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Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

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211–220 of 257 posts

Re: Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is a political goal at odds with the population. Even Macron admitted that if the French were given the same vote as the British, they'd probably leave the EU[1]. Their tactic? Just avoid a vote. A small elite closing ranks and ignoring that EU citizens simply want trade union, not political union. There's only so many times politicians can say "it's more complicated than you peasants understand, we must federa…

To quote the article: > Asked if the French would vote to leave the EU in the same way, he said: “Yes. Probably, in a similar context. But our context was very different, so I don’t want to take any bets. I would have definitely fought to win. Which is quite different that what the title implies.

I think you're not understanding what he meant by context, the context is that just before then he'd said it was a mistake to give the UK electorate a leave/stay questions, he meant he'd simply give France a stay/stay question, i.e.:

Would you:

    1. like to stay in the EU as is or 
    2. like to stay in the EU with minor tweaks?

It's too complicated for the peasants to understand apparently.

But if given a leave/stay question, he thought France would vote leave like the UK.

He then went on to have a rant against all the unwashed who'd lost out because of globalization gobbling their livelihoods and how they should damn well be pleased to be screwed, if you're not a university educated elite it's your own fault for sucking, politicians obviously aren't meant to represent you or your views.

Re: Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

#212
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could not disagree more. If having a sexual identity is a luxury, I hate to think what actually enjoing life is. What a sad point of view.

And as far as "enjoying life" goes, it's an ever sadder view to place it anywhere aside from luxuries on a society were people are homeless, without healthcare, without steady jobs, working 2-3 jobs, and so on. Not to mention the huge loneliness and depression epidemic, with actual tangible effects on mental and physical health, and wether one can openly smack their partner and electrocute their body parts is quite f…

> Not to mention the huge loneliness and depression epidemic, with actual tangible effects on mental and physical health, and wether one can openly smack their partner and electrocute their body parts is quite far from a priority.

I don’t claim to understand BDSM, but I do know a fulfilling sex life helps with depression, and that being outcast for your sexuality can cause depression and loneliness.

Sex can be one of the few things left for the homeless and the dispossessed, and has been part of human culture since before the invention of medicine and money, never mind health insurance. Dismissing it as a luxury makes you sound like a French aristocrat (ironically, given where the ‘S’ comes from).

Re: Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I want to keep this brief. Feel free to elaborate

One of the big benefits, indirectly already mentioned, is inflationary controls. Imagine the USD becomes worth less due to an influx of USD into the economy through some economic decision or another. The nice thing about this is that that means it requires more USD to purchase oil. And so countries and end up spending a greater percent of their reserves for the same amount of oil, and also end up taking on even great…

Thanks. Quite interesting. Wish I knew more about macroeconomics.

Re: Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those aren't mutually exclusive, this isn't as bad as the "currency wars" of the mid 90's where the US wen't crying all the time to the WTO about China at least publicly. But China very much still controls the exchange rate of the Yuan to the dollar and still devalues it's currency in order to boost exports.

How can you say China is devaluing its currency to boost when the price of the currency is increasing in dollar terms? And generally speaking you can't keep exports inflated for long by currency devaluation any more than you can use inflation to keep unemployment low. In the end the trade balance will revert to what you'd expect from the savings rates of the two countries, and in this case China's higher savings rate…

Clearly GP means that the price would be increasing more quickly without the hypothesized devaluation. Like most economic questions, this isn't binary.

Re: Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got any sources for that? Many of these claims remind me far too much about stories about babies being thrown out of incubators and whatnot.

I think it's pretty believable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_harvesting_from_Falun_Go...

That links back to a CNN article and that CNN article cites reports by http://endorganpillaging.org/

A quick look through their reports frames this whole issue in a bit of a different light [0]. Mainly in the context of a Chinese shift from socialism to capitalism and the need for hospitals to fund themselves and run as for profits.

The numbers are big, which looks scary at first glance but ain't really that surprising considering it's the most populated country on the planet. Sadly the report does not seem trying to account for that, by comparing transplants per capita with other countries, instead, it just cites big numbers going "Look how many!".

Without wanting to sound too cynical, this looks more like an example of extreme capitalism, without any regards to ethics, and not for "Communist China being oh so evil", which this often is framed as. Which overall is a rather difficult topic as these are the very same dynamics that make China a world leader in human cloning research and one of the most important manufacturing hubs in the world.

[0] http://endorganpillaging.org/an-update-chapter-nine-findings...

Re: Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

#216
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is kind of ridiculous. The purpose of reserves is not to send political messages. It's to provide a mechanism to manage monetary policy and it does that through buying back its liabilities. To do this effectively you must hold a strong currency as your reserve- there's no point holding Zimbabwe dollars. So any reasonable reserves for a European country today will be part Dollar, Pound, Yen and Yuan. How much of…

> It's not a good sign for the US Ideally the rest of the developing world grows far richer than they are today, which gives the US (and everybody else) more lucrative trading partners. Countries like: Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, India, Nigeria. Even present mid-tier nations like Estonia, Czech, Slovakia, etc you want to see them go on to become the next Austrias and Denmarks. It's all very beneficial to th…

Well, if wealth is spread more evenly around the globe, this will indeed be good. Less unrest, less war, less refugees. Not sure if it's beneficial for the US as well though - the money flowing to Vietnam/Slovakia/Nigeria, etc has to come from someone...

Re: Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at how Communist China treats minority populations as a blueprint, it's not encouraging.

So like blacks?

https://www.google.com/amp/www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/c...

Re: Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not a good sign for the US IMHO this isn't necessarily true. A weaker dollar could mean stronger exports.

Exports of what? iPhones? These are all made in China, and with the dollar dropping against the Yuan, anything the US imports from China (and also from Europe) will be getting more expensive. And with the dollar dropping, bonds in dollars will be less interesting for investors. Basically, the article suggests that where Trump is aiming to MAGA, the entire opposite seems to happen: the rest of the world accellerates w…

No. Even better. Exports of America's best product, which is our information economy.

We give the world informational products and they send us physical goods. Seems like a good deal to me.

Re: Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

#219
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but at least if you discount US' human rights violations in the Middle East Can we not just discount the issues with china then as well? I think the one big difference here is that nobody expects china to invade their country, violate human rights within their own country or put pressure on their local politics for various reasons (other than random trade agreements maybe). All things nearly everyone pretty much ex…

China has figured out that economic invasion is a lot cheaper and more effective than bombing. Sadly the US still seems to be a long way from learning this lesson. But if you think China doesn't exert pressure in other countries' politics you haven't spent much time in Asia, particularly SE Asia.

Probably not long enough, but long enough to know that the chinese are most buying and building things other than invading (even less killing) for new wealth in other countries. At least in the last ~10 years or so.

Re: Europe’s central banks are starting to replace dollar reserves with the yuan

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After both Chicago '68 and the Kent State shooting, there was immediate, extensive blowback in the American press and public. Quite the opposite happened in China after Tiananmen Square. (Of course, all of the above were decades ago, so we need to keep an open mind about the condition today in the respective countries.)

> After both Chicago '68 and the Kent State shooting, there was immediate, extensive blowback in the American press and public. Quite the opposite happened in China after Tiananmen Square. I'd say after those it was business and usual, and those involved didn't get even a slap on the wrist. If anything, venting through the press merely let people get steam out and forget more easily....

> If anything, venting through the press merely let people get steam out and forget more easily....

But we didn't get a repeat of either episode. That raises the possibility that people learned lessons, albeit imperfectly, from those experiences of others, which is something for which humankind (not uniquely among the species) has at least some talent.

That's a benefit of a free press. It can be aggravating to see some of the shadier so-called journalists go shamelessly whoring after eyeballs. Still, journalists' collective, competitive desire for attention helps to bring "training cases" (in NN terms) to a broader societal audience. That seems to influence at least some people's behavior. Over the long term — and not without exceptions, some catastrophic — that influence, on balance, is usually for the good.

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