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China & Germany Sign Yuan-Settlement Pact And Obama Heads To Saudi Arabia
Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
I haven’t paid too much attention as of late to agreements between China and other nations intended to expand the use of the yuan (renminbi) internationally, because the near-term implications always seem to be exaggerated by many market commentators. That said, this deal between the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and Germany’s Bundesbank seems quite significant given the importance of Germany within the global economy generally and the E.U. specifically.
From Bloomberg via BusinessWeek:
Germany’s Bundesbank and the ?People’s Bank of China agreed to cooperate in the clearing and settling of payments in renminbi, paving the way for Frankfurt to corner a share of the offshore market.
The central banks signed a memorandum of understanding in Berlin today, when Chinese President Xi Jinping met German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Frankfurt-based Bundesbank said in an e-mailed statement.
Germany’s financial capital prevailed over Paris and Luxembourg in a euro-area race to win trade in renminbi, which overtook the euro to become the second-most used currency in global trade finance in October, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. The U.K. Treasury said on March 26 that the Bank of England would sign an initial agreement with the PBOC on March 31 to clear and settle yuan transactions in London.
“Frankfurt is one of Europe’s foremost financial centers and home to two central banks, making it a particularly suitable location,” said Joachim Nagel, a member of the Bundesbank’s executive board. “Renminbi clearing will strengthen the close economic and financial ties between Germany and the People’s Republic of China.”
China was Germany’s third-biggest foreign trade partner last year, with 140 billion euros in turnover passing between the two countries, according to the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden. China ranks fifth among importers of German goods and is the second-biggest exporter to Germany.
German companies including Siemens AG, the country’s biggest engineering company, and Volkswagen AG are embracing the renminbi internally as a third currency for cross-border trade settlements.
“The potential is vast,” said Stefan Harfich, the Siemens Financial Services manager, who steered the introduction of the yuan at the Munich-based company in October. “The introduction of the renminbi as an official company currency will therefore have a big impact on Siemens’s business in the coming years.”
Daimler AG, the Mercedes manufacturer that sold 235,644 autos in China last year, issued 500 million yuan of one-year notes in Asia’s largest economy on March 14, in the first so-called panda bond by an overseas non-financial company.
With all that in mind, let’s not forget that Obama is currently in Saudi Arabia trying to restore ties with the Medieival Kingdom, i.e., he is trying to figure out a way to arm al-Qaeda in Syria without the American public finding out about it.
From the Wall Street Journal:
RIYADH—Barack Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday marks a bid to warm relations that the Saudis hope will result in commitments by the U.S. president to boost the supply of sophisticated weapons to Syrian insurgents.
Mr. Obama’s stopover at the end of a European tour will mark his first visit to the kingdom since U.S.-Saudi ties were severely strained last year following the renewal of high-level U.S. contacts with Iran and the cancellation of planned airstrikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Saudi officials also are hoping he will bring word of a breakthrough in U.S. and Jordanian opposition to supplying Syrian rebels with more advanced weapons, including shoulder-launched missiles, known as manpads, capable of bringing down Syrian aircraft, according to Saudis, a Western diplomat and regional security analysts familiar with the situation.
Saudi officials also are hoping he will bring word of a breakthrough in U.S. and Jordanian opposition to supplying Syrian rebels with more advanced weapons, including shoulder-launched missiles, known as manpads, capable of bringing down Syrian aircraft, according to Saudis, a Western diplomat and regional security analysts familiar with the situation.
Jordan also has blocked delivery of the additional weapons through its territory to rebels in Syria, for fear of getting pulled deeper into the Syrian conflict. The diplomat and two Syrian opposition officials said Amman is waiting for the U.S. to approve the deployment of Saudi-bought manpads currently sitting in Jordanian warehouses.
Saudi royals have muted their angry rhetoric since last autumn’s rift. Prince Turki Al Faisal, whose criticism of the Obama administration’s policies on Iran and Syria made front-page news in December, made virtually no mention of the U.S. during a U.S. speech about Iran this month. A Saudi ambassador who wrote of Saudi Arabia breaking with the U.S. in the New York Times in December has been publicly silent since.
It appears that becoming entrenched in a Syrian civil war is still very much on the table…
Lots of moves appear to be afoot on the macro front at the moment. The months ahead should be very interesting to say the least.
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Notsobadwlad I wonder when it will hit the useful idiots who run America's large public corporations that they have not only sold out their country, but also destroyed their companies and their own wealth.
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Most of them will take their millions or even billions of wealth and go on to wherever best suits the preservation of their wealth. They have the economic mobility to do so and it's also why those elite are less effected when the rest of us suffer - they don't.
I wonder when those concerned in the public will realize this.
Isn't this old news? I could have sworn Germany and China already had currency deals. I think China has similar deals with Japan, Australia, Russia, India, and maybe a few others.
He's over Saudi to tell'em hang over their gold or .....
TERRORIST RAT CASUALTIES OVER 2000 IN KASSAB
http://www.syrianperspective.com/
SunnyDD He's over Saudi to tell'em hang over their gold or .....
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I assume you meant to type "hand over their gold".
You are too late. There's already an article that the US and England have confiscated Saudi gold held in london. I'll repost for you.
http://www.examiner.com/article/u-s-and-u-k-looting-saudi-gold-as-west-u...
The US dollar is obsolete.
The US dollar is so... FIAT.
The US dollar is so... YESTERDAY.
This posted by Ahmeexnal on another thread:
http://hennessysview.com/2014/03/28/king-abdullah-kicks-obama-saudia-ara...
I'm thinking this signals the end of the petro-dollar.
Stack On
The US dollar is so.... Last Century
honestann
Good to see you around.
While destroying the legal government of Syria is a win for the Saudis, so is continued war is Syria.
The Baathist government of Syria is everying the Saudis hate - secular, socialist, diverse, and modernizing. If the princes can keep those nasty moderns busy fighting Saudi's liver eating mercenaries, they don't have time to infect the Muslim majority with ideas. Ideas that would kick them out of their palaces and jets and yachts.
While the US is transitioning their foreign enemy back to Russia, the House of Saud can help by keeping up Muslim barbarity. The WOT may be fading away (though the Patriot Act isn't) but they have a few good outrages to scare the man on the street into line.
I think the Chinese are thinking with all that gold they amassed it's time to test the yuan out there.
if you think that the ziocons have given up sryia,you are delusional...they are hellbent on bombing iran, syria, and ukraine for their nwo.....the obamatollah will bomb...and we will get ww3....
tony bonn if you think that the ziocons have given up sryia,you are delusional...they are hellbent on bombing iran, syria, and ukraine for their nwo.....the obamatollah will bomb...and we will get ww3....
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And do you realize that Putin is one of those zioncons, yet is an ally of syria and iran? How does that fit your mold?
It's all about elites, who has power and wealth. The visit to Saudi Arabia by Obama is simply about defending the petro-dollar. That is also what the Ukraine conflict is over. Russia, as a super power (yes I still call them a super power), is doing the most to end the petro-dollar. Iran is doing the second most but Iran is not a super power yet. China is third and the combination of Russia and China frightens those in the US.
Michael Lewis has a new book coming out this Monday:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/michael-lewis-flash-boys-co...
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6f514f02-b684-11e3-b230-00144feabdc0.html...
Peak Stupidity
IMF-Ukrainian Circle Jerk Coming tomorrow on the Frostbite Falls Daily Rant on the Doomstead Diner.
RE
my prediction is that Obama caves into the House of Saud. US will arm the Liver Eaters (officially or not) beyond what they are doing now (notice the 105mm recoiless rifles being used by the Liver Eaters). The US normally would buy weapons from CIS countries to arm discretely...now they may have to use western weapons so...
House of Saud have thrown a curve ball by announcing yesterday a new Crown Prince for Saudi. Obama is on the back foot. He will bow, drop to his knees, and swallow.
US will try to rattle Russian's cage by doing this - Russians will increase support for Syria (Gazprom has big offshore interests in Syria). All of it will ratchet up.
A 50 year old 105 recoilless.
The workhorse of a fast, mobile army.
Don't laugh at the antiques. In the right hands a few rpg's, a 105 recoilless, and a SAW for every platoon will wipe out a larger and better equipped but less mobile and less integrated army quickly.
Victory in detail. An old but effective strategy.
1000 well trained men and well provisioned men with air cover, even if it is just drone cover, could defeat the Syrian government in three months
Against an army with modern effective integrated air power there is only one way to win although you will proly be defeated anyway lol.
You must avoid ever getting caught in the open. Run like hell from city to city under advantageous conditions, get so close to the enemy that air power is less effective. Use the resultant city rubble and sewer systems for cover and maneuver.
It requires balls of steel and no fear of death.
"balls of steel and no fear of death" not only, they have the support of democracy, rule of law and human rights, all these values are stick to those freedom fighters al-qaeda ass.
Killing christians and destroying historic monuments in Syria are the best prove of Obama humanity.
Obama is in SA to discuss dropping the oil price. This will hurt the Russian economy badly. SA still wants to settle their discourse with Russia, and this would be the way to do it.
Why do you think Putin starts to cave in? Money is flowing out of the country, EU is threating to use gas from elsewhere, and SA could lower the price of oil, bringing the Russian economy to its knees.
"EU is threating to use gas from elsewhere...."
Especially since gas was discovered on Jupiter. Plans are being drawn up to import gas from Jupiter thus bringing Putin to his knees. Inports are scheduled to begin in 2135.
In your dreams....
the tower Obama is in SA to discuss dropping the oil price.
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That's what you think. I think Obama is in Saudi Arabia to beg the Saudi's to stay on the petro-dollar standard. This is also why the US and England confiscated Saudi gold holdings in London.
As just posted in other thread, nope, dont expect the Ziocons will give up the Syria... we all have witnessed how they even went naked in pursuing the latest regime change in Ukraine after the Orange Rev v1.0, to the extend poking the neighboring bear.
It's understandable that the locusts will only cease if their hijacked host nations and bogeymen collapse for they never dare to fight on their own but cheating the sheeples and sacrificing their blood and lives to do their biddings since the Waterloo and perhaps even before that.
The proponents of the Grand Chessboard strategy are much in power now and actively pursuing its realizations... toppling one country after another
GLOBAL RESEARCH has some good reading on this topic"
Preparing the Chessboard for the “Clash of Civilizations”: Divide, Conquer and Rule the “New Middle East”
Indeed some psychopathic neocons do believe that a nuclear war is WINNABLE!
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky cuts through the chaos and deception to show the reader exactly how and why humanity is facing an existential threat. It is a wake-up call that the world is being pushed towards catastrophic conflict. SYRIA is one of the targets to take over (in near future), with the next one is IRAN!!!
Prof. Chossudovsky shows that, incredibly, the same deception that the Western governments and media perpetrated to facilitate the war on Iraq less than a decade ago is now being repeated with Iran. But the real threat to world peace and the future of humanity is not Iran and its non-existent nuclear weapons program – it is the US-led alliance of NATO powers and their Middle East partners, Israel, Turkey and the handful of Gulf Arab monarchs.
The real agenda behind the drive for war is imperialist control of natural resources in a region that possesses some 60 per cent of all known reserves of oil and gas – the lifeblood of the capitalist global economy. Cloaked with the fictitious cover of “war on terror”, “international security” and “humanitarian intervention”, realities are being turned upside down.
The agenda for global control of resources is a long-term dynamic that Washington and its NATO allies have had on the drawing board for decades. The nine-year war on Iraq is but one episode of this unfolding scheme of conquest. The NATO-orchestrated regime change in Libya is also part of this military roadmap, which now has Iran in its sights. BUT this war lust will NOT stop with IRAN. It is about global conquest by Western powers in which ultimately CHINA and RUSSIA are also marked out as future enemies.
Disturbingly, the US-led agenda of permanent war has incorporated the doctrine of pre-emptive strikes with ALL military options, including the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons and a new generation of so-called monster bombs. The imminent military showdown in the Persian Gulf could turn out to be not just a regional explosion of latent conflicts – it may be the trigger for a conflagration between global powers armed with nuclear arsenals capable of unleashing destruction that puts the very future of the planet in the balance.
The Western public has a vital task in preventing their governments’ drive for war.
The funny (or better tragic) thing about this is the fact, that fossile fuel like Nat Gas and mineral oil are going to play within the next five to ten years a smaller and smaller role. The renewable energies are getting a much bigger market share. For many reasons. Then there is not that much need to fight for oil and gas.
Because, the sun and the wind is everywhere except in polar regions.
It goes like this: Cheap solar and wind energy is used to produce hydrogen from water. To produce hydrogen and to power hydrogen cars is a very proven and established technology. Mercedes Benz is there a technology leader. The problem was only, that
a) fossile fuels were cheap
b) hydrogen was expensive because the electricity needed was to expensive
In other words a double whammy for hydrogen car technology. But things have changed now significantly:
a) electricity from renewables is dirt cheap and can now be used to produce hydrogen in theoretical unlimited quantities. The only thing needed is sun and water
b) since a few years Toyota has introduced its Hybrid cars (Lexus). At present such cars consist of a conventional combustion engine plus an electric engine powered by a battery system, which is recharged when slowing down the car (brake energy). These Toyota systems work fine and are very reliable. A few years ago Mercedes Benz and Toyota cross licenced each others technology (Hybrid and Hydrogen).
And now one only has to count one and one together. Hydrogen produces electricity via a catalytic process. In principle Hydrogen is a liquid storage for electric energy. So then we have only one kind of energy powering the Hybrid car.
a) electricity from hydrogen
b) electricity from the battery system.
This means just one engine and much lesser parts resulting in much lesser weight.
The range of such a Electric Hybrid car is presently appx 500 km. And this system does not lack "horsepower". They are fast.
And the kicker is, no toxic exhaust fumes just water is left when converting hydrogen into electricity. This water can then be collected while driving and exchanged at the pump with fresh hydrogen.
http://www.toyota.com/fuelcell/
But thats not all what the renewables have to offer. Electricity plus water can also produce methan gas.This technology is also already established.
Methan gas (natural gas) is the main component to produce plastic.
So all in all it can be said, that the wars over the control of energy are completely nonsense because technology is solving the problem of cheap and ubiquitous energy supply. Germany is spearheading this development and is therefore a great pain in the ass for all fossil energy producing countries. But China and Japan do love it as well as all countries having suffered under the wars initiated by "rule of oil"
Then maybe add palladium to your PM holdings. It is impermeable to all gases but hydrogen, yet will hold 900 x times volume of hydrogen. Very useful for fuel cells.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium
Thanks for the link, But I was reading there, that Palladium is to expensive for this purpose. But as much I know Toyoata has already a tank developed for hydrogen made of a specific alloy which does the job.
You still need roads to drive on, and those are made from oil. You'll also need plastics to build these electric cars, and those come from oil. Then there's tires.
Then you'll need how much installed capacity to generate power for all these electric cars? And that's all coming from renewables? With all due respect, I don't think you've thought this through.
As for Toyota (and other manufacturers) it's in their interest to keep the automobile alive as long as possible, no surprise there. No surprise either that the government would support their efforts - after all, who pays the freight when election time rolls around?
That aside, try and imagine a world without automobiles. Such a world exists already for many people who simply can't afford one, and THAT is the predominant trend, not an increase in global wealth to the extent we're all driving electric cars.
I think it's far more likely we'll be riding electric trains, and that the communities of the future will be built around that concept, which takes far less energy, uses far fewer resources, and takes up much less space than an automobile based society.
Automobiles don't scale. That, in a nutshell is the problem. Sure, you can program them to go 100MPH, 10 feet apart down the Antelope Freeway, but after that, what? Add more lanes? Build more freeways? Trains already travel twice that fast, and building a new line is much cheaper than expanding the road system.
Back when cars first appeared you had horses sharing the same roads. We still have horses for remote access and entertainment. Apart from taxis and buses, that's the future role of automobiles. If you really need one, you'll rent one, but for the most part you'll be taking the train. Spend some time in Tokyo and you'll see what I mean. You don't need a car in that city. Cars just get in the way.
If you want to back a winner, I would look at thorium/salt reactors using the fisher-tropsch process to make liquid fuel from coal (which we still have in abundance) Thus, liquid fuel for aviation (which will also be replaced by trains on short hauls) and trucks. Oh yeah.... and the power to run your trains. Almost forgot;)
Incidentally, with fewer cars on the road, many existing highways can have dedicated truck lanes, which means they'll support double, even triple trailer rigs thus lowering transportation costs while saving fuel. That network can eventually be electrified and automated, with power drawn while in motion, much like the trains.
Pollution reduction aside, the real health benefits of this approach will come from that 15-20 minute walk you take every day to get to the train station, plus the lack of stress from not having to drive up to two hours a day in heavy traffic.
Yuan still needs to "float". Talk is cheap until that happens. SA peg is up for grabs and Obummer's threats are not workin.
If not the dollar, what then?
Being brainless is no excuse for subjecting the rest of the world to your failings.
The real agenda behind the drive for war is imperialist control of natural resources in a region that possesses some 60 per cent of all known reserves of oil and gas – the lifeblood of the capitalist global economy. Cloaked with the fictitious cover of “war on terror”, “international security” and “humanitarian intervention”, realities are being turned upside down.
Another dated mind. No one wants more natural resources especially the USA. Where do you brainless jokers come from??? GO Away before you get hurt in the traffic.
This 50 dimensional chess game is getting unstable. No one can know how it ends, but of course for those it ends favorably they will claim the outcome was a result of their shrewd 50 dimension chess skills.
If we do have a collapse your health, your skills, and a supportive family (tribe), and good judgment will carry you thru better than gold.
Same as in boom times. Resiliency is resiliency regardless of environment.
2014 will be remembered as the year the prison gates were thrown open and "We the People" emerged into the sunshine. If you are one of the jailers it is time to quietly slink away.
2014 is going to be disappointing for you.
When I was a child my grade three teacher stood in front of the class and talked about how lucky we were to be living in a free country instead of a police state like Russia. Today I look around me and I see that all of the bad things she talked about that were happening in the Soviet Union are happening here, all around us. I may be wrong in the length of time it will take but it has already begun. Venice, Catalonia, Scotland, Quebec. People are waking up. Change is coming.
My thoughts are identical.
One can only hope, for our Childrens future.
As for the corrupt Politicians/Bankers and others in positions of Trust, Please wait for the Rope.
Germany and China signing RMB treaty = better for economy
Obama in Saudi Arabia = Obama must kiss the ring.
BTW how much does Obama have left in political clout