Dollar dips on Geithner’s ‘loose talk’

Be careful Tim, the markets do react to comments from the U.S. Treasury Secretary.-Lou

Dollar dips on Geithner’s ‘loose talk’

The dollar fell briefly on Wednesday after US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner said he was open to exploring a Chinese proposal to reduce reliance on the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
Mr Geithner told the Council for Foreign Relations that he had not studied the proposal by Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan for greater use of Special Drawing Rights in international reserves, but said “we are quite open to that”.

He said increased use of SDRs should be thought of as an “evolutionary” step rather than a step towards “global monetary union”. The SDR is a synthetic currency unit maintained by the International Monetary Fund that represents a basket of actual currencies.
The dollar fell 1.3 per cent against the euro as headlines saying “Geithner open to SDR currency” flashed across traders’ screens. With the currency falling, Mr Geithner’s interviewer – Roger Altman, a deputy Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration – gave Mr Geithner the chance to clarify his remarks

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