Daily Sources 2/19

1. Andrew Batson at Actual Time Economics posted last night a translation of parts of the remarks made by Fang Shangpu--the deputy kingpin of China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange--in a press conference. Some excerpts of the excerpts:"Regarding the big problem of purchases of US treasury bonds, Premier Wen Jiabao in his February 1 interview with the UK’s Financial Times explicitly stated that whether China continues to buy, and how much it buys, will be unquestionable in accordance with China’s needs, as well as the requirement to preserve and increase the value of the foreign exchange reserves."This appears to be solemn boilerplate as he repeats the same idea just a bit later."With the current international financial crisis still continuing, spreading and deepening, we rigidly oppose trade and investment protectionism. We also hope that the major reserve currency countries can take active measures to effectively transaction with the financial crisis and economic recession, in order to recover economic growth and financial stability as readily at some time as possible, effectively protect the interests of investors and strengthen investor confidence.""Investors" here means Chinese sway investments in US sovereign and agency bonds. "Investment protectionism" is a barrier to China's external resources design, like the US Congress's decision to block the acquisition of UNOCAL by CNOOC and probably meant as a direct insinuation to Canberra's recent decision to review Chinese investments in Australian mining companies. That said, Fang seems to say that Beijing will with to purchase dollars in pursuit of domestic stimulus:"For the next step, we will actively support the nation’s need for imported-exchange funds to expand domestic demand and increase imports, and provide financing support and facilitation to companies’ unrelated investments to help build the national economy."Well worth reading--and if you have Mandarin, the post includes a connection to the full Chinese transcript. Chen...

Read more...

With all the hype surrounding England at the moment, who do you prefer club or country?

Do you over the passion has gone for the players who represent England at the moment?


produce question, yes the passion as definitely gone, all we have now is over paid posers, international football is not the top priority anymore, even the likes of bend down say they are injured and cannot play for England yet he scores a hat trick for Liverpool 3 days later. That's how bad its got when donkeys like hunker down don't play when picked for there country

What was going on in the Middle Ages in Gemany and the surrounding countries?

I warmth medieval and renaissance history, but you never really here what was going on in Germany- perhaps thats because I usually focus on England. Could anyone differentiate between the cultures at that habits period? I'm tempted to think they were all much the same, a time of feudalism and so forth,but Im sure there are distinctions in the culture.


There is SO much to censure about all kinds of different people's and cultures. I have some links that might be interesting :)

http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu/

http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/mark.php/Main_Page

Have fun exploring and reading!

Is it expensive to travel from the netherlands to surrounding european countries?

for benchmark belgium, france and even england... is it expensive? how much would it cost?


No more so than in other countries.

Domestically (within the Netherlands), societal transport is excellent and realtively cheap compared with others.

To travel to other countries - well it depends on (a) which method and (b) how far in advance you book (c) when e.g. summer/winter, you are migratory - so it's a bit impossible to give you costs without more info.

Budget airlines are very common from Eindhoven, Amsterdam and Rotterdam to other countries and if you book well in before b before are very cheap. http://www.skyscanner.net/ is a good site to check this out

Train is an option, but generally more expensive than by instructor or advance fare budget flights. Prices/routes are here http://www.nshispeed.nl/en

Otherwise, travel by tutor is the cheapest method (and booking to the UK this includes the ferry price). It's a long journey, and not as enjoyable as by train, but if price is your motivator, then this is a good method. You can check the prices out here http://webapp.eurolines.nl/

Bowdlerize - Hi Vincent & Thx :0) Yep I was quick off the mark on this one I think.

Can anyone tell me the name of the film where Robin Williams said England was a country surrounded by water?



yes definatley mrs doubtfire and can catch her accent in my head as she says it. You know what I mean he was a she!!! What made you think of that anyway??

Is it true that England goverment is planning to take control of a part of the Argentinean maritime platform?

Hi. I am an argentinean.
There are fixed emails being sent here in Argentina that talk about this. But the media in our country is not saying anything at all.
Is it true that if next year the Argentinean Goverment doesn't dispense a report to the United Nations about its maritime platform The England Goverment might take over of part of it. Specifically the part the surrounds the Falkland Islands???




Thanks for take!


Es verdad, y la argentina, no mando el informe a la Onu y ni lo empezo, Inglaterra declaro entre sus territorios a parte de la plataforma argentina he islas malvinas creo, si no lei mal.

Otra verguenza de la gobernacion K y sus inopernates.


Saludossss!!!!!!!!!!

Refugee Journeys: Mary in her own words

After 20 years, Mary Namazie retired as a sweetheart staff member of the International Rescue Committee where she helped to bring refugees from harm ...

'MIA' was the first Sri Lankan 'ever' to be nominated for a ...

MIA Biography b. Mathangi Arulpragasm, 17 July 1977, Hounslow, London, England. The London-based rapper M.I.A. (decided Maya) first emerged ...