Chinese Students Laughed at Geithner's Comment

This doesn't sound good. I heard it first on the BBC radio that students at Beijing University laughed when Geithner told them the investments in US dollar-denominated assets are safe.

Chinese students laugh at Geithner's assurances
(GATA, Monday 6/1/09):

"BEIJING -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday reassured the Chinese government that its huge holdings of dollar assets are safe and reaffirmed his faith in a strong U.S. currency.

""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.

"The Beijing-based Global Times greeted Geithner by publishing a survey of Chinese economists who called big holdings of U.S. debt "risky.""

The yields on 10-year Treasury note and 30-year Treasury bond gapped up this morning, and now almost back to the last week's high. Treasury Department will be auctioning 10-year note and 30-year bond next week.

I only hope Geithner, who speaks Mandarin and Japanese, said something in Mandarin, and ended up saying some funny joke that provoked the laughs.

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