Showing posts with label President Xi Jinping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Xi Jinping. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Wall Street blames China for meltdown - What is the truth?

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Chinese President Xi Jinping
Here we go again, when anything goes wrong in the world Obama, our politicians, and now Wall Street, blame China.  As I have written several times, maybe we should not rush to judgement until the facts have arrived.  In the meantime there are some truths that might suggest our economic experts continue to be wrong.

For example, ever since the second greatest stock market crash in history when President Obama took office, America has been struggling to regain an economic foothold.  In the past six years we have had one of the slowest recoveries in history and many people wonder if anything really did recover.


Well everyone on Wall Street certainly recovered including those nasty banks who manipulated the market and nearly destroyed the nation.  The greatest beneficiary was Goldman Sachs who also happened to be the largest contributor to the Obama campaign.


So great was their influence that Rahm Emanuel of Goldman became the first Obama White House Chief of Staff. A CBS News analysis of the revolving door between Goldman and government reveals at least four dozen former employees, lobbyists or advisers at the highest reaches of power both in Washington and around the world.


One would think after the loss of trillions of dollars of middle class wealth, home values, retirement funds, etc., Obama would have us prepared to manage another financial crisis. Yet in the most current economic crisis there is silence from the White House.  Come to think of it, after all these years since the last crisis, there has been virtually no prosecutions, no fat cats in jail, no banks dissolved, nothing considering the degree of the crime.


So here we are, six years later blaming China for our stock woes.  What happened to all the financial reforms?  Here is a list of  government agencies and congressional committees and subcommittees, the executive and legislative branch resources, to maintain our economy.


U.S. Government Executive Branch Financial Regulators

Bank and Market Financial Regulators
US Department of Treasury
US Department of Justice
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Office of Thrift Supervision
Securities and Exchange Commission
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Commodities Futures Trading Commission
National Credit Union Administration

Non-Bank Financial Regulators
Federal Housing Finance Agency
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Regulatory Umbrella Groups
Financial Stability Oversight Council
Federal Financial Institution Examinations Council
President’s Working Group on Financial Markets
Non-Bank Capital Requirements
Federal Housing Finance Agency
The SEC’s Net Capital Rule
CFTC Capital Requirements
Foreign Exchange Markets
Treasury Securities
Private Securities Markets

Federal Reserve System

CFTC Is Next Agency To Consider Regulating Algorithmic Trading
By Jenny E. Cieplak on June 9, 2015



U.S. Government Legislative Branch Financial Oversight


The House of Representatives


The House of Representatives

The Senate


The Senate
Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management and Trade
Subcommittee on Conservation, Forestry and Natural Resources
Subcommittee on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture
Subcommittee on Livestock, Marketing and Agricultural Security
Subcommittee on Nutrition, Speciality Crops and Agricultural Research
Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies
Subcommittee on Defense
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
Subcommittee on the Financial Services and General Government
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
Subcommittee on Homeland Security
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Senate Committee on Armed Services
Subcommittee on Airland
Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support
Subcommittee on Seapower
Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Subcommittee on Economic Policy
Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection
Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development
Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance
Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment
Senate Committee on the Budget
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet
Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security
Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness
Subcommittee on Tourism, Competitiveness, and Innovation
Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
Subcommittee on Energy
Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests and Mining
Subcommittee on National Parks
Subcommittee on Water and Power
Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety
Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight
Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water and Wildlife
Senate Select Committee on Ethics
Senate Committee on Finance
Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth
Subcommittee on Health Care
Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy
Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight
Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Subcommittee on State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development
Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy
Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy
Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation
Subcommittee on Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy
Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism
Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights and Global Women's Issues
Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs
Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight
Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights
Subcommittee on Bankruptcy and the Courts
Subcommittee on The Constitution
Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism
Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest
Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts
Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law
Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs

So far no word from any of these groups as to what they are going to do regarding market manipulations from the kings of Wall Street.


Ironically, when it comes to the Chinese, they are all over the news with their crackdown on corruption, unfair business practices, and market manipulations.  Why is it the Chinese are going after the American companies who are introducing American crooked business practices to the Chinese market, assuming the Chinese will never figure out what went wrong.

Of course it is a safe assumption since the dozens and dozens of American regulators seem to have no interest in stopping the practices here.  Look at the headlines the Chinese have generated around the world while we sit on our butts and cast stones.


Leadership is the first requirement for fixing things and Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched one of the largest and most aggressive anti-corruption campaigns in the world. First he took on those throughout the government and now he is focusing on those who have undermined the Chinese efforts to improve the quality of life for the people.
  
As for the stock market, in China, it only takes one agency to do what the dozens of US agencies cannot do and that is the China Securities Regulatory Commission.  Once again President Jinping has attacked the problem where it is needed.  Maybe they can come here and show us what to do.


These are the headlines around the world concerning the Chinese effort to drive the crooks out of the financial markets.


Beijing scraps large-scale stock buying

Authorities to step up crackdown on those ‘destabilising’ market

China says 197 punished in crackdown on online rumors

China stocks slide as crackdown on speculators spreads, lose 11 percent in August

SHANGHAI

China warns securities industry as crackdown on stock market irregularities expected to intensify


Securities regulator orders industry to step up supervision after brokerage staff, officials and journalist are detained over unethical trading

China arrests nearly 200 in stock market crackdown


Shadow lending crackdown looms over China’s stock market


China stock exchanges step up crackdown on short-selling

China’s (Renewed) Crackdown on Insider Trading


Avic Units Targeted In China's Crackdown On Sell-Offs

China accuses brokers of manipulating share prices during stock market crisis

Beijing’s police ministry said it has launched a criminal investigation into unlicensed companies that financed speculative trading

China accuses trading firms of manipulating stocks

Wall Street Breakfast: China Heightens Curbs In Market Crackdown
Aug. 4, 2015 7:06 AM ET
   
China has unveiled more rules that make it harder for speculators to profit from hourly changes in stock prices. Under the new guidelines, short sellers must wait at least one day to cover their positions and repay loans used to buy shares.

Behind enemy lines - foreign hedge funds thrive in China

China stock exchanges are stepping up a crackdown on short-selling
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Monday, April 27, 2015

Peng Liyuan, First Lady of China - Best First Lady in the World

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As the media of the world has finally recognized, President Xi Jinping of China has a great partner in his wife of 25 years Peng Liyuan.  More than anything else, she has helped President Xi Jinping bring the Chinese into the modern era and to address the many problems facing nations aspiring to be the best in the world.


China is one of the largest nations in the world and has a deep, rich history. Some of the things that make China so popular are its ancient traditions, rich culture, and medicinal practices.  China's alternative and traditional medicines are adapted in western countries and are supported and practiced by western health care professionals throughout the world.



The country's ancient and historical structures are also renowned around the world. The Great Wall of China is considered one of the wonders of the world and attracts tourists from all over the globe. China also holds the largest and most famous snow festivals.


Aside from tourist attractions, the country is also famous for its inventions. The Chinese invented gunpowder during the ninth century, and China is the producer of many famous and potent teas. China remains as the largest exporter and producer of green tea in the world.


Then there is the remarkable rise to power by President Xi Jinping and his success in guiding China into a role as an emerging world superpower and responsible member of the world community.  His wife is a powerful companion comfortable in the role she can fulfill for her husband and her country.


Remember, China has a written record back 4,000 years, and then a couple of mystical cultures and civilization dating back 7,000 - 8,000 years ago. That is pretty old.

Chinese philosophy, religion, medicine, herbs, and other attributes have withstood the test of time and once again are gaining worldwide acceptance.

Here she is in a video to help victims of AIDs.



Here are excerpts from a story about the First Lady by The Daily Telegraph in the UK that offers great insight into her rise in China.  

The First Lady of Mexico, Angélica Rivera de Peña and the First Lady of China, Peng Liyuan, 
visit the children of the Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez in Mexico City
The Daily Telegraph - London

China's first lady Peng Liyuan: a perfectly scripted life

China's new first lady has dazzled the world, but who is the real Peng Liyuan


03 Apr 2013
By Malcolm Moore, Beijing


After decades of stiff and inscrutable leaders, whose wives have been obediently invisible, China's Communist party has finally revealed a softer side: the gracious and elegant Peng Liyuan.

But while the new first lady was almost unknown in the West until she emerged on Xi Jinping's first presidential tour, in her homeland she has been a superstar for three decades.

Well before she met Mr Xi, Mrs Peng was arguably the most famous singer in China. Even today, an old joke still does the rounds in Beijing: "Who is Xi Jinping? He is Peng Liyuan's husband."

"It is a mission impossible to find someone more appropriate to represent the image of Chinese women than Peng Liyuan," gushed the Southern People Weekly magazine in 2005.

"She has a face like a full moon, shining eyes and white teeth, and she is upright and straightforward, frank and friendly".


Her dazzling appearance in Moscow last month, in a well-tailored coat and sky-blue scarf, was merely the latest act in a drama that has been meticulously scripted by the Party since she was just 15-years-old.

"I felt very excited when I saw her get off the plane. I think she deserved it after all these years of hard work. I even cried a little bit," said Wen Sui, a singer who shared a dorm with Mrs Peng for five years at the China Conservatory of Music.

China remains a country where loose talk about the president's wife can land you in serious trouble, so the handful of people who were willing to talk about Mrs Peng were effusive in their praise.

Nor is there a biography of Mrs Peng. The Communist party firmly believes that the less the public knows about its leaders, the better, and has spent years carefully deleting information about Mrs Peng and crafting a narrative so exemplary it is, at times, hard to believe.


Born in Peng village in 1962, in the eastern province of Shandong, Mrs Peng comes from a poor family and the very opposite end of the Communist party to her princeling husband, whose father was a vice-premier of China.

Mrs Peng's father was a lowly official, a schoolmaster who was put in charge of the county Culture bureau. He earned 40 yuan (£4) a month. Her mother, who has been nearly entirely erased from the record, was 25 when she was born and a member of a small touring opera company.


"She spent most of her childhood on the ox cart of the county's playhouse," remembered Wei Zhongping, her father's deputy at the culture bureau.

"I was a born singer," said Mrs Peng on a visit to Singapore in the 1990s.

By the age of five, she said, she could sing a complete folk song. "As a singer, I have won the highest honours in China. Actually I am like the panda: we are both national treasures," she added.


What she shares with Mr Xi, however, are memories of the evils of the Cultural Revolution. When she was four, Red guards arrived at her house to denounce her family.

Her mother was called a spy for having relatives in Taiwan. Her father was made to clean public lavatories for promoting culture that was suddenly considered "feudal", a vestige of old China.

Both Mrs Peng and Mr Xi saw their fathers imprisoned. Both of them were sent into exile in the countryside. Mrs Peng was denied an education.

But she had a golden gift to fall back on: her voice. She quickly learned to sing patriotic songs and, as a skinny 15-year-old teenager, she beat competition from 10,000 other applicants to land a place at her provincial art school.

From there, her career has progressed upwards in one straight line. First she was picked for the elite performance troupe of the local People's Liberation Army.


Then she attended the Conservatory of Music in Beijing. According to the state media, she was a "three points and one line" student. In other words, the daily arc of her life only had three points on it – the music room, the canteen and the dorm.

"She was very tough on herself. I used to ask her why she studied so hard," said Wen Sui, her dorm mate and fellow singer. "She would also help out her poorer classmates, buying them food coupons. Her father, who I met, taught her a lot. He used to tell her: 'I do not care how famous you are, or how much money you have, you have to be a good person above all'.

"I said to him he did not need to keep ramming it in because she was already a good person, but he said when you get high and comfortable in life, you can forget these lessons."

Each month in Beijing she received 52 yuan from the army and sent 40 yuan of it home to help her parents and younger brother and sister.

When she graduated, she was headhunted by the most prestigious arts company of all, the General Political Department of the PLA, which essentially laid the path for her to become China's top propaganda singer.


Here is another beautiful performance by the First Lady.



"Even there," said Mrs Wen, "She put herself in charge of organising the housing for the workers there. She is a perfect leader".

Indeed, her career is utterly blemish-free. She had no boyfriends until she met Mr Xi. She never took money for sponsorship or advertisements. The only deception on record is that she wears five-inch platform shoes underneath her costumes on stage to seem taller.

The only critic who has ever given her a negative review, Jiang Li, said she had sought him out after he wrote that the constant and effusive stream of floral tributes to her on stage as she sang was a distraction.

"She was a little angry when she spoke to me at first. She asked what was wrong with people applauding her and giving her flowers. So then she arranged for me to come and meet her. Her brother picked me up and drove me to her teacher's house, where she was cooking dinner," he remembered.


"We became friends. She is an outstanding singer. The difference between her and others is that she does not have any pretension to her singing, or artificiality or techniques. And she does not compromise for the audience or the market."

"I used to see her walking on the street sometimes, even after she got married to her husband. He could easily have arranged a car for her, but she always took the bus and carried her own shopping," he added.

Her place at the top table of the Chinese establishment was cemented in 1985 when she spent 20 days on the front line entertaining troops as they fought a border conflict with Vietnam.


The following year she was accepted into the Communist party and made her first appearance on the flagship Spring Festival gala show.

Her Prince and the Showgirl relationship with Mr Xi was also carefully scripted, the work of a meticulous, but unknown, matchmaker. The marriage of a famous army singer was of course a highly political matter.

They were introduced in Beijing in the winter of 1986. It was bitterly cold and Mrs Peng wore her green army uniform. She later told the state media that she had dismissed Mr Xi as a "xiang ba lao", a coarse country bumpkin.

Mr Xi was rising fast in the Party, and had an impeccable background, but was scandalously a divorcee. He had married the daughter of China's ambassador to the UK but the couple broke up when his wife wanted to return to England to study.

In the end, the courtship was brief. On September 1, 1987, a few colleagues were invited to the Red Lady French restaurant in the five-star Yeohwa hotel in Xiamen, where Mr Xi was the deputy mayor. The dinner was a wedding banquet.


For years, their union was a secret from all but a handful of top Party officials. But Mrs Peng later revealed she had eaten so many snails that night she had made herself ill.

Four days later, she went on a singing tour with the PLA, and the couple lived largely separate lives for two decades. Mr Xi was in the south of China and Mrs Peng was in Beijing or on the road, singing as many as 350 shows a year.

It is not uncommon in China for husbands and wives to live apart, and Mr Xi and Mrs Peng pragmatically pursued their own careers.

"I have never done anything for her work and life, and I am not able to do anything. Therefore how could I demand her to do this or that? If everything is fine with her, I am happy," said a surprisingly tolerant Mr Xi, in 2007, to the Youth Express newspaper.


Mrs Peng battled through severe morning sickness and dehydration to perform on the Chinese Spring Festival Gala, perhaps the most watched television show on earth.

"In a way, she was Kate Middleton before Kate Middleton was Kate Middleton," wrote Martin Macmillan in his biography of the couple Together They Hold Up the Sky.

Mr Xi, meanwhile, missed the birth of their daughter, Mingze, because he was busy fighting floods.

For some, the script was too perfect. A cable from the US Consulate in Shanghai from 2007, noted that High Court judges from Zhejiang province, where Mr Xi had been based "reported rumours that Xi was preparing to divorce his wife".

There were enough rumours that Mr Xi was having an affair that the Chinese media issued articles stressing the couple's enduring love and that their "feelings for each other stabilised" after Mingze's birth. Those articles, of course, raised more questions than they answered.


For her part, Mrs Peng described her husband as a "safe harbour" that she longed to return to, and told folksy tales about carrying a special quilt for him all around China while she was on tour.

When asked about her hobbies, she said she liked being at home, sitting on the sofa, watching television with her husband and cooking. Mr Xi likes watching football and playing the Chinese game Go. China's first family is just like any other, according to the state media.


"She can relate to people, but what is unique here in China for a first lady is the people can connect to her. She has been well known for 30 plus years. An entire generation has grown up with her." said James Chau, one of the few journalists who has interviewed Mrs Peng. "She is a tangible face they can hang their hopes and dreams on".

In 2007, as Mr Xi was anointed as China's next leader, she began cutting back her singing appearances and instead took on more charity work.

Ruby Yang, a film director who shot a series of public service advertisements with Mrs Peng remembered how, stranded in tiny Aids-ridden village in Henan province, Mrs Peng had met a young boy, infected with HIV, who had been forced to live in a pigsty. "She was obviously deeply affected," she said. "As a Chinese American, I had no idea she was such a star. I made her do her make-up by the side of the road. But she was professional about it".


But while Mrs Peng's emergence on the world stage has been greeted with delight in China, there are already signs that the Party is uncomfortable at the enormous buzz around her.

While the Chinese media has been giddily comparing Mrs Peng to Jackie Kennedy, Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni this week, the censors have been wiping her name from the internet. Copies of her clothes that were selling on Taobao, an online marketplace, have been removed.


While her glamour may counterbalance her husband's often gruff appearance, and lend him plenty of popular support, there is a fear that a curious public may question why her official biography is so neat and tidy.

"After this trip, the Party will analyse how best to use her going forward, and how to make sure she does not outshine her husband," said Cheng Xiaohe, a professor of International Relations at Renmin university. "She is probably more influential than Michelle Obama since she will be around for ten years and was famous before her husband came into office," he added.

For Chinese viewers in particular here is a video of her life story.


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