Free Republic

Just when it seemed as though America may be turning the corner after months of lockdown… just when it seemed as though we were on a path to reopening and gradually returning to normalcy… just when the prospects of panic-induced social unrest seemed to be behind us… …America’s cities erupted into flames. Antifa and BLM-organized rioting, looting, violence, and mayhem have pushed cities across the country into pandemonium. Even if the insurrections are soon quelled – as President Donald Trump promised to do in a speech in front of the White House on Monday – the consequences won’t soon go...

He insulted the currency and shared the video on social media. The Dubai Police have arrested a young man over a video that he posted on social media in which he can be seen insulting the UAE's national currency. In the viral video, the suspect can be seen pretend-sneezing and using a currency note to clean himself. He has been referred to the authority concerned for further action, the police said. The police said that the cybercrime law specifies a maximum fine of Dh1 million and a prison term for insulting the country or its symbols. The police also posted...

China has rolled out a digital currency trial in Xiong’an, an area southwest of Beijing in the Hebei province, according to state-backed media reports. McDonald’s, Starbucks and Subway are the only three American firms among 19 companies participating in the trial. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has been working on a digital yuan for the past few years but has made clear that it has not yet officially launched. McDonald’s and Starbucks are among a handful of companies taking part in a new pilot program for China’s upcoming digital yuan, according to state-backed media, as the world’s second-largest economy...

Keep an eye out for a shiny new quarter with a raised image of fruit bats and be careful not to let the coin fly out of your wallet or pocket. As part of the U.S. Mint's America the Beautiful Quarters Program, the new National Parks quarter dollar celebrates American Samoa and on the relief features a mother fruit bat and her pup hanging upside down.

Chinese banks use ultraviolet light then seal and store the cash for up to 14 days The banks have been urged to provide new banknotes to customers if possible Central bank made an emergency issuance of four billion yuan in new notes China has today started disinfecting and isolating used banknotes in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) that has killed 1,527 people. Banks use ultraviolet light or high temperatures to disinfect yuan bills, then they seal and store the cash for seven to 14 days - depending on the severity of the outbreak in a...

America’s long-term national debt problem could lead to economic Armageddon. The misguided belief that we are actually paying down our debt is giving this administration a false sense of security. We can have all the growth we can muster in our GDP but if we are spending more than what’s coming in, the debt will only keep building. The days of growing our way out of debt were lost $5 trillion ago. This week the CBO announced that for the first four months of the government’s fiscal year ending in January we had created a deficit of $1.2 trillion. As a...

Bo Xilai Alleged Financier: George Soros BEIJING: Billionaire oil tycoon George Soros, an executive board member of the International Crisis Group, has played a major role in deposed Chinese Communist Chongqing Boss, Bo Xilai’s rise to fame and fortune in Dalian and Chongqing. ... http://www.dallasblog.com/201204241008984/dallas-blog/bo-xilai-alleged-financier-george-soros.html

A bill filed in advance of the next legislative session would make gold and silver legal tender again in the state of South Carolina. State Representative Stewart O. Jones submitted legislation that would restore gold and silver to their status as legal tender in his state. In an op-ed written in October, Representative Jones set out the sound economic principles that support his proposed statute: To understand the full extent of the debt and the destruction of the dollar, it’s essential to realize that paper money has a history of being printed as bills of credit to finance runaway government....

COLUMBIA, S.C. (Nov. 22, 2019) – A bill prefiled in the South Carolina House would make gold and silver coins legal tender in the state. Passage of this bill would take a step toward creating currency competition in South Carolina and undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money. Rep. Stewart Jones filed House Bill 4678 (H.4678) on Nov. 20. Under the proposed law, “gold and silver coins minted foreign or domestic shall be legal tender in the State of South Carolina under the laws of this State. No person or other entity may compel another person or other entity to...

House members summoned Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to Washington, D.C., and grilled him -- harshly -- about his plan to create a new currency, Libra. “Why should we trust you?!” asked Congressman Mike Doyle. I liked it when Zuckerberg said, “I actually don’t know if Libra’s going to work, but I believe that it’s important to try new things.” He was right. That’s very important. The Libra would make it easier to transfer money anywhere in the world. It also promises stability. Its value would be based on a basket of currencies from different countries, which would protect Libra owners from...

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar weakened against the greenback on Tuesday and its heavily weighted energy sector fell on the Toronto stock market, as investors worried that a minority government would make building of new oil pipelines more difficult. Canada’s energy industry saw its worst-case election result materialize on Monday as the Liberals failed to secure a majority government, leaving them in need of support from left-leaning parties that are opposed to new oil pipelines. Canada’s energy sector declined 0.5% even as oil prices rose, with shares of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd falling 0.8 and pipeline company Encana Corp...

China’s major commercial banks have a funding issue outside Beijing’s control: They’re running low on the U.S. dollars they need for activities both at home and abroad. The combined dollar liabilities at the big four commercial banks exceeded their dollar assets at the end of 2018, their annual results show—a sharp reversal from just a few years ago. Back in 2013, the four together had around $125 billion more dollar assets than liabilities, but now they owe more dollars to creditors and customers than are owed to them. Bank of China is by far the greatest contributor to the shift....

Cracks are forming in the coalition Facebook Inc. assembled to build a global cryptocurrency-based payments network. Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and other financial partners that signed on to help build and maintain the Libra payments network are reconsidering their involvement following a backlash from U.S. and European government officials, according to people familiar with the matter. Wary of attracting regulatory scrutiny, executives of some of Libra’s backers have declined Facebook’s requests to publicly support the project, the people said. Their reluctance has Facebook scrambling to keep Libra on track. Policy executives from Libra’s more than two dozen backers—a group called...

The future of money might be a digital version of the cash that’s already in people’s wallets—potentially upending the currency system that the world has known for many decades. Such a future, of course, might be a disappointment to many libertarians and tech-savvy investors who are pinning their hopes (and in some cases their money) on private cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Instead, central bankers and governments—the entities that cryptocurrencies’ backers hoped to render obsolete—are increasingly warming to the idea of “digitizing” their own national currencies. That is, they would issue money that would exist only virtually, without a paper or...

If you're not familiar with the term "Bretton-Woods" and "Petrodollar", allow me to provide a brief summary. To help fund World War II, the US ratified the Bretton-Woods agreement, essentialy creating Fiat money (tying only a small fraction of Gold to the US Dollar). Since the US controlled 2/3 of the worlds gold, it placed the US Dollar as the world reserve currency and created the ability to print money on demand (then ultimately leading to a complete severing of gold and the beginning of the endless devaluation of the US Dollar) Bretton-Woods was terminated in 1971, and the Petrodollar...

There are three negative supply shocks that could trigger a global recession by 2020. All of them reflect political factors affecting international relations, two involve China, and the United States is at the center of each. Moreover, none of them is amenable to the traditional tools of countercyclical macroeconomic policy. The first potential shock stems from the Sino-American trade and currency war, which escalated earlier this month when President Donald Trump’s administration threatened additional tariffs on Chinese exports, and formally labeled China a currency manipulator. The second concerns the slow-brewing cold war between the U.S. and China over technology. In...

The president is irked by the dollar’s persistent strength, but he shouldn’t blame China or the Fed. This month the Trump administration officially declared China a currency manipulator. This declaration, the latest salvo in the ongoing U.S.–China trade war, came after the Chinese government allowed its currency, the yuan, to fall to its lowest value in a decade. It is now trading at just over 7 yuan to a dollar. The currency-manipulation designation is one of the most unwarranted charges volleyed against China by the Trump administration. The depreciation of the yuan was largely caused by market forces and, by...

Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, has said that the world’s reliance on the US dollar “won’t hold” and needs to be replaced by a new international monetary and financial system based on many more global currencies.

The U.S. Treasury Department has incorrectly labeled China a manipulator of its currency. An important distinction exists between devaluing a currency and currency depreciation. Devaluing implies the People’s Bank of China actively manipulated the value of the Chinese renminbi to gain unfair advantage for its exports. Depreciation simply means the renminbi has lost purchasing power relative to the U.S. dollar, based on market forces. There’s no indication that China is actively devaluing its currency. However, according to the Treasury Department, China met a broad definition of manipulation laid out in the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, which says...

The Dow tumbled 875 points and global stocks were in disarray on Monday after China escalated the trade war with the United States. The Chinese government devalued the yuan to fall below its 7-to-1 ratio with the US dollar for the first time in a decade Monday. A weaker currency could soften the blow the United States has dealt China with its tariffs. The weak yuan ignited fear on Wall Street that a currency war has begun or that the United States would respond with even higher tariffs, prolonging the standoff with China and potentially weakening the global economy. Investors...