• ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That’s why I put all my savings into real shitty drawings of cartoon apes who look like they smoke weed. China can take your gold but they can never modify the blockchain record that proves I’m a fuckwit.

  • Cornpop@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The article title says china is hoarding the worlds gold, yet the us owns the most by a very large margin…

    • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Not to mention the large amounts of other countries gold that we hold and decide to keep permanently whenever a country makes us upset. We’ve stolen so many countries reserves, after FORCING many of them to store their reserves in the US.

        • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          In August the Taliban seized control and the former government collapsed, leaving behind just over $7bn in central bank assets deposited in the US Federal Reserve bank in New York. As Afghanistan’s top officials, including the president and central bank governor, fled the country, the Fed froze the account as it was unclear who was legally authorised to access the funds.

          Source on freezing foreign gold held in U.S. Reserve. I misspoke as to them seizing it, I haven’t been able to find anything to confirm that, I must have misremembered, sorry.

      • soloner@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That makes more sense… they historically (culturally?) value jewelry over money due to the economic fluctuations that have occurred over time. Oftentimes they rely on precious metals for savings as it holds value better.

        Add to the fact that there’s over a billion ppl it stands to reason they may have accumulated more gold than most countries.

        But idk where fort Knox stands in comparison, so maybe USA has more gold even so.

    • Seasm0ke@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And another thing, it also says China PRODUCES the most gold. Okay so they produce the most and hold what, less than 30% what the US Fed holds? Ridiculous headline and article. Seems as if they’ve had every opportunity to amass more or equal to the other leaders and are only just now increasing holdings over the past 9 months.

  • 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?

    • MadPlaid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Gold is used in a lot of other things than money and jewelry. For example, a sizable portion of the world’s supply is used in electronics like cellphones and computers.

      • KepBen@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh no a country is investing in their own industrial capacity, what devious monsters!

    • 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.

  • 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

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’d like you to tell me a better way for Xi to swim around in a giant moneybin like Scrooge McDuck.

  • 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.”

  • 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…

        • Spendrill@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Just back a transit van up to it, hack a lump off with a pneumatic drill, sling it in the back, we’ll be back by teatime.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The price of gold fluctuates though. And it could potentially devalue significantly if a new source is discovered or a new method of mining or extracting it (such as filtering it from seawater) is developed.

        So yes, if you have a tonne of gold, you will always have that tonne, but it could lose, say, 20% of its value quickly.

        • Spendrill@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          It could indeed and has done so in the past. But the thing about it is that the price always recovers because people believe it will always be valuable. It’s the belief that endures and because people will always pay for what they believe to be valuable the value of gold as a currency endures. Also the retail value of gold remains high as the single largest application is jewellery Source page So there’s a conflation of the value of the labour that goes into making jewellery, adding value and in some cases the value of the piece will take that gold permanently out of circulation for use as currency e.g. the Mask of Agamemnon

      • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Until we can successfully mine asteroids, and then all precious metals will have nigh infinite supplies. I suspect we’re not too many decades away from that.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • diprount_tomato@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If things got bad they’d have the advantage as gold is a much more trustworthy investment than unbacked currencies

    • 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.