Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset • Hacker News Board

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

#211

Post by rapind » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

berdario wrote: post #148

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 think this is denialism of the profit that the USA extracts with its crimes. The most recent example include the profits from Venezuelan oil: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgn7p7g79wo https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/trump-administration-manda... That money is held in a US treasury account. In February the estimated price from the first 50 M barrels was $2.8bn... with the USA+Israel bombing of Iran, the pri…

> The problem is not only Trump

Trump, if the US makes it through this administration, might be a boon longterm if it wakes up the populace. The blatantly obvious corruption and grift might just do the trick. Those are some pretty big ifs though.

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

#212

Post by AngryData » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

fc417fc802 wrote: post #208

AngryData wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you are ultra-wealthy you don't need to worry about taxes unless you are so greedy as to make earning infinite money your only goal in life even if it hurts you in every other way. And it is silly to set general policy based around how irrational and neurotic individuals will act.

I'm uncertain if I should have included "ultra" there. Point is that the father up the tax bracket you are in this scenario the more of the bill you foot and the larger your monetary incentive to relocate.

But at the same time the more money you make the less paying a bit extra to live where your friends and family are is really that big of a concern. Otherwise why are wealthy people living in and around big expensive cities when they can move to any number of other states and pay a fraction of the cost for housing and services. Many people are sitting on a decades worth of pay or more because they don't want to sell their property and move somewhere cheaper.

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

#213

Post by NewJazz » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

themafia wrote: post #105

NewJazz wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would that benefit anyone?... The core feature of the senate that makes it so indefensible is how it assigns power to states, not people. That relationship cannot be amended, per article 5 of the us constitution.

It's far easier to change a state government than it is the federal government. The states used to be able to recall Senators if they failed to do their jobs correctly; as determined by the elected body within the state. It's simply a single level indirection of Democracy. The House of Representatives is direct. This was intentional. What's "indefensible" about this? And you can amend how the body is elected; hell, y…

I was specifically referencing this clause:

no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate

You know, the clause that comes right after the whole "can't do anything about slavery right now" clause.

I consider this feature of the federation to be indefensible because it deprives the rights of people to equal suffrage, to the benefit of states. States should serve the rights and interests of their citizens, not the reverse.

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

#214

Post by whamlastxmas » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC

bdelmas wrote: post #180

gpt5 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is something awfully bad happening to the internet, including Hacker News. It seems like rage-baiting, polarizing titles and vibe based comments are being upvoted, with no interest in the facts. For example, in this case: 1. The growth of the gold reserve in comparison to US Treasuries have very little to do with growth in gold acquisition, and has everything to do with gold more than doubling in price in a yea…

I think there are less experts on HN than years ago or a decade ago. And the culture of HN is getting slightly changing to a more Reddit culture every year. It’s too bad because it’s the only place I know where you have experts in tech but also in other industries. And where I got very interesting discussions.

People have been claiming HN is turning into Reddit for over a decade to the point it's in the guidelines to not make the comparison

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

#215

Post by whamlastxmas » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC

gpt5 wrote: post #130

yosefk wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While we're at it, when did central banks start to buy lots of gold and under which POTUS? Could it have something to do with the freezing of hundreds of billions of some sovereign assets?

There is something awfully bad happening to the internet, including Hacker News. It seems like rage-baiting, polarizing titles and vibe based comments are being upvoted, with no interest in the facts. For example, in this case: 1. The growth of the gold reserve in comparison to US Treasuries have very little to do with growth in gold acquisition, and has everything to do with gold more than doubling in price in a yea…

Since the advent of the internet, and in fact conversation any in format, people have not overly cared about facts. This isn't a new phenomenon

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

#216

Post by the_gipsy » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #155

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...

Not aware of what happened in the 70s then with Bretton Woods? Not aware of what happened pre-08? It has gone wrong multiple times before just for the US and the US exporting inflation is not good for either the US or the rest of the world. As with NATO, I am not sure what the argument is...yes, other countries should take more of a role in their own defence...yes, other countries should take more of a role in their…

gibberish

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

#217

Post by idiotsecant » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

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.

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?

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

#218

Post by mr_toad » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 6:33 PM UTC

berdario wrote: post #148

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 think this is denialism of the profit that the USA extracts with its crimes. The most recent example include the profits from Venezuelan oil: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgn7p7g79wo https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/trump-administration-manda... That money is held in a US treasury account. In February the estimated price from the first 50 M barrels was $2.8bn... with the USA+Israel bombing of Iran, the pri…

> That money is held in a US treasury account. In February the estimated price from the first 50 M barrels was $2.8bn... with the USA+Israel bombing of Iran, the price of course would have increased since.

That’s chicken feed compared to the amounts that have been wiped off the stock markets.

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

#219

Post by mikewarot » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 6:55 PM UTC

gpt5 wrote: post #130

yosefk wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While we're at it, when did central banks start to buy lots of gold and under which POTUS? Could it have something to do with the freezing of hundreds of billions of some sovereign assets?

There is something awfully bad happening to the internet, including Hacker News. It seems like rage-baiting, polarizing titles and vibe based comments are being upvoted, with no interest in the facts. For example, in this case: 1. The growth of the gold reserve in comparison to US Treasuries have very little to do with growth in gold acquisition, and has everything to do with gold more than doubling in price in a yea…

>everything to do with gold more than doubling in price in a year.

Gold's price doesn't change, it's 42 2/9 US Dollar per fine troy ounce[1], and has been since 1973.

The problem is that this exchange rate hasn't been enforced, or adjusted since then. This allows the spot price to set the effective price of the dollar in a reciprocal arraignment.

Since, the "Gold Window" was closed by executive order, I posit that, In theory, Donald Trump could get a bunch of conspirators together, with 10.4 Billion in cash (the "Book Value" of the US Gold Reserves), and direct the Secretary of the Treasury to re-open the gold window, in private, and drain the US reserves, personally.

Edit: Nope... the law changed, thank goodness.

If the US somehow re-anchored the Dollar to Gold, the deflationary collapse would crush the economy everywhere, instantly, as all dollars outstanding would increase in real value by a factor of >100, and all debts would crush most people, companies, and economies.

So, realistically, if we wanted to re-anchor the dollar, the new value would have to be greater than the current spot price. To fully back all dollars outstanding, it would be somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 US Dollars per fine ounce.

I had previously expected this to happen a generation from now, but thanks to the complete collapse of institutional memory, and the current administration, I now expect it to happen before the end of the next administration.

[1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/does-the-federal-reserve...

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

#220

Post by ETH_start » Sat, Apr 04, 2026, 7:06 PM UTC

AngryData wrote: post #201

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…

As just an average US citizen living in a not so prosperous area, this rings pretty hollow to my mind and most of Europe sure looks like it is winning over 95% of the people that live around me. We already know the stock market is divorced from reality, IP rights are a short-term benefit, and I fail to see how having more compute or starlink satellites are suppose to carry the US into future economic prosperity. Now…

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 enough for a full understanding, my tentative conclusion is that almost all of those things don't seem related to economic policy. They seem more related to things like urban planning, for example more pedestrian- and bike-friendly cities.

In terms of work and wages, U.S. wages are substantially higher than wages in most European countries. And I'm not just talking about longer hours. I mean the compensation per hour is significantly higher.

EU Europe average per-capita income ≈ $30,500

United States per-capita income ≈ $68,000