is widely expected to run for president against Sarkozy next year.
Sarkozy also suggested it was time to lay out a timetable for emerging currencies like the yuan to become part of the IMF's Special Drawing Right (SDR). The SDR, a quasi-currency used as the Fund's unit of account, is currently composed of the dollar, euro, yen and sterling. Economists say that adding the yuan to the basket would make it more representative and credible and could set the stage for the SDR to play a greater role as an international reserve asset in future, thus giving countries an alternative to accumulating huge reserves of dollars. Although China regularly voices criticism of U.S. monetary policies and the dominance of the dollar, it has acted cautiously as France has ratcheted up the calls for global monetary reform.
In talks with Sarkozy on Wednesday, Chinese President Hu Jintao said only that his government was willing to "strengthen communication and coordination" with France ahead of the main G20 summit later in November. Beijing's caution stems, in large part, from being the country with the most to lose should the dollar suddenly lose its status as the anchor of the global economy.
China has the world's biggest pile of foreign reserves, $2.85 trillion and rising, and about two-thirds are estimated to be held in dollar-denominated assets.
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre72u0ln-us-g20/
Full Text: Geithner’s Remarks at G-20 Currency Conference ...
March 31, 2011 Full Text: Geithner’s Remarks at G-20 Currency Conference
Link ~ http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/03/31/full-text-geithner%E2%80%99s-remarks-at-g-20-currency-conference/?mod=google_news_blog
Divisions on global monetary reform exposed at China G20 ...
Thursday, March 31, 2011Divisions on global monetary reform exposed at China G20
NANJING, China - Opposing views about how to reform the global monetary system were laid bare at a meeting of the top 20 economies on Thursday, with France setting out a bold agenda, China warning that change must be gradual and the United States saying the solution was simple.
Finance ministers, central bankers and academics from the Group of 20 wealthy and developing economies gathered in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing to discuss how to improve the international currency order so that it can provide a more solid foundation for the global economy.
The forum was meant to be a cornerstone of France's year-long chairmanship of the G20, with President Nicolas Sarkozy presenting an ambitious agenda for revamping the global monetary system. But Beijing, despite being asked to host the forum, has not shown enthusiasm for it or for Sarkozy's broad plans during his government's presidency of the G20.
"Global monetary reforms should be carried out in a pro-active and gradual way. The reform process will be a long-term and complex process," Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said in his opening remarks.
Sarkozy called for a broadening of the G7 group of nations that monitors currency markets and reform of the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bring more stability to the global economy. He also suggested it was time to lay out a timetable for emerging currencies like China's yuan to enter the IMF's Special Drawing Right (SDR) in recognition of their growing role in the world economy.
But the United States questioned whether such an international effort was really needed to cure the ills in the global monetary system.
U.S.Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said inconsistency in exchange rate policies was the biggest flaw.
In a thinly veiled reference to China, he noted that some emerging countries ran tightly managed currency regimes that fuelled inflation risks in their own economies, magnified appreciation pressures in others and also generated calls for protectionism.
"This is the most important problem to solve in the international monetary system today," he said, according to the prepared text of his remarks. "But it is not a complicated problem to solve. It does not require a new treaty, or a new institution. It can be achieved by national actions."
CAUTIOUS CHINA
Although China regularly voices criticism of U.S. monetary policies and the dominance of the dollar, it has acted cautiously as France has ratcheted up the calls for global monetary reform. In Hu Jintao's talks with Sarkozy on Wednesday, the Chinese leader said only that his government was willing to "strengthen communication and coordination" with France ahead of the main G20 summit later this year.
The Chinese government has also emphasised that France is the organiser of the Nanjing seminar and China simply the venue. It has insisted that a small think tank headed by a retired vice-premier is responsible for the Chinese side of the planning. Beijing's caution stems, in large part, from being the country with the most to lose should the dollar suddenly lose its status as the anchor of the global economy.
China has the world's biggest pile of foreign reserves and about two-thirds are estimated to be held in dollar-denominated assets. Reform of the global monetary system must be gradual and the main thing China wants to avoid is rapid dollar depreciation, Li Daokui, an academic adviser to the Chinese central bank, said on Thursday on the sidelines of the G20 seminar.
http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=reutersnews&articleid=TRE72U0LZ&feed=Bus&action=article
In a thinly veiled reference to China, he noted that some emerging countries ran tightly managed currency regimes that fuelled inflation risks in their own economies, magnified appreciation pressures in others and also generated calls for protectionism.
"This is the most important problem to solve in the international monetary system today," he said, according to the prepared text of his remarks. "But it is not a complicated problem to solve. It does not require a new treaty, or a new institution. It can be achieved by national actions."
CAUTIOUS CHINA
Although China regularly voices criticism of U.S. monetary policies and the dominance of the dollar, it has acted cautiously as France has ratcheted up the calls for global monetary reform. In Hu Jintao's talks with Sarkozy on Wednesday, the Chinese leader said only that his government was willing to "strengthen communication and coordination" with France ahead of the main G20 summit later this year.
The Chinese government has also emphasised that France is the organiser of the Nanjing seminar and China simply the venue. It has insisted that a small think tank headed by a retired vice-premier is responsible for the Chinese side of the planning. Beijing's caution stems, in large part, from being the country with the most to lose should the dollar suddenly lose its status as the anchor of the global economy.
China has the world's biggest pile of foreign reserves and about two-thirds are estimated to be held in dollar-denominated assets. Reform of the global monetary system must be gradual and the main thing China wants to avoid is rapid dollar depreciation, Li Daokui, an academic adviser to the Chinese central bank, said on Thursday on the sidelines of the G20 seminar.
http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=reutersnews&articleid=TRE72U0LZ&feed=Bus&action=article
Articles of Interest for Thursday, March 31st - April 3rd - Will Update ...
On March 31st ~ Kuwait government set to quit over questioning: sources ...
Fed to Release Sensitve Lending Data on Thursday, March 31st ...
Tomorrow, Thursday, March 31st ~ G-20 meeting will be held in Nanjing, China ...
Thursday G20 Meeting ~ IMF's SDR's (Special Drawing Rights) March 31st G20 Topic ...
What will April Bring? Global Monetary Change? Currency Revaluations? Maybe?
Iraq And WTO ~ April 7th or before ~ WTO and Iraq ... Has Iraq Been Accepted into the WTO? ...
BE ADVISED ~ Radioactive particles to be concentrated over Midwest on April 1, 2
*** Iraq, Tomorrow, Thursday, March 31st, Parliament ~ 3 Presidencies Reduce Salaries and Review National Oil Law ...
Thanks bama for this article ...
Agencies - parliamentary source, on Wednesday, the House of Representatives will be discussed during a meeting on Thursday the second reading of the Law of the reduction of salaries and allowances of the three presidencies and the draft legal rules of procedure and the national oil company.
The source said that "the House of Representatives will discuss at its 48, which will be held on Thursday, the second reading of the law to reduce the salaries of the three presidencies and vice-chairmen and deputy ministers and their grade and the monthly emoluments of the President of the House of Representatives and his deputies and members of the House of Representatives." The source, who asked not to be named, said:
"The meeting will also see the first reading of the draft legal rules of procedure of Parliament and the Iraqi National Oil Company." And raising the Iraqi Council of Representatives, on Tuesday, a session of Parliament 47, the day on Thursday, after the completion of the first reading of the draft Law on the Ministry of Education and the second reading of the proposed law on financial control, and a majority vote to consider the suppression of the popular uprising in 1991 a crime against humanity.
The Iraqi Council of Representatives voted, in the 12 of March current, through its 41 Act reduce the salaries of the three presidencies in principle.
March 30, 2011
House of Representatives discusses the rules of procedure and law to reduce the salaries of the three presidencies on Thursday
Agencies - parliamentary source, on Wednesday, the House of Representatives will be discussed during a meeting on Thursday the second reading of the Law of the reduction of salaries and allowances of the three presidencies and the draft legal rules of procedure and the national oil company.
The source said that "the House of Representatives will discuss at its 48, which will be held on Thursday, the second reading of the law to reduce the salaries of the three presidencies and vice-chairmen and deputy ministers and their grade and the monthly emoluments of the President of the House of Representatives and his deputies and members of the House of Representatives." The source, who asked not to be named, said:
"The meeting will also see the first reading of the draft legal rules of procedure of Parliament and the Iraqi National Oil Company." And raising the Iraqi Council of Representatives, on Tuesday, a session of Parliament 47, the day on Thursday, after the completion of the first reading of the draft Law on the Ministry of Education and the second reading of the proposed law on financial control, and a majority vote to consider the suppression of the popular uprising in 1991 a crime against humanity.
The Iraqi Council of Representatives voted, in the 12 of March current, through its 41 Act reduce the salaries of the three presidencies in principle.
Fed to Release Sensitve Lending Data on Thursday, March 31st ...
March 29, 2011 Fed to release sensitve lending data on March 31
Washington - The Federal Reserve will release the identity of commercial banks who received emergency loans during the peak of the financial crisis in 2008 on Thursday, a spokesman for the central bank said Tuesday.
The release complies with a federal appeals court decision from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Bloomberg LP's Bloomberg News. Last week, the Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal filed by a trade group of large banks.
All of the data relates to borrowing at the Fed's discount window, the short-term lending facility for banks facing imminent liquidity concerns.
The material spans the period from August 8, 2007 until March 1 2010.
Tomorrow, Thursday, March 31st ~ G-20 meeting will be held in Nanjing, China ...
related article ~ China says forex policy not on G20 seminar agenda
March 15, 2011
BEIJING - The exchange rate of China's currency will not be on the agenda when a G-20 meeting is held in Nanjing at the end of the month, a Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.
The Group of 20 seminar on March 31 will be opened by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and will discuss ideas on revamping the global monetary system.
China has been under international pressure to allow a faster rise in its tightly controlled currency but Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the seminar will discuss only international monetary reform.
The renminbi "exchange rate issue is not on the agenda," she said. Renminbi is the official name for the currency, which is commonly referred to as the yuan.
The meeting will be attended by cabinet ministers and central bank governors from some G-20 countries. Sarkozy has made monetary reform one of his goals during France's G-20 presidency.
Beijing faces pressure from Washington and other trading partners to ease currency controls that they say keeps the yuan undervalued, giving China's exporters an unfair price advantage and swelling its multibillion-dollar trade surplus.
Earlier this week, China's premier Wen Jiabao ruled out allowing a faster rise in the yuan to cool surging inflation, saying Beijing has to consider the impact on Chinese companies and jobs.
Analysts say allowing the yuan to rise faster against the dollar could cool prices by making oil and other imports cheaper in Chinese currency terms. Beijing has restrained the yuan's rise since the 2008 global crisis to help exporters that employ millions of workers compete abroad.
"The appreciation of the Chinese currency should be a gradual process, because we must bear in mind its impact on Chinese businesses and our employment situation," Wen told a news conference Monday at the closing of China's annual legislature session.
Nanjing, which is close to Shanghai, is one of China's biggest business cities.
March 15, 2011March 31st ~ G-20 meeting will be held in Nanjing, China
BEIJING - The exchange rate of China's currency will not be on the agenda when a G-20 meeting is held in Nanjing at the end of the month, a Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.
The Group of 20 seminar on March 31 will be opened by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and will discuss ideas on revamping the global monetary system.
China has been under international pressure to allow a faster rise in its tightly controlled currency but Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the seminar will discuss only international monetary reform.
The renminbi "exchange rate issue is not on the agenda," she said. Renminbi is the official name for the currency, which is commonly referred to as the yuan.
The meeting will be attended by cabinet ministers and central bank governors from some G-20 countries. Sarkozy has made monetary reform one of his goals during France's G-20 presidency.
Beijing faces pressure from Washington and other trading partners to ease currency controls that they say keeps the yuan undervalued, giving China's exporters an unfair price advantage and swelling its multibillion-dollar trade surplus.
Earlier this week, China's premier Wen Jiabao ruled out allowing a faster rise in the yuan to cool surging inflation, saying Beijing has to consider the impact on Chinese companies and jobs.
Analysts say allowing the yuan to rise faster against the dollar could cool prices by making oil and other imports cheaper in Chinese currency terms. Beijing has restrained the yuan's rise since the 2008 global crisis to help exporters that employ millions of workers compete abroad.
"The appreciation of the Chinese currency should be a gradual process, because we must bear in mind its impact on Chinese businesses and our employment situation," Wen told a news conference Monday at the closing of China's annual legislature session.
Nanjing, which is close to Shanghai, is one of China's biggest business cities.
AP
Thursday G20 Meeting ~ IMF's SDR's (Special Drawing Rights) March 31st G20 Topic ...
March 30, 2011
G20 meet to highlight China's world finance role
NANJING, China French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is chairing the G-20 this year, made a brief stop in Beijing on Wednesday evening in an effort to soothe China's anger over U.S. and European airstrikes aimed at enforcing a U.N. no-fly zone over strife-torn Libya.
After attending Thursday's meeting, G-20 "seminar", of central bank governors and cabinet ministers on monetary issues in Nanjing, Sarkozy flies to Tokyo. There he will offer support for Japan's effort to resolve a nuclear reactor crisis and overcome the destruction wrought by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which killed at least 11,000 people and left many thousands more missing.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his Chinese counterpart Vice Premier Wang Qishan, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and World Bank President Robert Zoellick also are attending.
Beijing has ruled out any major discussion of its own currency policies viewed by Washington and other trading partners as a key factor in global economic imbalances at the Nanjing meeting, saying the gathering is unofficial and informal and that its exchange rate policies are not on the agenda.
But disagreements over currencies and monetary policies are bound to shape the talks even if only indirectly, analysts said. "There are differences of opinion between developed countries and developing countries over monetary issues," said Zhang Xinfa, an economist at Galaxy Securities in Beijing, pointing to the stimulus-oriented policies in the U.S., Japan and Europe that Beijing has said are helping drive inflation in commodity and asset prices.
"That is why they have fundamental differences over the future trend of exchange rates," Zhang said. Sarkozy's office said the goal of the talks was to establish a common diagnosis of the current situation and outline reforms the G-20 could launch at its summit in Cannes in November.
Days ahead of the Nanjing meeting, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other top economic policymakers urged the world's most powerful economies to seal a "global growth pact" to fight unemployment.
Speaking at a panel debating the very relevance of the G-20 grouping of major industrialized and developing nations, Brown said the group is challenged over whether it can foster prosperity both for poorer nations in the Middle East and North Africa as well as more established economies in America and Europe.
During Brown's tenure heading the G-20 in 2009, the group made progress on forging tighter financial regulations to help prevent a recurrence of the meltdowns in housing markets that brought on the global financial crisis.
France has made reform of the global monetary system a focal point for its yearlong presidency of the G-20, along with reducing economic imbalances and volatility in commodity prices. China and key emerging economies, meanwhile, are keen to see changes that might reduce their own reliance on volatile dollar-denominated assets.
One option championed by Beijing would be the use of SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights, a quasi-currency used by the IMF in its dealings with member governments, as an international reserve currency.
China has suggested using SDRs as a substitute for the dominant U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency. Beijing has invested more than $800 billion of its $2 trillion in foreign reserves in U.S. Treasuries but is uneasy about the dollar's stability and says the world financial system should be more diversified.
During recent talks in Paris, G-20 finance chiefs appeared close to agreement on tracking dangerous imbalances in the global economy by monitoring several key indicators: current accounts, real effective exchange rates, currency reserves and public and private debt levels.
China, however, has opposed focusing on exchange rates due to its resistance to letting its own currency, the yuan, appreciate against the dollar.
G20 meet to highlight China's world finance role
NANJING, China French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is chairing the G-20 this year, made a brief stop in Beijing on Wednesday evening in an effort to soothe China's anger over U.S. and European airstrikes aimed at enforcing a U.N. no-fly zone over strife-torn Libya.
After attending Thursday's meeting, G-20 "seminar", of central bank governors and cabinet ministers on monetary issues in Nanjing, Sarkozy flies to Tokyo. There he will offer support for Japan's effort to resolve a nuclear reactor crisis and overcome the destruction wrought by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which killed at least 11,000 people and left many thousands more missing.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his Chinese counterpart Vice Premier Wang Qishan, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and World Bank President Robert Zoellick also are attending.
Beijing has ruled out any major discussion of its own currency policies viewed by Washington and other trading partners as a key factor in global economic imbalances at the Nanjing meeting, saying the gathering is unofficial and informal and that its exchange rate policies are not on the agenda.
But disagreements over currencies and monetary policies are bound to shape the talks even if only indirectly, analysts said. "There are differences of opinion between developed countries and developing countries over monetary issues," said Zhang Xinfa, an economist at Galaxy Securities in Beijing, pointing to the stimulus-oriented policies in the U.S., Japan and Europe that Beijing has said are helping drive inflation in commodity and asset prices.
"That is why they have fundamental differences over the future trend of exchange rates," Zhang said. Sarkozy's office said the goal of the talks was to establish a common diagnosis of the current situation and outline reforms the G-20 could launch at its summit in Cannes in November.
Days ahead of the Nanjing meeting, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other top economic policymakers urged the world's most powerful economies to seal a "global growth pact" to fight unemployment.
Speaking at a panel debating the very relevance of the G-20 grouping of major industrialized and developing nations, Brown said the group is challenged over whether it can foster prosperity both for poorer nations in the Middle East and North Africa as well as more established economies in America and Europe.
During Brown's tenure heading the G-20 in 2009, the group made progress on forging tighter financial regulations to help prevent a recurrence of the meltdowns in housing markets that brought on the global financial crisis.
France has made reform of the global monetary system a focal point for its yearlong presidency of the G-20, along with reducing economic imbalances and volatility in commodity prices. China and key emerging economies, meanwhile, are keen to see changes that might reduce their own reliance on volatile dollar-denominated assets.
One option championed by Beijing would be the use of SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights, a quasi-currency used by the IMF in its dealings with member governments, as an international reserve currency.
China has suggested using SDRs as a substitute for the dominant U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency. Beijing has invested more than $800 billion of its $2 trillion in foreign reserves in U.S. Treasuries but is uneasy about the dollar's stability and says the world financial system should be more diversified.
During recent talks in Paris, G-20 finance chiefs appeared close to agreement on tracking dangerous imbalances in the global economy by monitoring several key indicators: current accounts, real effective exchange rates, currency reserves and public and private debt levels.
China, however, has opposed focusing on exchange rates due to its resistance to letting its own currency, the yuan, appreciate against the dollar.
IMF poised to print billions of dollars in 'Global Quantitative Easing' (super currency ~ SDRs)
update Feb. 2011 ~ IMF Chief Urges Changes to Monetary System, Advocates Adding Yuan to SDRs
May 2010 ~ SDR should include Yuan ~ Nobel laureate, Mundell, calls for yuan's inclusion in IMF basket ...
Will the Chinese Yuan Replace the Japanese Yen? ~ Should the G20 have a yen for the yuan? ...
Also read ~ Exchange Rates ~ PARIS ~ February 18-19 2011 ~ France Hosts Finance Ministers of G20 Countries ...
What will April Bring? Global Monetary Change? Currency Revaluations? Maybe?
India ~ Reserve bank of India Puts Down SDR as Dollar Replacement ...
March 30, 2011 RBI chief rubbishes SDR as dollar replacement
India's central bank chief has rubbished the use of the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights (SDR) as a global currency in a speech in Sri Lanka in sharp contrast to a position taken by China's central bank earlier. "This does not seem to be a feasible option," Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said at an oration in Colombo to mark 60 years of Sri Lanka's central bank.
"For the SDR to be an effective reserve currency, it has to fulfill several conditions.
"The SDR has to be accepted as a liability of the IMF, has to be automatically acceptable as a medium of payment in cross-border transactions, be freely tradeable and its price has to be determined by forces of demand and supply. "In short, the exorbitant privilege of a reserve currency comes with an exorbitant responsibility."
Fiat Imposition
Subbarao's comments are in sharp contrast to those of People's Bank of China's governor Zhou Xiaochuan in 2009, where he advocated the increased use of the SDR through a new system of state backed rules.
"But this cannot happen by fiat," Subbarao said. "To be a serious contender as an alternative, a currency has to fulfill some exacting criteria.
"It has to be fully convertible and its exchange rate should be determined by market fundamentals; it should acquire a significant share in world trade; the currency issuing country should have liquid, open and large financial markets and also the policy credibility to inspire the confidence of potential investors."
The SDR is at the moment a denominator currency based on a cocktail of different floating exchange rates governed by different monetary policy priorities and backed by liabilities of their individual governments.
The SDR was created during operation of the post-World War II, Bretton Woods system of unstable or 'soft' pegs with the US dollar. Under the Bretton Woods system a pegged central bank was also allowed to print its own money, (control interest rates and the exchange rate at the same time) a process that was destined to fail.
Crisis Prone
The IMF was created to help countries that failed to keep the peg by printing too much money and running deficits and ran into balance of payments troubles.
The Bretton Woods was the brainchild of Harry Dexter White, a US Treasury official who was later sacked for his alleged links with communist Russia.
Penniless Britain's John Maynard Keynes wanted to create a completely separate currency, the 'Bancor' but was overruled by the US which had most of the world's gold reserves.
At the time of its creation, helped with heavy lobbying by the State Department, the US promised to keep its own currency growth restrained by a peg to gold.
Other countries abandoned their own pegs to gold, a market based system that restrained central banks from inflating their economies through an obligation to convert to gold on demand.
Britain's currency was losing credibility from 1914, when the Bank of England lifted gold convertibility and the UK Treasury also started to print its own notes.
Debt Exports
A reserve currency country can 'export' government debt to central banks of foreign countries, reducing interest rates and run trade deficits with the cash generated as long as the issuing government does not default.
The SDR was created in the 1960s when the US printed too much money to finance the Vietnam War and gold prices started to go up rapidly, signaling a loss of confidence in the US dollar and a break from the gold peg.
In 1971 the US defaulted on the Bretton Woods, closed the gold window after printing too much money to finance the Vietnam War and fired a decade of 'great inflation.' The so-called 'advanced nations' broke the dollar pegs and floated their currencies at the same time and gave up their dependence on foreign reserves.
After messing around with a Bretton Woods-style European exchange rate mechanism (ERM), Europe created Euro, a supra national currency.
But some countries voluntarily kept pegs, and held US dollar assets as reserves. China is now the biggest holder. The 2007/8 economic collapse was mainly fired by post 2001 ultra loose US monetary policy that created a massive housing bubble in the US.
"The frequency and increasing intensity of financial crises following the collapse of the Bretton Woods system suggests the costs of such a system to the world may have exceeded its benefits," Zhou said in 2009.
"The price is becoming increasingly higher, not only for the users, but also for the issuers of the reserve currencies." The current global inflation, fired by ultra loose US policy in particular is renewing concerns about the dollar. Subbarao said that "some measure of self-insurance will continue to be the first line of defence."
India is already on a path to full float its currency. It has also bought gold from the IMF.
Before the nationalization of RBI and even its creation, India's own currency was widely used in South Asia and the Middle East. Many Middle Eastern countries created their own currencies after the devaluation of the Indian rupee in 1966 and its credibility was lost.
On March 31st ~ Kuwait government set to quit over questioning: sources ...
Snip from Lindsey Williams ~ Videos ~ Bumped Up For Accuracy ~ Lindsey Williams ~ Urgent ~ New groundbreaking information about the plans of the global elite ... *Lindsey Williams mentions Kuwait ...he says
_Kuwait will suffer the same fate as Egypt.
_Last week Kuwait gave every person that could prove their citizenship $3,500 if they would keep quiet and not support the Muslim brotherhood.
March 30, 2011
Kuwait government set to quit over questioning: sources
Kuwait, Kuwait's cabinet is expected to quit Thursday after lawmakers asked to grill three ministers, the latest in a series of challenges by an unusually assertive Arab parliament that have delayed important economic reforms. Kuwait's parliament, the most outspoken in a Gulf region mostly dominated by ruling families, has triggered numerous cabinet resignations or reshuffles through questionings.
Parliamentary sources said the cabinet was set to submit its resignation after lawmakers asked to question three ministers who are ruling family members, including the oil exporter's energy minister, who is also the information minister.
The sources said they expected the Gulf state's ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, to reappoint Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah to form another cabinet. Kuwait's oil and information minister has been asked by a parliamentarian to answer questions about an alleged failure to perform his duties, state news agency KUNA said Tuesday. Lawmaker Faisal al-Duwaisan made the request of Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, who is also a nephew of the ruling emir. Questioning about his duties as information minister was not expected to affect his post as the OPEC member's oil minister.
While grilling ministers is an everyday occurrence in most parliaments in the world, in Kuwait the questioning is more akin to a direct challenge to the individual and an indirect challenge to the ruler, who has the last say in politics. Kuwait's emir has in the past dissolved parliament to prevent questioning of the prime minister.
Sheikh Ahmad survived a no-confidence vote last year after a lawmaker questioned his alleged failure to impose financial monitoring laws on licensed print and broadcast media. He was named oil minister of the world's fourth-largest oil exporter in 2009 -- the fifth oil minister in four years. Changing the oil minister rarely has any effect on Kuwait's energy policy, which is set by a council that includes oil industry and government officials.
http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?articleId=95500685&channelId=2951&buyerId=newsmeatcom&buid=3281
Parliamentary sources said the cabinet was set to submit its resignation after lawmakers asked to question three ministers who are ruling family members, including the oil exporter's energy minister, who is also the information minister.
The sources said they expected the Gulf state's ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, to reappoint Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah to form another cabinet. Kuwait's oil and information minister has been asked by a parliamentarian to answer questions about an alleged failure to perform his duties, state news agency KUNA said Tuesday. Lawmaker Faisal al-Duwaisan made the request of Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, who is also a nephew of the ruling emir. Questioning about his duties as information minister was not expected to affect his post as the OPEC member's oil minister.
While grilling ministers is an everyday occurrence in most parliaments in the world, in Kuwait the questioning is more akin to a direct challenge to the individual and an indirect challenge to the ruler, who has the last say in politics. Kuwait's emir has in the past dissolved parliament to prevent questioning of the prime minister.
Sheikh Ahmad survived a no-confidence vote last year after a lawmaker questioned his alleged failure to impose financial monitoring laws on licensed print and broadcast media. He was named oil minister of the world's fourth-largest oil exporter in 2009 -- the fifth oil minister in four years. Changing the oil minister rarely has any effect on Kuwait's energy policy, which is set by a council that includes oil industry and government officials.
http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?articleId=95500685&channelId=2951&buyerId=newsmeatcom&buid=3281
What will April Bring? Global Monetary Change? Currency Revaluations? Maybe?
*March 31st ~ G20 ~ U.S. Treasury, Tim Geithner, will attend the G20 Meeting in Nanjing, China - reshaping the global monetary system ... The G-20’s Secret Debt Solution ... ~ snip ... The three currencies will essentially be a new dollar, new euro, and a new pan-Asian currency. (The Chinese yuan may survive as a fourth currency, but it will be linked to a basket of the three new currencies.)
and ... all ~ LINKS - GLOBAL ECONOMY - GLOBAL CURRENCY ...
April 14th 2010 ~ Singapore’s Revaluation May Spur China, South Korea
and 2011 revaluation ~ April Currency Revaluation ~ Singapore ~ Economists predicting currency revaluation or faster appreciation of the Singapore Dollar in April ...
More SDR articles ~ Link ~
IMF ~ SDRs and the U.S. Dollar ... Articles of Interest ...
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