Obama defends his policies…Commodity currencies should outperform…Global Power Shift Index…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Remember the old expression, “I wouldn’t do that for all the tea in China.” People used to associate China with tea. Well, now it’s time to associate China with gold, and a lot of it. Because the Chinese recently announced that they control over 33.89 million ounces of gold for monetary purposes. That’s an increase of 75% in Chinese gold holdings over the past six years.

MAOPING, People’s Republic of China – I’m often asked if there are investment risks in China.  My answer: Absolutely… there are investment risks everywhere. But it’s how you evaluate and manage those risks that will ultimately determine how well you do in this highly promising market.

China calls dollar into question… why the red nation wants a new “international reserve currency”… Stocks boom… what happened the last time the Dow jumped 18% in 10 days…A smart way to solve the housing crisis… that will never survive Washington… Plus, signs of the times: UAE buys chunk of Mercedes-Benz, and a quiet change at AIG

Emerging markets, led by China and Russia, plan to jointly challenge the U.S. dollar’s role as the world’s sole benchmark currency at the April 2 meeting of the Group 20 nations – a move that underscores the currency’s weakness and fading support around the world.

China Lifts Inflation Controls; Awful Year for India Rupee; 30-year Mortgage Rates Hit Record Low; First Recorded Decline in Online Holiday Shopping; UBS Offloads Bank of China Stake

The People’s Bank of China continued nipping away at its one-year lending rate, cutting off 0.27 percentage points to 5.31%, its fifth rate cut in three months.

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) will likely boost its stake in state-owned banking giant China Construction Bank Corp., paying about 36 cents a share (2.46 yuan), or 1.2 times the Beijing-based lender’s book value, China’s Caijing magazine reported last Friday, citing unidentified sources.

Federal Reserve policymakers yesterday (Wednesday) reduced the benchmark Federal Funds rate to 1.0%, an aggressive half-percentage-point cut that central bank Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s latest attempt to keep the widening financial crisis from tipping the world into a global recession.

After its run past $1,000 an ounce in March, gold has been dropping. So are we going through a price dip? A market correction? Or is it simply too late for investors to play the gold bull rush.