Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Tanada wrote:If every male in Chindia attained a car this would come true, but where would the fuel come from?
Ayoob wrote:linkGM’s demise should not be read as a harbinger of doom for the car industry. All around the world people want wheels: a car tends to be the first big purchase a family makes once its income rises much above $5,000 a year, in purchasing-power terms. At the same time as people in developing countries are getting richer, more efficient factories and better designs are making cars more affordable. That is why the IMF forecasts that the world will have nearly 3 billion cars in 2050, compared with around 700m cars today. In the next five or six years the Chinese will overtake the Americans in terms of annual car sales: in 40 years’ time the Chinese will have almost as many cars as exist in the whole of the world now. Indeed, GM’s own experience abroad shows the promise of emerging markets. Brazil has long been a source of profits, and GM has a leading position in China.
Well, there goes the IMF's credibility for me.
Tanada wrote:If every male in Chindia attained a car this would come true, but where would the fuel come from?
IMF Injecting $283 Billion in SDRs into Global Economy, Boosting Reserves
August 28, 2009
• SDR allocations to supplement IMF members' foreign exchange reserves
• Outstanding stock of SDRs to increase nearly ten-fold
• Low-income countries to benefit significantly
With much of the world still mired in recession, the IMF took action to bolster its members’ reserves through an allocation of SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights.
The allocation, equivalent to $250 billion, was made on August 28 and will be followed by an additional, albeit much smaller, allocation of $33 billion on September 9. With the two allocations totaling roughly $283 billion, the outstanding stock of SDRs would increase nearly ten-fold to total about $316 billion.
IMF Pumps $250 Billion Into Global Foreign-Currency Reserves
By Sandrine Rastello
Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund said it today pumped about $250 billion into foreign-exchange reserves worldwide, acting on an April call from leaders of the Group of 20 nations to boost global liquidity.
Countries will be able to convert the money, to come from so-called Special Drawing Rights, into hard currencies through “voluntary trading arrangements” with other members, the IMF said on its Web site today. The SDRs are the institution’s unit of account based on a basket of currencies.
The allocation, approved by the IMF’s board of governors earlier this month, will not increase the fund’s pool of money available for lending, the IMF said. “It will, however, provide members with an additional method to obtain hard currencies.”
Low-income countries to benefit significantly
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been slammed by its own watchdog, the Independent Evaluation Office, for failing to predict the global financial crisis.
In a report, the watchdog says the IMF provided few clear warnings about the risk of the GFC, instead sending a message of continued optimism.
The office also claims the fund ignored a warning from its chief economist in 2005.
Raghuram Rajan warned new financial products, low interest rates, and less regulation could leave the world more exposed to financial sector turmoil.
"We should be prepared for the low probability but highly costly downturn," he cautioned.
University of New South Wales finance professor Fariborz Moshirian says the IMF relied too much on the data and analysis of the US authorities rather than its own economists.
"They followed Ben Bernanke's line of argument rather than their own advisers," he said.
The report says the IMF endorsed policies and financial practices that were seen as fostering rapid innovation and growth.
Professor Moshirian says such claims offer a fair assessment of the IMF's activities.
"The whole policy of IMF prior to the global financial crisis was to liberalise the market, particularly in emerging economies," he said.
"And so they couldn't offer any prescription which was contrary to what they advised to their members in the past."
IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has welcomed the report and says he broadly endorses the findings.
"Like any other organisation, the IMF has learnt its lesson and now they are going to operate in such a way that they can provide early warning to national authorities," Professor Moshirian said.
He says the IMF has to rely on national regulators to provide it with adequate and accurate data.
"What they do with the data that they obtain is also an important issue," he said.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The International Monetary Fund issued a report Thursday on a possible replacement for the dollar as the world's reserve currency. The IMF said Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, could help stabilize the global financial system.
The goal is to have a reserve asset for central banks that better reflects the global economy since the dollar is vulnerable to swings in the domestic economy and changes in U.S. policy.
dolanbaker wrote:Brent is fast approaching $125 now.
kmann wrote:$142 was unjustified in '08 (as the subsequent crash to $38 showed) and $130 now is also unjustified, as the coming crash will also show.
Economic activity tries to expand past the amount of oil available to sustain it. The price of oil goes up. The economy contracts. The price oil goes down.
kmann wrote:Economic activity tries to expand past the amount of oil available to sustain it. The price of oil goes up. The economy contracts. The price oil goes down.
To some degree that's true. However the effect is significantly amplified by speculation. $142 to $38 range within a six month period cannot be justified by supply and demand alone.
kmann wrote:$142 to $38 range within a six month period cannot be justified by supply and demand alone.
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