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Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

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

#341

Post by SergeAx »

hnews_account_1 wrote: post #330
RC_ITR wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s so interesting to me that people see the dollar at a long term high, a proxy war in which the US is kicking ass (we don’t even need to send troops, our old equipment is enough) and their takeaway is that the US is in decline.

The US is incredibly strong. That does not mean the dollar is in good shape. Too much strength for your currency of exchange / account is a bad thing. It is why crypto cannot be a currency even if the blockchain was rock solid tech. Nobody in their right mind will use a currency that is that volatile. You cannot price anything properly or run a business. Same with usd. Sure the guy above is exaggerating and he probab…

Are you saying that USD is very volatile currency? Volatile relative to what?

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

#342

Post by giaour »

pessimizer wrote: post #269
giaour wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All financial markets participate in sanctions, so taking this absolute stance would limit the negotiable instruments available to you to briefcases full of gold or cryptocurrency.

> All financial markets participate in sanctions You're using the law of averages. Not all financial markets participate in the same sanctions to the same extent at the same time, which means that the decision about where to invest can be important. > taking this absolute stance You're the one characterizing this as an absolute stance, rather than a practical stance related to the current condition of the markets of…

> You're using the law of averages.

No, GP claimed that enforcement of any sanctions in international transfers means that the whole system can’t be trusted.

> You're the one characterizing this as an absolute stance, rather than a practical stance related to the current condition of the markets of the most powerful country that demands the most sanctions.

The original argument I was responding to claimed that one could not use financial institutions that participate in SWIFT. If you want to claim that’s a moderate, reasoned position, then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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

#343

Post by ShivShankaran »

SergeAx wrote: post #334
rsj_hn wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because the Russian currency has, through a series of impressive self owns, become completely useless. Huh. Checks forex rates . Not worthless, USD/RUB went from 100 to 60. It's worth 167% what it was before Feb 2022. How do you explain that? So many people forget that the value of a currency derives from considerations of supply and demand. When Russia said it demands to be paid in Rubles for some commodities, the…

(laughs satanically) Oh, well, Forex rates! Go try to buy USD with RUB for this rate. Go try to wire those USD out of Russia. Go try to withdraw your USD in cash. Go try to export that cash from Russia. I am sorry for sounding like a jerk, but you don't understand the current situation in Russia. Country is under heavy sanctions and they are mountaining more and more every month. A good chunk of sovereign reserves ar…

Russia is not officially a terrorist state beyond some symbolical declarations. EU and US still have large imports and also declaring them terrorist would also mean sanctioning secondary buyers like china India turkey.

Also rubles don't have to be exchanged for USD, you can use that to buy Russian gas, oil, arms, nuclear, wheat etc

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

#344

Post by ShivShankaran »

kasey_junk wrote: post #325
georgeplusplus wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if I held a gun to your head and demanded that you accept kasey_junk bucks? I don't believe that's whats happening though. The idea that Russia is holding a gun to china's head just doesn't make sense. Russia and China are part of the BRICS economic treaty, and this treaties main purpose is to see the dollar dethroned. I live in China FWIW and I don't see any of what you describe

Sorry, we’ve been talking past each other apparently. I believe China is strong arming Russia into using the yuan when Russia would prefer anything else. My belief is that this is a sign of how weak the Russian economy is, not a sign of yuan strength. I 100% believe that the BRICS signatories want to see the dollar dethroned. I’m not even stating an opinion on whether it should be or not. My position is simple, illib…

You are right about yuan and it's also the reason why USD is hard to dethrone. Russia even made it amply clear that it won't use yuan for the reasons you mentioned. A proposal was to use basket of currency or a new currency backed by precious metals.

Pretty sure one of the above will happen over the next few years

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

#345

Post by ashwagary »

peter-m80 wrote: post #26

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?

The first is a direct transaction, the other props up the US economy by creating demand for dollars and a taxable point for US companies. Ghana should only trade in gold...adding useless American middlemen to these transactions is idiotic.

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

#346

Post by kasey_junk »

ShivShankaran wrote: post #344
kasey_junk wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, we’ve been talking past each other apparently. I believe China is strong arming Russia into using the yuan when Russia would prefer anything else. My belief is that this is a sign of how weak the Russian economy is, not a sign of yuan strength. I 100% believe that the BRICS signatories want to see the dollar dethroned. I’m not even stating an opinion on whether it should be or not. My position is simple, illib…

You are right about yuan and it's also the reason why USD is hard to dethrone. Russia even made it amply clear that it won't use yuan for the reasons you mentioned. A proposal was to use basket of currency or a new currency backed by precious metals. Pretty sure one of the above will happen over the next few years

The US is one of the largest global holders of precious metals. You could perhaps replace it with a rare earth basket but that is effectively the yuan…

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

#347

Post by mardifoufs »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #310
shyn3 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libya moved away from the USD and got destroyed. Ghadaffi wanted the African countries to unite and get away from the standard. The American imperialists shut that down fast.

Note is was USD and potentially more importantly French African Franc under threat, as Europe was very involved in this. And this likely one of several other reasons like ensuing oil/gas flowed to west. And his history of supporting terrorism. Wider arab spring and hope to remove dictatorships.

Yes exactly. Europe, specifically france, were spearheading the libyan intervention. The US was a major player too, but mostly to support their european allies. Europe still thinks of africa as its backyard, and France has an extremely neocolonial attitude in the region and openly so. They put the US to shame when it comes to unashamed imperialist interventionism in the politics of their former colonies.

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

#348

Post by anomaly_ »

RC_ITR wrote: post #321
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…

Lol I thought the problem was the US created too many dollars? I guess inflation is a lot more complex than the comments section here would have you believe.

Of course it is. Hacker news is full of “educated” nerds who think the world would be a better place if we just followed their direction (tm).

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

#349

Post by Gustomaximus »

mardifoufs wrote: post #347
Gustomaximus wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note is was USD and potentially more importantly French African Franc under threat, as Europe was very involved in this. And this likely one of several other reasons like ensuing oil/gas flowed to west. And his history of supporting terrorism. Wider arab spring and hope to remove dictatorships.

Yes exactly. Europe, specifically france, were spearheading the libyan intervention. The US was a major player too, but mostly to support their european allies. Europe still thinks of africa as its backyard, and France has an extremely neocolonial attitude in the region and openly so. They put the US to shame when it comes to unashamed imperialist interventionism in the politics of their former colonies.

> Europe still thinks of africa as its backyard

I'm not sure this is true and sound's more like wokism than reality.

Absolutly in the running example like French currency. While at the same time France do huge amounts of aid, peace keeping and anti terrorism.

I think its fairer to say most of Europe has abandoned Africa from old. And for france its kinda a dammed if you do/don't problem like with Mali recently. Some people say the french peace keepers are continuing colonialism while others complain that when they leave it makes things worse and they shouldn't.... what is right?

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

#350

Post by jdkee »

pphysch wrote: post #308
nojito wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USD in Forex is well over $5T per day USD in oil is barely $3T per year Nothing external will ever pressure USD without the United States having collapsed first.

> Nothing external will ever pressure USD Not completely true. The current crisis is driven by foreign buyers not being enthusiastic about buying more US debt. The current inflation crisis is directly related to the large amount of price support for US debt provided by the US Fed in 2020-21. US govt is essentially holding foreign creditors hostage. If you try to move away from US debt, they will just print more dolla…

"The current crisis is driven by foreign buyers not being enthusiastic about buying more US debt."

That is largely irrelevant. As the world's reserve currency, the Federal Reserve could buy up Treasuries as needed. The domestic inflation problem is another matter.

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