You are here
Putin calls U.S. 'parasite' as Russia gorges on U.S. debt
By Alena Chechel, Scott Rose, and Jack Jordan
Bloomberg News
Friday, August 19, 2011
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-18/putin-slams-u-s-parasite-after-...
MOSCOW -- For Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the U.S. is a "parasite" because its rising debt weighs on the global economy.
But for Putin's government, the same debt is the safest possible investment.
Russia, the world's largest energy producer, has boosted its holdings of U.S. debt by more than 1,600 percent since September 2006, according to U.S. Treasury Department data. Russia used surging commodity prices to build the world's third-largest reserves pile, boosted in part by return on Treasuries.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Prophecy Platinum Reports 10.97 Million Ounces Inferred
and 1.04 Million Ounces Indicated PGM+Gold in Yukon
An independent resource report on the Wellgreen project in the Yukon Territory in Canada has just confirmed that it as one of the largest platinum group metals projects in Canada and one of the few outside South Africa, Prophecy Platinum Corp. Chairman John Lee says.
The report, compliant with Canadian National Instrument 43-101, was written by geologist Todd McCracken of Wardrop Engineering Inc., a Tetra Tech company. It incorporated drill data from 701 diamond drill holes (182 surface and 519 underground) totaling more than 53,222 metres. Using a 0.4 percent nickel equivalent cutoff grade, the Wellgreen deposit now contains a total inferred resource of 289.2 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.53 g/t platinum, 0.42 g/t palladium, 0.23 g/t gold (1.18 g/t PGM and gold), 0.38 percent nickel, and 0.35 percent copper. Separately, the deposit also contains an indicated resource of 14.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.99 g/t platinum, 0.74 g/t palladium, 0.52 g/t gold (2.25 g/t PGM and gold), 0.69 percent nickel, and 0.69 percent copper.
Prophecy Platinum Corp. trades on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol NKL, on the pink sheets in the United States as PNIKD, and in Frankfurt as P94P.
For the complete press release on the Wellgreen report, please visit:
http://prophecyplat.com/news_2011_july14_prophecy_platinum_new_resource_...
Putin, 58, who oversaw the largest buildup of U.S. debt holdings in Russia's history as president from 2000 to 2008, may return to the post after elections next year. The country is now one of the world's 10 largest holders of the securities with $110 billion at the end of June, about 70 percent more than when Putin left the Kremlin.
"They are sending out a message" largely for domestic consumption, Edwin Gutierrez, who helps manage about $7 billion in emerging-market debt at Aberdeen Asset Management in London, said in a phone interview on Aug. 17. "It's ironic that these voices of complaint come as they experience massive capital appreciation."
Russia's 2020 dollar bonds returned 9.5 percent this year compared with 12.7 percent for similar-maturity U.S. debt. This month, the Russian dollar bonds advanced 0.7 percent against a 5.6 percent increase for U.S. bonds. Ten-year Treasury yields dropped below two percent for the first time yesterday, touching a record-low 1.9735 percent before rising again.
The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries has fallen 2.77 percentage points, or 277 basis points, over the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield on U.S. Treasuries due in 2016 has fallen 110 basis points this year, almost double the 66 basis-point drop for comparable German bunds.
The American bond market has outperformed world bond indexes since Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating on Aug. 5, showing market concern that the nation may default hasn't risen. Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, the two next biggest rating companies, affirmed their AAA ratings on the U.S.
S&P's first downgrade of U.S. debt to AA+ sparked a global selloff in equities as investors sought shelter in traditional havens like Treasuries. The Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing the decision.
The U.S. "is living beyond its means and shifting part of the weight of its problems onto the world economy, acting to some extent as a parasite on the global economy and its dollar monopoly position," Putin told a youth camp outside Moscow on Aug. 1 in response to questions about the risk of an American default.
After the S&P downgrade, Russia joined the largest holders of U.S. debt in rushing to voice support by pledging to retain their Treasuries holdings.
Russia doesn't expect "any alternative whatsoever" to American sovereign debt in its holdings for the next five years, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said in a telephone interview on Aug. 16.
"The U.S. debt market is still the most liquid, dependable and safe," Storchak said. "There's absolutely no reason for Russia to reconsider its position on U.S. securities or to change its investment strategy now. And not just now -- for some time to come."
Even after reducing holdings 38 percent from an October 2010 peak of $176 billion, Russia's $110 billion in U.S. Treasuries at the end of June accounted for 21 percent of its international reserves and gold holdings, up from 17 percent when the foreign exchange stockpile peaked in August 2008.
Russian holdings of U.S. Treasuries have expanded in the last five years as soaring oil revenue boosted the reserves of the world's largest crude producer. Urals crude oil, the country’s main export blend, has almost doubled in price to $106.10 a barrel from $54.44 over the same period.
"As long as the dollar remains the main currency in which the central bank tracks reserves and raw-materials companies receive their revenue, Russia really doesn't have any alternatives," Oleg Vyugin, chairman at Moscow-based MDM Bank and a former first deputy chairman of the central bank, said in a phone interview Aug. 17. "The Federal Reserve system is the center of global liquidity."
Foreign-currency holdings and gold reached $540.2 billion in the week ending Aug. 12, the highest level since October 2008, Bank Rossii said on its website yesterday.
Russia's holdings of monetary gold rose to a record $43.6 billion as of Aug. 1, from $35.6 billion on Jan. 1 and $27.3 billion a year ago. The country wants to diversify its reserves, Alexei Ulyukayev, a central bank first deputy chairman, said this week in an interview posted on Bank Rossii's website.
For now, instruments denominated in dollars and euros represent the "two truly liquid markets," Ulyukayev said. "We're going to work on this, but unfortunately there's no reason to expect any significant changes."
Even as Bank Rossii's holdings of U.S. debt slipped this year, the country kept the ratio of dollars in its sovereign funds at about 45 percent, said Storchak, who oversees the Reserve Fund and the National Wellbeing Fund. They held a combined $119 billion of Russia's reserves as of July.
"As opposed to the other central banks, Russia won't see a need to change the structure of its reserves sharply," Natalia Orlova and Dmitry Dolgin, analysts at Alfa Bank, Russia's largest non-state lender, said in a research note on Aug. 17.
Russian oil and gas sales abroad account for about 64 percent of exports, while metals sales are another 15 percent, they wrote. Because most of that revenue is in dollars, Bank Rossii "remains comfortable with a relatively high portion of dollars in its reserves," Orlova and Dolgin said.
* * *
Join GATA here:
Toronto Resource Investment Conference
Thursday-Friday, September 15-16, 2011
Sheraton Toronto Centre
http://cambridgehouse.com/conference-details/toronto-resource-investment...
The Silver Summit
Thursday-Friday, October 20-21, 2011
Davenport Hotel, Spokane, Washington
http://cambridgehouse.com/conference-details/the-silver-summit-2011/48
New Orleans Investment Conference
Wednesday-Saturday, October 26-29, 2011
Hilton New Orelans Riverside Hotel
http://www.neworleansconference.com/
Support GATA by purchasing gold and silver commemorative coins:
https://www.amsterdamgold.eu/gata/index.asp?BiD=12
Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:
Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:
http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon:
Help keep GATA going
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
Golden Phoenix Q2 2011 Conference Call Posted at Company Internet Site
The second quarter 2011 conference call of Golden Phoenix Minerals Inc. (GPXM) has been posted at the company Internet site for immediate playback. The call includes updates on the start of gold production at the company's Mineral Ridge gold project in Nevada, the letter of intent to acquire the Santa Rosa gold mine in Panama, and the company's due-diligence efforts to secure a senior stock exchange listing.
The conference call is 18 minutes long and you download an mp3 of it here:
http://www.goldenphoenix.us/audio/GPXMCC071211.mp3
Or play back the call here:
http://goldenphoenix.us/conferencecalls/
Golden Phoenix is a U.S. mining company with international exposure to gold, silver, and strategic metals. The company's business model combines project generation and royalty mining that offers the potential for exploration upside, coupled with the backing of production and future royalty streams. View company videos here:
