Lesley Stahl | 04/04/2008 3:30 pm

On '60 Minutes:' Exclusive Interview With President of China's Sovereign Wealth Fund

By Lesley Stahl

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Here’s a sneak preview of this Sunday’s ‘60 Minutes’ …

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Read more about: Business, China, Economy, On '60 Minutes'

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Leslie Stahl rocks!

By Mugsy Peabody on 04/04/2008 5:16 pm

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Leslie, Terrific…thanks for the heads up. Has 60 minutes done or will you being doing a piece on derivatives (and if done already, is there a transcript.) Would really like to see variety of expert views on what $700T in unregulated derivatives portend when the global economy is $50T. Yes, if China is the major stockholder in major US investment houses that’s a concern but then Saudi Prince Talal was the major stockholder in Citigroup. Seems if Paulson is going to be initiating new regs, controls or transparency on foreign owners of our capital firms should be tops on the list. Thanks again.

By Buh-Bye Hillary Hillary Buh-Bye on 04/04/2008 10:51 pm

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Suzanne de Cornelia, Please let us know if you ever find a web site about unregulated derivatives that is as clearly explained as the oreo cookie explanation of the Pentagon budget.

By A B on 04/05/2008 11:10 am

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AB- Derivatives aren’t trading on an actual investment but on trends, patterns, indices, weather, the performance of bundled investments like sub-prime mortgages. You may remember that while at the Dept of Defense, that horrid little man John Poindexter proposed that the US government have a fund that betted on assassinations, terrorism, etc. The wave of outrage caused him to resign.Here’s a NYT piece on Poindexter, and that ghoulish fund he proposed did not go away, it just went eles where. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/john_m_poin… to do anything….For example. Enron was whisking $$ out of the US using very sophisticated computer trading that breaks money up into many different trading partnerships, say group A and group B and investments then Group A will short the particular investments and Group B buys long, and then constant trading creates false profits (almost like a giant check kiting scheme) making it so complex that it’s impossible to follow the trail, and the profits are whisked out of the country to numbered accounts in off shore shell banks.”Sewage” is what Warren Buffet calls them, another way to screw over the public. Most lose. Many mortgage their homes to the hilt thinking they’ll get rich quick and lose everything. Here’s an explanation of subprime derivatives http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YNyn1XGyWg Here are two good explanations on derivatives, although I couldn’t locate a vid like the other using oreos. Note that the chart in this one gives the total worldwide value of derivatives at $500 trillion, that’s incorrect, it’s $700T with the global wealth, depending on how it’s measured at $100-150T and that’s generous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(finance) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivatives_market A book I am running out to buy (or at least read in the store….if it’s loaded with short selling tips don’t want it) is “Conquer the Crash” Robert Prechter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WTHgrusTpI I think moving dollars to well managed funds weighted in Asian currencies, then euros, then rising Latin American oil/gas producing countries like Brazil are a good bet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n3g5lUgkWk&NR=1

By Buh-Bye Hillary Hillary Buh-Bye on 04/05/2008 2:23 pm

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Suzanne de Cornelia, Thanks. So interesting about the slicing and dicing and the magic of the sub-prime mess. The dollar crashing, deflation, depression, recession. No wonder we prefer to bury our heads in the sand. I loved the guy talking about the island where everyone had jobs and the American had the job of eating while the Asians had the jobs of fishing, hunting, etc. That’s what I call the oreo explanation.

By A B on 04/05/2008 3:45 pm

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AB- Glad you liked it. There are always some who make $$ when things go south, from having their eyes wide open and looking around. And some sectors are recession proof. It’ll be interesting to see what happens..and who profits. I’ve got my thinking cap on now looking for opportunities.

By Buh-Bye Hillary Hillary Buh-Bye on 04/06/2008 8:20 pm

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AB- I liked this a lot….am off to buy his book, Conquer the Crash….this guy is SMART. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjS60TaD_J8&feature=related

By Buh-Bye Hillary Hillary Buh-Bye on 04/05/2008 3:39 pm

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Leslie Stahl, thank you for the heads up I will surely be watching 60 minutes on Sunday. Keep up the great work.

By CAROLINE MuLVEY on 04/05/2008 6:24 am

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Thank you, Ms. Stahl, excellent interview and your reporting gave me a better understanding of this complicated and important subject. Congratulations on your access, also. I look forward to the full interview and further explanation.

By sl lambert on 04/05/2008 11:37 am

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We, the thinking American public, have been slow in catching on to what has been happening for years. If you want to really scare yourself, forget horror movies, check out the National Debt Clock and watch the numbers click higher and higher. Then find out who the top two debt holders are (China and Japan). It won’t be long before China owns us. And without even a single mortar round. Who would’ve thunk it.

By ellie lingner on 04/06/2008 6:54 pm

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Ellie- China’s our Repo-Man alright. Who’d a thunk it? Lot’s of us did who remembered how Bush #1 and pals gamed the system in major criminal scams like Iran-Contra and BCCI, S&Ls, etc. And that’d they do it again. Republican administrations have always hurt the middle class and poor while further enriching the very rich. See the charts in this link. Poverty rates always have greatly improved under Democrats, and worsened under GOP administrations which means that crime and divorce goes up, homeownership and college attendance goes down, etc etc. http://democraticshortlist.com/compare.htm Here’s a fun video that shows just how easy it would be to resolve this mess if the public opened their eyes: http://www.truemajorityaction.org/oreos/

By Buh-Bye Hillary Hillary Buh-Bye on 04/06/2008 8:34 pm

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I thunk it. Long time ago. It’s very scary to me, how some people who will jump, how high, for a dollar, think the rest of the world can be so easily manipulated. The less bloodshed, the better, I guess. The Chinese didn’t need to conquer anything but our dollar. But we are still alive. Still Americans. The U.S. Constitution is still in print, and that’s a project I’d like to see someone undertake…an on-line refresher course on the U.S. Constitution. This would be a perfect forum. Oh! And a wowowow publishing idea…a pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution.

By Ms. Dee on 04/20/2008 6:04 pm

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Love 60 minutes and love your style, you went right to the point. I was only aware of the saudis and norwegians, not the chinese. Fascinating.

By kat on 04/06/2008 6:54 pm

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Leslie, as always you are the best! To digress slightly, I’m leading 25 of my Chinese Brush painting students on a trip to China. Our goal is to see the areas that inspired the Literati (Gentleman Scholars of old). My only concern now is that we’ll be overwhelmed by ‘modern’ China.

By nan rae on 04/06/2008 9:36 pm

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Have your read Polly Evans book Fried Eggs with Chopped Sticks… What a humorous, and exciting travel book..I’ve been to 50 plus countries and worked in 11 so I have wanted to go to China,,,but health too poor to travel anymorel Polly made me laugh, drop my jaw and maarvel at places she went like Datong Buddist carvings. I envied all every step she took. nornals

By norma l simpson on 04/09/2008 2:41 am