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

economictimes.indiatimes.com

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

#131

Post by pjc50 »

consumer451 wrote: post #9
SilverElfin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a self decapitation exactly. I think Trump, his family, his corporate donors, and other friends are all willing to sacrifice everyone else - including the lead America had - to make themselves rich and powerful. Every single decision to spend - defense, ICE contracts, AI, approvals of anticompetitive acquisitions, changes to regulations, etc - is making that circle richer at our expense. They don’t care if A…

That's fair. I agree. I was thinking of the USA as one actor. The USA votes, or chooses not to, and that has effects.

People like to do this because it's simple, but it's so unrealistic that it's basically a fairy story in terms of explanatory power.

You have to take account of warring internal factions.

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

#132

Post by chronc6393 »

refurb wrote: post #21
consumer451 wrote: post #6

The fact that this all happened by choice is really something. It's like witnessing a self-decapitation.

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?

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

#133

Post by neonstatic »

ferfumarma wrote: post #125
neonstatic wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think pinning this on one guy is a gross oversimplification driven by personal dislike for that guy. In my opinion larger forces are at play. I don't mean it in a conspiratorial way; simply put, the structure of global trade, economy, military power, etc. have shifted to such a degree, that this process has become inevitable.

The Clinton administration ran a budget surplus

Again, that's a domestic issue. It was at a time, when all US adversaries were either in trouble or not stabilized yet.

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

#134

Post by LightBug1 »

neonstatic wrote: post #100
aloha2436 wrote: post #26

America was in practice running an empire that collected tribute from the rest of planet earth in exchange for entries in a database denominated in a currency they controlled and that was accepted everywhere. Really the only way it could go wrong is putting it under the control of someone who doesn't understand the kayfabe...

I think pinning this on one guy is a gross oversimplification driven by personal dislike for that guy. In my opinion larger forces are at play. I don't mean it in a conspiratorial way; simply put, the structure of global trade, economy, military power, etc. have shifted to such a degree, that this process has become inevitable.

There is nothing inevitable about strategically moronic war, a super power supporting an ethno-religious genocide, and an orange dildo ripping up international order.

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

#135

Post by laughing_man »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #119
laughing_man wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "previous guy" was constrained by a once-in-a-lifetime Congress that was serious about deficits, and he also benefited by another once-in-a-lifetime spurt of economic growth that dramatically increased tax revenue. As soon as Congress realized they'd been handed a deficit-free budget they went about spending with wild abandon. And anyway, since that guy we've had two presidents over three terms where the other pa…

Here's the better question: If you were serious about reducing the deficit, what would you cut? It should be possible to reduce Medicare costs significantly by going after healthcare costs in general, i.e. create a ton of new medical residency slots and train a lot of new doctors, and make the healthcare companies actually compete with each other. The AMA and healthcare companies are going to fight you hard. We curre…

Agreed. This should have been addressed decades ago, and every year that goes buy it will get harder to deal with.

Me, I'd cut everything. Right now, when interest rates are relatively low, we're spending more to service the debt than we're spending on defense. This isn't a problem we can address with half measures.

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

#136

Post by ETH_start »

overfeed wrote: post #87
ETH_start wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US lead over the EU in per capita productivity has massively grown over the last 20 years. There's no indication of waning American power. America has produced 70 times more stock market wealth if you look only at companies created within the last 50 years than the EU. And this is not all paper wealth. If you look at technological sophistication, whether that's frontier AI models, leading-edge pharmaceutical drug…

> It's because the EU has largely fixated itself on reducing wealth inequality by punishing those who succeed. It's actually because America pivoted[1] from manufacturing to higher-margin services (financial, tech[2]), and generations of American Diplomats had negotiated trade deals that ensure American services are never shut-out or hobbled in most countries. American companies won't look so special,or be nearly as…

If you're familiar with American capital markets and global venture capital, you'd know that it had almost nothing to do with these trade deals. They had a marginal impact. The amount of capital available to startups and established companies at all stages of their development was the main difference. And the difference between the US and EU in that regard came mostly from the US simply not sabotaging itself the way the EU did with extremely high taxes on the top income earners, as part of an agenda to reduce wealth inequality.

The fact that the tech industry concentrated in Silicon Valley is simply due to network effects. Regardless of which locale became the Schelling point for U.S.-based technology companies, that locale would have succeeded, because of the national economic policy it operated inside of.

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

#137

Post by kzrdude »

ivell wrote: post #69
consumer451 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear you, the world is always ending. But, I am well past mid-life, I am a huge beneficiary of Pax Americana, and 47 feels like something truly different. Maybe it's just the end of a long pattern, but it is still the end. US-led NATO is dead, and the stability of the USA is dead, therefore the dollar's dominance is weakening. Don't take my word for it. Listen to Mark Carney at Davos.

I think there is a realization that (1) US' checks and balances do not work, (2) Trump is not a "mistake" of voters and can repeat again. This is the main reason that things are different. Most presidents were reasonable in their hegemony, and Trump's naked aggression makes everyone to hedge against US.

I think that people also see that government in all its ministries is becoming less competent, because of deliberate actions, firings, and flight of competent people. Uninspiring, uninterested, loyalists as leaders of each department doesn't exactly help.

And the competence of departments is crucial for the well functioning of the country, services high and low. (Diplomacy, war, and education to electricity and roads).

In my view it's both that the State Department, for example, is less competent than before, and that the administration is less likely to listen to the experts and Department officers than before.

(I'm not american.)

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

#138

Post by chronc6393 »

laughing_man wrote: post #30
yalogin wrote: post #28

I am actually convinced that the last year started the descent of the U.S. as the world’s super power. No wonder U.S. treasuries lost trust. It’s only going to get worse. It doesn’t matter what some billionaires do/get from their ability to manipulate some powers be. The rest of the investment community understands that free markets are strengthened by rule of law and adherence to the law and deploying a self styled…

People have been convinced of that my entire life, and I'm old now.

> People have been convinced of that my entire life, and I'm old now.

People in the UK still think they are the #1 superpower today

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

#139

Post by sph »

vincnetas wrote: post #38
laughing_man wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have been convinced of that my entire life, and I'm old now.

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.

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

#140

Post by [deleted] »

hax0ron3 wrote: post #70
IAmGraydon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that he has done countless things that are harmful to the US and not a single thing that is in the country's best interests tells me all I need to know. Either he's aligned with an enemy or he just hates the country and wants to destroy it.

I disagree with probably the majority of Trump's main policy ideas, but I think a strong case can be made that his immigration policies are in the country's best interests. Not all of them, but as a whole.

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