Another concise overview by David Galland in today's Daily Reckoning Australia. Part of it goes like this:
Make no mistake, we are in uncharted water; it is unprecedented that the claims represented by the fiat currency of one government - that of the U.S. - have been accumulated in such massive quantities for the reserves of other governments. And we're not just talking China but virtually the world. And the world is getting nervous.
To quote Thai Finance Minister Chalongphob Sussangkarn in his recent address to the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank in Kyoto:
"Should the financial markets lose confidence in the U.S. dollar, huge capital outflows from the U.S. could lead to a rapid depreciation of the U.S. dollar, and thus dramatic appreciation of other currencies."
This is why I am theorising that the UK's massively increased support for US Treasuries may be an emergency measure by the British Government. Though it has been pointed out to me that this money may have also come from hedge funds and conventional funds - the Treasury stats don't say that the purchases are official.
Another country that has significantly increased its US bond holdings is Brazil (145% up, from $33.3 bn to $81.6 bn). Maybe that's to do with its increasing oil exports. According to the US government's Energy Information Administration, Brazilian production is projected to rise long-term.
Coming back to the Treasury bond stats: of those who previously held at least 1% of total foreign-held US Treasury debt, the top five reductions are:
Caribbean Banking Centres
Mexico
Korea
France
Switzerland
The top three in this list account for almost $50 bn of the total $72 bn that foreigners withdrew. I thought the conspiracy theorists believed Caribbean Banking Centres were part of the US government's secret plan for supporting the dollar? Perhaps somebody would kindly pay for me to go on a "fact-finding mission" to the Caribbean. Please.
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