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Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of dollars

aljazeera.com

381–390 of 407 posts

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

#381
post #367
post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The permission to use SWIFT, which has been recently revoked for Russia. And contagious sanctions designed to make it difficult to trade with non-sanctioned companies and countries.

Nonsense. SWIFT is a Belgian corp. that provides inter-bank payments. It has nothing to do with the US or the US dollar. There is no US-issued license required to use dollars internationally. This is stupid.

bell-cot is simplifying but is basically describing correspondent banking. Banks in other countries need correspondent banking relationships with US banks in order to work with dollars. Banks in countries on the OFAC list can't get these relationships. Even banks in "high risk" areas like the Caribbean are getting their correspondent relationships cut off because US banks are worried about getting fined if the banks they correspond with doesn't have strict AML procedures. See https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/F...

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

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "No one knows with certainty how many people have been killed and wounded in Iraq since the 2003 United States invasion. However, we know that between 184,382 and 207,156 civilians have died from direct war related violence caused by the U.S" [0] Is it only a genocide if a non-western ally does it? 0: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians/ir...

It's genocide when the goal is to wipe out a civilian population based on non-changeable characteristics.

I'm sure you were outside the embassy calling for Indonesia to be added to the OFAC list when they started massacring East Timorans. Or when Turkey invaded North Cyprus.

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

#383
post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US definitely has declined from its peak position of '90-'00. By the end of the last century, even allies were openly voicing concerns over US being a hyperpower and not just a mere superpower . [They are calling us a superpower again.] 9/11 is the inflection point (and subsequent matter is my opinion) and regrettably for us Americans, the store was in the hands of neocons, who stupidly (they wrote in late 90s a docu…

>US definitely has declined from its peak position of '90-'00. By the end of the last century, even allies were openly voicing concerns over US being a hyperpower and not just a mere superpower. [They are calling us a superpower again.] People in the '90's would have bemoaned that the US was well down from its peak in The 40's (you know, when we had nuclear superiority for c. 5 years). But in neither era would an ave…

> People in the '90's would have bemoaned that the US was well down from its peak in The 40's

>>9/11 is the inflection point >George Bush et al really wanted Americans to believe that, but why? It's not like Iraq is that much different from Vietnam.

This to me fails to note the categorical difference between the US's role before and after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Before '90 US was representative of one of the candidate systems. After '90, "new world order" of George Bush (the elder). UN was supposed to be the mechanism for unleashing violent force. So Vietnam and Afghanistan may look the same on paper (superficially imo), but they are two entirely different matters as far as the "international community" is concerned. This was the sin of the neocons -- shattering that implicit accord among the powers.

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

#384
post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China demands payment in useless currency. What part of this narrative makes sense to you?

It's like company wanting to paying people with scrips redeemable to company-mart ( china market) and that locks you in, BCS it could be worthless if you don't use the money quickly and/or outside company premises

you're talking about the country that's exporting most consumer goods to the world and has positive trade balance with most countries it is trading with. those yuans are useful to any country in the world. nobody needs to hold yuans, they can readily be transformed in physical goods

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

#385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What are you saying? Does that have anything to do with the decision on interest rates? How does the interest rate decision affect the real price of oil?

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

#386
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

... charitably, I think your parent refers to underappreciation within the United States which I think is a fair assessment.

Indeed I did mean in the US. The rest of us in the world are more acutely aware ;-).

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

#387
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…

What crisis?

The USD has never been stronger and FX volume for USD is increasing.

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

#388
post #360
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.

That’s like saying “cryptocurrency trades 7 zillion dollars of value per day but only $3M per day of actual business occurs, so actual business considerations can’t possibly affect the price of cryptocurrency”. There is a whole lot of money moving around via forex transactions, but that doesn’t control the value of the dollar.

USD FX runs the entire world. Comparing it to crypto shows a lack of understanding of international markets.

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

#389
post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>US definitely has declined from its peak position of '90-'00. By the end of the last century, even allies were openly voicing concerns over US being a hyperpower and not just a mere superpower. [They are calling us a superpower again.] People in the '90's would have bemoaned that the US was well down from its peak in The 40's (you know, when we had nuclear superiority for c. 5 years). But in neither era would an ave…

> People in the '90's would have bemoaned that the US was well down from its peak in The 40's >>9/11 is the inflection point >George Bush et al really wanted Americans to believe that, but why? It's not like Iraq is that much different from Vietnam. This to me fails to note the categorical difference between the US's role before and after the fall of the Soviet Union. Before '90 US was representative of one of the ca…

p.s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Counci...

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

#390
post #388
post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s like saying “cryptocurrency trades 7 zillion dollars of value per day but only $3M per day of actual business occurs, so actual business considerations can’t possibly affect the price of cryptocurrency”. There is a whole lot of money moving around via forex transactions, but that doesn’t control the value of the dollar.

USD FX runs the entire world. Comparing it to crypto shows a lack of understanding of international markets.

USD is extremely important internationally. The ability to exchange it freely is part of why it’s important.

This does not mean that the $5T per day of FX outweighs the actual commerce in determining the value of the dollar.

(I’m not interested in the “lack of understanding” game.)

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