Reply #29: Yepper... And here's a gloom & doom article for you [View All]

You're right about China... Oddly enough, for the last few days I've been thinking of our old friend Nikita

I once said, "We will bury you," and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you.
Nikita S. Khrushchev



Yahoo quicky scuttled this off. Thank God for Google cache. here's more gloom for you.

Tuesday December 7, 01:43 AM

Bank for International Settlements says OPEC slashes dollar exposure - report
HONG KONG (AFX) - Oil exporters have sharply reduced their exposure to the US dollar over the past three years, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Financial Times reported on its website.
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have slashed the proportion of deposits held in dollars from 75 pct in the third quarter of 2001 to just 61.5 pct.
Middle Eastern central banks have reportedly switched reserves from dollars to euro and sterling to avoid incurring losses as the dollar has fallen and prepare for a shift away from pricing oil exports in dollars alone, the newspaper said.
The BIS data, in the organization's quarterly review, state that OPEC countries' stock of dollar-denominated deposits has fallen by 4 pct in cash terms since 2002 in spite of OPEC revenues surging to record levels this year, according to the newspaper.
OPEC officials say the cartel is trying to protect its purchasing power per barrel, as Europe is its largest trading partner, the report said, adding that they also point to political motivations after the 2001 terror attacks on the US.
Hans Redeker, global head of foreign exchange strategy at the French bank, said the Patriot Act, introduced after Sept 11 to stop US financial institutions being used by terrorists to launder money, was worrying private investors, according to the FT report.
wpf/

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:z4q8HsvkukMJ:uk.biz.yahoo.com/041207/323/f811w.html+%22Bank+for+International+Settlements%22+OPEC&hl=en