Free Republic

When you hear the word, “dollar,” you probably think of the U.S. dollar. It is, after all, the most widely used dollar in the world. In fact, the U.S. dollar (known as USD at international currency exchanges) is accepted in many cities, countries, and regions of the world either as primary or secondary currency. The U.S. dollar is also currently the reserve currency of many countries. A reserve currency is a specific type of money held by central banks and international financial institutions to trade with one another.The United States is not the only country to use an official currency...

The eight-member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), including China, Russia, and Pakistan, have made the principle decision to conduct bilateral trade and investment and issue bonds in local and national currencies instead of US dollars.

Debt-based fiat money, which implies never ending debt and constant inflation, is not a sound, stable or sustainable monetary system. Major economic problems today, such as rising global commodity prices and the sovereign debt crisis, are not aberrations or inherent problems of capitalism, but are the inevitable consequences of a centrally planned system that, by design, produces never ending inflation, ever increasing centralization of financial power and increasingly extreme concentration of wealth. Monetary systems that rely on debt-based fiat money can be accurately described as confidence games and the global cartel of central banks that exists today is similar to...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Ecuador Conterfeiting Problems CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Ecuador 30 Jul 2009 U.S. Embassy Quito issued the following Warden Message on July 30, 2009: The U.S. Embassy and Consulate General in Ecuador wish to inform American citizens visiting or resident in Ecuador of the continuing problem of counterfeit U.S. dollars circulating within Ecuador. We remind American citizens to check your currency carefully when leaving any banking institution or private business within Ecuador. Recently, we’ve received reports of counterfeit bills...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China should gradually reduce its holdings of U.S. debt and can stop buying dollar-denominated bonds, a Hong Kong newspaper on Tuesday quoted Cheng Siwei, a vice chief of China's parliament, as saying. With China a leading financier of the U.S. current account deficit, Cheng's comments sent the dollar lower against the euro and yen and also pushed down prices of U.S. government bonds. The Beijing-funded Wen Wei Po daily carried Cheng's comments, made in Hong Kong on Monday, but it was not immediately clear whether they reflected those of top decision makers who determine the content of...

Have you checked the value of your stocks or your real estate lately? In euros? Or British pounds? Has it all sadly disappeared seemingly while you were sleeping? Looking at the dire prognostications of currency analysts on television or in the newspapers lately would lead one to believe that all of your assets are evaporating like raindrops on a Phoenix sidewalk in August. Given the depth of the dread, I’m surprised that some of the Wall Street brokerage firms haven’t taken advantage of all this gloom by selling a currency-hedging strategy to consumers that would prevent the disappearance of home...

At this week's monetary-policy meeting, the Federal Reserve took the first baby step toward making small interest-rate increases next year. The central back acknowledged that deflation is no longer a problem and that the economy is growing briskly. Wisely, the Fed appears to be taking account of forward-looking market indicators, such as rising gold, higher raw-material commodity prices and a declining dollar, all of which signal that the obstacle of deflationary price declines has been removed and that world economic recovery has begun. Next year, the Fed will slowly narrow the 1 percentage point gap between the fed funds policy...

Since the end of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971, the dollar has been an irredeemable currency, no longer defined or measured in terms of gold.  Nonetheless, in an ironic twist, it has become the world’s dominant currency and the core reserve asset of central banks all over the world. It has replaced gold as an international currency.  The transformation has not happened without consequences. One of these is that the discipline imposed by the gold standard is no longer operative. Another consequence, related to the first, is the profound effect this has had on international trade. The Discipline of Gold In the...

US25m bounty on al-Qaeda leader From correspondents in Washington October 31, 2003 THE United States today offered up to $US25 million for clues leading to the arrest of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, linked to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and said to be recruiting fighters in Iraq. The bounty is one of the highest ever offered under the State Department's "Rewards for Justice" program and matches that offered for bin Laden himself and ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, officials said. The reward was announced without comment when information about it was posted to the program's website (www.rewardsforjustice.net) which is run in...

MADRID : The chief of the US occupation authority in Iraq rejected allegations that billions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenue and other funds earmarked for the reconstruction of the country had gone missing in "opaque" bank accounts. Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, said all funds were being spent or transferred in a "completely transparent" way and that auditors' accounting of CPA expenditures from those funds would soon be posted on the internet and provided to an oversight board. "The entire accounts of the Development Fund for Iraq will be posted on the internet and made available...

Christian Aid calls on U.S.-appointed regime to become more transparent JILL LAWLESS ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON (AP) — The U.S.-run body governing Iraq has failed to account for billions of dollars allocated for rebuilding the country, a prominent British aid group said today. Christian Aid said in its report that the Coalition Provisional Authority had only explained publicly how it had spent $1 billion (U.S.) of the $5 billion in Iraqi funds it has been given for the country's redevelopment. The funds include $1 billion from the former United Nations Oil for Food program, $2.5 billion in assets seized from Saddam...

MOSCOW, Oct 12 (AFP) - Oil men and investment bankers are throwing money around expensive nightspots in Moscow these days as investors crowd into Russia again to get a slice of the action in one of the world's hottest economies. With the Moscow stock market already at all-time highs after rocketing past a level not seen since before the 1998 financial crash, fresh euphoria erupted when Moody's upgraded Russia's credit rating Thursday to investment grade. "Russia's economy is extremely solid and its prospects are excellent," enthused Christopher Granville of the Moscow-based brokerage United Financial Group, hailing the move as a...

Remittances are Mexico's biggest source of income, says Fox By Luis Alonso Lugo ASSOCIATED PRESS 8:51 p.m. September 24, 2003 NEW YORK ? Money sent from Mexican workers in the United States to their families back home has reached a record $12 billion in 2003, Mexican President Vicente Fox said Wednesday. Remittances "are our biggest source of foreign income, bigger than oil, tourism or foreign investment," Fox told reporters after a meeting with Mexican-American businessmen. "The 20 million Mexicans in the United States generate a gross product that is slightly higher than the $600 billion generated by Mexicans in Mexico,"...

Ankara, TURKEY, September 30, 2003 - Both American and Turkish officials have confirmed that the US$8,5 billion loan is tied to a condition that Turkish troops not enter Northern Iraq. In a statement before the Cabinet Council meeting yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin has confirmed just that. “The U.S. Senate determined conditions for the credit. This is one of them,” said Sahin. Minister of Justice and government spokesman Cemil Cicek also confirmed the condition in similar terms. American officials also added their comments. A US official, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “The condition for Turkish troops not...

WASHINGTON - Republicans muscled President Bush's $87 billion plan for Iraq and Afghanistan through a Senate committee Tuesday but signaled they may ultimately defy the White House and structure some of the aid as a loan. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill 29-0, with Democrats reluctant to oppose a bill dominated by funds for U.S. troops. But the unanimous tally belied sharp partisan divisions over $20.3 billion included for Iraqi reconstruction. With even GOP senators flashing signs of unease over the Iraq rebuilding money, the panel's chairman said a bipartisan compromise was being explored to provide some of the...

    WASHINGTON -- A slide in the value of the U.S. dollar has spooked stock and bond markets this week, a reminder that a dollar crash could devastate the U.S. and global economies.     A rise or fall in the value of the dollar against other currencies matters little by itself for most consumers, unless they travel overseas. Yet a sudden change in the exchange rate can indirectly raise or lower the cost of goods in the stores, influence job-creation, investment and mortgage-interest rates and shrink the value of retirement portfolios.     In recent years, foreigners buying dollars -- and...

Money sent from Mexican workers in the U.S. to their families back home has reached a record $12 billion this year, Mexican President Vicente Fox said last week. Remittances "are our biggest source of foreign income, bigger than oil, tourism or foreign investment," Fox told reporters after a meeting with Mexican-American businessmen in Manhattan. "The 20 million Mexicans in the United States generate a gross product that is slightly higher than the $600 billion generated by Mexicans in Mexico," Fox said, adding that his country has the ninth-largest economy in the world. "If we could add up the two products,...

<p>BAGHDAD — When Massoud Mazouri learned that the U.S.-led coalition had ousted Saddam Hussein from power on April 9, he hurried to Baghdad from his home in northern Iraq to set up an electronics business.</p> <p>Now the 28-year-old Kurdish merchant is selling televisions and satellite receivers at a brisk pace to gadget-starved shoppers. It's among the first signs that Iraq's larger economy is coming to life.</p>

Advertising authorities in Moscow have banned a poster campaign showing the euro having sex with the US dollar. The campaign, by the Russian Finance magazine, was judged immoral by the Moscow Committee for advertising and information, reports Izvestia. Advertising company News Outdoor had to tear down 100 posters overnight in Moscow, after receiving a warning letter from the committee chairman Igor Presnyakov. Magazine publisher Igor Maltsev said he did not realise what the posters were supposed to represent. "I thought the currencies were dancing on our poster," he said. "But after hearing from Mr Presnyakov I saw that, yes,...

<p>American troops in Iraq will continue to be in danger if Congress does not quickly pass the president's $87 billion emergency funding request, the American administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, told senators yesterday.</p> <p>"Some Iraqis are beginning to regard us as occupiers and not as liberators. Some of this is inevitable, but faster progress on reconstruction will help," Mr. Bremer told the Senate Appropriations Committee.</p>