Eurozone song now sung by Beijing

Various news orgs are reporting this Monday that China is calling for de-Americanization of global markets. I remember that, during the 1990s, Wall Street Journal reporting that this was the main reason that the Euro currency was launched, at least where the petroleum trade was concerned.  The Eurozone sought to supplant the U.S. Dollar as the "petroleum benchmark" currency.

Related 2009 article

Tip of the hat to former Rukeyser Elf, Gail Dudack, who was the only economic wonk to see that the numbers didn't add up and eventually got fired in 2000 for persistently being bearish.  Numbers that favored economic wonk, Mary Ferrell, should have been bright enough to see but instead went on the more destructive bull bandwagon.

I'm thinking, too, that perhaps I shouldn't have tacked on a previous commentary about the global economy at the bottom of a post about Halloween even though those two topics, at the time, arose on Sunday.  The thing deserves its own undivided attention in a single post.

I divulged my political background in the interest of full disclosure regarding that other post, and to that I will add this: I've been a direct stockholder ever since I worked for Illinois Power Co. and do not deal with any brokerage of any sort, nor do I own any 401k accounts, since those were invented subsequent to my employment and direct investments in utilities.  There was a day that a customer could buy stock in the utility he/she was a customer of via the company's bank, and that's what I did, in addition to having employee accounts.  My portfolio was broadened by a broker who bought only one share on my behalf to open up a direct account for my other investments, but I'm the one doing all the buying, holding, and selling.  These accounts are called Dividend Reinvestment Programs (DRPs) and not a whole lot of people these days are familiar with those, with their employers basically shoving their pet 401k programs down their throats.

As you can see, I'm no fan of the 401k.  Never was.  I will state again that the economic expert that best reflects my views is New York Times' Hedrick Smith.

As you can also see, I've seen China's song/dance before, only it wasn't China's performance.  However, now that this is China's new song, it is my considered opinion that every House Republican that not only voted to shut down the government but also changed the House rules to ensure that it stay shut down--that Republican is a de-facto "Manchurian Candidate".