Surprise, surprise...

(not really). According to this bloomberg.com article, China has increased its Gold reserves to 1,054 tons since 2003. This puts China ahead of Switzerland and Japan according to Wikipedia.

Now, what kind of government would want to waste precious pieces of fiat paper backed by the promises of apparatchiks to buy shiny trinkets? This doesn't make any sense to those who are trained in "classical" (i.e. neo-bullshit printing press hocus pocus a la Krugman) economics as Gold provides no utility and pays no interest according to this camp. Perhaps there is more to this Gold thing than Keynesian economists care to admit...

China has become increasingly hostile toward the U.S. dollar and press releases like this are intentionally designed to increase doubt about the reserve currency status of the U.S. Dollar in the world. Gold will maintain its status as the currency of last resort around the world. Got any?