China is hoarding the world's gold - eviltoast
  • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Doesn’t the US literally have the vast majority of the world’s original gold reserves from the bretton woods agreement before Nixon abolished the gold standard?

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      possession /= property. During Bretton-woods everyone deposited their gold in the US.

      The US own around 8.1k tonnes, EU member states 11.7k, Switzerland another 1000.

      Germany has the 2nd largest reserves by country (after the US), 3300 tons, and has been bringing gold physically home, completely emptying Paris’ vault, moving 500t from New York to Frankfurt, London stayed about stable.

      You now might be asking yourself “how the fuck do they transport 500t gold across the Atlantic” and the answer is: Nobody knows. The Bundesbank isn’t saying a thing short of that the gold went to Switzerland to be analysed and re-melted. It’s not much volume-wise though, about 9m3. My best bet is submarine to Germany’s north coast, then an inconspicuous train to Switzerland (it’s not like German subs can’t operate in shallow water but the Rhine, nope).

      • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Could have also used a transport barge, they’re apparently the most efficient means of shipping materials over long distances, granted this is primarily over river conditions.

  • wahming@monyet.cc
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    1 year ago

    From the article:

    Its gold reserves are estimated to be 2,113 tonnes as of July—the fifth largest behind the Federal Reserve’s 8,133

  • atk007@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    China is hoarding the world’s gold

    the fifth largest behind the Federal Reserve’s

    Guess who they learned from?

  • Hol@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    China is also the land of dragons. Coincidence?

  • thorbot@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    These were the exact words my trump loving batshit Christian mother in law spews every time she opens her mouth

  • No_Eponym@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    The world’s gold you say? Seems to me that once someone owns it the gold is no longer the property of “the world.”

    • Hereforpron2@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 year ago

      But when money fails (hyperinflation, sanctions, digital collapse, bank failures, violent revolution, etc.), countries who already have gold reserves will be the only ones with anything of value.

      Beyond that, just by virtue of the fear of any of those events or general international turmoil rising, the value of gold rises, too, as one of very few stores of wealth that can survive any such event. Investing in gold is a great low-risk move for guaranteed returns on huge reserves.

      Edit: I don’t know why people are downvoting this lol. Talk to literally anyone in finance.

      • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I talked to someone in finance, and the first thing they said is that nothing has guaranteed returns.

        • BOMBS@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          FlowVoid: Hi, I’m FlowVoid.

          Person in finance: Nothing has guaranteed returns.

          FlowVoid: Oh…uh, ok.

          Person in finance: I’m in finance.

          • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Close! But here’s what actually happened…

            FlowVoid: Hi, I’m FlowVoid, your 1:30 pm appointment. I’m here for some guaranteed returns, here’s $3.50, now set me up finance bro.

            Person in finance: Nothing has guaranteed returns. Also get out.

            • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              You can get a guaranteed return in many ways.

              • US Treasury bonds: if the US government fails you’ll have bigger problems than money. You don’t need to worry about that scenario. You’ll win the lottery first.
              • Pay off a loan: by paying off your principal early you can guarantee that you pay less interest in the future.
              • Buy something that saves you money: if you like cooking, an herb garden will save you a lot of money. If you like sweets, baking equipment will do the same.
                • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  Savings are better than returns because they are legally tax free. A penny saved is worth more than a penny earned.

  • ramble81@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Does gold still have the same value it used to? When it was first used people put value on “oooh, shiny rock, it must be precious”, but now is it really that valuable? It sounds like they’re hoarding it because they think it’s useful as a currency, but if things got bad would other countries care about it?

    • Spendrill@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Gold is agreed upon as a store of value. There’s always someone willing to buy it. You’re right that its intrinsic value as a material is lower than the actual price but people’s belief in gold is the same as their belief in a fiat currency.

      The difference is that gold is a physical asset, so that no matter what the rate of inflation or the fluctuation of the market price if you have a tonne of gold you will always have that tonne.

      Also it is not administered by a central bank with a political agenda.

      Lastly gold is rare and finite. Eventually there will be no more gold to be mined.

      • lanigerous@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        I think the fact that it’s very chemically stable is likely a factor as well so it can be stored for effectively an infinite amount of time & it won’t degrade/react, it’ll still be gold.

      • Lath@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Oh, look! An asteroid made almost entirely out of gold! T’would be a shame if someone were to mine it…

    • perviouslyiner@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It tends to go up in value during chaotic times as people use it to insulate their savings from the economy when they are expecting regular currencies or economies to crash.

    • Endorkend@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Its value has kept increasing over time.

      And it will likely keep doing so, as while in the past gold reserves only dropped when gold was lost (like ye old Spanish ship going down in the Ocean) against its natural increase of continued mining, these days, gold is also used in quite a lot of applications where it becomes impractical to recover after being discarded.

      And this removal of gold reserves will only keep increasing with the increase of its uses in technology.

      So, yeah, its value is almost assured to stay very solid and monopolizing the worlds gold also gives you a degree of control over technology markets.

      Markets where the west has typically kept China behind the curve.

      It gives them leverage, economical and technological.

    • blargerer@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      About 10% of gold usage is in technology. This has been steady for many years. Jewelry and Investments can trade off. But yeah, basically its just mostly values because its a rare shiny rock.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Despite China being the largest producer of gold in the world, its central bank has been at the forefront of a surge in purchases of the precious metal on the international market as it seeks to reduce its reliance on the dollar.

    While the full extent of China’s holdings and purchases are opaque to international observers, experts say the increase in interest in gold is part of a broader move away from dollar-based assets that has been taking place for a while, at a time of financial and geopolitical volatility.

    Rather than seeking to influence the U.S. economy, they say, China’s gold rush could be an attempt to shore up its fiscal position with a stable and highly saleable asset as bond markets suffer and its relations with Western nations sour.

    Since the spy balloon incident, questions have been raised of land purchases near U.S. Air Force bases, while it has been accused of stealing American agricultural technology and intellectual property.

    In order to combat post-pandemic inflation, many central banks have raised interest rates, which have in turn affected government bond yields that drive down the return on such investments.

    “Contrary to widespread perception, if China buys fewer U.S. assets, this will not hurt the U.S.,” Michael Pettis, a professor of finance at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, told Newsweek.


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