• Andy Xie on China, money and asset bubbles 8 Dec 2009
• Andy Xie: Chinese monetary policy has to be tightened 4 Feb 2010
• Andy Xie: Our Market Is A Poor Man’s Casino 23 May 2010

• Worrying weak macro trends in China, US and Europe 21 Jul 2011
• Alcoa earnings call points to weakness in China and Europe 12 Oct 2011
• A reminder about new mark-to-market rules in Europe 16 Feb 2009

• Commodity prices are dropping across the board 31 Jul 2008
• Thoughts on Commodity Prices and China’s Hydropower Push 2 Feb 2011
• Have commodity prices peaked? 23 Jul 2008

The financial climate has changed radically from when Norway’s Oil Fund was established in 1990. Norway has built up its savings since then by selling enormous quantities of oil and gas, and employing many thousands of workers. By coincidence, an even larger sum of $600 billion recently has been created overnight – electronically on computer keyboards, by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board as part of Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Quantitative Easing policy (QE2). This money has been provided to spur bank liquidity, in hope that they can earn their way out of the losses they suffer from their bad mortgage loans and other gambles.

The aim of these banks is the same as that of Norway’s Oil Fund: to make money. As the financial press has noticed, nearly the entire $600 billion has been sent abroad – to the BRIC countries and raw materials exporters in strong balance-of-payments positions, whose economies are not as “loaned up” as those of the United States and Europe, where Norway invests most of its money. So while Norway is putting its money into these countries, their financial managers are jumping ship – sending electronic dollars and euros to the economies that use their own sovereign wealth funds in the opposite way from what Norway is doing.

• Going Off on Rogoff – There is No Hard Debt Constraint for Fiat Currency 2 Mar 2010
• Is Gold Just Another Fiat Currency? 31 May 2010
• The Age of the Fiat Currency: A 38-year experiment in inflation 27 Apr 2009

• Brazil Takes Further Action To Weaken Currency 6 Jan 2011
• India, Brazil, Mexico Update 24 Sep 2010
• Brazil: “We’re in the midst of an international currency war” 27 Sep 2010

• ECB credit easing by buying debt from Greece and Spain analogous to Fed buying California and Illinois munis 5 Jul 2010
• Norway makes three 28 Oct 2009
• Buffett is buying utilities, should you? 11 Nov 2008

• Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund loses $125 billion 15 Jan 2009
• Brazil: Look who’s got a Sovereign Wealth Fund 9 Jun 2008
• Will sovereign wealth funds pour yet more money into the West? 17 Feb 2009

• Sovereign wealth funds cut exposure to U.S. 18 Jul 2008
• Barclays taps Sovereign Wealth Funds 8 Jun 2008
• Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund loses $125 billion 15 Jan 2009

• Financials: catching a falling knife 15 Jul 2008
• Citigroup: Panics, Banking Confidence, Bailouts and Fractional Reserves 23 Nov 2008
• Sweden: competitive auto bailouts begin with Saab and Volvo 11 Dec 2008

• Brazil: Look who’s got a Sovereign Wealth Fund 9 Jun 2008
• Sovereign wealth funds cut exposure to U.S. 18 Jul 2008
• Barclays taps Sovereign Wealth Funds 8 Jun 2008

• Lehman missed out on $5 billion from Korea 20 Aug 2008
• Fifth Third looking to sell assets 25 Jun 2008
• Is Lehman the next Bear Stearns? 3 Jun 2008

• Is Lehman the next Bear Stearns? 3 Jun 2008
• Lehman Brothers to post $3 bln loss; sets $6 bln stock sale 9 Jun 2008
• Investors in Financials lose $10 billion 16 Jun 2008

• Barclays taps Sovereign Wealth Funds 8 Jun 2008
• Brazil: Look who’s got a Sovereign Wealth Fund 9 Jun 2008

• MBIA, Ambac, $1 Trillion of Debt, Lose S&P AAA Rating 5 Jun 2008
• KeyCorp to raise $1.5 billion, cut dividend 50% 12 Jun 2008
• $35 billion in missing writedowns 21 May 2008

• Barclays taps Sovereign Wealth Funds 8 Jun 2008

• Credit Crisis Timeline 11 May 2008
• The UK is ground zero in the credit crisis 2 May 2008