Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Loud Laughter

clipped from www.reuters.com

China is the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury bonds.
U.S. data shows that it held $768 billion in Treasuries as of
March, but some analysts believe China's total U.S.
dollar-denominated investments could be twice as high.


"Chinese assets are very safe," Geithner said in response to
a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied
Chinese as a student in the 1980s.


His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience,
reflecting scepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing
country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves
instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home.