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Prepare for a new gold standard

senheiser

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China continues to hoard gold en masse. In June, China imported 104.6 tonnes from Hong Kong. That would bring China's gold imports from Hong Kong to 1,160 tonnes since the beginning of this year. Officially, China reports its total gold holdings at around 1,000 tonnes. Yet speculation is widespread that it could be holding somewhere between 7,000 to 10,000 tonnes, surpassing the United States' 8,113 tonnes. China is apparently preparing to adopt an impending gold standard.

Yao Yudong, a member of the People's Bank of China's Monetary Policy Committee, recently penned an article in the China Securities Journal, in which he called for a new Bretton Woods system. This would help stabilise the global exchange rates. By implication, he is calling for a return to the gold standard.

Under the old Bretton Woods system, the US dollar was the global reserve currency, fixed to gold at US$35 per ounce. This is known as the gold standard system, based on which paper currencies were issued. But President Richard Nixon ended this gold standard in 1971 by floating the US dollar outright.

By doing so, the world moved into the fiat currency system - or paper money system. Ever since, the dollar has been printed out of thin air. But the US has also been able to guard the dollar as the world reserve currency. This fiat currency system has given rise to huge debts, an expansion of the banking system and financial markets, and has become the mother of all volatility.

Now China is attempting to challenge this fiat currency system. It is no secret that China would like to float the yuan to become an international reserve currency. But China will not bank on the fiat currency system to do so. It is now pegging its yuan to the US dollar tightly. When the timing is right, China will de-link the yuan from the US dollar and fix it to gold instead. This will have far-reaching implications for the global financial system, creating further dislocations and crisis on a global scale.

Also, China has been entering currency swap contracts with other countries to bypass the US dollar. It has currency swap agreements with Brazil, Russia, Iran, Australia and the UK, to name a few. This scheme is developing fast to supplant the dollar with the yuan.

So it is not a surprise that China is building up its gold reserves in preparation for a big bang revolution of the global financial system.

Even with the strong demand for gold from China, Russia and India, gold prices have continued to be hammered down. Gold prices peaked at almost $1,900 per ounce in September 2011. Now, gold prices are struggling to keep to the $1,300 level. Many commentators, from Mexican billionaire Hugo Salinas Price to former US assistant secretary for the Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts, believe that the gold price squeeze is the work of central planners, who would like to protect the value of the dollar.

We are now seeing a battle in the gold market, which reflects a broader currency war. The central planners are holding down the gold prices, while China, Russia, India and other central banks and funds are accumulating physical gold in preparation for a big change. This seesaw battle will continue until the great unravelling.

Interest rates are on a rise. If the US Federal Reserve fails to get control over the bond market, we are going to witness a crisis. Then gold will shine again as China and other countries move to adopt a gold standard to replace the fiat currency system. By that time, history will have been rewritten.

Prepare for a new gold standard - The Nation
 
Going by GDP estimates Chinese GDP is 2 to 3 times higher than India but India's gold reserves are about half the estimated gold reserves of china.

INDIANS HOARD 20K TONNES GOLD WORTH RECORD $1.16 TRILLION

Apparently Indians are fully aware that unlike what Bloomberg may wish you to believe to the contrary, fiat debt notes are NOT the best vehicle to preserve wealth. Indian households have reportedly stashed 3x the stockpile of physical gold as the OFFICIAL US gold reserve!
New Delhi: Indian households have piled up as much as 20,000 tonnes of gold, worth $1.16 trillion, an historic high. This shows that the government’s efforts to trim overseas purchases of the idle asset by imposing an import duty and raising it in short intervals to reduce the current account deficit (CAD) haven’t yielded the desired results.
The World Gold Council’s (WGC) latest estimate of India’s household gold reserves is 11% higher than the 18,000 tonnes it had been pegged at earlier. Coupled with 557.7 tonnes of the central bank’s holdings, gold stocks at known sources in the world’s largest consumer would represent more than 75% of its gross domestic product. Gold prices in Mumbai stood at R32,325 per 10 gm on Wednesday.
Periodic surveys by private firms and independent researchers had, from time to time, pegged India’s household reserves in the range of 18,000 to 24,000 tonnes, but the WGC, the miners’ body whose estimates are widely tracked, has never put Indian household reserves at such a high level.

Anecdotal evidence would point at a significantly higher volume as the estimates don’t factor in unaccounted reserves held by religious institutions and trusts.

Indians Hoard 20k Tonnes Gold Worth Record $1.16 Trillion | SilverDoctors.com
 
Even if China has 3,000 tons of gold instead of 1,000 they would need far more to even think of going back to the gold standard. Otherwise those 3,000 tons will be sucked up by the capital markets - gold is only 1.8% of China's official foreign exchange reserves - or else China's exchange rate will soar sky-high, destroying China's export trade.

Nowadays China is spending more money on buying gold than U.S. Treasuries. I doubt this is a good move in the long run but I suppose the Chinese have no choice. They should have started buying gold sooner and in larger quantity. Instead, after the 1998 Asian crisis, they panicked, liquidating much of their precious metal reserves. (A fair quantity of it then was in silver, not gold, for which the Chinese received under $5/ounce, vs. the $20/ounce silver commanded a few years later!)
 
China reports its total gold holdings at around 1,000 tonnes.

take it with a grain of salt when they report any figures- that has been established.

COLUMN-China and India may not be enough to rescue gold: Clyde Russell | Reuters

its only the central bank data. But its citizen were buying a a lot of gold recently. Its also the biggest producer meaning they also have gold reserves at the ground probably. The fifth largest producer are china, US, Australia, Russia and South africa, these would also be very rich with current gold reserves and future gold produced if gold would become the world currency. Tough for america its still more beneficial to have the dollar be reserve currency as they can print as much gold as they want.
 
I doubt the Chinese are going to do anything that severely disrupts the US or EU economies..
Because (1) they'd cripple their own production economy with it, and (2) they'd be exposed and severly criticized by those hurt by such measures the very day they announce it..
 
In modern world is it practical for a country to implement gold standard?

Totally not practical. Backing your currency with gold would leave almost no room for central bank to tweet its monetary policy to support the country economy, it's not going to happen unless you're talking about a complete breakdown of world trade or WW3.
 
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