Daily Dispatches

By Richard McGregor
Financial Times, London
Sunday, January 21, 2007

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cf2b2a5c-a989-11db-9185-0000779e2340.html

With a vaguely worded statement from Wen Jiabao, China's premier, at the close of a weekend meeting in Beijing on finance policy, the die has been cast for a momentous change in the management of the country's massive foreign exchange reserves.

Mr. Wen said the management of the reserves, the world's largest at more than a thousand billion dollars, should be improved and the channels through which they are invested diversified.

11a ET Sunday, January 21, 2007

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Gold got a stirring endorsement and the central bank system of infinite money a denunciation last week from a remarkable source -- a leading banker in Canada's financial establishment.

The banker, Anthony S. Fell, chairman of RBC Capital Markets and former president of Royal Bank of Canada, delivered the endorsement and denunciation at RBC's client appreciation dinner in Vancouver.

From Reuters
Sunday, January 21, 2007

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070121/3/2w3xo.html

BEIJING -- China's policy of allowing the yuan to gain a modest 3-5 percent a year is not sustainable as the cost of preventing a faster rise will crush the central bank, a Chinese economist said.

Zhong Wei, a professor at Beijing Normal University and an editor of a magazine run by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, told a weekend forum in Beijing that China needed another revaluation to build up a properly functioning exchange rate system.

By Natalie Obiko Pearson
Associated Press
Friday, January 19, 2007

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070119/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_chavez_2

Venezuelan lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill granting President Hugo Chavez the power to rule by decree for 18 months so that he can impose sweeping economic, social, and political change.

Emboldened by his landslide re-election last month, the leftist leader has called for "revolutionary laws" to accelerate the country's transformation into a full socialist state.