links for 2011-06-21

The dramatic crash in the value of BitCoins on the most popular exchange for trading the electronic currency-substitutes highlighted the dangers investors face when dealing in BitCoins.

The value of BitCoins dropped on Sunday from $17 each to just pennies on the most popular exchange, called, Mt. Gox, according to media reports.

Trading was suspended and the exchange’s administrators blamed the crash on a hacked user account. It said that many trades would be reversed. Let’s call it a “HackCrash.”

China began diversifying away from the U.S. dollar in earnest in the first four months of this year, most likely by buying far more European government debt than U.S. dollar assets, according to estimates from Standard Chartered Bank.
China’s foreign exchange reserves expanded by around $200 billion in the first four months of the year, with three-quarters of the new inflow invested abroad in non-U.S. dollar assets, the bank estimated.