Another horror story...

Sandi,

Thanks for mentioning the Chinese Issue.

There was some Interesting stuff in our Major Daily the other day. It purported to be Facts about the China Stuff as going on down here. Stuff like...

Only 10% of the recalled toys had lead issues. The rest were Design Faults from Mattel.

The formaldehyde in cloths which exceed limits was given the wrong test... not a test to detect formaldehyde but something else, and the reading Mistaken for formaldehyde. The clothes were actually In Limits.

I'm not giving China a pass. After all, lead paint in toys is just not on in any percentage.

I do agree. The China thing does remind me of Japan when they started to emerge as a Producer of Goods. China is likely to follow suit and clean up their act.

Of other interest... according to an article in our Major Daily, China aims to bring on line 500 new coal power electricity plants in the next ten years. That's like one a week. Some Major building going on over there.

Michael Ross

They are really shooting themselves in their foot over this issue. I will really hurt them in the international trade market.

They have so many USD that it probably doesn't matter.
I saw somewhere some astounding percentage of Chinese goods in stores. Something like 60% or more.
Given the insatiable American appetitie to spend everything they have and more, China will be the supplier of choice for a long time.
Although poor quality and unsafe products is very bad, there is something even more ominous to the US.
I saw that they're holding over $1 Trillion in dollar reserves. With the dollar falling like a rock, China is looking to convert some of that.
They will soon be buying up US assets and will soon control our economy.
Larry Foster

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Larry Foster

They have so many USD that it probably doesn't matter.
I saw somewhere some astounding percentage of Chinese goods in stores. Something like 60% or more.
Given the insatiable American appetitie to spend everything they have and more, China will be the supplier of choice for a long time.
Although poor quality and unsafe products is very bad, there is something even more ominous to the US.
I saw that they're holding over $1 Trillion in dollar reserves. With the dollar falling like a rock, China is looking to convert some of that.
They will soon be buying up US assets and will soon control our economy.

It's true that China holds a heck-uv-a-lot of US bonds (in US dollars)...

China has "threatened" to dump its dollar holdings if the US tries to push too hard to get any kind of "trade parity" with China. That would send the dollar plunging - for the average consumer, it means the price of anything that's imported would skyrocket (that includes oil)...

Some say China is already slowly selling its US dollar reserves - or if it's not China, then some other countries which hold US dollars are. According to some, they may be buying gold - the price of gold is going up...

Is it a good time to buy gold, to preserve the value of your assets? I'm not an expert in these things, but it's something to think about and maybe research further...

Here's an article on this topic (from a couple of months ago)...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...cnchina105.xml

Go here to see the price of gold... Scroll down on the page to see the 6-month and 1-year charts...

http://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html

- Dien

China has "threatened" to dump its dollar holdings if the US tries to push too hard to get any kind of "trade parity" with China. That would send the dollar plunging - for the average consumer, it means the price of anything that's imported would skyrocket (that includes oil)...

Some say China is already slowly selling its US dollar reserves - or if it's not China, then some other countries which hold US dollars are. According to some, they may be buying gold - the price of gold is going up...

Is it a good time to buy gold, to preserve the value of your assets? I'm not an expert in these things, but it's something to think about and maybe research further...

From my trip to the bank yesterday, I see many fellow Canadians are buying up American currency. Who knows? Might be as good as gold...

History shows countries involved in wars typically go through a period of prosperity after the war, so if/when the exchange rate goes back to what it was in 2000/2001, owning currency in American dollars could be beneficial.

Regards,
Steve MacLellan

On the mention of CAD/USD...

It's been just Great shopping online in the US these days...

Of course there's always Negatives & Positives on both sides of the coin...

The Solution is to Buy... Sell & Market a variety of specialty products in both currencies independently from wherever you are or live...

You can Never go wrong with having Multiple currency bank accounts...

Keep a close Eye on the Currency game and carefully Track the Buy now buttons & the News...

The noon exchange rate for the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar is calculated to reflect the trades that take place between 11:59 a.m. and 12:01 p.m. ...
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/exchange.html

Greenback worth nothing in terms of American pride
Decline seen as issue on Wall St., not Main St....
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/275023

Phil

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Is it a good time to buy gold, to preserve the value of your assets?

- Dien

Imagine your in New Orleans right before Katrina hit...and you have assets...say, gold coins...a heavy bag of them.

Consider this, you can put ONE diamond in bag and travel anywhere in the world and get an exchange. The equivalent gold might cause a hernia...or draw attention to your assets.

Plus, they are a "girl's best friend"... you won't go through the "doldrums" alone...HA!

gjabiz

PS.

[Ankesh]

It may not be the best time to buy diamonds as investments right now.

The diamond industry is going through some revolutionary changes. Synthetic diamonds is going to become huge - which may convert the diamond industry into another pearl industry.

I would rather buy stocks than diamonds - from an investment perspective.