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

Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home from US

ft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 329 posts

Re: Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home from US

#251

Post by holowoodman »

eqvinox wrote: post #137
jamil7 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Wagenknecht had somewhat distanced herself from pro-kremlin positions she and parts of Die Linke previously held? She's still pretty staunchly anti-NATO, though. I think her German-nationalist positions kind of overlap with positions that benefit Russia like resuming gas supplies to drop energy prices and heating costs.

Other way around, Wagenknecht is the one who didn't distance herself from the Kremlin and forked off her own party, BSW, which finally enabled Die Linke to get at least some distance from the Kremlin. (This schism was fracturing that party so hard…)

But only a little nominal distance in a few interviews. Die Linke is still the official successor of the SED, which was the GDRs single allowed communist party. And this shows in membership and positions, which are 95% true to Moscow.

Re: Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home from US

#252

Post by holowoodman »

FpUser wrote: post #170
dubbel wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are talking about national gold reserves, not some household items. They exist for the reason to liquidate them in case of national emergencies/severe economic crises. It's easier to liquidate these reserves when they are stored in trading hubs. That could be New York and London, or maybe even Shanghai, if China wasn't a systemic rival. Storing all of them at "one's place" is a larger risk than splitting it up and…

>"It's easier to liquidate these reserves when they are stored in trading hubs" Does that happen often (gold sale)?

every other world war or so...

Re: Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home from US

#253

Post by FpUser »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #196
FpUser wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"...But for much of recent history, the US was seen as a lesser risk than a Russian invasion. Whether that is still the way the risks balance..." Can't tell about the past where the risks of war with USSR were valid, but I think Russia invading Germany or Italy in the future is pure BS.

Well, influential people (that is, people fairly close to Putin) in Russia are saying that, after Ukraine, Russia will take Poland. Yeah, that's not Germany, still less Italy. But it's much closer to Germany than I would be comfortable with if I were German... [Edit: First example I could find: https://www.newsweek.com/putin-ally-says-poland-next-ukraine... I believe that Medvedev also said similar things, but I can'…

Duma does not make any major decisions. They just rubber stamp what Putin tells them to. Medvedev is Putin's toy. Listening to them is the same as to some western lunatics who while formally being part government spit some bullshit like "the world flat."

Re: Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home from US

#254

Post by fabian2k »

mdavid626 wrote: post #230
bc569a80a344f9c wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/ No, they haven't. Not a single poll has them surpassing the CDU. I genuinely don't understand why you'd lie about something like that. It's trivial to look it up.

When someone has a different opinion, it doesn’t mean they are lying. Please stop this thinking. Also would make sense to read carefully. AfD has more votes in the polls than CDU (not the union CDU/CSU! - which are essentially two parties).

For this kind of comparison you have to treat CDU/CSU as a single party. They're always counted as one in national polls. It is very confusing and misleading to treat them separately in this kind of national comparison.

Re: Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home from US

#255

Post by throwaway984393 »

lawn wrote: post #245
crossroadsguy wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for whatever reason And the biggest of that is: —— "Look, I don't know... I really don't know. We're talking about a country's gold, very valuable, very beautiful. And we might freeze it. Or we might not. I mean, who knows? It's a big decision, a very big decision. Some people say, 'Freeze it, Mr. President! It'll be great, the best!' Others, and good people, they say, 'Maybe not, maybe we do something else.' But I…

I can't tell if this is a joke or if it's something Trump has said, and that is scary.

[dead]

Re: Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home from US

#256

Post by throwaway984393 »

Loughla wrote: post #197
londons_explore wrote: post #190

Why would any country store it's own gold outside its own borders? For any nation state, storage and security costs will be tiny compared to geopolitical risk and leverage they're giving away by storing it abroad.

Store it somewhere safe and stable, that way if you're invaded the government in exile can still access the country's wealth to fund resistance and what-not, or at least keep the invaders from just taking it. Source: all that stolen wealth in WW2.

[dead]

Re: Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home from US

#257

Post by exiguus »

jamil7 wrote: post #102
SuperShibe wrote: post #87

The Germans in this article all appear to be aligned to either BSW (populist far-left, pro-Russia, anti-US) or AfD (populist far-right, pro-Russia). BSW wasn't even elected into the parliament and AfD, while being part of the parliament, has virtually no power due to not being part of the government coalition and all other parties sharing an informal agreement to not pass legislations with the help of AfD. What I'm t…

I thought Wagenknecht had somewhat distanced herself from pro-kremlin positions she and parts of Die Linke previously held? She's still pretty staunchly anti-NATO, though. I think her German-nationalist positions kind of overlap with positions that benefit Russia like resuming gas supplies to drop energy prices and heating costs.

The top AfD politicians, of course. But there are many other AfD members and employees who received money from Russian influenced people. Currently, the top AfD politicians are shifting from being in love with Russia to being in love with the US. Actually the AfD has been fined several times because they have violated the donation regulations for political parties (2017, 2020 and 2021).

Re: Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home from US

#258

Post by razemio »

notjoemama wrote: post #241
razemio wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think anti-nato, anti eu, pro russian gas and anti urkraine war aid qualify as pro russian. I get your point, but I think you are wrong? Just read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AfD_pro-Russia_movement AfD has SO many connections to the Kremel. At least a big part of AfD is obiously influenced by russian agenda. BSW is a different topic. They might just align with many points russia likes, but you can not be s…

Is there a rating site or alignment test for wiki articles and their authors? I'm aware of the inherent left bias on wiki and while I still find it informative I am forced (because of their behavior) to consider the subtextual implications in the language they use as well as what is willingly (and sometimes very intentionally) addressed or omitted. it would be nice to have a wiki-bias chart like the media bias chart.

Everything should be referenced with sources. If a reference is weak or even wrong it should be removed. Everybody can apply to be an editor. I know that Wikipedia has a liberal touch BUT its sources can be used to interpret it yourself. With or without wikipedia, AfD has members with proven connections to the kremel.

Re: Germany and Italy pressed to bring $245B of gold home from US

#260

Post by mslansn »

SuperShibe wrote: post #87

The Germans in this article all appear to be aligned to either BSW (populist far-left, pro-Russia, anti-US) or AfD (populist far-right, pro-Russia). BSW wasn't even elected into the parliament and AfD, while being part of the parliament, has virtually no power due to not being part of the government coalition and all other parties sharing an informal agreement to not pass legislations with the help of AfD. What I'm t…

AfD represents the political landscape, even if they (yet) have no power because other parties have chosen to marginalise them whilst still can. As long as you have votes, there are people behind you. Isn’t that democracy?
Post reply on HN