Tin foil hats and the total perspective vortex redux

[maninblack 7974]

These are awesome: 

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by maninblack

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

Germany, France and Britain have officially set up a European mechanism to facilitate non-dollar trade with Iran and circumvent U.S. sanctions, two diplomats said on Thursday.

The EU has been preparing the system, in effect a clearing house that avoids monetary transfers in dollars between the EU and Iran for months although it is unlikely to become operational for several months due to technical details.

German broadcaster NDR reported that the European Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) would be named INSTEX-Instrument In Support Of Trade Exchanges.
...
The entity is not likely to revive trade with Iran to begin with as its focus will primarily be food, medicine and humanitarian, with transactions small. It will not be used for oil-related transactions that have been hit hard by U.S. sanctions.
...
France and Germany had taken joint responsibility for the SPV. A German banker would head up the vehicle, which would be based in France. France, Britain and Germany will be shareholders and they hope other states will join.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/31/germany-france-britain-to-launch-mechanism-for-trade-with-iran.html?forYou=true

So, it won't be used for trading oil... for now...

Lot's of news of economic stress coming out of Europe currently.  DB execs worried - the bank is in deep doo doo:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-31/deutsche-bank-said-to-see-merger-by-mid-year-if-all-else-fails

Italy is now in technical recession and falling well short of the budget goals that they had to move hell and earth for in negotiating with the EU:  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-31/italy-officially-slides-recession-after-budget-battle-brussels

China is also a mess and the Fed has just indicated capitulation on rate hikes for the forseeable future.  The writing is on the wall with respect to global economic stress.  If a domino should fall, the global banking system is ill equipped to handle a systemic crisis.  These things are all being talked about in Davos/G20 circles.  What I am not seeing are any reports of talks about NWO monetary system (2.0) any more.  Does it mean that TPTB are already agreed on a path forward, or they gave up on thinking about such things?

[happyfunball 481]

Quote

Railroad executives played down concerns about a cooling U.S. economy, which they said remains on solid footing as growing shipments of grain, oil and e-commerce packages offset broader worries over trade policy and volatile stock markets.

The chief executives of CSX Corp. and Union Pacific Corp. said conversations with their shippers, which represent a broad cross-section of industries from agriculture to chemicals, generally show optimism about the coming year.

CSX CEO Jim Foote said customers plan to ship more goods and are also moving ahead on long-term capital projects, including expanding facilities. “When you talk to the business people, they’ve always indicated that the economy was still in good shape,” Mr. Foote said in an interview last week.

Railroads provide a useful signal about the direction of the economy because they show a broad view of the movement of products, from raw materials to finished goods. They are often seen as leading indicators in the stock market, but they best reflect the domestic U.S. economy, said David Donabedian, chief investment officer for CIBC Private Wealth Management.

And companies with a U.S. focus have been reporting much stronger results than those with more exposure overseas, particularly in China, Mr. Donabedian said. “What they’re seeing in the U.S. has really been pretty good.”

So far, U.S. corporate earnings for the final quarter of 2018 have been strong, though investors have turned their focus to the prospects for 2019. Fourth-quarter profits for S&P 500 companies are expected to increase 14.2% from a year ago, while sales are forecast to rise 5.6%, according to Refinitiv, which based its projections on the 113 companies that had reported results as of Friday, and using estimates for the rest.

This week, investors will get readouts from key companies, including AT&T Inc., Boeing Co. , and General Electric Co. , as well as Apple Inc., which issued a sales warning in early January, citing weak demand in China.

Companies have sent mixed signals. Last week, executives at United Technologies Corp. , a conglomerate that makes Pratt & Whitney jet engines and Otis elevators, said the U.S. and Chinese economies were strong and feeding demand for its industrial products. On Monday, heavy machinery maker Caterpillar Inc. lowered its 2019 profit targets, citing China’s slowing economy and higher material and transportation costs.
 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-railroads-dont-see-slowdown-on-horizon-for-u-s-economy-11548701083

[bernorange 8348]

Venezuela's experiment with the petro cryptocurrency appears to be stumbling out of the gate. 

Quote

... . An alarming Reuter's report — dubbed “In Venezuela, new cryptocurrency is nowhere to be found” — was published in late August. In it, the news agency stated that the Petro was not currently traded on any of the major global crypto exchanges. Moreover, the journalists doubted that it was actually backed with Venezuelan oil. The report claimed that Atapirire — an area that Maduro defined as an actual petroleum center for backing the coin — didn’t indicate any recent activity. “There is no sign of that petro here,” locals told the agency. The former Oil Minister, Rafael Ramirez, expressed his opinion writing that "the Petro [...] only exists in the government’s imagination.”

U.S. tech media outlet Wired also spoke to local and South American experts. Jorge Farias, the CEO of Venezuelan startup Cryptobuyer, revealed the state-owned currency was, in fact, backed by national oil company PDVSA, which had $45 billion in debt and showed no signs of any trading activity. Roger Benites, the CEO of Lima-based crypto exchange BitInka, called the Petro a “smoke curtain” to conceal Maduro's failure to reanimate the national fiat currency by devaluating it. Corre Innovation’s Dickie Armour shared his stance, dubbing the Petro a “stunt.”

By the time the Petro was finally launched in November, following a series of delays, both Venezuelans and experts doubted its real value and, overall, existence. While crypto enthusiasts studied the Petro’s white paper and came to a conclusion that it blatantly copied some parts of Dash’s documentation available in the GitHub repository, Maduro was forced to increase the Petro’s value from 3,600 to 9,000 bolivars in the midst of ongoing inflation.

Since the pension bonuses were converted into Petro, the country faced another protest, this time led by seniors who did not believe in the oil-backed coin. “I don’t want Petro, I want my cash,” said one of the protesters.

Despite all the efforts, by the end of 2018m the Petro was still “nowhere to be found” — the coin was not listed by any of the major exchanges, nor was it accepted by any of country’s allies. ...

https://cointelegraph.com/news/venezuela-on-fire-how-maduros-petro-plan-failed-to-bail-out-the-country

Iran has announced plans for a gold back crypto (to be the second attempt at a national cryptocurrency in history):

Quote

Four banks in the Islamic Republic of Iran have developed a gold-backed cryptocurrency called PayMon, financial news website Financial Tribune reported on Jan. 30.

According to the article, the crypto asset has been developed in cooperation with the Parsian Bank, the Bank Pasargad, Bank Melli Iran and Bank Mellat. Iran Fara Bourse, an over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency exchange, will reportedly list the new cryptocurrency.

The director of Kuknos, the blockchain company taking care of the technical aspects, said that the new crypto asset is a way to tokenize assets and excess properties of the banks. A billion PayMon tokens will be initially released, according to the article.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, Iran is allegedly negotiating with Switzerland, South Africa, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, Germany and Bosnia to carry out financial transactions in cryptocurrency.
...

https://cointelegraph.com/news/four-iranian-banks-support-gold-backed-cryptocurrency

The desire amongst Iran's trading partners to circumvent US sanctions might actually give this crypto some legs if Europe's SPV doesn't pan out.

~~~

Tying in a bit with my recent post in the "insane monetary system" thread:

Quote

Today at 830am the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (aka the TBAC ...) "released minutes of its Jan. 29 meeting held at the Hay-Adams Hotel in conjunction with the U.S. government’s quarterly refunding announcement.
...
... the most interesting part of the TBAC minutes was the discussion of the "unique challenges" faced by the Treasury over the medium term, especially the possibility of significant financing gap over next 10 years amounting to over $12 trillion and the potential need for more domestic investor participation if foreign reserve growth slows.

Specifically, the TBAC cautioned that the Treasury’s financing needs are expected to increase significantly even without factoring in recession possibilities over the next decade. Here, the TBAC warns that deficits to the tune of $1-$1.5trn a year, and cumulatively over $12trn, over the next decade, are coming and will have to be funded in the bond market. Meanwhile, as noted recently, the CBO stubbornly refuses to forecast a recession in the next decade, instead projecting a steady 1.5-2% real GDP growth over the next 10y. While the TBAC did not take a position on this laughable assumption, it warned that deficits typically rise 2-5% of GDP in recessions, which would translate to additional deficits of $0.5-1trn at current GDP levels, and warns that "these borrowing needs have to financed in the context of already high global dollar debt exposure."

But the bigger problem is that in the context of soaring deficit funding needs, the TBAC is worried that "foreign investors already hold significant dollar debt" which is why the US will have to increasingly rely on domestic savings to fund its future budget deficits.

The TBAC notes, tongue in cheek, that while the "USD is still the dominant reserve currency", reserve managers have been very gradually increasing allocation to other currencies, and that the USD share of FX reserves has steadily come down from 72% in 2000 to 62% now. It also pointed out that other countries with significant debt issuance needs (as a share of GDP) depend far more on domestic savings. As a result, "the Treasury should plan to meet financing needs more domestically than in the recent past."

Even more concerning, the TBAC notes, is that global FX reserves growth has stalled and global trade, as a share of world GDP, appears to have peaked, while underscoring what may be the most important transition in the global economy in decades, namely that China is now running a flat current account with the rest of the world, ...

As a result of these transformations, there has been an even lower official foreign demand for USTs, ...
...
While there are no definitive answer to the very concerning questions brought up by the TBAC, keep a close eye on future TBAC presentations and especially any future reference by this all-important committee made up of the most important banks and hedge funds in the US...

... which appears to be increasingly concerned not only about how the US will fund its exploding debt deficits but also about the reserve currency status of the US Dollar.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-30/tbac-worried-about-who-funds-12-trillion-us-deficits-and-dollars-reserve-status

[bernorange 8348]

So the NY Fed has a blog...

Quote

...
In sum, the period since the global financial crisis has not seen a widespread change in the international monetary architecture. While the dollar’s international status may have declined in some pockets, overall it remains dominant. Nevertheless, recent trends bear watching as history suggests that a currency’s dominant status is not immutable.

https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2019/02/the-us-dollars-global-roles-where-do-things-stand.html

It didn't use to be cool to talk about this issue in public.

[bernorange 8348]

So it was just a couple of weeks ago (see post #52 above) that I was musing on the lack of chatter about NWO monetary systems.  I woke today to find two items published by pillars of the financial establishment promoting gold to weather the next crisis.

If you followed the cashless society thread on the old site, you are probably aware of Ken Rogoff's advocacy for it.  He wrote a piece for the World Gold Council advocating gold as a hedge in a cashless society:  https://news.goldcore.com/us/gold-blog/invest-in-gold-as-a-hedge-in-cashless-society-ex-imf-rogoff/

And the following was published in The Economist:

Quote

...
Now imagine the world economy goes into a tailspin. There is panic selling of risky assets. Where should you seek safety? Cash is the most liquid asset; but which kind? The dollar is a natural focal point. Yet America’s fiscal indiscipline and its sizeable current-account deficit might give pause. Other currencies have their faults, too. There is one other destination you might consider, if only because others are starting to think the same way. And that is gold.
...

More:  https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/02/14/when-trouble-strikes-where-should-you-hide-the-case-for-gold

In the fallout of the 2007/2008 crisis, there was all kinds of talk amongst the Davos/G20 crowd about different ideas/plans for a NWO monetary system. That talk seems to have faded away as ZIRP (and, in some places, NIRP) seemed to stabilize the system.  Today, we have credit bubbles/stresses growing everywhere - zombie firms/junk bonds, consumer credit debt, headwinds for future treasury issuances, etc. Important global financial institutions (BIS, IMF, Fed, etc.) have all published warnings about the lack of powder to manage the next financial crisis. Still, we don't see chatter about any NWO monetary systems. Has the issue been decided? Or is the world too polarized now with all the nationalist political movements?

Maybe I missed something, but it really seems like they are getting the word out - the next crisis will be unmanaged, protect yourself with gold. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

[bolverk 29407]

Is this the generic economy thread?

Numbers came out this morning and they're terrible. Most economists were expecting hiring to be in the 150-200k range but, instead, we got a 20k increase in employment. January figures were on fire and way above expectations, so this might only be a weather-related blip: construction and leisure/hospitality (highly influenced by weather) were down.

The employment numbers are also subject to revision. My first job out of grad school was working for the Texas Workforce Commission estimating employment figures at both the state and local level, and every year the Dallas Fed paid us a visit to go through everything to ensure our numbers were accurate (these are the numbers that are aggregated monthly to give us a national picture).

All that said, I think most economists and business leaders are expecting a recession to come around the bend in the somewhat near future - maybe as early as this time next year. After all, this has been an historic expansion that has lasted almost a decade so we're probably due.

Just something to keep in mind and start monitoring carefully at this point.

[maninblack 7974]

 

[maninblack 7974]

It got no press but 4 days ago was the anniversary of one of the greatest lies told to the worlds living population. It started a series of events that changed my life and so many others. Those that lied about it are still walking around unrepentant and richer for their actions. It wasn't a Republican or Democrat thing. Almost all of them sold it and obfuscated responsibility to this day. These assholes will do it again if we let them.

 

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

Saudi Arabia is threatening to sell its oil in currencies other than the dollar if Washington passes a bill exposing OPEC members to U.S. antitrust lawsuits, three sources familiar with Saudi energy policy said.

They said the option had been discussed internally by senior Saudi energy officials in recent months. Two of the sources said the plan had been discussed with OPEC members and one source briefed on Saudi oil policy said Riyadh had also communicated the threat to senior U.S. energy officials.

The chances of the U.S. bill known as NOPEC coming into force are slim and Saudi Arabia would be unlikely to follow through, but the fact Riyadh is considering such a drastic step is a sign of the kingdom’s annoyance about potential U.S. legal challenges to OPEC.

In the unlikely event Riyadh were to ditch the dollar, it would undermine the its status as the world’s main reserve currency, reduce Washington’s clout in global trade and weaken its ability to enforce sanctions on nation states.

“The Saudis know they have the dollar as the nuclear option,” one of the sources familiar with the matter said.
...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-usa-oil-exclusive/exclusive-saudi-arabia-threatens-to-ditch-dollar-oil-trades-to-stop-nopec-sources-idUSKCN1RH008

This is the reason MBS got away with murdering Khashoggi in a worldwide spotlight.

[bernorange 8348]

On 2/15/2019 at 8:36 AM, bernorange said:

... Important global financial institutions (BIS, IMF, Fed, etc.) have all published warnings about the lack of powder to manage the next financial crisis. ...

IMF out with another one...

Quote

Public debt ratios are now “significantly higher” than before the global financial crisis across the globe, and governments need to get their fiscal houses in order ahead of the next global downturn, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.
...
Advanced economies have levels of public-debt-to-GDP ratios that are close to unprecedented in peacetime, the IMF said. At the same time low interest rates are helping to make it easier to finance these high debt levels.

Asked about calls from some economists for the IMF to change its orthodox thinking about the need for low budget deficits in the environment of low interest rates, Gaspar said it was an open question how long these low interest rates can persist.
...

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/imf-warns-governments-to-get-debt-under-control-before-the-next-downturn-2019-04-10

[Bozo_Casanova 26287]

No dry powder other than QE, and even that won’t be much.

We’ve been gorging on seed corn since 2001, and it will be extremely difficult to find anything sufficiently stimulative to pull out of the next cyclical recession.

And that’s on top of
-a decline in birth rates
-increasing hostility to immigration
- an entitlement iceberg
- automation of routine tasks

Because we operate the world’s reserve currency (for now, despite the best efforts of the administration to fuck that up) we are somewhat protected from a PIGS situation. But long term, decades of stagnation while we fall behind an ascendant China and EU are a real possibility.

[bernorange 8348]

I agree with most everything you said, but two quibbles.  We've been gorging on seed corn since the mid '70s.

1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

But long term, decades of stagnation while we fall behind an ascendant China and EU are a real possibility.

China runs a high risk of a systemic financial crisis just like everyone else.  The EU is also facing a significant problem with Italy.  The USA is in a shit situation, but our global neighbors have their own issues.  The real problem is if the global toilet gets flushed and everyone goes down together.

 

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

Two Fed governors now propose targeting the long end of the yield curve if there is another recession.
...
By the way, this talk is indicative of a Fed that is far more concerned about a recession than they want you to believe.

https://moneymaven.io/mishtalk/economics/second-fed-governor-proposes-targeting-the-short-and-long-end-of-the-yield-curve-Sx67OjTAaEGvtPcck0G-PQ/

~~~

So the USA sent some military assets towards Iran.  The thread discussing this is largely focused on Bolton and Trump, but I there is another aspect to the story which I mentioned in that thread:

On 5/7/2019 at 8:37 AM, bernorange said:

If you are wondering about the timing of this, I submit:

More:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-48011496

I suspect this move is to show China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey (and Europe really*) that the USA is serious about shutting down the Iranian oil trade.

*=

More:  https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-05-02/iran-europe-sidesteps-the-u-s-finance-system-with-instex

That is the context for this:

Quote

We, the High Representative of the European Union and the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, take note with regret and concern of the decision by the United States not to extend waivers with regards to trade in oil with Iran. We also note with concern the decision by the United States not to fully renew waivers for nuclear non-proliferation projects in the framework of the JCPoA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
...
The remaining participants to the JCPoA are committed to working on the preservation and maintenance of financial channels and exports for Iran, together with third countries interested in supporting the JCPoA. We are determined to pursue efforts, together with other European partners, to enable the continuation of legitimate trade with Iran, including through the operationalisation of the special purpose vehicle "INSTEX". In this regard, the shareholders are committed to significantly increasing their financial contributions to INSTEX’s operational budget. We encourage all countries, including Russia and China as JCPOA participants, to make their best efforts to pursue the legitimate trade that the agreement allows for, through concrete steps.

We recall the European Council conclusions adopted on 4 February 2019 and EU’s support for the development of EU-Iran relations in areas of common interest. Complementary to preserving the JCPoA, we support a comprehensive approach with Iran with a view to addressing all issues of concern, including its contribution to regional instability and its missile activities.

https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/61840/statement-jcpoa-high-representative-european-union-and-foreign-ministers-france-germany-and_en

[bernorange 8348]

WSJ published an overview of things I've been watching for a while now. Gata posted a non-paywall bit of it here:

Quote

Will the U.S. dollar soon lose its status as the world's pre-eminent currency? The consensus is no—it's said that any move away from the dollar would take decades. This view is too complacent.

Developments in foreign-exchange markets during the past 18 months point toward dedollarization. Consider that Chinese "petroyuan" crude-oil futures, launched last year in Shanghai, now sit right behind Brent and West Texas Intermediate in trade volume. The world's central banks bought more gold last year than at any time since President Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard in 1971. Markets recently learned that China added gold to its reserves for the fifth month in a row. Earlier this year, the U.K., France, and Germany created a new payment-processing system to permit payments to Iran. It will begin quietly with humanitarian aid, then move to other goods and services, potentially competing with the American-influenced Swift system.

...

More:  http://gata.org/node/19093

[Continental Op 3934]

Go gata.  

[bernorange 8348]

Quite a rash of interesting news stories this morning...

Quote

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday mooted the idea of a common trading currency for East Asia that would be pegged to gold, describing the existing currency trading in the region as manipulative.

Mahathir said the proposed common currency could be used to settle imports and exports, but would not be used for domestic transactions.

...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-currency/malaysias-mahathir-proposes-common-east-asia-currency-pegged-to-gold-idUSKCN1T00FX

So, exactly like the IMF's SDRs, but backed by gold.  Pretty much what Rickards has been predicting for several years now.

~~~

Quote

...
Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, signaled in a May 7 letter obtained by Bloomberg that Instex, the European vehicle to sustain trade with Tehran, and anyone associated with it could be barred from the U.S. financial system if it goes into effect.
...
A senior official involved in the internal debate that led to the letter said the U.S. decided to issue the threat after concluding that European officials, who had earlier downplayed the significance of Instex in conversations with the Trump administration, were far more serious about it than they had initially let on.
...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-29/u-s-warns-europe-that-its-iran-workaround-could-face-sanctions

Looks like the USA is taking the threat of INSTEX seriously, but honestly, are we really going to impose economic sanctions on all of Europe?  How would that even work?  I'm afraid that the cat is out of the bag and isn't going back in.

[bernorange 8348]

 

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

Japan needs closer cooperation with the U.S. to curb the potential influence of China’s planned digital currency, according to a senior lawmaker in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party.

Speaking ahead of the Friday release of proposals aimed at paving the way for digital currency use in Japan, Norihiro Nakayama, vice minister for foreign affairs, said he hoped the Federal Reserve would partner with six other central banks including the Bank of Japan in studying digital currencies.

“We sense the digital yuan is a challenge to the existing global reserve currency system and currency hegemony,” said Nakayama, a top member of the ruling party group that drafted the proposals. “Without the U.S., we cannot counter China’s efforts to challenge the existing reserve currency and international settlement system.”

The comments indicate the heightened concern among policy makers in Japan over the likely impact of a digitized yuan expected for later this year. ...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-06/japan-lawmakers-to-release-digital-currency-proposals-friday

[bernorange 8348]

I really don't enjoy bumping this thread with news like this, but it seems like TPTB have made a decision and the NWO will be coming in my lifetime.

July 28 (Tuesday last week) saw the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) publish this is the latest issue of their magazine Foreign Affairs:

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/americas/2020-07-28/it-time-abandon-dollar-hegemony

That same day, Goldman Sachs issued a research note questioning "the longevity of the US dollar as a reserve currency" that got a lot of play in financial, political and mainstream media:

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/509368-spike-in-gold-shows-dollars-reserve-status-in-question-goldman-sachs

Today, the South China Morning Post published this editorial beating the same drum:

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3095534/why-us-dollar-slide-may-be-sign-real-danger-time

I have no idea what the G8/G20/Davos cognescenti have planned for a post King Dollar world, but it seems like we are going to find out.

[bernorange 8348]

Speaking of that Davos crowd....

https://www.weforum.org/great-reset/

[washparkhorn 9935]

Americans' idoitic response to Covid was the perfect opening for those seeking to dethrone the dollar. It is a shot across the bow for Americans to get their acts together. There is a lot of dumbassery out there.Too much fighting to form an effective response. If we lose the reserve currency status, the economy will punish main street brutally. 

Thanks for the perspective bern.

[Rusty Shackelford 414]

The USD is our favorite weapon, which is why the rest of the world (at least those that are not allied with us) want to dethrone the dollar.

https://fee.org/articles/swift-and-the-weaponization-of-the-us-dollar/

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

Global banks are preparing for the possibility that there will be no clear victor on the night of the U.S. presidential election, a scenario that could spark days or weeks of chaos in global equities and fixed income markets, several bankers said.

Over the past two weeks, major banks have run simulations to ensure they could cope with a spike in market, liquidity and credit risks, and have been advising clients on precautionary hedges and capital raising strategies if a contested election result on Nov. 3 leads funding markets to dry up.
...
If the winner is too close to call, a legal battle and even a constitutional crisis could ensue, say bank strategists. Trump last week said he expects the result to be settled by the Supreme Court. Tuesday’s unruly first televised presidential debate has added to the uncertainty.

"If there is a constitutional crisis, we believe that the loss of political credibility and standing of the United States as a stable country could threaten its status as a safe haven with unfathomable consequences for the economy and for markets," BNP Paribas' BNPP.PA Head of Macro Strategy Daniel Ahn said.
...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-banks/global-banks-ramp-up-preparations-for-u-s-election-night-chaos-sources-say-idUSKBN26L2X8

 

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

... A crash in the dollar is likely and it could fall by as much as 35 per cent by the end of 2021.

The reason: a lethal interplay between a collapse in domestic saving and a gaping current account deficit. ...

https://www.ft.com/content/46b1a230-8c6c-4feb-b617-21a520cc201b

Mainstream financial media now warning about a pending currency collapse and the loss of global reserve status (exorbitant privilege). 

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday threw her support behind a new allocation of the IMF's own currency, or Special Drawing Rights, but said broad parameters were needed to boost transparency on how the reserves are used and traded.

Reversing the opposition of the Trump administration, Yellen told G20 finance officials in a letter that a new SDR allocation could boost liquidity for poor countries, which have been particularly hard hit by the global coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Treasury chief gave no specific size for possible allocation of SDRs, which can be converted to hard currency by IMF members. Italy, which holds the presidency of the G20 this year, and other members of the group of rich and emerging economies have backed a $500 billion allocation, but the United States had been guarded about its view until now.
...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/yellen-supports-new-allocation-of-imfs-sdr-currency-to-help-poor-nations/ar-BB1e0wKs

Tin foil hat take:

Quote

... the IMF is planning to issue $500 billion of new SDRs, although some Democrat senators are lobbying for an issue of $2 trillion SDRs or more.

This would be almost ten times the amount of SDRs issued in 2009 and would go a long way to increasing SDR liquidity and advancing the globalist agenda of eventually having the SDR replace the U.S. dollar as the leading reserve asset.
...

https://dailyreckoning.com/the-great-reset-is-here/

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

In an interview this morning on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” legendary investor Stanley Druckenmiller gave his view on the dollar’s stance as the world reserve currency and the current U.S. fiscal and monetary policy. Druckenmiller did not hold back his views on what the massive amounts of liquidity meant for the bond market, or the U.S. and its position as the incumbent world reserve currency.

“I am comfortable with it [the dollar losing reserve currency status], that is my central case,” he said.

...

... I think it is more likely than not within 15 years we lose reserve currency status.”

...

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/druckenmiller-usd-losing-reserve-status

[RomaVicta 29796]

Now that my blood pressure is settling and my ability to take in new relevant information isn't hindered by constantly clanging outrage alerts, I can think a little about this issue. Only a little because I'm no expert. However, the issue has been on my radar.

I'm still a little unblalanced. Should I open up a vintage cage of Trump hate and bloviate about his abysmal policies or nostalgically long for the confusion he created by the sheer number of iterations of infamy and idiocy which made it impossible to also follow stories like this.

'Tis a muddle. 

Fortunately, we've emerged from the Trump years a restored republic where we all agree on reality and can discuss matters of great import with the soberness they require.

 

Thanks, bern, for the information. Pos rep.

[bernorange 8348]

I grok what you are saying, but this is the kind of issue that moves along at glacial speed.  It takes some dedication and patience to keep it in your awareness radar.  I started talking about these issues over a decade ago - long before it appeared on the event horizon for most people (I was roundly ridiculed way back when).  Events do seem to be accelerating (as relative as that is to glacial speed).  More and more mainstream voices are talking about it.

Crypto seems to be bubblicious right now, but I think this reflects some degree of response to the monetary policy risks.  Gold has been roundly controlled by TPTB in the futures markets, but there are signs that their hold might be at risk.  A severe dislocation to the upside sometime in the next year or so would not surprise me at all.

[workswithseed 2037]

18 minutes ago, bernorange said:

grok 

I really want this to be a real word.

[bernorange 8348]

1 minute ago, workswithseed said:

I really want this to be a real word.

Quote

grok verb
\ ˈgräk How to pronounce grok (audio) \
grokked; grokking
Definition of grok

transitive verb
: to understand profoundly and intuitively

...

Grok may be the only English word that derives from Martian. Yes, we do mean the language of the planet Mars. No, we're not getting spacey; we've just ventured into the realm of science fiction. "Grok" was introduced in Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. The book's main character, Valentine Michael Smith, is a Martian-raised human who comes to earth as an adult, bringing with him words from his native tongue and a unique perspective on the strange, strange ways of earthlings. "Grok" was quickly adopted by the youth culture of America and has since peppered the vernacular of those who grok it, from the hippies of the '60s to the computerniks of the '90s.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grok

[GRHorn 105]

28 minutes ago, bernorange said:

I grok what you are saying, but this is the kind of issue that moves along at glacial speed.  It takes some dedication and patience to keep it in your awareness radar.  I started talking about these issues over a decade ago - long before it appeared on the event horizon for most people (I was roundly ridiculed way back when).  Events do seem to be accelerating (as relative as that is to glacial speed).  More and more mainstream voices are talking about it.

Crypto seems to be bubblicious right now, but I think this reflects some degree of response to the monetary policy risks.  Gold has been roundly controlled by TPTB in the futures markets, but there are signs that their hold might be at risk.  A severe dislocation to the upside sometime in the next year or so would not surprise me at all.

I posted it in the crypto thread but he sees some kind of global digital ledger replacing it, but not specifically Bitcoin. I know you’ve cited Rickards before that believes SDRs will be next. 

[bernorange 8348]

On 5/11/2021 at 10:58 AM, bernorange said:

...  Gold has been roundly controlled by TPTB in the futures markets, but there are signs that their hold might be at risk.  A severe dislocation to the upside sometime in the next year or so would not surprise me at all.

I've been reading about Basel III shit for almost a decade now.  Pundit commentary has always been a bit overstated on what it will mean for the future.  The implementation deadlines have been extended for years but it appears that an important one is coming due very soon.  It's not entirely clear what it will mean in practice, but it could have very severe consequences for the world (see link in my quote above for the LBMA's take on it).

Quote

... as they stand the new Basel 3 regulations ... means that mainland European banks, of which ten are LBMA members including the Swiss, will have to comply with the new regulations from the end of June, and all UK banks, in effect the entire banking membership of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) will have to comply by the year-end....

... depending on how the UK regulator applies the NSFR rules. This is because in the calculation of required stable funding, gold consumes 85% of available stable funding while gold liabilities contribute no available stable funding at all. The effect is to impart a negative factor into a bank’s overall net stable funding calculation, making unallocated gold trading hopelessly uneconomic in terms of deployment of total funding capital. The alternative, which does not appear to be under the LBMA’s consideration, is to admit that the whole unallocated gold trading business has nothing to do with gold bullion but is in fact gold derivatives; in which case capital funding penalties under the NSFR would be broadly limited to imbalances between derivative liabilities and derivative assets.

Consequently, it appears that an allocation backstop of 85% of available stable funding (ASF) must be swallowed in the case of gold, which does not appear to be the case if the LBMA confesses to the paper charade. ...

https://www.goldmoney.com/research/goldmoney-insights/the-end-of-paper-gold-and-silver-markets

Either regulators admit paper gold isn't gold (which will likely have far reaching effects for balance sheets that are currently counting paper gold as physical gold) or bullion banks will likely end up closing their trading operations.  If the latter is what is really on the table (as the LBMA et. al. are claiming), that will also have some far reaching effects.  I'm referencing this post because it was thought provoking (I didn't find all of his comments compelling):

Quote

... The short redux is that the advantage to using unallocated accounts, savings accounts which are linked to gold by holding futures contracts, will end.

... The process of creating fake supply to control the price of gold is on the line with these rule changes.

These rules are coming at the end of June for the European Banking System which will adopt the new Basel III rules. In short, the incentive to have exposure to gold as a pile of credit will go away if the banks can’t use any of that as part of their reserve calculations for their ASF – Available Stable Fundings.

Moreover, any physical gold they hold will be held at a 15% discount. Bottom line: these rules will make it impossible for the LBMA member banks to hold any exposure to unallocated pools of gold derviatives –futures and swaps — on their balance sheets.  

It will force a liquidation of those positions and end any fractional reserve leveraging of gold used to suppress the price. There will still be futures markets but the whole of the gold trade will collapse back to simply coordinating supplies of gold from producers to consumers through time, like any other commodity market.

In effect, Basel III, if implemented in its current form, would change the gold market from a speculative one based on perceptions of the efficacy of monetary policy to control real interest rates to one that should force price discovery in an almost purely physical market. ...
...
... the cliff edge of Basel III is now right in front of us, if reports are true.

To me this situation begs a number of obvious questions.  

And the first is, Why Now?

We’ve been discussing these changes vis a vis Basel III for more than five years. So, why, all of a sudden is Europe so hot to implement them in June and for the U.K. to adopt them in January 2022, knowing full well that this will end the bullion banks and the central banks’ program of controlling the rise in gold prices through the application of newly-printed money to create fake supply and allow nearly infinite leverage in the gold market relative to unencumbered physical supply.
...
The ECB, on the other hand, can go bankrupt, since it has no capacity to do this.  All it can do is buy the sovereign debt of the member countries’ central banks and hand them back euros, while swapping around deckchairs on this monetary Titanic. There is a definable limit to this process, especially if rates rise as people lose confidence in the underlying economic activity of those countries and their fiscal positions.

This is absolutely underway, and it isn’t like this is happening on the periphery of Europe.  It’s happening in the core countries, like France and Germany.  This is why I keep harping on the rise in the German 10 year bund, up nearly 60 basis points since the beginning of the year, despite Lagarde’s heroic efforts.
...
That means, as a truly trapped ECB presiding over a banking system that has reached its terminal limit who is also sitting on trillions in deteriorating sovereign debt, what can you do to shore up your balance sheet at that point?

The answer is simple, the one thing the Fed cannot do, allow the price of gold to rise.  

What?!

Yes.
...
So, Basel III is coming to destroy the paper gold markets and destroy the money center banks in New York and London while setting the stage to bail out the euro-zone. Higher gold prices are the answer to all of these things. Think of it this way, in a world where debt assets are failing and new private forms of custodial assets are rising in mindshare, what’s the only real weapon the central banks have to maintain credibility?

Their gold reserves.
...

https://tomluongo.me/2021/05/23/basel-iii-and-the-new-role-for-gold/

Basel III rules are a product of the BIS.  The BIS includes the USA as a member, but is predominantly a European beast.  I can't imagine that the Fed/USA would be on board with a plan to allow gold to rise to help the ECB weather a crisis, but I also have no other idea why the BIS would want to enforce the Basel III rules and destroy the LBMA.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33843]

On 5/11/2021 at 11:17 AM, workswithseed said:

I really want this to be a real word.

it's a perfectly cromulent word

Edited May 24, 2021 by Longhorn_Fan68

[bernorange 8348]

I'm not really sure which thread is most appropriate for this, so I'm sticking it here. 

Quote

Recently, Palantir Technologies, the secretive software company that collects and analyses huge amounts of data on behalf of clients which include a broad array of US intelligence and spy agencies, announced in a quarterly filing with the US SEC that it had purchased $50 million in gold bars as part of an investment strategy to hedge against 'Black Swan events'.

...

More:  https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/can-corporate-treasurers-afford-to-ignore-palantirs-gambit-on-gold/

I discussed some of the things (surveillance) Palantir is doing (for most 3 letter govco agencies) some time ago in this thread (for context): 

~~~

Also, it looks like the Basel 3 implementation deadline(s) were postponed to Jan 2023 (so far) due to Covid.

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

...
Asked by CNBC’s Hadley Gamble whether oil contracts can be denominated in a currency other than the U.S. dollar, including crypto, Vladimir Putin commented that “this seems premature.” At the same time, the president of the Russian Federation acknowledged that despite currently being unstable, cryptocurrency can be used in oil trade settlements at some point in the future.

“It is fine for transferring funds from one place to another, but I think it would be premature to use it in trading, especially when dealing with energy resources,” the Russian strongman said, remarking that cryptocurrency has lacked any backing. Nevertheless, he also stressed:

    "It is legitimate and can be used in settlements, no doubt about that, but it is too early to use it for trading in oil or other raw materials and energy sources."

Things can change, however, and Putin is convinced that “everything has the right to exist. We will see how this will go from here. Maybe crypto will one day be used to store value. But we see how the market fluctuates, so it seems too early for that now… Of course, there is value there,” the president pondered.
...

https://news.bitcoin.com/putin-still-early-but-crypto-can-be-used-for-oil-trade-settlements-store-of-value/

This seems like such a no brainer solution to bypassing the SWIFT system for payment clearing - something we know Russia and other victims of the SWIFT nuclear hammer have been actively trying to find.

I'm going to guess some smaller player like Iran will test the waters with crypto for oil trades to bypass US sanctions before Russia tries it out.  But good luck getting the cats back in the bag once they get out.

[Amos Moses 795]

Yeah that seems highly problematic but it’s just a matter of time. Hope we have that trillion dollar coin ready before shit hits the fan.

[Immaculate Vibes 114]

This was a good podcast on the Russian sanctions. Freezing such a large amount of central bank reserves of a belligerent country is the big change. 
 

This CS analyst makes good distinction between inside money and outside money with FX reserves. Inside money is reserves held elsewhere that are ultimately another party’s liabilities. These are Euros, Yen, Swiss Franc etc that are held by other central banks and are getting seized.
 

Outside money is essentially gold. It’s no one else’s liability. Russia’s gold is all held in vaults in Moscow. He didn’t mention my favorite asset, but it falls in the realm of outside money.

You can expect to see a gradual move by some countries to accumulate more “outside money” as reserves given the two recent Episodes of reserve confiscation with Afghanistan and Russia. Bearish for the USD obviously. 

Cohost is UT grad btw  

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/odd-lots/id1056200096?i=1000552671226

 

[Gatorubet 30117]

it's a perfectly cromulent word

[bernorange 8348]

WTF Russia?

Quote

On Tuesday 26 April in an interview with newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta (RG), the Secretary of the Russian Federation’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said that Russian experts are working on a project to back the Russian ruble with gold and other commodities.
...
For those who don’t know the name Nikolai Patrushev, Patrushev is one of the Russia’s most powerful security / intelligence officers and a close ally of Putin. After serving between 1999 and 2008 as Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) (the successor organization to the KGB), Patrushev moved to being Secretary of the Russian Security Council since 2008. In fact, Patrushev took over as Director of the FSB in 1999 from the previous incumbent, Vladimir Putin.
...
... an English translation of the relevant sections of Patrushev’s interview with RG (using Yandex Translate) below.

Quote

RG Question: And what do we need to do to ensure the ruble’s sovereignty?

Nikolai Patrushev: “For any national financial system to be sovereignized, its means of payment must have intrinsic value and price stability, without being pegged to the dollar.

Now experts are working on a project proposed by the scientific community to create a two-circuit monetary and financial system.

In particular, it is proposed to determine the value of the ruble, which should be backed by both gold and a group of goods that are currency values, and to put the ruble exchange rate in line with the real purchasing power parity.”

...

https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/kremlin-confirms-intention-to-back-ruble-with-gold-and-commodities/

Quote

Russia is currently in discussions to peg the ruble to gold, according to the Kremlin. But the idea was dismissed by Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina following Kremlin's comments.

The Russian government appears to be seriously considering backing Russian rubble with gold, at least according to President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"The question of creating a financial system in Russia, in which the ruble's value will be tied to gold and currency assets, is now being discussed," Peskov told reporters Friday.

Peskov was referencing comments made by Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev during an interview earlier this week.

"Experts are working on a project … to create a monetary and financial system. It is being proposed to determine the value of the ruble, which should be backed by both gold and a group of goods that are currency assets, to set the ruble exchange rate in line with the real purchasing power parity," Patrushev told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Patrushev also said that for any currency to achieve sovereignty, it needs an intrinsic value, price stability and not be tied to the U.S. dollar. "Now experts are working on a project … to create a dual-loop monetary and financial system," he added.

No other details were given about this project during the interview.

However, later Friday, Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina rejected the idea of pegging rubles to gold or other commodities.

"It is not being discussed in any way," Nabiullina told reporters at a press conference, which followed the central bank's decision to cut rates by 300 basis points to 14%. She also stressed that the ruble must have a floating exchange rate.
...

https://www.kitco.com/news/2022-04-29/Kremlin-in-discussions-to-peg-ruble-to-gold-but-Russia-s-central-bank-rejects-the-idea.html

Seems like the politicos (Putin's inner circle represented by Patrushev and Peskov) have a plan (in motion?) and the Russian central bank either wasn't consulted (is that likely?) or is denying the project for misinformation purposes.

[Immaculate Vibes 114]

4 hours ago, bernorange said:

WTF Russia?

https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/kremlin-confirms-intention-to-back-ruble-with-gold-and-commodities/

https://www.kitco.com/news/2022-04-29/Kremlin-in-discussions-to-peg-ruble-to-gold-but-Russia-s-central-bank-rejects-the-idea.html

Seems like the politicos (Putin's inner circle represented by Patrushev and Peskov) have a plan (in motion?) and the Russian central bank either wasn't consulted (is that likely?) or is denying the project for misinformation purposes.

I saw this but wasn’t sure to make of the conflicting accounts. It does seem that they’re signaling that they’re leaning toward a harder backing for their currency. 
 

If they‘ve been coordinating on this with China that would be a concern. If they come out at some point with a surprise announcement about their gold reserves or some other backing arrangement for their currency it could shake things up a bit. 
 

As a side note, the ruble is higher than it was pre invasion. 
 

 

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

The Governor of the Dutch central bank stated the gold revaluation account ensures the solvency of his central bank in an interview on television about prospective losses. The significance of this statement is that if any European central bank will cover losses by using its gold revaluation account in full, the ECB has to put a floor under the gold price. And if more losses need to be covered than the current gold revaluation accounts of European central banks allow, the ECB will need to revalue gold.
...

More:

https://www.gainesvillecoins.com/blog/dutch-central-bank-says-gold-revaluation-is-solvency-backstop

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

Saudi Arabia will consider trading in currencies other than the US dollar, the country’s finance minister said on Tuesday, in one of the clearest signs yet that the oil-rich kingdom is open to diversifying away from the greenback.

“There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the US dollar, whether it is the euro, whether it is the Saudi riyal,” the kingdom’s finance minister, Mohammed al-Jadaan, told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday, in an interview in Davos, Switzerland.

Jadaan’s comments are likely to spark speculation about Riyadh’s willingness to conduct oil sales in Chinese yuan.

During a visit to the Gulf in December, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Arab leaders that Beijing would push to buy oil and gas in yuan, as it looks to position its currency for use in international trade.

Saudi Arabia, like other Gulf states, has pegged its currency to the dollar for decades.

Oil sales across the globe are priced in US dollars. China accounts for more than a quarter of Saudi Arabia's crude exports. If the kingdom were to move toward a “petroyuan”, it could dent the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.

“We enjoy a very strategic relationship with China and we enjoy that same strategic relationship with other nations including the US, and we want to develop that with Europe and other countries who are willing and able to work with us,” Jadaan said.
...

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-open-trading-currencies-besides-us-dollar

This is older news, but I'm including it here for context:

Quote

... We have in the past highlighted the possibility of the GCC countries joining the BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, whose population together constitute 41 per cent of the world.

... Recently, Saudi Arabia applied to join the group, ...

https://gulfnews.com/business/analysis/uae-and-saudi-arabia-joining-in-brics-will-be-game-changing-1.1669211706316

Quote

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – BRICS countries – will discuss creating a common currency at the group's forthcoming summit this August in South Africa.

"Serious, self-respecting countries are well aware of what is at stake, see the incompetence of the 'masters' of the current international monetary and financial system, and want to create their own mechanisms to ensure sustainable development, which will be protected from outside dictates.

"It is in this direction that the initiatives that have been voiced recently ... about the need to think about creating our own currencies within the framework of BRICS," he told a news conference after a meeting with Angolan President Joao Lourenco in the capital Luanda.
...

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/russian-fm-says-brics-group-to-consider-common-currency/2797085

~~~

Quote

The second-largest currency bloc in the world began taking shape in South America this week, and the world’s foremost economic minds are baffled.

Brazil’s and Argentina’s presidents confirmed their plan to create a common currency provisionally called the “sur” in a joint op-ed published in Argentinean newspaper Perfil last Saturday. Brazil’s newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrived in Buenos Aires Monday for a summit with his Argentinean counterpart President Alberto Fernández, where the two will discuss strengthening trade ties as well as plan the new currency bloc, which other Latin American countries are being invited to join.

“We decided to advance discussions on a common South American currency that can be used for both financial and commercial flows,” the two leaders wrote in their op-ed, adding that a common currency would shield both countries against external forces and vulnerabilities. On Monday, Brazil President Lula told reporters the common currency would help reduce the region’s reliance on the U.S. dollar by facilitating trade.
...
“I’m surprised by idea of a common currency for Brazil & Argentina,” former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers wrote on Twitter Monday, adding that the plan was “highly problematic” given the economic differences and lack of political alignment between Brazil and Argentina, shared run-ins with populist political movements, and issues with fixed exchange rates.

Summers conceded he is no specialist in Latin American economies and invited other experts to comment, but even developmental economists and authorities in South American economies have been scratching their heads at the move.

“This is insane,” Olivier Blanchard, a French economist and former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, wrote on Twitter Sunday, while José De Gregorio, a Chilean economist and the country’s former minister for the economy and governor of its central bank, called the idea a “total waste of time” on Monday.

“The announcement of a single currency is the most absurd thing I have heard and not very credible,” De Gregorio told local outlet Radio Infinita. He compared the plan unfavorably to the euro, which unlike in Latin America began with a “very deep economic union” between countries. He also warned that Brazil risked unsettling its monetary policy by integrating its currency with Argentina.
...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/world-top-economists-weighed-argentina-183755900.html

Argentina has also applied for membership with the BRICS.

 

[bernorange 8348]

This is potentially huge news with respect to the BRICS and the petrodollar:

Quote

Long-time regional foes Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to resume diplomatic relations and reopen embassies in each other's countries following China-led negotiations in Beijing, both governments announced via their respective state media agencies.

"As a result of the talks, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to resume diplomatic relations and re-open embassies ... within two months," Iran's news agency IRNA reported Friday.
...

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/10/arch-rivals-iran-and-saudi-arabia-agree-to-revive-ties-reopen-embassies.html

Sunni and Shia going to make nice so they can join the BRICS. Iran has already formally applied.  Saudi Arabia has expressed interest and is expected to formally apply later this year.  China has said (around a month ago) that they need to resolve their regional differences before they can join:

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/brics-expanding-to-saudi-arabia-indonesia-and-beyond-holds-promise-but-challenges-remain/ar-AA17fozE

 

[bernorange 8348]

Quote

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday "welcomed" an invitation from Saudia Arabia's King Salman to visit the country, an Iranian official said.

"In a letter to President Raisi... the King of Saudi Arabia welcomed the deal between the two brotherly countries, [and] invited him to Riyadh," Mohammad Jamshidi, the Iranian president's deputy chief of staff for political affairs, wrote on Twitter.

Also on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said that Tehran had suggested three locations for a meeting with his Saudi counterpart.

"An agreement was reached two months ago for Iranian and Bahraini technical delegations to visit the embassies of the two countries," he said. "We hope that some obstacles between Iran and Bahrain will be removed and we will take basic steps to reopen the embassies,"
...

https://www.dw.com/en/irans-president-to-visit-saudi-king-in-bid-to-thaw-ties/a-65041493

[bernorange 8348]

* bump *

Quote

One central bank head reportedly quoted the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci about the dollar’s dominance on the world stage: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”

That’s according to Bank of America strategists led by Michael Hartnett in a research note. They said the remark was made at a Bank of America conference — the bank held a global investment summit in Rome this week.

They also didn’t identify the speaker, though Bank of Italy Gov. Fabio Panetta delivered a speech and Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey participated in a panel in a Bank of Italy symposium in Rome this week. Messages left with both central bank press offices weren’t immediately returned.
...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/now-is-the-time-of-monsters-one-central-bank-chief-has-doubts-about-the-dollar-s-hegemony/ar-BB1jX4Wy

Europe is leading the charge for development of a new monetary world order based upon CBDCs and a digital ID.

[bernorange 8348]

A new wrinkle has entered the chat:

Quote

The BRICS bloc is considering several options in the design of an inter-member economic settlement system. In an interview with TV BRICS, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that the international bloc, integrated by Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Egypt, and Ethiopia, was mulling the use of stablecoins and other digital currencies as part of this new payment network.

...

https://news.bitcoin.com/brics-bloc-mulls-stablecoins-cbdc-based-system-for-international-settlements/

^ They don't specifically mention Tether, but it's the only big stablecoin outside of the USA's jurisdiction right now, so it's safe bet that it's the one they are considering.  It's a bit of a pivot as Russia had been talking (last year) about basing/anchoring a BRICS currency with gold.  Of course, they could be building their own stablecoin - even one anchored to gold instead of any national currency(ies).

[HenryJames 65890]

 

[Snake Diggity 4614]

All the crypto bros stroking it over the idea of countries being able to get around sanctions. Cool, let’s see how that plays out for everybody.

[immamac 42524]

This thread getting to crypto as its final form is hilarious.