"In the midst of what is still a significant global recession, it's important that we aim for stability, and stability has been based on the U.S. dollar as the global currency." -Canadian FM Flaherty"FX markets will of course wonder till the last minute whether the BRICs or China alone will mount a serious challenge to the dollar, but are bound to be disappointed." -Marco Annunziata
Italy's expectations for Summit: A commitment for old and new economic powers to keep working together to contain the crisis and, once that is done, envisage new rules for a better regulated global economy...
Other sources involved in prep of meetings said Brazil and India backed Beijing's call for debate but there was consensus among the G8, that:
Nothing of significance could or should materialize at this stage. read.
Marc Chandler explains why, it shouldn't... Worth the read.
"The BRICs appear to be under-presented in the International Monetary Fund. As we have seen they account for about 12% of the world economy and yet have a combined quota (vote) of 9.82%. Yet the representation is not as straight-forward as that. Consider that the US accounts for a quarter of the world’s economy and yet the US has a 16.77% weighted vote at the IMF.
The April G20 meeting resolved to raise more funds for the IMF. Some countries like Japan have lent the IMF money. The BRICs want to provide their funds in the form of SDR (Special Drawing Right) bonds. This dovetails nicely with their call to increase the use of the SDR.
Russia is thus far the only BRIC to suggest it will purchase the SDR bonds with its Treasury holdings, which stood at about $138 billion at the end of March, according to US Treasury data. It does not amount to noteworthy diversification of reserves. Nor does it represent much of a diversification away from the dollar as the greenback accounts for 44% of an SDR-basket. The contribution that Japan is committed to is greater than all the BRICs combined."
Today's Links...
China is casting its own version of Wall Street's bull statue, in Shanghai - at 6 metric tons, nearly twice as big as New York's. "Sounds like bull envy," says a Clusterstock commenter. Read....(Another Comment.)
