Asia Sentinel:

China’s announcement that it has more than doubled its official gold holdings to over 1,000 tonnes is significant as much for the politics of its timing as for the news itself. Indeed it is only one of several recent announcements made to position China for greater influence as the world financial system faces the prospect of its biggest changes since the 1971 Smithsonian Agreement.



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The dollar may seem fundamentally weak and a poor store of value but it reigns supreme as a transaction currency, particularly in Asia. Even were the yuan to be fully convertible and the all trade…

BEIJING, The People’s Republic of China - At a time when the rest of the global auto sales are experiencing their biggest declines in decades - and are set to drop at least 8% globally - the burgeoning China auto market may grow by 10% or more this year.

With steeply rising disposable incomes and savings rates that approach - and in some cases exceed - 35% a year, it isn’t difficult to see why the China auto market is zooming along. But what may be tough for U.S. consumers to picture - especially as they deal with rising unemployment and…

With the recent movements in the markets making many question whether we’re moving up or down, market timing comes into question. A few weeks ago, our Chairman and Investment Director Alexander Green penned an article on market timing for Oxford Club subscribers…

At the Investment U Conference in St. Petersburg, FL a few weeks ago, my good friend and colleague Mark Skousen called me out.

He told the audience that I was opposed to market timing, but laughed and insisted I was one of the best market timers he knew.

“He railed against the housing bubble four years ago - and he was right!”…

For the first time in a couple of decades, some of America’s most successful, big-name investors are buying gold.

David Einhorn, the hedge-fund manager who predicted the downfall of Lehman Brothers, recently bought gold for the first time. And then there is John Paulson, the guy who made billions of dollars by correctly anticipating the housing bust and credit crisis. Paulson just plunked down $1.3 billion for an 11% stake in major gold miner AngloGold. He’s also got a big position in Kinross Gold.

Peter Munk, the 82-year-old chairman and founder of Barrick Gold, also offers up his own anecdote about gold’s…

Why wait for the U.S. Treasury Department’s bank stress test when Money Morning can highlight the four secrets that will let you separate the winners from the losers in the U.S. banking system?

Call it the “Money Morning Bank Stress Test.”

Back in February, I looked at the Top 12 U.S. banks, to determine whether it was really necessary - as U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was proposing at the time - to devote the enormous sum of $1.5 trillion of our money to bail them out. I came to the conclusion that such a huge bailout was unnecessary, and that only a few…

Fed Holds Rates; Berkshire Won’t Report Results Before Meeting; Volcker: No More Stimulus Needed; Swine-Flu Takes Theme Parks for a Ride; Time-Warner Beats Street; Europe’s Largest Port Overflowing With Oil; Wal-Mart Selling More Discretionary Goods; Oil Prices, Inventories Rise;

• U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday (Wednesday) that the central bank would keep its benchmark lending rate at a record low of between zero and 0.25%. “The economy has continued to contract, though the pace of contraction appears to be somewhat slower,” the Fed said.




• A spokeswoman for Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B), Warren Buffett’s Omaha Nebraska-based conglomerate, said yesterday (Wednesday) that it…