Courtesy of Mish.
In Fed Balance Sheet vs. Stock Market; Will QE Cause Inflation? I posted an interesting chart by reader Tim Wallace of the stock market vs. Fed asset holding (repeated below for convenience).
Fed Balance Sheet vs. Stock Market
But what about foreign central bank assets, especially China and Japan?
Reflections on “Paper Reserves” of Central Banks
Hugo Salinas Prices covers the topic in an excellent article Some Thoughts on ‘International Reserves’
International reserves, excluding gold, as reported by Bloomberg, courtesy of Doug Noland at www.prudentbear.com on July 26, 2013, stood at $11.167 Trillion dollars.
International reserves, excluding gold, are mainly made up of dollar and euro holdings.
On August 1, 2011, holdings amounted to $10.063 Trillion dollars. One year later, holdings had increased to $10.450 Trillion dollars, an increase of $387 billion dollars.
In the most recent twelve months, holdings have increased by $717 billion dollars, to the present level of $11.167 Trillion dollars.
International reserves increase when importing countries cannot pay for their imports with exports; in other words, when the importing countries have “trade imbalances” and make up the trade imbalance by sending (mainly) either dollars or euros to the exporting countries….
