China’s Ambitious Plan to Make the Yuan the World’s Go-To Currency

China’s long-held desire to provide an alternative to the U.S. dollar will get a boost on October 1, when the yuan enters the International Monetary Fund’s basket of reserve currencies, placing it alongside the pound, euro, yen and dollar. The yuan’s ascent is a validation of the importance of the world’s second-biggest economy and the work policy makers have done to allow freer access to the nation’s markets.

Foreign Appetite For U.S. Securities Has Taken a Drubbing

Chinese and Middle Eastern investors have other priorities.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

When the Federal Reserve hiked benchmark rates in December, the initial jump in the short-end of the nominal U.S. yield curve raised expectations that foreign buyers would snap up the country’s assets, thanks to their yield relative to those of other developed markets ravaged by low policy rates.

In fact, net foreign flows to the U.S. have been decidedly weak this year, thanks to an exodus by foreign central banks and sovereign wealth funds, who’ve been dumping U.S. securities in order to raise cash to put to work at home.

China intends to oust dollar from oil trade

China is planning to launch its own oil benchmark in October, similar to Brent and WTI, striving for a more important role in establishing crude prices. Unlike the Western benchmarks, the Chinese contracts will be nominated in the yuan, not the US dollar.

Shanghai International Energy Exchange sent a draft futures contract to market players in August, Reuters reported quoting sources.

China’s Economic Woes Should Set Alarm Bells Ringing

The Chinese government insists that the economy is sailing smoothly and will achieve its seven-percent growth target, but exports and domestic consumption are slowing.

Get ready for a ‘fire sale’ of Greek islands

The upmarket property company says in its latest Islands Report: “As the long-term ramifications of Greece’s financial bailout play out more fire-sales of Greek islands are expected.”

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About 20 Greek islands were put on the market last year, and Knight Frank expects more to follow as the implications of the property tax begin to hit home for more owners.

How the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is Selling Residency to Chinese “Investors” at $500k a Pop

A major theme here at Liberty Blitzkrieg over the past year has been the creative ways in which corrupt Chinese oligarchs and government officials are maneuvering their way into the United States. To be clear, I am not anti-immigration by any stretch of the imagination. My mother was an immigrant. This is about being against corrupt and morally compromised individuals being welcomed here with open arms just because they have cash. We have enough domestic criminal oligarchs as it stands. These people have collectively captured the American political and economic system and control it to their own ends. Do we really need to import more of these types from abroad?

Did you know that there exists a federal Immigrant Investor Program that grants “EB-5″ immigration visas to foreigners who provide at least $500,000 to U.S. projects that create 10 or more American jobs? I wasn’t familiar with this, but apparently the good folks at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission are well aware of it, and are using it to raise $200 million.