From Sovereign Man (www.sovereignman.com - a free newsletter that has interesting information and ideas imho) Hang on to your metals people.
The renminbi has already surpassed the euro to become the #2 most-used currency in the world when it comes to trade settlement, according to a report released yesterday by the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). I've read the Euro was surpassed by the Yuan. China's yuan overtook the euro to become the second-most used currency in global trade finance after the dollar this year, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. The currency had an 8.66 percent share of letters of credit and collections in October, compared with 6.64 percent for the euro, Swift said in a statement today. China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany and Australia were the top users of yuan in trade finance, according to the Belgium-based financial-messaging platform. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...-second-most-used-trade-finance-currency.html
That would be good. Perhaps slow down the consumerism and give our exporters a break - not to mention giving metals a boost.
Unfortunately gold and u.s. dollar are negatively correlated at the moment...key phrase..at the moment.....aussie down would mean u.s. up....which means gold ....down, down deeper and down.. It could be the thing that pushes gold to the end of its bear retracement.
US dollar rally is coming so bad for people in Oz buying Gold, although good if you convert to US now and sell back later.
Although many are speculating about a possible petroyuan or petrogold, I think something totally different could happen... If China becomes more powerful on international markets and the renminbi gains strength while the dollar retreats, they might as well measure everything either in renminbi or in gold. I can imagine this possible scenario: We might as well start measuring the value of any commodity (agricultural products, oil for instance) in a gold or in yuan. Even if we're not paying in them. A yuan more reliable than the dollar and more valuable could mean just that. It would then become a referential currency. Anything could be measured in reference to the yuan. ...or gold. E.g.: how many grams of gold will a barrel of oil cost? Or: how many grams of gold will a certain agricultural product cost? Even if gold won't back any currency, gold could become a referential tool. We could simply compare everything with gold. No-one is able to drastically increase the amount of gold on the planet. Gold cannot be printed, etc. It could become a rather stable referential point. Petrogold might not mean buying petrol with gold, but measuring the price of petrol in gold. And so on and so forth... with just about everything else. If they start even partially backing the yuan with gold, then the other major currencies are doomed! Just 10 % backing would give the yuan better stability and it would increase the price of gold.
The status of the US Dollar as the dominant trade and reserve currency is one of the cornerstones to the economic power of the United States. I don't expect TPTB (whomever they are) to give up on that power without a tremendous struggle, a clash of titanic proportions. Those will be the proverbial 'interesting times'.
