MOSCOW (AFP)--Russia unveiled radical and specific plans Monday for sweeping global financial reforms designed to weaken U.S. dominance and consign an "obsolescent" world economic order to the past.
In a six-page document addressed to the upcoming G20 summit in London, the Kremlin said the current global economic downturn was the result of a "collapse of the existing financial system" due to poor management and basic inadequacy.
The current crisis "has demonstrated the need to abandon traditional approaches and adopt collective and internationally agreed decisions aimed essentially at developing a globalization process management system," it said.
The document spelled out five principles on which a "new international financial architecture" should be based and offered concrete proposals in eight specific areas for the G20 to consider.
Those eight areas included reform of the international monetary and financial system, reform of the system's institutions and tightening of international regulation and financial supervision.
The Kremlin said the London summit should agree on "parameters" of a new global financial system but should be followed by an international conference to adopt conventions on new global financial regulations.
"The system of collective decision making can become efficient only when it is legitimated, i.e. it represents the interests of a wide range of participants," the Kremlin said.
It added: "The obsolescent unipolar world economic order should be replaced by a system based on the interaction of several major centers."
G20 finance ministers who met in the U.K. at the weekend to prepare the April 2 summit said their countries would take "whatever action is necessary" to reverse the world economic slowdown and downplayed reports of differences on how to proceed.
U.S. appeals however for governments in other leading economies to plow more public money into economic stimulus packages have been received coolly by Germany, France and other states that see tighter regulation as the solution.
While the Kremlin document voiced support for some proposals discussed as recently as Saturday and backed by all G20 states - increased International Monetary Fund funding, for example - it contained many ideas almost certain to rile the U.S.
"Greater transparency of the countries issuing reserve currencies when they conduct their monetary policy is of fundamental importance," the Kremlin said, referring to what many see as a sacrosanct matter of national sovereignty.
The Kremlin document, without explicitly naming the U.S., drew pointed attention to corporations and institutions that were nominally national but that in practice have a direct, daily influence on people worldwide.
"We regard as the most important task in the regulation sphere the need to reduce inconsistencies between the supranational nature of instruments and institutes of financial markets and the national character of regulators' activities," the Kremlin said.
It called for an international agreement on global rules for regulation of the financial sector, or "Standard Universal Regulatory Framework."
The Kremlin said it was also "crucial" to expand the numbers of countries represented in the Financial Stability Forum, a small body based in Switzerland created by the Group of Seven to promote international financial stability.
March 16, 2009 06:47 ET (10:47 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. is the world's safest investment, the White House said Friday, playing down Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's worries about Beijing's vast holdings of U.S. Treasury securities.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the best thing the U.S. can do to address concerns about its fiscal standing is to pass President Barack Obama's fiscal 2010 budget blueprint, which the administration says will halve the federal deficit by the end of the president's term.
Earlier Friday, Wen used unusually blunt language to publicly raise questions about the stability of U.S. assets.
"We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S., so of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. Frankly speaking, I do have some worries," Wen said. China is the U.S. government's largest creditor.
"There's no safer investment in the world than in the United States," Gibbs said.
He noted that Obama took office during an economic crisis and asked Congress to pass a massive stimulus plan to pull the country out of recession. He said Obama is pleased that China is making a commitment to the same sort of recovery plan.
March 13, 2009 14:21 ET (18:21 GMT)

China gibt sich für die Finanzkrise gut gerüstet. Zum Abschluss des achttägigen Volkskongresses in Peking sagte Premier Wen Jiabao, man habe finanziell "genügend Munition" angesammelt. Außerdem habe China gegenüber den USA und Europa einen entscheidenden Vorteil: Die Banken seien schon verstaatlicht.

Peking sorgt sich um US-Staatsanleihen

China, der größte Gläubiger der USA, zeigt sich besorgt um seine Investitionen in US-Staatsanleihen. Ministerpräsident Wen Jiabao fordert von Amerika die Zusicherung, dass diese sicher sind. "Wir haben den USA eine Riesenmenge Geld geliehen", sagte Jiabao am Freitag in Peking zum Ende des Volkskongresses.

Die Regierung von Barack Obama solle ihre Versprechungen einhalten und die Sicherheit der chinesischen Vermögenswerte garantieren. "Natürlich sind wir beunruhigt, was die Sicherheit unserer Anlagen angeht. Um ehrlich zu sein, ich bin ein bisschen besorgt", sagte Wen.
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Eistee88 schrieb:

Des weiteren bewegt sich der EUR/USD seit einiger Zeitin einem groben Korridor von 1,25 bis 1,30 und momentan sieht es nicht danach aus, dass ein dynamischer Ausbruch aus diesem Bereich bevorsteht.

stockstreet.de/stockstreet-Archiv.php

Das Zielband für den massgeblichen Dreimonats-Libor wird auf 0 bis 0,75 Prozent zurückgenommen, wie die SNB mitteilte. Der von der SNB nur indirekt steuerbare Leitzins soll bei 0,25 Prozent zu liegen kommen. Das ist der tiefste Stand seit 2004. Seit Oktober 2008 senkte die SNB ihren Schlüsselzins damit um insgesamt 2,5 Prozentpunkte.

Zudem tätigt die SNB nun auch Devisenkäufe, um eine Aufwertung des Franken zum Euro zu verhindern. Damit will sie vermeiden, dass sich Schweizer Export-Produkte verteuern. Schliesslich beginnt sie mit dem Kauf von Franken-Obligationen von privaten Schuldnern.

Rasputin schrieb:

Irgendwie tu ich mir in den letzten Tagen schwer mit FX, die Märkte haben sich verändert.