Forex Humour

Russian officials want 10,000 ruble note to be issued

It seems that Russian officials are tired of carrying too many banknotes in their wallets so that they decided to put forward an initiative to issue a 10,000-ruble banknote. Deputy Chief of the LDPR parliamentary faction Alexei Didenko addressed the proposal to the central bank of Russia. The politician not only explained the reason to introduce the new banknote, but also presented the prototype featuring Sebastopol and Crimea. Faction leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky supported the initiative. “We, the LDPR faction, today will offer Elvira Nabiullina to issue a new banknote with the nominal value of 10,000 rubles, the main topic of which must be the historic date of 2014. This is the year of the reunification of the Crimea and city-hero of Sevastopol with their historical motherland – Russia“, Alexei Didenko said. Sources familiar with the situation confirmed that the banknote design features the monument to the Admiral Nakhimov and Orthodox Church in Sevastopol. It is commonplace in Russia to issue commemorative banknotes. Last time the central bank introduced a 100-ruble banknote to commemorate the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. The Bank of Russia reported a successful introduction of 20 million 100-ruble notes into circulation. In addition, it minted 20 million Sochi-themed 25-ruble coins made from copper-nickel. 

Published 07.04.2014 © InstaForex Group

US Fed: QE exit on track

The international observers were sure that the Federal Reserve would hint on faster tapering of the quantitative easing. For instance, a billionaire, and one of the most famous investors, Stanley Druckenmiller, said that the Federal Reserve program hampers the U.S. economic recovery. The economist believes that the U.S. should exit the QE3 before the set deadline. Such a view is shared by the former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh. However, the tapering should be planned beforehand and taken by easy stages. Thus, there are worrisome signals that if the bond-buying ends too quickly, it might destabilize the economy. “Wealth creation comes from strong, sustainable growth that turns a proper mix of labor, capital and know-how into productivity, productivity into labor income, income into savings, savings into capital, capital into investment, and investment into asset appreciation,” experts say. This point of view is explained by the fact that QE program, that stipulates aggressive bonds purchases, just shifts wealth from the middle class and poor to the rich. Some time ago, the Fed’s officials approved another QE reduction by $10 billion. Apart from this, the Federal Reserve expects sharp increase in interest rates. As the result, the program is curtailed from $25 to $20 billion. The volume of MBS purchases will fall from $20 billion to $15 billion. Thus, the total volume of monthly assets purchases contracted from $45 billion to $35 billion.

Published 07.04.2014 © InstaForex Group

China plans to undermine World Bank dominance

China is set to create its own version of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The bank will start with a $100 billion capital, The Financial Times reports citing the sources familiar with the situation. According to Beijing, the above-mentioned international financial institutions are under the United States’ control, thus not providing China with freedom of action. “China feels it can’t get anything done in the World Bank or the IMF so it wants to set up its own World Bank that it can control itself,” the FT quoted a source close to the discussions. “There is a lot of interest from across Asia but China is going to go ahead with this even if nobody else joins it,” it says. To date, more than 22 countries, including some oil-rich countries of the Middle East also have shown their interest in the project to be called the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The new financial institution aims to recreate the Silk Road, the ancient trade route, connecting China with Europe. Beijing expects the Bank to be all set by 2015.

Published 07.04.2014 © InstaForex Group

"What! No E-mail?"

An unemployed man goes to apply for a job with Microsoft as a janitor. The manager there arranges for him to take an aptitude test (Section: Floors, sweeping and cleaning). After the test, the manager says, "You will be employed at minimum wage, $5.25 an hour. Let me have your e-mail address, so that I can send you a form to complete and tell you where to report for work on your first day. Taken aback, the man protests that he has neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this the MS manager replies, "Well, then, that means that you virtually don't exist and can therefore hardly expect to be employed." Stunned, the man leaves. Not knowing where to turn and having only $10 in his wallet, he decides to buy a 25 lb. flat of tomatoes at the supermarket. Within less than 2 hours, he sells all the tomatoes individually at 100% profit. Repeating the process several times more that day, he ends up with almost $100 before going to sleep that night. And thus it dawns on him that he could quite easily make a living selling tomatoes. Getting up early every day and going to bed late, he multiplies his profits quickly. After a short time he acquires a cart to transport several dozen boxes of tomatoes, only to have to trade it in again so that he can buy a pick-up truck to support his expanding business. By the end of the second year, he is the owner of a fleet of pick-up trucks and manages a staff of a hundred former unemployed people, all selling tomatoes. Planning for the future of his wife and children, he decides to buy some life insurance. Consulting with an insurance adviser, he picks an insurance plan. At the end of the telephone conversation, the adviser asks him for his e-mail address in order to send the final documents electronically. When the man replies that he has no e-mail, the adviser is stunned, "What, you don't have e-mail? How on earth have you managed to amass such wealth without the Internet, e-mail and e-commerce? Just imagine where you would be now, if you had been connected to the internet from the very start!" After a moment of thought, the tomato millionaire replied, "Why, of course! I would be a floor cleaner at Microsoft!" Moral of this story: 1. The Internet, e-mail and e-commerce do not need to rule your life. 2. If you don't have e-mail, but work hard, you can still become a millionaire. 3. Seeing that you got this story via e-mail, you're probably closer to becoming a janitor than you are to becoming a millionaire. 4. If you do have a computer and e-mail, you have already been taken to the cleaners by Microsoft.