Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 270 posts

Re: Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

#241

Post by idiotsecant »

hax0ron3 wrote: post #231
idiotsecant wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Immigrants are the lifeblood of America and always have been. Reject them and you lose what literally made America great. Do you think, on average, a native born American is more useful to America than one who moves here?

Currently, probably yes. If American immigration policy was reshaped to favor immigration of people from high-performing societies, then it would be the opposite.

What color are the people in these 'high performing societies'? I think I have a guess.

Did 'high performing societies' build the railroads? Mine the steel? Forge it? Did 'high performing societies' build the culture we enjoy today?

Here's a secret that you should know but evidently life has never taught you: people who have to struggle to survive are generally smarter, more vigorous, more honorable people. They understand the toll in sweat and blood that the wrong decision takes. They are exactly who we need.

We don't need a nation of pampered trust fund man-children, turning up their delicate noses at everyone not a member of a 'high performing society'.

Re: Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

#242

Post by [deleted] »

manuelmoreale wrote: post #169
expedition32 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is politics. Which makes people who want to avoid it look delusional. As for polarization that's been the modus operandi in my country for at least 500 years. Everyone hates everyone but the alternative was the French, English or Spanish so what can you do? Turns out you actually really don't need to love your neighbour.

> Everything is politics. Everything you want to be politics is politics. Caring for other people shouldn't be politics. Being a decent human being shouldn't be politics. There are plenty of things that aren't politics unless you decide you want to turn them into politics.

[deleted]

Re: Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

#243

Post by laughing_man »

sph wrote: post #139
vincnetas wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes it takes multiple generations until empires collapse. even then there are remains left. usa will not disappear it will just become less relevant.

Dreaming of the day where the average non-American doesn't know who the US attorney general is, the name of their secretary of war, and the details of every internal political machination.

You say that, but the world has been a relatively peaceful place since the US became the world's only superpower. The "multi-polar" world the Europeans are always dreaming about could very well be one in which much of Europe looks like Ukraine today.

Re: Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

#244

Post by frankish »

bijowo1676 wrote: post #45
andsoitis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Gold has always been stable, because it is physically limited. Incorrect. Physical scarcity matters, but it’s not the main driver. Gold’s price is far more sensitive to interest rates, dollar strength, sentiment and fear, speculative flows. The stability it’s historically shown was mostly the result of fixed monetary systems, and those are long gone.

its because you are measuring stable Gold in volatile fiat which is being printed every day depending on the factors you mentioned (interest rates, expectations of future growth, sentiment etc). because you are getting paycheck in fiat, you are psychologically programmed to think of fiat as something stable, and Gold as volatile. while in reality prices expressed in Gold ounces remained fairly stable for example: htt…

I find this to be quite an interesting perspective change!

If I may try for a metaphor, then it's like our default perspective from the Earth is that we are the center of the universe, the other planets, Sun, and stars move around us, and we are stationary.

But, to zoom out, you can take a more objective view that everything is moving independently (ie, volatile). The baseline stability is a subjective perspective.

Re: Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

#245

Post by ETH_start »

mnicky wrote: post #235
ETH_start wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure people in Europe are better off. There are a lot of very poor regions in Europe compared to how people tend to imagine Europe. In fact, most European countries, if they were U.S. states, would rank among the poorer U.S. states. Now, looking only at the statistics, there are certainly some things European countries are doing better than the U.S. But based on my research so far, which admittedly isn't e…

Averages tell nothing about an average citizen. Also, there are other measurements like inequality, healthcare cost, social securities...

Averages tell us the general availability of wealth. To give you some perspective, most European countries are poorer than the poorest U.S. state, which is Mississippi. There just aren't as many high-paying jobs. And these figures encompass everything, including what the government spends on health care and welfare programs and education. So Europeans as a whole get much less per capita from both government and private sector. When it comes to purchasing power parity, which takes into account cost-of-living differences, the gap isn't as big as above, but it's still pretty significant.

Re: Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

#246

Post by refurb »

toyg wrote: post #60
refurb wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does sacrificing America's lead make American oligarchs richer? That doesn't even make sense.

It does, it's textbook "banana republic". Dictator and close circles enrich themselves, everyone else gets poorer. US voters were so worried that South America would come to them, that they have become the worst of South America.

Well we know the US doesn't have a dictator, so that's not a good example.

This all sounds incredibly hand wavey "oh, they just do things that benefit themselves but tank the US economy".

From what I've seen all the oligarchs in the US got rich when the economy was doing well.

Do you have a specific example of someone who got rich by "tanking the US economy"?

Re: Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

#247

Post by refurb »

chronc6393 wrote: post #132
refurb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. It has more to do with gold is now worth almost 3x what it was 2 years ago. And before you get too excited, this "news" from the World Gold Council. A consortium of gold mining corporations. Clearly it's a pump article "have you bought gold yet? everyone else is! why not you!?!?"

> It has more to do with gold is now worth almost 3x what it was 2 years ago. And why is it worth 3x? But S&P500 is not?

SP500 is linked to profits. Gold is purely speculative.

Re: Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

#248

Post by refurb »

onion2k wrote: post #47
refurb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. It has more to do with gold is now worth almost 3x what it was 2 years ago. And before you get too excited, this "news" from the World Gold Council. A consortium of gold mining corporations. Clearly it's a pump article "have you bought gold yet? everyone else is! why not you!?!?"

Not really. It has more to do with gold is now worth almost 3x what it was 2 years ago. It's not like we've suddenly found new and exciting uses for gold though. The reason the price has gone up is because the demand for it has gone up, and the reason why demand has gone up is because people want an alternative to U.S bonds. A bunch of pump articles wouldn't be enough to lead to a 3x price increase.

> the reason why demand has gone up is because people want an alternative to U.S bonds

That makes no sense since the amount held in US bonds is not that different.

The only change is that the gold that people held has gone up in value.

It's not different than holding Google and Apple stock, and when Apple stock goes up people say "oh, it's because people don't want Google stock". That's not true at all.

Re: Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

#249

Post by tptacek »

hax0ron3 wrote: post #230
9dev wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> perhaps lower average intelligence societies This is nothing but racism. Intelligence is distributed evenly across humanity. On an unrelated note, how high do you think the rate of American citizens with literacy level 1 is?

Intelligence at least as measured by IQ tests is not distributed evenly across humanity. Intelligence as measured by scientific achievements is also not distributed evenly across humanity. Now, this does not mean that intelligence is necessarily not distributed evenly across humanity. For example, I imagine that Germans in 1 AD probably had about the same innate biological intelligence level as Germans in 1800. Yet G…

I don't think you'll be able to provide evidence for the uneven distribution of IQ across nationalities.

Re: Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset

#250

Post by toyg »

refurb wrote: post #246
toyg wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does, it's textbook "banana republic". Dictator and close circles enrich themselves, everyone else gets poorer. US voters were so worried that South America would come to them, that they have become the worst of South America.

Well we know the US doesn't have a dictator, so that's not a good example. This all sounds incredibly hand wavey "oh, they just do things that benefit themselves but tank the US economy". From what I've seen all the oligarchs in the US got rich when the economy was doing well. Do you have a specific example of someone who got rich by "tanking the US economy"?

> we know the US doesn't have a dictator

Even most dictatorships don't "have a dictator". They have a "great leader" that coincidentally gets voted in again and again, for whom constitutions are amended, and who happens to have his own "revolutionary" irregular militias, not-so-secret police grabbing people on the streets in plainclothes (or worse), a subservient parliament rubber-stamping decrees, etc etc.

Even without some of that, the "unitary executive" theory, as implemented by George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump, is effectively a temporary dictatorship in all but name.

> all the oligarchs in the US got rich when the economy was doing well.

You can make bank when things go bad. Look up the European currency crisis of the 90s, when folks like Soros amassed their billions. Or the few who got 2008 right.

Whoever is betting with incredible timing on Trump's unexpected policy shifts, every other week, is definitely not getting poorer. And when the economy tanks, assets get cheap - which is great if you have accumulated cash.

Post reply on HN