RichieRich216 + 454 RK April 7, 2022 Putin - Good luck with that….. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TailingsPond + 1,013 GE April 7, 2022 (edited) 21 minutes ago, RichieRich216 said: Putin - Good luck with that….. Sure looks like it is working... and they probably made a ton of cash currency trading on top. Edited April 7, 2022 by TailingsPond 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ron Wagner + 714 April 7, 2022 On 4/6/2022 at 8:28 AM, Hotone said: What, an American company publishing articles to influence people for the purpose of making money? I am shocked; shocked I tell you! America is a capitalist country, everything is done for profit or haven't you noticed. I wouldn't recommend investing in gold ... Cryptocurrency is what you should be buying. I do some mining in an office, and hoping to set up a factory. It's like printing money. Every country is doing the printing, but why just leave it to the government? What is to prevent crypto from being adulterated by criminal hacking? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TailingsPond + 1,013 GE April 8, 2022 1 hour ago, Ron Wagner said: What is to prevent crypto from being adulterated by criminal hacking? Blockchain is essentially unbreakable. Anyone with the ability to hack that could control most anything - obtaining money would be trivial. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN April 8, 2022 https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ruble-surges-5-month-highs-after-russia-unexpectedly-slashes-rates-300bps Ruble Surges To 5-Month Highs After Russia Unexpectedly Slashes Rates By 300bps by Tyler Durden Friday, Apr 08, 2022 - 07:23 AM While the rest of the world is engaged in tightening monetary policy to tame the self-inflicted inflation beast, Russia’s central bank unexpectedly cut its key interest rate the most in nearly two decades last night in an attempt to stave off a domestic recession and bolster confidence in the economy. Taking the market completely by surprise, the central bank slashed rates by 300bps (from 20% to 17%) at an unscheduled meeting overnight and said further cuts could be made in the months ahead if conditions permit. As Bloomberg reports, it’s a policy pivot that echoes Governor Elvira Nabiullina’s surprise 200 basis-point rate cut in 2015, which reversed an emergency hike made weeks earlier. At the time, Russia was entering an economic contraction following the first round of sanctions over Ukraine and the collapse in oil prices. “The central bank wants to be a locomotive of the economic rebound, not a brake,” said Luis Saenz, head of international distribution at Sinara. What is even more surprising to many is that the Ruble - previously dismissed as "rubble" by President Biden - actually strengthened further on the rate-cut, surging to 72/USD. Source: Bloomberg Additionally, yields on government ruble bonds tumbled 83 basis points to 11.19% The Bank of Russia’s emergency rate hike in February and restrictions on foreign-exchange transactions were sufficient to lower risks for the financial system, according to Sova Capital economist Artem Zaigrin. It’s now having to react quickly to an unfolding crisis, he said. “Thanks to these actions, the central bank was able to stop the outflow of funds from the banking system and restore the attractiveness of deposits,” he said. “At the moment, the growing level of uncertainty in the economy and the sharp decline in demand have become prevalent.” The latest rally in the Ruble lifted the Russian currency to its strongest against the dollar since Nov 2021... The media are claiming that the strength of the ruble “may be illusory” or that Russia has exploited a “loophole” in the sanctions and used “financial alchemy” to “rescue the ruble”. Interestingly as Kit Knightly reminds us, in 2014, when the west sanctioned Russia over the Crimean referendum, the ruble lost almost half its value. It recovered slightly in 2016, and has since stabilized, but has never come close to its pre-Crimean worth: So, presumably the earlier sanctions didn’t have a “loophole” in them, and/or the Russians either weren’t aware of this “financial alchemy” back then, or simply decided not to use it. Of course there is one key difference between 2014 and 2022 – the oil market. As we have written before, in 2014/15 the US and Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil and crashed the price. Russia (and Iran, and Venezuela) all suffered huge economic damage from this move. But far from repeating this tactic, Saudi Arabia has increased their prices. It's a different world now... 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ron Wagner + 714 April 9, 2022 I have never understood why all countries don't back their currency with a "basket of commodities". It is an old concept but makes total sense to me. I can see why some politicians would hate it though! Biden is one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN April 10, 2022 Jim Rickards: Russia and Ukraine Explainedhttps://youtu.be/qHVcCyDmzgA 17:37 minute mark - Jim Rickards talks about 1998 and the “long term capital management fiasco”.“We were hours away from closing every market in the world… …It started with Russia….” says Rickards. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN April 16, 2022 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-russian-geoeconomics-tzar-introduces-new-global-financial-system Escobar: Russian Geoeconomics Tzar Introduces The New Global Financial System by Tyler Durden Saturday, Apr 16, 2022 - 06:00 AM Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle, The world's new monetary system, underpinned by a digital currency, will be backed by a basket of new foreign currencies and natural resources. And it will liberate the Global South from both western debt and IMF-induced austerity. EXCERPTS - In a Multi-polar New World Order - The change of CURRENCY STANDARDS Glazyev: In a bout of Russophobic hysteria, the ruling elite of the United States played its last “trump ace” in the hybrid war against Russia. Having “frozen” Russian foreign exchange reserves in custody accounts of western central banks, financial regulators of the US, EU, and the UK undermined the status of the dollar, euro, and pound as global reserve currencies. This step sharply accelerated the ongoing dismantling of the dollar-based economic world order. Over a decade ago, my colleagues at the Astana Economic Forum and I proposed to transition to a new global economic system based on a new synthetic trading currency based on an index of currencies of participating countries. Later, we proposed to expand the underlying currency basket by adding around twenty exchange-traded commodities. A monetary unit based on such an expanded basket was mathematically modeled and demonstrated a high degree of resilience and stability. At around the same time, we proposed to create a wide international coalition of resistance in the hybrid war for global dominance that the financial and power elite of the US unleashed on the countries that remained outside of its control. My book The Last World War: the USA to Move and Lose, published in 2016, scientifically explained the nature of this coming war and argued for its inevitability – a conclusion based on objective laws of long-term economic development. Based on the same objective laws, the book argued the inevitability of the defeat of the old dominant power. Currently, the US is fighting to maintain its dominance, but just as Britain previously, which provoked two world wars but was unable to keep its empire and its central position in the world due to the obsolescence of its colonial economic system, it is destined to fail. The British colonial economic system based on slave labor was overtaken by structurally more efficient economic systems of the US and the USSR. Both the US and the USSR were more efficient at managing human capital in vertically integrated systems, which split the world into their zones of influence. A transition to a new world economic order started after the disintegration of the USSR. This transition is now reaching its conclusion with the imminent disintegration of the dollar-based global economic system, which provided the foundation of the United States’ global dominance. The new convergent economic system that emerged in the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and India is the next inevitable stage of development, combining the benefits of both centralized strategic planning and market economy, and of both state control of the monetary and physical infrastructure and entrepreneurship. The new economic system united various strata of their societies around the goal of increasing common wellbeing in a way that is substantially stronger than the Anglo-Saxon and European alternatives. This is the main reason why Washington will not be able to win the global hybrid war that it started. This is also the main reason why the current dollar-centric global financial system will be superseded by a new one, based on a consensus of the countries who join the new world economic order. In the first phase of the transition, these countries fall back on using their national currencies and clearing mechanisms, backed by bilateral currency swaps. At this point, price formation is still mostly driven by prices at various exchanges, denominated in dollars. This phase is almost over: after Russia’s reserves in dollars, euro, pound, and yen were “frozen,” it is unlikely that any sovereign country will continue accumulating reserves in these currencies. Their immediate replacement is national currencies and gold. The second stage of the transition will involve new pricing mechanisms that do not reference the dollar. Price formation in national currencies involves substantial overheads, however, it will still be more attractive than pricing in ‘un-anchored’ and treacherous currencies like dollars, pounds, euro, and yen. The only remaining global currency candidate – the yuan – won’t be taking their place due to its inconvertibility and the restricted external access to the Chinese capital markets. The use of gold as the price reference is constrained by the inconvenience of its use for payments. The third and the final stage on the new economic order transition will involve a creation of a new digital payment currency founded through an international agreement based on principles of transparency, fairness, goodwill, and efficiency. I expect that the model of such a monetary unit that we developed will play its role at this stage. A currency like this can be issued by a pool of currency reserves of BRICS countries, which all interested countries will be able to join. The weight of each currency in the basket could be proportional to the GDP of each country (based on purchasing power parity, for example), its share in international trade, as well as the population and territory size of participating countries. In addition, the basket could contain an index of prices of main exchange-traded commodities: gold and other precious metals, key industrial metals, hydrocarbons, grains, sugar, as well as water and other natural resources. To provide backing and to make the currency more resilient, relevant international resource reserves can be created in due course. This new currency would be used exclusively for cross-border payments and issued to the participating countries based on a pre-defined formula. Participating countries would instead use their national currencies for credit creation, in order to finance national investments and industry, as well as for sovereign wealth reserves. Capital account cross-border flows would remain governed by national currency regulations. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN April 17, 2022 https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Russia-Says-Some-Buyers-Agreed-To-Rubles-For-Gas-Payments.html Russia Says Some Buyers Agreed To Rubles-For-Gas Payments By Tsvetana Paraskova - Apr 15, 2022, 3:30 PM CDT Some of Russia’s natural gas customers have agreed to pay in rubles for Russian gas, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday. Last month, Vladimir Putin said that “unfriendly” nations should pay in rubles for natural gas. Russia had set a March 31 deadline for the countries it considers “hostile”—including the United States, all EU member states, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Japan, and many others—to start paying in rubles for natural gas. The EU has rejected Putin’s demands for payments in rubles, while Russia did not immediately cut off the gas supply to Europe after April 1, partly because it is dependent on revenues from gas and partly because payments for gas delivered after April 1 are not due until later this month or early May. The Kremlin has signaled the gas-for-rubles demand is just the beginning of a switch to the Russian currency for Russian exports. “We expect the decision [to switch to rubles] from other importers,” Novak was quoted by Reuters as saying at an energy ministry in-house magazine. The Russian official, however, did not disclose which buyers had agreed to pay in rubles for gas. Armenia, for example, has already started paying in rubles for Russian gas, Armenian Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan told Russian outlet RBC in an interview published on Friday. According to the Armenian minister, the pricing of the gas is being made in U.S. dollars, but the actual payment is now being made in Russian rubles. In the EU, Hungary—whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been in close ties with Putin for a decade—said last week that it was ready to pay in rubles for Russian natural gas. With comments from officials over the past week, Hungary has broken ranks with the EU, which has been seeking to present a unified front in the face of Putin’s demands for rubles for Russian gas. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Will We See Another Oil Price Breakout Soon? Chinese Refiners Cut Output At An Alarming Rate What’s Keeping China From Buying More Russian Crude? Latest articles from Tsvetana Russia’s Oil Industry Is Suffering As The West Shuns Its Crude Published 16 April 2022 | viewed 5,909 times Russia’s oil industry—a vital source of budget revenues—is already showing signs of slowdown as Western buyers shun Russian oil while Moscow struggles to replace lost… Russia Says Some Buyers Agreed To Rubles-For-Gas Payments Published 15 April 2022 | viewed 23,163 times Some of Russia’s natural gas customers have agreed to pay in rubles for Russian gas, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday. Last month,… Britons Back Russian Oil Ban Even If Their Energy Bills Surge Published 15 April 2022 | viewed 1,478 times Almost 70 percent of Britons believe that not using Russian oil and gas in the UK is the right thing to do after Russia’s invasion… EU Embargo On Russian Oil Could Be “Months Away” Published 15 April 2022 | viewed 1,866 times A potential EU embargo on Russian oil imports may be in the works, but drafting and preparing for such a ban would likely take “several… U.S. Natural Gas Inventories Fall To Three Year Low Published 15 April 2022 | viewed 12,983 times Higher demand for heating and record LNG exports left U.S. natural gas in storage at the end of the winter at its lowest level in… Commodity Chaos Is Threatening The Global Economy Published 14 April 2022 | viewed 6,868 times Businesses and consumers are already feeling the impact of the rally in commodity prices of everything from crude oil to grains and metals. The year’s… EU Set To Discuss Joint Gas Buying In Bid To Cut Russian Reliance Published 14 April 2022 | viewed 2,718 times The leaders of the European Union member states are expected to discuss at their summit at the end of May the idea of jointly buying… Soaring Gasoline Prices Raise U.S. Retail Sales Published 14 April 2022 | viewed 5,357 times More spending on gasoline amid surging prices lifted U.S. retail sales in March 2022, with spending at gasoline stations up by nearly 9 percent from… Chinese Refiners Cut Output At An Alarming Rate Published 14 April 2022 | viewed 59,446 times China’s refiners are expected to lower their refinery runs at the biggest scale—by 900,000 barrels per day (bpd)—since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020,… What’s Keeping China From Buying More Russian Crude? Published 13 April 2022 | viewed 102,325 times Outbound shipments of Russian oil have yet to show signs of a major decline, as many analysts feared last month. In fact, Russia’s shipments of… Transportation Sector, Ridesharing Slammed By High Fuel Prices Published 13 April 2022 | viewed 6,644 times The surge in diesel and gasoline prices this year is stoking inflation and affecting many businesses. The distillate fuel crunch and high prices globally and… Putin Confident Russia Will Find New Buyers Of Its Energy Published 13 April 2022 | viewed 5,499 times As many Western buyers shun Russian oil, gas, and coal, Moscow will find new customers for its energy products both domestically and overseas, Russian President… China’s Offshore Oil Giant Exits Western Markets Over Sanction Fears Published 13 April 2022 | viewed 14,662 times Chinese CNOOC, the offshore oil and gas producing giant, is getting ready to quit its businesses and assets in the U.S., the UK, and Canada,… Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN April 19, 2022 https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Russia-Clears-Up-Confusion-Over-Rubles-For-Gas-Scheme.html Russia Clears Up Confusion Over Rubles For Gas Scheme By Julianne Geiger - Apr 19, 2022, 1:30 PM CDT Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has issued a statement to India Today clarifying the rubles for gas mandate that has created confusion among Russia’s gas buyers, RT has reported on Tuesday. Buyers purchasing Russia’s gas will have to pay Gazprombank, an independent institution. They will no longer be able to pay for gas using Gazprom’s bank accounts abroad—precisely because those funds could then be frozen by sanctions. According to Lavrov, Russia’s demands to change the payment method for nat gas exports to rubles is “obvious and understandable” given Western sanctions, which have frozen half of Russia’s foreign assets. “They will pay the same amount that they owe under existing contracts, but they will pay through a special account that they will have to open in this bank,” Lavrov clarified. Buyers can still, therefore, pay in the currency of their choice. But Gazprombank will convert the payment into rubles. Gazprom would then be able to access the funds in rubles, assured that those funds would not be subject to sanctions. “They won’t be able to keep this money in their banks. They will still pay in euro or dollars, but we will have guarantees,” Lavrov added. Russia had set a March 31 deadline for the countries it considers “hostile”—including the United States, all EU member states, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Japan, and many others—to start paying in rubles for natural gas, although the EU has rejected Putin’s demands for payments in rubles. Russia did not immediately cut off the gas supply to Europe after April 1, partly because it is dependent on revenues from gas and partly because payments for gas delivered after April 1 are not due until later this month or early May. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Oil Dips As IMF Slashes Economic Growth Forecasts JPMorgan: Immediate EU Ban On Russian Oil Could Send Prices To $185 Canadian Gas Stocks Are Booming As Henry Hub Prices Soar Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN April 26, 2022 https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/where-are-russias-gold-reserves-actually-stored https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/where-is-the-russian-federations-gold-stored/ EXCERPTS From 400 tonnes to 2300 tonnes of gold In the central bank gold market, the Bank of Russia stands out for having increased its monetary gold reserves by nearly six-fold over a mere 12 years via gold buying in the domestic Russian market. This gold was sourced from Russian gold refiners by Russian commercial banks, refined to a high standard in Russian gold refineries, and then sold by the Russian commercial banks to the Bank of Russia. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where Are Russia's Gold Reserves Actually Stored? by Tyler Durden Tuesday, Apr 26, 2022 - 04:00 AM Submitted by Ronan Manly, BullionStar.com In the current environment of weaponized Western sanctions against Russia, and the critical importance of monetary gold reserves as Russia’s ultimate asset, a timely question to ask is where Russia’s gold reserves are actually stored. The location of Russia’s gold reserves is especially intriguing given the ongoing freeze of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves - dollar, euro, pound - by Western powers, and the fact that there is a US Congress Bill being introduced by a group of US senators to try to ‘freeze’ Russia’s gold.... [ARTICLE continues with PHOTOS] Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN April 29, 2022 https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/kremlin-confirms-intention-to-back-ruble-with-gold-and-commodities/ https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/new-gold-standard-kremlin-confirms-intention-back-ruble-gold-and-commodities A New Gold Standard? Kremlin Confirms Intention To Back Ruble With Gold And Commodities by Tyler Durden Friday, Apr 29, 2022 - 09:55 AM Submitted by Ronan Manly, BullionStar.com On Tuesday 26 April in an interview with newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta (RG), the Secretary of the Russian Federation’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said that Russian experts are working on a project to back the Russian ruble with gold and other commodities. The interview, which is in Russian, can be seen on the RG website here. For those who don’t know the name Nikolai Patrushev, Patrushev is one of the Russia’s most powerful security / intelligence officers and a close ally of Putin. After serving between 1999 and 2008 as Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) (the successor organization to the KGB), Patrushev moved to being Secretary of the Russian Security Council since 2008. In fact, Patrushev took over as Director of the FSB in 1999 from the previous incumbent, Vladimir Putin. The Security Council of the Russian Federation is chaired by Putin, with Patrushev as Secretary, overseeing the Security Council and answering directly to Putin. The deputy chairman of the Security Council is Medvedev Dmitry, the former Russian president and prime minister. Among the other member of the Security Council are current Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. So when Nikolai Patrushev says that Russia is working on a plan to back the ruble with gold and commodities, it is not just anyone saying this, it is being said by the highest echelons of the Russian Government. Media coverage (in English) of Patrushev’s 26 April comments can be seen on the Russia Today (RT.com) website here. For those who cannot access RT.com due to it being locally blocked and who don’t want to use a VPN, the RT.com article can be seen on ‘thethreadtimes.com’ website here. Patrushev and Putin Intrinsic Value Since its good to go right back to the source of Rossiyskaya Gazeta (RG), I have added an English translation of the relevant sections of Patrushev’s interview with RG (using Yandex Translate) below. RG Question: And what do we need to do to ensure the ruble's sovereignty? Nikolai Patrushev: “For any national financial system to be sovereignized, its means of payment must have intrinsic value and price stability, without being pegged to the dollar. Now experts are working on a project proposed by the scientific community to create a two-circuit monetary and financial system. In particular, it is proposed to determine the value of the ruble, which should be backed by both gold and a group of goods that are currency values, and to put the ruble exchange rate in line with the real purchasing power parity.” So there you have it. The Russian Government is actively working on creating a gold and commodity backed Russian ruble with intrinsic value which is outside the orbit of the US dollar. For the above paragraphs, Google Translate produces a nearly identical translation into English as Yandex Translate does, except whereas Yandex calls it a 'a two-circuit monetary and financial system’, Google says a ‘dual-loop monetary and financial system’. ‘Two-circuit’ or ‘dual-loop’ refers here to a ruble backed by both gold and commodities. A New Orthodoxy Following Patrushev’s remarks about a gold and commodity backed ruble, the RG interview probes further: RG Question: Similar ideas have been voiced before. However, a number of experts stated that they contradict the conclusions of economic theory…? To which Nikolai Patrushev replies: “They do not contradict the conclusions of economics, but rather the conclusions of Western economics textbooks. The West has unilaterally appropriated an intellectual monopoly on the optimal structure of society and has been using it for decades… We are not opposed to a market economy and participation in global production chains, but we are clearly aware that the West allows other countries to be its partner only when it is profitable for it. Therefore, the most important condition for ensuring Russia's economic security is to rely on the country's internal potential, a structural adjustment of the national economy on a modern technological basis.” Sanctions - An Own Goal On the subject of the financial sanctions themselves, and the freezing of Russia’s FX reserves held abroad, Patrushev states that by imposing sanctions against Russia, the “the West is hitting not only Russia, but also itself”, and has damaged trust in the US dollar as the world’s de facto reserve currency: “The current global financial system is built solely on trust, including in the United States as the issuer of the world's reserve currency. Half a century ago, the gold factor was present, but in 1971 the States untied its currency from its quotes, which made it possible to issue money virtually without control.” Majority of Asia - SCO and EAEU members. Source The West vs The Rest Elsewhere in the interview, Patrushev drops some bombshell comments about how Russia is intensifying cooperation with the non-Western world, comments which have yet to be appreciated by the mainstream Western media. “I am confident that we will solve all the problems that have arisen as a result of the sanctions restrictions. Today, Russia is moving from the European market to the African, Asian and Latin American markets. We give priority attention to the EAEU, whose importance is growing many times over in the current conditions. We are stepping up cooperation with the BRICS and SCO countries, which bring together about three and a half billion people on the planet.” Note - The EAEU refers to the Eurasian Economic Union. The EAEU, which was founded in 2015, is a free-trade zone and customs union comprising Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. See EAEU website here. SCO refers to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The SCO, which was founded in 2001, is an international intergovernmental grouping comprising the 8 member states of China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, as well as 4 observer states of Belarus, Iran, Afghanistan, and Mongolia, and a further 6 dialogue partners in the form of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. BRICS refers to the world's 5 largest emerging economics and comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. BRICS was established in 2006 and is now a formal grouping, with the BRICS nations formally cooperating and meeting on an annual basis. The 2022 BRICS summit is being held in China. EAEU. SCO. BRICS. Three and a half billion people. And now a gold and commodity backed ruble. Something for the Western media to ponder. Conclusion - A New Gold Standard? In late March when the Bank of Russia offered to buy gold from Russian banks at a fixed price of 5000 rubles per gram, this was the first step in linking the ruble to gold. That move also put a floor price under the ruble and acted as a catalyst for the ruble to re-strengthen ground against the US dollar that had been lost in late February / early March. During the same week in late March, Putin also informed the global market that non-friendly importers of Russian gas would have to pay for Russian natural gas using rubles. That move (which we are now seeing playing out in the EU) was the other side of the equation, linking the ruble to commodities. This was all laid out in the Q&A article that I wrote for RT.com and which can be seen here on the BullionStar website titled “Russian Ruble relaunched linked to Gold and Commodities – RT.com Q and A”, and which was a big hit on ZeroHedge with more than 650,000 views. What we are seeing now is Nikolai Patrushev and the Kremlin confirming this simple equation of linking the Russian ruble to gold and commodities. In other words, the beginning of a multilateral gold and commodity backed monetary system, i.e. Bretton Woods III. Anyone who wants to read an English translation of Nikolai Patrushev’s full interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta can do so at this link. * * * This article was originally published on the BullionStar.com website under the same title "Kremlin confirms intention to Back Ruble with Gold and Commodities". https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/kremlin-confirms-intention-to-back-ruble-with-gold-and-commodities/ 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN April 29, 2022 EXCERPT from https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/heres-biggest-geopolitical-factor-markets-havent-priced-yet Here's The Biggest Geopolitical Factor The Markets Haven't Priced-In... Yet by Tyler Durden Thursday, Apr 28, 2022 - 12:25 PM Via InternationalMan.com, EXCERPT: Nick Giambruno: Here’s the bottom line. The US government is bungling the geopolitical strategy on several levels. It will foster the partnership of Russia and China, which can act as a counterweight to the US. They are creating an alternative monetary and economic system outside of the dollar that billions of people worldwide could use. It’s a nightmare scenario for US strategists unfolding right now. With Russia and China teamed up economically and militarily, what you have is not just a credible challenge to the US. You have something that could be more powerful than the West. That will have enormous implications for the stock market, the US dollar, the euro, and monetary alternatives such as gold, silver, and Bitcoin. I don’t think financial markets have priced in the implications of the US screwing up the big picture geopolitical strategy. In other words, there is an enormous information asymmetry in the market. But that’s actually a good thing. If the market had priced this in, there wouldn’t be an opportunity for astute investors who can see the true big picture and know how to position themselves for big profits as this all plays out. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN April 29, 2022 Just now, Tom Nolan said: EXCERPT from Article The US government is bungling the geopolitical strategy on several levels. It will foster the partnership of Russia and China, which can act as a counterweight to the US. They are creating an alternative monetary and economic system outside of the dollar that billions of people worldwide could use. It’s a nightmare scenario for US strategists unfolding right now. I don't think that this is "bungling". This is intentional. The U.S. and NATO (World Economic Forum) are deliberately accelerating the agenda. Anyone with two brain cells knows the equations and consequences of the recent 3-D Chess moves which are playing to the duped masses watching a 2-D Chess game. In order to bring about a Multi-polar New World Order, old supporting structures of society need to be destroyed. With this destruction, then a New World Order can be built. The New World Order offers "solutions" to the problems created by the destruction of society (the problems of which were created by the Old One World Order.) -Tom Nolan Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN April 30, 2022 19 hours ago, Tom Nolan said: A New Gold Standard? Here is a different perspective than the Bulllionstar article featured in Zero Hedge above. The writer below lives in Russia. EXCERPT ...But then the most predictable thing in whole world happened: Russia’s central bank dominatrix, Elvira Nabiullina, ruined everything. Again. “As for tying the ruble to gold, this is not discussed in any way,” Nabiullina said during a press briefing on Friday. Just a reminder: Nabiullina was recently reappointed as head of the Bank of Russia after receiving Putin’s endorsement.... https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/imf-obedient-bank-of-russia-rejects?s=r IMF-obedient Bank of Russia rejects gold-backed ruble Nabiullina says the idea is not even being discussed. After all, it's against IMF rules Edward Slavsquat lives in Russia The long-awaited golden ruble has returned to the front page of Zerohedge and everyone is very excited. Except for the Bank of Russia, which announced yesterday that pegging the ruble to gold is not even being considered as a possibility. Let’s rewind to April 26. In an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said the Russian government was toying with the idea of backing the ruble “both with gold and a group of goods.” Very cool. Very based. High-five. But then the most predictable thing in whole world happened: Russia’s central bank dominatrix, Elvira Nabiullina, ruined everything. Again. “As for tying the ruble to gold, this is not discussed in any way,” Nabiullina said during a press briefing on Friday. Just a reminder: Nabiullina was recently reappointed as head of the Bank of Russia after receiving Putin’s endorsement. (She allegedly tried to resign after Washington & Company vacuumed up half of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves. Anyway, she’s still with us and everyone is very glad about this, including Mike Whitney, who lovingly refers to her as a “financial terrorist.”) Why is Elvira so allergic to the idea of tying Russia’s currency to gold? There are probably several reasons. One reason is that pegging your currency to gold is strictly verboten if you are a member of the prestigious International Monetary Fund. It’s a massive no-no. “IMF members have been free to choose any form of exchange arrangement they wish (except pegging their currency to gold)” From the IMF’s Articles of Agreement (source) Russia is a proud member of the IMF. If Moscow wants to create a system where you can exchange a golden ruble for a VIP tour of Petro Poroshenko’s demonic chocolate factory, it will first need to withdraw from this esteemed international organization. At least that’s how we understand things. Maybe there is a work-around. Maybe Russia can create two rubles: a gold-backed ruble for domestic use, and a less-cool ruble for foreign transactions. And maybe the IMF would be okay with that? Maybe. But Nabiullina doesn’t want to talk about it. She has long-tabled our beloved golden ruble. Simply unacceptable. Putin and Elvira discussing the golden ruble (source: TASS) Don’t worry, friends: Nabiullina has a compromise. Instead of a gold-backed ruble, how about… a Central Bank Digital Currency that can be used to control and monitor all transactions, forever? April 14: The Bank of Russia does not intend to postpone the introduction of the digital ruble, despite the technical unpreparedness of some banks, said Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, during a meeting of the State Duma working group. "From January 2022, we began testing the digital ruble in a test mode with banks, there are twelve of them, which declared themselves in the pilot group. I must say that not all banks were technically ready to join this testing, and we we divided them into several groups so that they could make improvements on their side.But at the same time, we do not want to change the deadlines, we do not want to lengthen any stages, because we believe that the digital ruble is very necessary for the economy, citizens and businesses. We are going according to our plan,” Skorobogatova said. April 21: The digital ruble will be used in the implementation of government programs, this will allow more efficient tracking of the use of funds, said Central Bank Chairman Elvira Nabiullina in the State Duma. “Indeed, the digital ruble will provide new opportunities. In addition to being convenient, it also provides opportunities for programming, tracking the targeted nature of the use of digital rubles. We are discussing with the government that such a ‘target ruble’ will be used for government state programs, and then the government will more effectively monitor the targeted use of the funds allocated to support certain sectors of the economy, for social support,” Nabiullina said. This is the final nail in the Great Reset’s coffin. Schwab is sweating bullets. A final thought before we end this blog post. At the end of March, the central bank said it would purchase gold at a fixed price of 5,000 rubles a gram until June 30. Everyone went bananas. All of the 5D Russia Pundits announced Moscow had masterfully and decisively pegged the ruble to gold. There was much rejoicing. Twitter imploded. Dr Alyssa Frensor 🇺🇸 @Ben64319554 Holy hell, they did it. This is a really big deal, the financial equivalent of nuclear bombs. Most worlds economies are all based on debt. Now Russias money is based on money. March 29th 2022 10,855 Retweets39,357 Likes But wait… if Russia tied its currency to gold back in late March, why did Nabiullina declare a month later that the Bank of Russia will not even consider pegging the ruble to any kind of shiny metal? ……………………………………………… …………….. ………. ….. Do you see the problem here? A one-week “game-changer” that never actually existed. Very nice. “Gold-backed ruble could be a game-changer,” RT proclaimed on April 2. Less than a week later, the Bank of Russia dropped its policy of buying gold at a fixed price, choosing instead to negotiate rates with sellers. Even during this 10-day period, the ruble was never “pegged” to gold. Sorry? Maybe one day Russia really will adopt a gold-backed ruble. But probably not while Nabiullina is playing tonsil hockey with the IMF. That’s the official Edward Slavsquat Forecast. In the meantime… do you like trackable digital tokens, or inflation? We’ve got lots of that. Here, have some inflation, very yummy: Edward Slavsquat @RileyWaggaman nakanune.ru/news/2022/04/2… Latest forecast from Bank of Russia: annual inflation will be 18-23% (currently it's at 17.6%). In 2022, GDP will contract by 8.0-10.0%.ЦБ: Инфляция в 2022 году составит до 23%, ВВП потеряет до 10%Центральный банк России сегодня опубликовал скорректированный прогноз по макроэкономическим показателям на текущий год.nakanune.ru April 29th 2022 Edward Slavsquat Russia's central bank chief: Incompetent or just misunderstood? Year after year, Elvira Nabiullina patiently stacked gold bars and delicious foreign currency so that one day the Bank of Russia could do something really cool, like buy everyone an iPhone. Something like that. We’ll never know what the actual plan was because approximately half of the central bank’s foreign exchange reserv… Read more a month ago · 39 likes · 25 comments · Edward Slavsquat Subscribe to Edward Slavsquat Launched 6 months ago Award-winning dispatches from COVID Russia Subscribe now Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 August 18, 2022 On 4/30/2022 at 1:41 PM, Tom Nolan said: Here is a different perspective than the Bulllionstar article featured in Zero Hedge above. The writer below lives in Russia. EXCERPT ...But then the most predictable thing in whole world happened: Russia’s central bank dominatrix, Elvira Nabiullina, ruined everything. Again. “As for tying the ruble to gold, this is not discussed in any way,” Nabiullina said during a press briefing on Friday. Just a reminder: Nabiullina was recently reappointed as head of the Bank of Russia after receiving Putin’s endorsement.... https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/imf-obedient-bank-of-russia-rejects?s=r IMF-obedient Bank of Russia rejects gold-backed ruble Nabiullina says the idea is not even being discussed. After all, it's against IMF rules Edward Slavsquat lives in Russia The long-awaited golden ruble has returned to the front page of Zerohedge and everyone is very excited. Except for the Bank of Russia, which announced yesterday that pegging the ruble to gold is not even being considered as a possibility. Let’s rewind to April 26. In an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said the Russian government was toying with the idea of backing the ruble “both with gold and a group of goods.” Very cool. Very based. High-five. But then the most predictable thing in whole world happened: Russia’s central bank dominatrix, Elvira Nabiullina, ruined everything. Again. “As for tying the ruble to gold, this is not discussed in any way,” Nabiullina said during a press briefing on Friday. Just a reminder: Nabiullina was recently reappointed as head of the Bank of Russia after receiving Putin’s endorsement. (She allegedly tried to resign after Washington & Company vacuumed up half of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves. Anyway, she’s still with us and everyone is very glad about this, including Mike Whitney, who lovingly refers to her as a “financial terrorist.”) Why is Elvira so allergic to the idea of tying Russia’s currency to gold? There are probably several reasons. One reason is that pegging your currency to gold is strictly verboten if you are a member of the prestigious International Monetary Fund. It’s a massive no-no. “IMF members have been free to choose any form of exchange arrangement they wish (except pegging their currency to gold)” From the IMF’s Articles of Agreement (source) Russia is a proud member of the IMF. If Moscow wants to create a system where you can exchange a golden ruble for a VIP tour of Petro Poroshenko’s demonic chocolate factory, it will first need to withdraw from this esteemed international organization. At least that’s how we understand things. Maybe there is a work-around. Maybe Russia can create two rubles: a gold-backed ruble for domestic use, and a less-cool ruble for foreign transactions. And maybe the IMF would be okay with that? Maybe. But Nabiullina doesn’t want to talk about it. She has long-tabled our beloved golden ruble. Simply unacceptable. Putin and Elvira discussing the golden ruble (source: TASS) Don’t worry, friends: Nabiullina has a compromise. Instead of a gold-backed ruble, how about… a Central Bank Digital Currency that can be used to control and monitor all transactions, forever? April 14: The Bank of Russia does not intend to postpone the introduction of the digital ruble, despite the technical unpreparedness of some banks, said Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, during a meeting of the State Duma working group. "From January 2022, we began testing the digital ruble in a test mode with banks, there are twelve of them, which declared themselves in the pilot group. I must say that not all banks were technically ready to join this testing, and we we divided them into several groups so that they could make improvements on their side.But at the same time, we do not want to change the deadlines, we do not want to lengthen any stages, because we believe that the digital ruble is very necessary for the economy, citizens and businesses. We are going according to our plan,” Skorobogatova said. April 21: The digital ruble will be used in the implementation of government programs, this will allow more efficient tracking of the use of funds, said Central Bank Chairman Elvira Nabiullina in the State Duma. “Indeed, the digital ruble will provide new opportunities. In addition to being convenient, it also provides opportunities for programming, tracking the targeted nature of the use of digital rubles. We are discussing with the government that such a ‘target ruble’ will be used for government state programs, and then the government will more effectively monitor the targeted use of the funds allocated to support certain sectors of the economy, for social support,” Nabiullina said. This is the final nail in the Great Reset’s coffin. Schwab is sweating bullets. A final thought before we end this blog post. At the end of March, the central bank said it would purchase gold at a fixed price of 5,000 rubles a gram until June 30. Everyone went bananas. All of the 5D Russia Pundits announced Moscow had masterfully and decisively pegged the ruble to gold. There was much rejoicing. Twitter imploded. Dr Alyssa Frensor 🇺🇸 @Ben64319554 Holy hell, they did it. This is a really big deal, the financial equivalent of nuclear bombs. Most worlds economies are all based on debt. Now Russias money is based on money. March 29th 2022 10,855 Retweets39,357 Likes But wait… if Russia tied its currency to gold back in late March, why did Nabiullina declare a month later that the Bank of Russia will not even consider pegging the ruble to any kind of shiny metal? ……………………………………………… …………….. ………. ….. Do you see the problem here? A one-week “game-changer” that never actually existed. Very nice. “Gold-backed ruble could be a game-changer,” RT proclaimed on April 2. Less than a week later, the Bank of Russia dropped its policy of buying gold at a fixed price, choosing instead to negotiate rates with sellers. Even during this 10-day period, the ruble was never “pegged” to gold. Sorry? Maybe one day Russia really will adopt a gold-backed ruble. But probably not while Nabiullina is playing tonsil hockey with the IMF. That’s the official Edward Slavsquat Forecast. In the meantime… do you like trackable digital tokens, or inflation? We’ve got lots of that. Here, have some inflation, very yummy: Edward Slavsquat @RileyWaggaman nakanune.ru/news/2022/04/2… Latest forecast from Bank of Russia: annual inflation will be 18-23% (currently it's at 17.6%). In 2022, GDP will contract by 8.0-10.0%.ЦБ: Инфляция в 2022 году составит до 23%, ВВП потеряет до 10%Центральный банк России сегодня опубликовал скорректированный прогноз по макроэкономическим показателям на текущий год.nakanune.ru April 29th 2022 Edward Slavsquat Russia's central bank chief: Incompetent or just misunderstood? Year after year, Elvira Nabiullina patiently stacked gold bars and delicious foreign currency so that one day the Bank of Russia could do something really cool, like buy everyone an iPhone. Something like that. We’ll never know what the actual plan was because approximately half of the central bank’s foreign exchange reserv… Read more a month ago · 39 likes · 25 comments · Edward Slavsquat Subscribe to Edward Slavsquat Launched 6 months ago Award-winning dispatches from COVID Russia Subscribe now There is actually a slight deflation now, and the predicted GDP contraction is down to some 3% Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 August 19, 2022 On 4/8/2022 at 12:41 AM, Ron Wagner said: What is to prevent crypto from being adulterated by criminal hacking? Adulterated directly? You will have to disprove the entire blockchain, which it thought to require over 50% of available computational capacity. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrei Moutchkine + 828 August 19, 2022 On 4/16/2022 at 4:12 PM, Tom Nolan said: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-russian-geoeconomics-tzar-introduces-new-global-financial-system Escobar: Russian Geoeconomics Tzar Introduces The New Global Financial System by Tyler Durden Saturday, Apr 16, 2022 - 06:00 AM Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle, The world's new monetary system, underpinned by a digital currency, will be backed by a basket of new foreign currencies and natural resources. And it will liberate the Global South from both western debt and IMF-induced austerity. EXCERPTS - In a Multi-polar New World Order - The change of CURRENCY STANDARDS Glazyev: In a bout of Russophobic hysteria, the ruling elite of the United States played its last “trump ace” in the hybrid war against Russia. Having “frozen” Russian foreign exchange reserves in custody accounts of western central banks, financial regulators of the US, EU, and the UK undermined the status of the dollar, euro, and pound as global reserve currencies. This step sharply accelerated the ongoing dismantling of the dollar-based economic world order. Over a decade ago, my colleagues at the Astana Economic Forum and I proposed to transition to a new global economic system based on a new synthetic trading currency based on an index of currencies of participating countries. Later, we proposed to expand the underlying currency basket by adding around twenty exchange-traded commodities. A monetary unit based on such an expanded basket was mathematically modeled and demonstrated a high degree of resilience and stability. At around the same time, we proposed to create a wide international coalition of resistance in the hybrid war for global dominance that the financial and power elite of the US unleashed on the countries that remained outside of its control. My book The Last World War: the USA to Move and Lose, published in 2016, scientifically explained the nature of this coming war and argued for its inevitability – a conclusion based on objective laws of long-term economic development. Based on the same objective laws, the book argued the inevitability of the defeat of the old dominant power. Currently, the US is fighting to maintain its dominance, but just as Britain previously, which provoked two world wars but was unable to keep its empire and its central position in the world due to the obsolescence of its colonial economic system, it is destined to fail. The British colonial economic system based on slave labor was overtaken by structurally more efficient economic systems of the US and the USSR. Both the US and the USSR were more efficient at managing human capital in vertically integrated systems, which split the world into their zones of influence. A transition to a new world economic order started after the disintegration of the USSR. This transition is now reaching its conclusion with the imminent disintegration of the dollar-based global economic system, which provided the foundation of the United States’ global dominance. The new convergent economic system that emerged in the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and India is the next inevitable stage of development, combining the benefits of both centralized strategic planning and market economy, and of both state control of the monetary and physical infrastructure and entrepreneurship. The new economic system united various strata of their societies around the goal of increasing common wellbeing in a way that is substantially stronger than the Anglo-Saxon and European alternatives. This is the main reason why Washington will not be able to win the global hybrid war that it started. This is also the main reason why the current dollar-centric global financial system will be superseded by a new one, based on a consensus of the countries who join the new world economic order. In the first phase of the transition, these countries fall back on using their national currencies and clearing mechanisms, backed by bilateral currency swaps. At this point, price formation is still mostly driven by prices at various exchanges, denominated in dollars. This phase is almost over: after Russia’s reserves in dollars, euro, pound, and yen were “frozen,” it is unlikely that any sovereign country will continue accumulating reserves in these currencies. Their immediate replacement is national currencies and gold. The second stage of the transition will involve new pricing mechanisms that do not reference the dollar. Price formation in national currencies involves substantial overheads, however, it will still be more attractive than pricing in ‘un-anchored’ and treacherous currencies like dollars, pounds, euro, and yen. The only remaining global currency candidate – the yuan – won’t be taking their place due to its inconvertibility and the restricted external access to the Chinese capital markets. The use of gold as the price reference is constrained by the inconvenience of its use for payments. The third and the final stage on the new economic order transition will involve a creation of a new digital payment currency founded through an international agreement based on principles of transparency, fairness, goodwill, and efficiency. I expect that the model of such a monetary unit that we developed will play its role at this stage. A currency like this can be issued by a pool of currency reserves of BRICS countries, which all interested countries will be able to join. The weight of each currency in the basket could be proportional to the GDP of each country (based on purchasing power parity, for example), its share in international trade, as well as the population and territory size of participating countries. In addition, the basket could contain an index of prices of main exchange-traded commodities: gold and other precious metals, key industrial metals, hydrocarbons, grains, sugar, as well as water and other natural resources. To provide backing and to make the currency more resilient, relevant international resource reserves can be created in due course. This new currency would be used exclusively for cross-border payments and issued to the participating countries based on a pre-defined formula. Participating countries would instead use their national currencies for credit creation, in order to finance national investments and industry, as well as for sovereign wealth reserves. Capital account cross-border flows would remain governed by national currency regulations. The Glazyev macroeconomic faction is irreconcilable with Nabiullina one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Starschy + 211 PM August 19, 2022 Why is setting a Fixed Price for Gold in Rubles significant? That article is way pre-mature and not in line with the policy of Russian Central Bank. cbr.ru holds a wide number of Articles and news in English and that policy is not covered in their midterm information. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
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