Author: admin

And, as always, nothing else matters — and that should be obvious to all by now, except the willfully blind, of course…plus those whose so-called ‘reputations’ and careers depend upon them not seeing it…to paraphrase Upton Sinclair.”

An annual poll of 83 central banks, which manage a combined $7 trillion in foreign exchange assets, found that more than two-thirds of respondents thought their peers would increase their gold holdings in 2023.”

“The container contained a high-value shipment. It did contain gold, but was not exclusive to gold, and contained other items of monetary value.”

“The container contained a high-value shipment. It did contain gold, but was not exclusive to gold, and contained other items of monetary value.”

The New York Fed reported that credit conditions in the Second Fed District, which includes New York state, the 12 northern counties of New Jersey, Connecticut’s Fairfield County, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, “deteriorated sharply.” “

Being fed up with the dominance of the mighty dollar is, in other words, old hat. Indeed, it is such a recurrent theme of financial journalism that one can identify cycles in the use of the phrase “exorbitant privilege.” Recent peaks, according to Google, were in 2007, 2011 and 2014. The Google “program” for “de-dollarization” follows a similar path.”

Smaller nations are experimenting with de-dollarization while China and India are pushing to internationalize their currencies for trade settlement after the US and Europe cut Russian banks from the global financial messaging system known as SWIFT. There’s also concern the dollar may become a permanent political tool, or be used as a form of economic statecraft to put extra pressure on countries to enforce sanctions that they may disagree with.”

Yeah, I’m the taxman

In ten years, those interest payments will exceed our entire military budget.”

According to monthly data from the World Gold Council, March was the first time the gold market saw net monthly inflows into global gold-backed exchange-traded products ending ten months of consecutive outflows.

The financial reform legislation known as the Dodd-Frank Act (which was signed into law by President Obama on July 21, 2010) had forced the Fed to release the transaction details of its seven emergency lending facilities in December of 2010. When the Supreme Court declined to hear the court case, the Fed finally released the discount window transactions in March 2011.”

Project Icebreaker in particular grabbed my attention for a number of reasons. The BIS describes the project as a foreign exchange clearing house for Retail CBDCs (retail CBDCs are digital currencies used by the regular public and businesses), enabling the currencies to be traded from country to country quickly and efficiently. This is accomplished using the “Icebreaker Hub”, a BIS controlled mechanism which facilitates data transfers for an array of transactions while connecting banks to other banks.

Now imagine that you operate a business that relies on overseas transactions; say you need to pay manufacturers in Vietnam or Taiwan to produce your products. With CBDCs in place you will most likely be completely dependent on a system similar to the Icebreaker Hub to move than digital money to Vietnamese banks and into the accounts of your manufacturers. Say officials at the BIS, for whatever reason, decide they don’t like you and they initiate Russian-style sanctions denying your access to the hub. Your business is now dead.”

And now, the US economy needs to back up…it needs to go ‘back into whack.’  The Fed’s negative (below inflation) rates affected almost every financial transaction in the whole economy. Low mortgage rates caused a bubble in housing…and commercial real estate. They also caused a huge boom in borrowing – household, corporate, and government. They financed businesses that never should have been started…and allowed zombie enterprises to squander billions in real capital. They helped the feds fund programs that never should have made it to the drawing board…much less to the launching pad…made it possible for them to give pensions, grants, loans, and stimmies that they couldn’t afford.”

However, this is not stopping researchers from predicting the Aussie to strengthen, forecasting the currency will end the year at 72 US cents per dollar, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. ANZ Banking Group Ltd. predicts it may even rise to 75 cents.”

All gold reserves backing the digital currency would be held in a trust with the Texas Bullion Depository that is controlled by the comptroller or another entity appointed by the comptroller. “The trustee shall maintain enough gold to provide for the redemption in gold of all units of the digital currency that have been issued and are not yet redeemed for money or gold,” the bills read.”