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Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

aljazeera.com

221–230 of 407 posts

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

#221

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…

Doesn't help that the US seems set on destroying the world's confidence in the US dollar: first the 2008 financial crises and monetary creation (I.e. devaluation) in response; then much more recently they hammered nails in the coffin of Breton Woods 2 (I.e. the post-1971 monetary status quo of floating fiat currencies) by confiscating the Afghan Central Bank's reserves (which included private individuals' deposits, a…

> Doesn't help that the US seems set on destroying the world's confidence in the US dollar

Over the last 15 years, USD has increased in value against the Ghanaian Cedi by almost 16x. If we're trying to destroy confidence in USD, then Ghana sure makes it seem like we're doing an awful job.

https://www.google.com/search?q=1+USD+to+GHS&oq=1+USD+to+GHS

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

#222
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> al transactions in usd are settled in US. Do you mean this in some metaphysical sense? Because you can exchange USD for gods or services outside the US without the US government getting involved.

There is essentially loans of USD that happen on balance sheets that is paper between institutions outside of USA. So such trading and settlement is possible. But if there is block of actually getting this money in real dollars, that is rather pointless even more monopoly money.

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

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The Fed decision wasn't important to energy costs anyway, though. Of course it was. Rate hiking makes the dollar more expensive for anyone buying dollars(to pay for the oil). Were they dealing with gold they would not have this issue. Not to mention if the buyer is a gold producer.

So what? Rates go up, dollars get more valuable, it's more expensive to buy dollars than it used to be, and each dollar buys more oil than before .

But only one entity prints dollars so that's the catch/unfair advantage of the U.S.

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

#224
post #96

We'll see the dominance of the USD erode in the next three decades is my prediction. Look at how successful Putin was in demanding payment for Russian oil in Rubles. It has propped up the Ruble enormously and its predicted collapse hasn't occurred. In fact it has rallied. I assure you that other nations have taken note and will take similar steps in the future. Other commodities may well be priced in local currencies…

Russia had to raise interest rates to 20% to achieve the recent appreciation. Russia is giving up economic growth for the foreseeable future to prop up its currency. I doubt many countries are eyeing a similar move

They raised them to 20% for one month in the face of a nuclear economic strike. Their rates are down to 7.5% which are close to nominal for them. Remaining effects are a 3% GDP decline and a 12% inflation rate trending downward from a peak of 18% following the attack.

The overall impact seems to be fading to zero relatively quickly, excepting a much stronger ruble. Future growth numbers will be interesting to follow. Much could shift radically one way or the other depending on oil prices, but the US seems to have a declining level of influence with OPEC+.

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

#225
post #146

Honest question: Can someone explain me why using gold instead of dollars to buy oil isn't the same as sell gold for dollars and use those dollars to buy oil?

I don't think it is different, apart from any issues with timing of the buying and selling and price changes in between. I think this is more a question that the government doesn't have the gold and buying it from the miners is how they will get it. I don't think they are giving the miners a bad deal, other than forcing them to accept Cedis. I believe the net effect is that fewer Cedis are put on the market for dolla…

I'm not sure why this was downvoted. I did leave out one thing - I think the Ghana government is making a statement that they don't want to transact in dollars. That is an important difference, but it is not related to the monetary dynamics.

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

#227
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia had to raise interest rates to 20% to achieve the recent appreciation. Russia is giving up economic growth for the foreseeable future to prop up its currency. I doubt many countries are eyeing a similar move

They raised them to 20% for one month in the face of a nuclear economic strike. Their rates are down to 7.5% which are close to nominal for them. Remaining effects are a 3% GDP decline and a 12% inflation rate trending downward from a peak of 18% following the attack. The overall impact seems to be fading to zero relatively quickly, excepting a much stronger ruble. Future growth numbers will be interesting to follow.…

> Remaining effects are a 3% GDP decline

It's 3.9% (which rounds up to 4%, not to 3%) this year and 5.6% next year.

This forecast is based on figures kindly provided by Russian authorities, which in times of war have strong incentives to be creative.

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

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US export of inflation via engineered demand for petrodollars (and one could say enforcement via aircraft carrier groups) is an under appreciated effect.

It is literally the most controversial concept in today's geopolitics. Study politics science in Dover - it is a conspiracy theory. Study PS in Calais - it is the exorbitant privilege and a cornerstone of global injustice. And it is not like France and the empire are rivals. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorbitant_privilege

Regarding France, actually they play this game too. Check out the West/Central African CFA franc [2]. These currencies are pegged to 1/100 French franc, which currently about 1/656 euros. Many former French colonies are required to use the CFA franc, minted by France, and required to keep 85% in reserve in French banks, including during times of hardship, but they can always barrow against their reserve and pay France the interest if they need to. In 2019 France has promised to drop it and let the africans have their own called eco [2] by 2027, but, also it keeps getting postponed and was supposed to already happen by 2020, so who knows. Trying to go against france can result in an assassination or coup, or other creative acts by france (see Opération Persil [3]).

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_African_CFA_franc

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_(currency)

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ration_Persil

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

#229
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Mono world order” is the appropriate term when the US can go around conquering other people in their perceived self interest (Iraq, Afghanistan) but says nobody else can.

If you want the real-politick answer then “yeah, absolutely”. What’s your point? But the U.S empire has been pretty amazing for a pretty amazing number of people across the globe, and it is shockingly easy to stay on the good side of U.S. foreign policy. Be reasonably democratic, don’t genocide undesirable elements of your population, don’t pick on other reasonably democratic countries, don’t threaten world trade and…

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

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They raised them to 20% for one month in the face of a nuclear economic strike. Their rates are down to 7.5% which are close to nominal for them. Remaining effects are a 3% GDP decline and a 12% inflation rate trending downward from a peak of 18% following the attack. The overall impact seems to be fading to zero relatively quickly, excepting a much stronger ruble. Future growth numbers will be interesting to follow.…

> Remaining effects are a 3% GDP decline It's 3.9% (which rounds up to 4%, not to 3%) this year and 5.6% next year. This forecast is based on figures kindly provided by Russian authorities, which in times of war have strong incentives to be creative.

The Russian central bank expects a rate of 3-3.5%, the Ministry of Economic Development expects a decline of 2.9%. [1] Your numbers may be dated, as the expected figures keep improving. Some time back they were expecting double digit declines.

[1] - https://tradingeconomics.com/russia/gdp-growth-annual

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