Russia And China ‘Furiously’ Buying Up Gold As “A Global Currency Crisis (Albeit Unstated) Is Underway”
And it may be happening much more quickly than anyone has realized.
Things are definitely in motion. Call it a game of musical chairs, or an exercise in rearranging chairs on the Titanic, or just that a tilting balance of power. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking this is all routine.
As Michael Snyder just reported:
The absolutely stunning decision by the Swiss National Bank to decouple from the euro has triggered billions of dollars worth of losses all over the globe.
And these are just the losses that we know about so far. It will be many months before the full scope of the financial devastation caused by the Swiss National Bank is fully revealed. But of course the same thing could be said about the crash in the price of oil that we have witnessed in recent weeks. These two “black swan events” have set financial dominoes in motion all over the globe. At this point we can only guess how bad the financial devastation will ultimately be.
The key to understanding how the hammer will fall may lie in: gold.
In the material world that governs politics and economics, there has always been one golden rule: he who has the gold makes the rules.
Put China at the top of the next generation of rule makers, then.
China has been quietly stockpiling gold for years now. In fact, it is stockpiling so much gold that many have speculated that it may be building a gold-backed yuan currency that would make the Dollar pale in comparison on the global market.
Bottom line: no one knows just exactly how much gold China has amassed:
Buying surreptitiously allows Beijing to buy bullion at bargain prices; if the world knew how much gold China was really amassing, a run on gold the likes of which the globe has never seen would likely ensue. “We believe China is controlling the gold price because it is buying in such a way so as not to push prices up.” That’s the opinion of respected precious-metals analyst Julian Phillips of The Gold Forecaster, along with a host of other informed sources. (source)
It is widely believed that China has accumulated larger – possibly much larger – reserves since. (source)
Lots of other countries are rapidly buying up gold, too, including – Serbia, Greece, Ecuador, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
But reportedly no one is buying gold at a faster pace than Russia.
Back in August it was reported that:
Russia’s increase is the most dramatic, according to the recent report from the IMF. The Russian central bank has almost doubled its gold holdings within the last 5 years to 1,094.8 tonnes in June of this year. China’s Central Bank followed with an increase of 75% from its holdings in 2009.
Bloomberg reported in November:
The country has tripled its gold reserves since 2005 and is holding the most since at least 1993, IMF data show.
There is little doubt that gold plays a major factor in Russia’s posturing during a global showdown that involves proxy war and military tensions in the Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and other parts of the globe.
Moscow’s purchase of bullion and the assault on the bank can be seen as tactics of a single strategy designed to break the monopoly of the dollar. Gold is Russia’s hedge against that hegemony; it can’t be hacked.
More than that, Putin has been positioning his motherland to team up with China to solidify the emerging BRICS system which aims to thwart decades of Anglo financial dominance with a un-dollar currency system that will also include a development bank.
Russia’s response has been to buy gold and turn east, cementing deals with China and, it would seem, firing the opening salvos in a cyber currency war with the U.S. (source)
Warnings have sounded about a tipping of the global balance:
Russia is also increasing its gold reserves. China and Russia have been exchanging their U.S. dollar reserves and buying physical gold. Last year we speculated that this dynamic would create a shortage in gold leading to much higher prices. Russia and China now rank in the top ten countries by gold reserves.
With Russia now in what appears to be a currency war with the U.S., they may find a willing partner in China to create an alternative international financial system that does not rely upon or use the dollar. Irrespective of either country’s intentions, their physical gold buying sprees continue unabated. (source)
To that end, Russia has been amassing as much gold as possible, in a bid to outmaneuver its enemies in a silent economic war to hold onto its independence and further project its status.
Nearly every bit of gas and oil that Russia sells to neighbors in Europe and Asia is converted from dollars into gold reserves – and even with the collapsing oil price, that amount could still be staggering.
Many have pointed to the gold and oil trade off as Putin’s grand chess strategy:
Thus, the Western world, built on the hegemony of the petrodollar, is in a catastrophic situation. In which it cannot survive without oil and gas supplies from Russia. And Russia is now ready to sell its oil and gas to the West only in exchange for physical gold! The twist of Putin’s game is that the mechanism for the sale of Russian energy to the West only for gold now works regardless of whether the West agrees to pay for Russian oil and gas with its artificially cheap gold, or not.
If it ever comes to throwing down the gold and putting everyone’s cards on the table – ounce for ounce, and ton for ton, China and Russia will be major contenders in the global system, worthy of the kind of respect that equates both sovereignty and diplomatic power.
Keep in mind that China is also the world’s leading gold miner, producing more than 420 metric tons in 2013 numbers, with Russia ranked behind the U.S. as the fourth largest with 220 tons produced each year.
BRIC by BRIC a new system is being erected.
China has quietly declared war on the U.S. worthless dollar but can you blame them? They already have in place Chinese Yuan Swap facilities, which started the non U.S. dollar trade practice years ago. In 2012 China completed trade agreements with most nations they trade with called BRICS. They also have a BRIC Development Fund with a reported $200 billion already funding infrastructure needs and to deal with their toxic U.S. T Bonds. They will be busy replacing these bonds with gold and the chartered bank (Bank of China, Peoples Bank of China) will compete with the IMF and World Bank. (source)
The strings that come with IMF and World Bank loans give the U.S. and Europe leverage over developing countries, and thus, control. With a competing development bank, China and Russia will literally be building the infrastructure for growing global control.
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Courtesy of http://www.shtfplan.com/