Oddjob you make a lot of sense. I wonder if you could comment on whether the failure of DB could potentially lead to a collapse of the US Dollar and the end of the petrodollar system for good? As it stands many countries seem to moving away from the US Dollar and back to other standards of trade
An interesting question/s 66. Last part first and only my opinion for what it's worth. Keen to hear others opinions.
I think global players / countries are moving away from the petrodollar system regardless of DB. As can be seen in global markets, various countries are reducing US treasuries as part of their fgn holdings and buying gold and other assets. The Chinese set up a gold back Yuan contracts exchange to bypass USD for settling oil transactions (not sure how that's going or volumes) and the Euro countries have built an alternative to the US SWIFT network for international payment settlement.....and all to avoid being beaten up by the US for the privilege of trading in USD. Also, if you can trade in another currency other than USD, you don't need a US bank a/c or US clearing bank to effect a fgn transaction, which then puts you / a company / a country out of reach of any US sanctions....thus the creation of the Euro INSTEX and Chinese CIPS systems that cannot be blocked by the US as they can SWIFT. Subject to how Bitcoin develops and government acceptance or suppression, this also is a factor re USD as the world's reserve currency.
Also don't forget the IMF's "Special Drawing Rights" (SDR's) which countries can use / hold as an asset. The IMF would love for the SDR to supplant the USD as the world's reserve currency. Note: the RBA holds a few on their books.
As countries ween themselves off USD based contracts, the demand for USD should in practice decline over time and therefore it's value against other currencies but not a collapse as this would happen over time ie years not days or months.
As for whether a failure of DB could lead to the collapse of the USD, not sure... as I see four possible outcome for DB.
1) They don't fail, they restructure, downsize and recapitalise with some ECB / EU assistance and slowly de-risk by unwinding their derivatives position over the next decade or so, be it as a listed or German nationalised entity. This would need the markets and all the planets to align and that's a big ask but not out of the question.
2) DB fails and the banking system globally gets thrown into chaos and closes down for a time until the power that be work out a solution. Maybe that's the catalyst to move from USD as the reserve currency to a new reserve currency system based on SDR's, crypto's or PM's / other to restart the global finance system with a fresh base. It that case, the USD like all other national currencies may simply be domestic transaction currencies (at least initially), thus value against other currencies, apart from the new reserve global currency would disappear.
3) The EU, ECB, IMF, BIS etc all see the DB train is about crash and they get all large banks globally to each swallow a chunk of DB via capital injection. DB becomes a bank owned by the other banks globally who slowly wind down DB and slowly write off any DB loses on their books over many years. Governments are good at socialising losses. Whilst painful and an impact on future profitability, it could be much less pain that an outright failure and keep the banking system running as we know it. Just a thought
4) Print money US Fed 2008 style. The ECB starts printing like mad to put capital into DB and other central banks around the world do same to ensure liquidity in global markets.
I think the biggest loser would be the Euro initially subject to level of money printed and any inflationary effects but if most central banks turn on the printing presses, then loss in value of a currency in theory should be felt by all to an extent.