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Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

aljazeera.com

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Re: Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

#151

Post by nivenkos »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #145
ben_w wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can certainly believe they're like that today, given how inept they obviously are in every aspect of the Ukraine war. So much so, I will take that at face value without even bothering to google it even though it would've seemed like a surprising and unbelievable claim this time last year. That doesn't mean they didn't go to space, nor does it mean they didn't industrialise, nor does it mean they weren't a significa…

Agreed. It's also important to look at context of all of those achievements. For example, industrialization was greatly driven by foreign engineers and companies. Like, one of the most important figures in pre-WW2 industrialization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Kahn_(architect) That continued after WW2. Russia was dependant on western trucks, a lot of which they gained via Land-Lease. So, they literally bough…

This was the same for every industrialising country save Great Britain and a handful of others though.

Re: Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

#152

Post by cauefcr »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #134
0x445442 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nice euphemism for genocidal, imperialist war. You’re referring to the U.S. right?

>You’re referring to the U.S. right? You must claim to be very sarcastic! No, I'm refering to only country in XXI century that literally decided to annex other country's territory - two times. All that while losing war, and deciding to unleash hell on civilians they claim to be "their kin". At least we can cheer our hearts looking at fields littered with dead russian soldiers and see that there are countries of the w…

So the US policy on Latin America is just fine? Embargoes and CIA financed take-over of many states are all fine?

Re: Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

#153

Post by [deleted] »

nirimda wrote: post #141
ben_w wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it's a prerequisite, though perhaps not the only one. I also suspect that political stability is more likely to favour China than the USA over the next few decades — it is very human for success to be followed by the assumption of indefatigability and that to be followed by fighting over who leads the nation, rather than continuing to focus on what actually made a nation dominant and how to keep it that way…

The UK lost its literal empire because of the costs of two wars that devastated the continent - not domestic politics. On the other hand, the PRC is turning back on itself. It has been unable to produce a successor to Xi - making it very hard to change direction. Under Xi, it has actively cultivated hostility against itself and only manages to exercise influence others through force. It also has much less stable demo…

[deleted]

Re: Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

#154

Post by Tarq0n »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #64
ben_w wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm only at the level of guessing for topics like this, but my guess is that a chain reaction is more likely to see a switch from USD to Renminbi than a switch to gold (or Euros). China because of the potential assuming similar GDP/capita as the current USA. Not soon because I expect as a prerequisite for change being the new winner's GDP to be dominant rather than just joint top 3 in a ranking system that changes th…

Wouldn’t a switch to Renminbi as a global reserve currency be fundamentally incompatible with China’s currency control regime? This has always been the explanation I’ve been given for why such a switchover is improbable.

There's also a lot less in circulation. The US Dollar has by far the largest volume out of any currency, which helps other central banks manage their holdings. This is something that holds back for instance the euro to be used for reserve banking.

Re: Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

#155

Post by Majromax »

nequo wrote: post #111
KptMarchewa wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that GDP-stock comparison is not good, but why compare to EBITDA rather than revenue or expenses?

I'm not going to say that I have strong views on this right now. But the reason I used EBITDA is that GDP is the total value added of the economy. EBITDA is the total value added of the company.

> EBITDA is the total value added of the company.

I don't think that's quite the right interpretation. EBIDTA is the value added of the company net its employees (and I'd quibble over depreciation and taxes), whereas GDP includes the labour share.

Imagine we had a single-company country, where every worker was also a customer, all costs were internalized, and capital did not depreciate. The GDP of the country would be equal to the profit of the company plus the wages of the employees.

Using the EBITDA equivalence, however, the GDP of the one-company country would be more (possibly far more) than "the one company's earnings."

Re: Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

#156

Post by twoclicksnorth »

robertlagrant wrote: post #78
elzbardico wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decoupling from the western financial system and having a higher level of resilience from sanctions. You never know if the US will decide tomorrow you're not behaving as expected under the internal rules-based order.

Why would the US be able to stop them buying oil using their dollars?

al transactions in usd are settled in US. even if trade happens in other places. hence they have the ability.

Re: Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

#157

Post by imtringued »

luciusdomitius wrote: post #99
kaladin_1 wrote: post #3

Interesting the pressure is increasing. More and more countries questioning why they need to base their foreign transaction on the US Dollar. Could this mounting unrest be as a result of the seeming inability of the US Federal bank in checking inflation of the US Dollar. Also, some of these Nations can no longer determine what benefit it is to them is using the US Dollar as their reserve currency and trading currency…

The petrodollar is a really weird thing. According to its critics, it is a global monopoly on violence and pure extortion, to its implementors - merely a conspiracy theory. Please, before you clinge to the conspiracy theory label, check how many great people such as de Gaulle have whined against it and what is Privilege l'exorbitant in French political science. In reality, global trade is not in USD purely because it…

The exorbitant privilege thing is kind of strange when countries voluntarily demand more dollars or even borrow dollars. The "privilege" is only exorbitant if you are the only survivor of a world war.

Re: Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

#158

Post by whatever1 »

gtirloni wrote: post #143
danielschonfeld wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has everything to do with USD dominance. Ghana is shouting out loud I can’t get my hands on USD. They’re echoing what the global market in general has been pricing. Now true, having your product be a hot commodity everybody wants is good for business but there’s only so much of that before your competitor starts offering a more readily available product. Pepper that with some morally objectionable stances the US h…

Are you advocating for printing more USD? edit: not sure why I'm being downvoted for asking a relevant question

People outside the US love it, so no issue with devaluing the USD if we print an extra couple of trillions.

The main issue is that the global supply chain cannot literally serve richer American consumers, so the cost of supply increases and everyone (in the US and out) faces inflation pressure.

Re: Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

#159

Post by imtringued »

ur-whale wrote: post #18
pjc50 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia's sanctions were as a result of their invasion of Ukraine and they'd still be a part of the normal financial system otherwise. It's nothing to do with petrodollars.

Apologies, but your reading of the situation is shallow. What do you think led Vlad to invade? The US has been mounting a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine for the past 20 years, one they're ready - barring political upheaval in the US - to fight down to the last European.

Putin wants to extract oil in Ukraine or at least prevent Ukraine from extracting it's oil to prevent competition?
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