Free Republic

The cost of living in Cairo has soared so much that security guard Mustafa Gamal had to send his wife and year-old daughter to live with his parents in a village 70 miles south of the Egyptian capital to save money. Gamal, 28, stayed behind, working two jobs, sharing an apartment with other young people and eliminating meat from his diet. “The prices of everything have been doubled,” he said. “There was no alternative.″ Around the world, people are sharing Gamal’s pain and frustration. An auto parts dealer in Nairobi, a seller of baby clothes in Istanbul and a wine...

TOKYO – Wall Street suits, run for the hills. So far this year, the surging dollar has left a trail of carnage across Asian and European economies, currencies and bourses. Now, it is likely headed for home territory. Count Michael Wilson, Morgan Stanley’s chief US equity strategist, as among those fearing the dollar’s rally is creating an “untenable situation” for US stocks and other assets, pointing to similar periods of exchange-rate excess in the past. “While hard to predict such events, the conditions are in place,” Wilson notes, referring to sovereign debt issues in 2012, the Lehman Brothers crisis of...

Markets across Asia were left reeling after the US Federal Reserve on Tuesday (Sept 20) announced another sharp 75 basis point increase to its key rate, further fuelling the rise of the US dollar against regional currencies as the world’s largest economy tries to rein in runaway inflation – even at the risk of triggering a recession. The Fed projected that to achieve its goal of bringing inflation down to 2 per cent, it would have to continue to aggressively raise its rate to the 4.25-4.5 per cent range – up from the current 3-3.25 per cent band – by...

18 mins. long. Reviews the Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Samarkand, 15-16 September 2022. This is all about de dollarization which is moving ahead rapidly. Over half of the world's population represented in this movement to replace American hegemony and American financial control of the world via the "reserve currency, petro dollar." SCO participants are engaging in trade and financing agreements which will change the world. The U.S. is trying to resist the changes by creating conflicts, chaos and involved in creating military conflicts, color revolutions, etc. -------------------------- Side note: The New Atlas:...

The Biden administration is moving one step closer to developing a central bank digital currency, known as the digital dollar, saying it would help reinforce the U.S. role as a leader in the world financial system. The White House said on Friday that after President Joe Biden issued an executive order in March calling on a variety of agencies to look at ways to regulate digital assets, the agencies came up with nine reports, covering cryptocurrency impacts on financial markets, the environment, innovation and other elements of the economic system.

NEW YORK — The euro has fallen below parity with the dollar, diving to its lowest level in 20 years and ending a one-to-one exchange rate with the U.S. currency. It's a psychological barrier in the markets. But psychology is important, and the euro's slide underlines the foreboding in the 19 European countries using the currency as they struggle with an energy crisis caused by Russia's war in Ukraine. Here's why the euro's slide is happening and what impact it could have: WHAT DOES EURO AND DOLLAR PARITY MEAN? It means the European and American currencies are worth the same...

While we are being distracted by Ukraine, President Putin has advanced his geopolitical goals materially. Aided and abetted by President Xi, Putin is taking the Asian continent into his control. That mission is well on its way to being achieved. He now awaits the winter months to finally force the EU to reject America’s hegemony. Only then, will the western end of the Eurasian continent be truly free of American interference. This article explains how he is achieving his strategic goals. It examines the geopolitics of the Asian landmass and the nations tied to it, which are commercially and financially...

Lawmakers are pushing the Federal Reserve to move swiftly toward issuing a digital dollar, to combat steps from China and others they say could one day threaten the U.S. status as the global reserve currency. The bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Reps. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) and French Hill (R., Ark.), has sought for the U.S. to counter global competitors launching digital versions of their currencies. The House Financial Services Committee, which both serve on, might vote on related legislation as soon as next month. Ms. Waters has framed competition over new forms of central-bank money as “a new digital...

Here we go doom loop de loop? The dollar’s gain is the world’s pain — and based on its current trajectory, the world may be in for a whole lot more discomfort. But the move risks becoming a self-reinforcing feedback loop given that the vast majority of cross-border trade is still denominated in dollars, and a stronger US currency has historically translated into a broad hit to the world economy. With the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates at the fastest pace in decades, he says, it’s much less clear what could break the feedback loop in the next few months....

The Euro fell to its lowest level in two decades on Tuesday as fears of a recession in the euro zone ramped up, with gas prices soaring and the Ukraine war showing no signs of abating...The Dollar's strength continues, meanwhile, as risk-averse investors seek a safe haven, and the U.S. Federal Reserve embarks upon what looks to be an aggressive rate hike regime.

The US Dollar keeps strengthening as inflation skyrockets. Good news? Bear in mind that a strong dollar is a two-edged sword. The US Dollar Index has risen 16% year-over-year, presenting a big hurdle for US firms with business overseas. That strength of the greenback will rise until the Fed makes a dovish policy pivot. And that pivot is forecast to occur at the Feb ’23 FOMC meeting. But will The Fed pivot? The Biden Cocktail.

The euro briefly dropped below $1 Wednesday on a stronger-than-expected inflation rate in the U.S., breaking the parity threshold for the first time in 20 years. The shared currency of 19 European countries fell to $0.9998 before ticking up slightly to $1.0021 by midmorning. The last time that the euro hit parity with the dollar was 2002. In the past year, the euro has declined more than 15%. Much of the slide, though, has come since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. The war has rocked the euro-area’s fragile economy, fueling inflation by pushing up energy prices and threatening...

Precious metals expert and former auditor lifts the lid on the scale of regulatory malfeasances common among big banks with the tacit approval of the government in the paper Gold market, Commodities Exchange (COMEX). The physical supply of real Gold is small in comparison to the derivative products and when there is a crisis (as we see all these crisis on the horizon) and people run to Gold and Silver they won't run to the derivative product because that can't be converted to real Gold and Silver. Derivative markets are not real markets you need physical Gold.

Memorial Day weekend is one where families often travel to meet relatives and friends, or travel to Washington DC to remember those who have died in the service of our country. But traveling has gotten a lot more expensive under Biden. Gasoline prices are up 92.4% under Biden, while food prices are up 60%. Those hamburgers and hot dogs for grilling are being replaced by … pizza? Or maybe plant-based products. Zillow’s Rent Index All Homes YoY was only 0.6234% in February 2021, and has soared to 16.36% YoY under Biden. That is an increase of 14.75x. So, not only...

p>It’s no secret that China and Russia have been stashing away as much gold as possible for many years.China is the world’s largest producer and buyer of gold. Russia is number two. Most of that gold finds its way into the Russian and Chinese governments’ treasuries.Russia has over 2,300 tonnes—or nearly 74 million troy ounces—of gold, one of the largest stashes in the world. Nobody knows the exact amount of gold China has, but most observers believe it is even larger than Russia’s stash.Russia and China’s gold gives them access to an apolitical neutral form of money with no counterparty...

Weekly Update --- Why Did Rand Paul Delay Washington’s $40 Billion Ukraine Giveaway? Video ... [5 mins]

Call this “Nobody’s Everything.” Crytpocurrencies are getting clobbered. But then again, the S&P 500 is not doing so well. But crypto stalwarts Bitcoin and Ethereum have down even worse. At the dollar strengthens, Bitcoin has gotten pummeled. But at least Bitcoin rose this morning along with Bitcoin Cash. And XRP. But the others are getting clobbered. Microstrategy bonds are getting crushed.

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...

I hope America’s foreign policy wizards (Biden, Harris and Blinken) weren’t relying on the Russian Ruble staying pulverized, because the Ruble (relative to King Dollar) has regained all its losses. On the other hand, the Japanese Yen and Chinese Yuan have crashed harder than Biden’s popularity. Perhaps Biden, Harris and Blinken think Putin is a pasta sauce.

"We printed too much money and didn't think of unintended consequences" - IMF Director Kristalina Georgieva pic.twitter.com/X7FfBCLOMC — Crypto India 🔑 (@CryptooIndia) April 22, 2022 Kristalina Georgieva, director of the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said the following during an event hosted by CNBC on Thursday: KRISTALINA GEORGIEVA, IMF: I think we are not paying sufficient attention to the law of unintended consequences. We take decisions with an objective in mind and rarely think through what may happen that is not our objective. And then we wrestle with the impact of it. Take any decision that is a...