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China and gold
The Cobden Centre ^ | 10/21/13 | Alasdair Macleod

Posted on 10/21/2013 2:15:06 PM PDT by BfloGuy

China is now overtly pushing for the US dollar to be replaced as the world’s reserve currency.

Xinhua, China’s official press agency on Sunday ran an op-ed article which kicked off as follows:

As U.S. politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world.

China does have a broad strategy to prepare for this event. She is encouraging the creation of an international market in her own currency through the twin centres of Hong Kong and London, side-lining New York, and she is actively promoting through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) non-dollar trade settlement across the whole of Asia. She has also been covertly building her gold reserves while overtly encouraging her citizens to accumulate gold as well.

There can be little doubt from these actions that China is preparing herself for the demise of the dollar, at least as the world’s reserve currency. Central to insuring herself and her citizens against this outcome is gold. China has invested heavily in domestic mine production and is now the largest producer at an estimated 440 tonnes annually, and she is also looking to buy up gold mines elsewhere. Little or none of the domestically mined gold is seen in the market, so it is a reasonable assumption the Government is quietly accumulating all her own production without it becoming publicly available.

Recorded demand for gold from China’s private sector has escalated to the point where their demand now accounts for significantly more than the rest of the world’s mine production. The Shanghai Gold Exchange is the mainland monopoly for physical delivery, and Hong Kong acts as a separate interacting hub. Between them in the first eight months of 2013 they have delivered 1,730 tonnes into private hands, or an annualised rate of 2,600 tonnes.

The world ex-China mines an estimated 2,260 tonnes, leaving a supply deficit for not only the rest of gold-hungry South-east Asia and India, but the rest of the world as well. It is this fact that gives meat to the suspicion that Western central bank monetary gold is being supplied keep the price down, because ETF sales and diminishing supplies of non-Asian scrap have been wholly insufficient to satisfy this surge in demand.

So why is the Chinese Government so keen on gold? The answer most likely involves geo-politics. And here it is worth noting that through the SCO, China and Russia with the support of most of the countries in between them are building an economic bloc with a common feature: gold. It is noticeable that while the West’s financial system has been bad-mouthing gold, all the members of the SCO, including most of its prospective members, have been accumulating it. The result is a strong vein of gold throughout Asia while the West has left itself dangerously exposed.

The West selling its stocks of gold has become the biggest strategic gamble in financial history. We are committing ourselves entirely to fiat currencies, which our central banks are now having to issue in accelerating quantities. In the process China and Russia have been handed ultimate economic power on a plate.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; deamericanizedworld; gold; goldbugs; ntsa; reservecurrency
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As this movement gains momentum, America can save itself only by moving toward gold, too. I'd bet you a few Bitcoins that we won't.

Probably don't have any.

1 posted on 10/21/2013 2:15:06 PM PDT by BfloGuy
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To: BfloGuy

The world will use whatever currency it feels safest with as a reserve currency. China can have very little impact on this.


2 posted on 10/21/2013 2:22:32 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: BfloGuy

The world will use whatever currency it feels safest with as a reserve currency. China can have very little impact on this.


3 posted on 10/21/2013 2:22:32 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: BfloGuy
Mission accomplished!
4 posted on 10/21/2013 2:23:51 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who knew that one day professional wrestling would be less fake than professional journalism?)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

China just bought the NYC office of JP Morgan.

Perhaps not coincidentally, that’s where the supply of physical gold held by the COMEX exchange is.


5 posted on 10/21/2013 2:31:53 PM PDT by research99
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To: BfloGuy

the problem with this is that the US oil production is going straight up.

If not for the fed doing their QE’s .... the dollar would go straight up too.

as it is the downward pressure of the QE’s is matched by the upward pressure of rising oil pressure so the dollar has been going roughly sideways for five years.


6 posted on 10/21/2013 2:32:25 PM PDT by ckilmer ( e)
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To: BfloGuy
China is now overtly pushing for the US dollar to be replaced as the world’s reserve currency.

It's only a matter of time, now.

7 posted on 10/21/2013 2:36:32 PM PDT by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: research99
Perhaps not coincidentally, that’s where the supply of physical gold held by the COMEX exchange is supposed to be.
8 posted on 10/21/2013 2:44:11 PM PDT by Paine in the Neck (Is John's moustache long enough YET?)
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To: DannyTN

China tried this with Brazil and other Latin countries and it didn’t take long before the ChiComs started pulling a fast one and pooped in that nest.

No country in their right mind will go along with the Chinese and their fake currency as trading base.


9 posted on 10/21/2013 2:47:12 PM PDT by X-spurt (CRUZ missile - armed and ready.)
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To: Navy Patriot
It's only a matter of time, now.

I agree.

10 posted on 10/21/2013 2:48:29 PM PDT by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment. [Ludwig Von Mises])
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To: DannyTN

The world uses the dollar because they haven’t really had a choice for nearly 70 years. China and Russia are both positioning themselves for a change in that status quo and I think their actions suggest that they are both working together to bring about that change. If they manage to usurp the dollar, they will be standing strong and will be well positioned for the change. We, on the other hand, would be in chaos and would be in no position to oppose them militarily.


11 posted on 10/21/2013 2:49:26 PM PDT by RC one
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To: ckilmer
If not for the fed doing their QE’s .... the dollar would go straight up too.

I'm not sure by your comment if you approve of the dollar's rising or not. I say let it go straight up. It would attract trillions in investment.

12 posted on 10/21/2013 2:50:34 PM PDT by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment. [Ludwig Von Mises])
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To: DannyTN
The world will use whatever currency it feels safest with as a reserve currency. China can have very little impact on this.

I tend to agree with you, but America can have a big negative impact on this. Added to which is our increasing unreliability in international affairs. Much of the dollar's support was simply to curry our favor for when diplomatic or military force was needed.

The current administration has seen to the demise of that.

13 posted on 10/21/2013 2:53:45 PM PDT by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment. [Ludwig Von Mises])
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To: BfloGuy
The industrialized nations/regions of the world (the US,Europe,Japan,etc) made a huge mistake in the 80's when they decided to allow Chinese made goods into their countries.During my first trip to China in 1980,the areas I saw looked like they were straight out of the Middle Ages.During my most recent visit (2010) that same area was clogged with traffic and the major city (Guangzhou) had numerous glass and steel skyscrapers.

And we allowed all that to happen.Without access to our markets they'd still be riding bikes and living in stone huts as they were in '80.

14 posted on 10/21/2013 3:26:32 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Osama Obama Care: A Religion That Will Have You On Your Knees!)
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To: BfloGuy

Isn’t it wonderful, obama and china, full steam ahead ushering the Brave New World.

Everything is beautiful in it’s own way........./S


15 posted on 10/21/2013 3:51:29 PM PDT by PoloSec ( Believe the Gospel: how that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again)
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To: BfloGuy

yeah but it would kill US exports.

There’s something more.

The US needs about two more years to get efficiencies down in the oil fields to the 60@barrel range. the baaken last I heard was in the 80@barrel range.

A spike in the value of the dollar will shove the price of oil down

That’s that is most to be prized. The great kill shot for the moslem world will be when the USA collapses the price of gas to pre 1973 days.

But first oil independence needs to come— or something close to it, because lower oil prices will throttle back the rise in oil production just as lower natural gas prices have throttled back the rise in natural gas production.

Oil independence is 5 years off. The truly astounding dimensions of the USA oil revolution is still another two years or more away from being fully appreciated.


16 posted on 10/21/2013 3:58:21 PM PDT by ckilmer ( e)
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To: Gay State Conservative
The industrialized nations/regions of the world (the US,Europe,Japan,etc) made a huge mistake in the 80's when they decided to allow Chinese made goods into their countries.

I can't agree with that.

Chinese goods have proved to be a huge boon to individuals increasingly burdened by higher taxes, higher prices due to government-caused inflation, and lower wages which are a result of capital expropriation.

It's the last three which caused the problems; not the first.

17 posted on 10/21/2013 4:07:40 PM PDT by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment. [Ludwig Von Mises])
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To: BfloGuy

The dollar is backed by oil. Eventually, maybe Russia or Iran, will fix their oil to gold.


18 posted on 10/21/2013 5:06:10 PM PDT by IDFbunny
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To: BfloGuy
Chinese goods have proved to be a huge boon to individuals increasingly burdened by higher taxes, higher prices...

That may be true but OTOH there are 600 million Chinese today who are paid $3 a day making things that folks in NY,OH,MI,IN,IL (and elsewhere) were paid $100 a day to make only a few years ago.That goes a long way toward explaining Detroit...$4/gal gas....8% unemployment...and a decade long recession in Japan.

And we haven't even considered the fact that China's navy is doubling in size every three years,made possible by those 600 million factory workers who spent 14 hours a day in the rice paddies 30 years ago.

19 posted on 10/21/2013 6:09:40 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Osama Obama Care: A Religion That Will Have You On Your Knees!)
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To: BfloGuy
As of January 2013 The Federal Reserve had deposits of 8.133 thousand tons of physical gold. This is about the equivalent of Germany Italy and France, the next three largest holders of gold, put together. China had about 1000 tons.
20 posted on 10/21/2013 10:27:11 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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