IMF, World Bank Try to Ease Currency Tensions

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World leaders must defuse currency tensions before they worsen to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Great Depression, the head of the World Bank said on Thursday. The spirit of global economic cooperation, first forged in 2008 during the darkest days of the financial crisis, was weakening as the recession gives way to an uneven and shaky recovery, the head of the International Monetary Fund said. ‘If one lets this slide into conflict, or forms of protectionism, then we run the risks of repeating the mistakes of the 1930s,’ World Bank President Robert Zoellick told reporters at a briefing. ”

Personally, I think that “market sector” and world bank “government sector” power control and regulate the world currency problem. Fears of global currency and trade wars, which were key factors in the Great Depression, have jumped to the top of the agenda at IMF and World Bank meetings this weekend, and are also expected to be a primary topic of discussion when Group of Seven finance leaders gather on Friday. These meetings are expected to provide a forum for intense discussions about efforts to persuade China to let its currency rise and tamp down pressures for other emerging countries to control capital flows as the U.S. dollar weakens. Emerging markets are caught in the crossfire. Investors turned off by low returns in the United States and elsewhere are pouring money into fast-growing economies such as Brazil, driving up asset prices and inflation. Actions to control disruptive currency swings were understandable but over the medium term currencies would have to adjust to permit a necessary rebalancing of the global economy.

Post by: Ziying Yuan

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wirestory?id=11822159&page=3

Obama, Wen huddle in a side meeting at U.N.

United Nations (CNN) -- President Barack Obama urged Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to speed up the revaluation of his nation's currency, telling him in a two-hour meeting Thursday that the slow pace of reforms was affecting both the global and U.S. economies, a top U.S. aide said. The talks on the sidelines of this week's U.N. General Assembly opening also covered security issues including Iran, Sudan and the dispute between China and Japan -- a major U.S. ally -- regarding the South China Seas, said Jeff Bader, Obama's special assistant and senior director for Asian affairs. Most of the focus was on economic issues, Bader said, because Wen is responsible for managing the Chinese economy, the world's second largest behind the United States.

On the economic front, although the world economy is now growing again, I think it's going to be very important for U.S to have frank discussions and continue to do more work cooperatively in order to achieve the type of balance and sustained economic growth. The premier is correct in a sense. The American mindset of limiting imports due to the incorrect and simple populist notion that somehow U.S will increase employment by cutting off trade, or artificially protecting either jobs or wages. This fear is commonly used by our politicians on both sides of the party system to get elected and stir up angst against the Chinese. They are not good or evil; they are looking out for their self-interest and cannot be faulted for doing so.

Post by: Ziying Yuan

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/23/un.china.wen.meeting/

US Government Considering Contacting Pastor Planning Quran Burning

The President of U.S, Obama, against a Florida minister's plan to burn copies of the Quran. "President Obama said publicly burning the Quran is a destructive and dangerous act. He also said the minister's plan is an attention-seeking "stunt" that could endanger U.S. troops, but also is a valid exercise of free-speech rights under the U.S. legal system. " From the above piece of news, it presents the right of liberalism side in U.S society! I agreed that what the Obama said, the society really needs freedom and liberalism. The best way to solve the problem is that they need to find and work out where the real&original problem is, and then, solve it. Not only use violent solution to solve it.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/US-Government-Considering-Contacting-Pastor-Planning-Quran-Burning--102560654.html

Ziying Yuan