Geithner Calls For Regulatory Reform; Fed President Sees 2009 Rebound; Bank of China Posts 59% 4Q Profit Drop; Goldman Plans to Repay TARP money quickly; U.K. Inflation up 3.2% in February; Major Exchanges Want New Curbs on Short-Selling; Lloyd’s Says Insurance Rates to Rise; Copper Prices Take Breather After Rising 30% on China Demand; Mexico’s Inflation Holds Up Rate Cut

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the U.S. regulatory system must impose constraints on companies using risky strategies that could cause them to collapse, posing danger to the financial system. In prepared testimony for the House Financial Services Committee, Geithner said rules must be in place to keep companies from causing “grave damage” to the economy, citing the failure to rein in excesses at American International Group Inc. (AIG) and other companies. Chicago Federal Reserve President ...

Huge trend reversal: Dollar busts, commodities boom… why, and will it last? Rate cuts round the world… U.S. and China slash, Japan considers. U.S. three months away from “official” recession. Two new bailouts: Who’s lining up for help, plus Uncle Sam’s October tab. Denning and Nelson on beating inflation with the right long-haul stock.

The U.S. dollar fell by its largest percentage in 13 years yesterday.

Et voila, the trend we believe is your friend returned with some impressive steam:

The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index popped 5.9% — diddly squat compared with equity moves lately, but still the biggest daily gain for the index since its inception, in 1956.

Alas, despite the rise, the CRB is still down 24%

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The Rothschild banking family is one of the oldest and most respect names in the financial world. The family actually financed the Duke of Wellington's victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. The Bank of China announced that it was buying 20% of the Rothschild private banking and asset management business for $336 million. China doesn't have the market corned on premier franchise names, but it is sure buying a lot of them.

Lehman Brothers Holdings has declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Any potential bidders have fled the scene and so far the Treasury doesn’t plan on bailing them out.

Bank of America, however, has agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch for $50 billion.

AIG is in rough shape and their fate hangs in the balance as this week opens up.

The Bank of China has decided to cut short-term rates to encourage liquidity and support economic growth in the face of increased market risk flowing from the US.

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank have pumped additional funding (5 billion pounds and 30 billion euros of loans) into their respective markets in an effort to shore up confidence and avoid panic in the face of the US banking fiasco.

The Bank of Australia joined the money party and unleashed a few billion into their markets, an amount more than they originally estimated

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“Whenever anyone asks, ‘Why invest in China?’ the answer is very simple: that’s where the money and exponential future growth is,” says Jim Trippon.

The editor of The China Stock Digest then asks, “Will China suffers an Oympic hangover?” He explains why that won’t happen and why China Mobile should do well once the games conclude.

“The Bank of China (BOC) conducted a study of the effects of 12 Olympiads on their host countries over the course of 60 years. They found that nine of the twelve Olympic host countries suffered a decline in GDP growth in the eight years after the games.

“The key to a post Olympic slump is the size of the economy. Smaller economies like Korea suffered larger downturns after the games, while larger economies like the United States were not affected at all.

“In smaller economies the enormous investment dedicated to staging Olympic games created an artificial bubble which

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I went to a Bank of China branch yesterday to exchange some currency and I was shocked at the pathetically slow service there. The Bank of China is one of four state owned/controlled banks and I can tell you that it is as inefficient, slow, and overstaffed as you would expect a Communist-run bank to be. I had never invested in a Chinese bank and I am now quite sure I never will  now.