The End Is Nigh?

[LotsaBadKarma]

I think I got the title right, maybe not. If what this article says is true all that fancy grammar isn't going to amount to a mound of dried fuck anyway.

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/11/china-announces-that-it-is-going-to.html

Now I have to admit that this source is really out on the fringe but I have been hearing people talk about this shit for years, specifically the Yuan replacing the dollar as the world reserve currency, Could this be the start of something big?

[DigitalBuddha]

I think I got the title right, maybe not. If what this article says is true all that fancy grammar isn't going to amount to a mound of dried fuck anyway.

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/11/china-announces-that-it-is-going-to.html

Now I have to admit that this source is really out on the fringe but I have been hearing people talk about this shit for years, specifically the Yuan replacing the dollar as the world reserve currency, Could this be the start of something big?

Is that some kind of Eastern thing?

[cckeiser]

I read the other day that there is a move to accept BitCoin as currency. Over the years there have been several attempts to move out from under the thumb of the Federal Reserve...some actually had a bit of local success....but in the end the Fed was able to squash them all. That is why I found the article on BitCoin so Interesting. I was wandering what had changed....like why Now?
So now I am wondering if this China thing might have something to do with it?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/21/businesses-embrace-bitcoin/3666279/

[jdurand]

The why now is the proliferation of the Internet and power of open source encryption.  Plus people seeing others "Cypressed". 

We've accepted BTC for a while now, only done a small amount of business with it.

[DigitalBuddha]

I'm thinking a way to keep the Feds out of your pocket and keep money private is for local businesses to except local currency for products and services. There was a town in Florida that began doing that and the feds had a shit over it fearing it would spread. Maybe dudes could use Dudllars; dudllar, half dudllar, quarter dudllar, etc.

Check out...

How to Start Your Own Private Currency - http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/how-to-start-your-own-private-currency/73327/

[Judd Dude]

That article is not really surprising. It's has been happening for a long time now, but the dumb shits in government aren't doing dick to rectify the situation. It won't be long before china owns the whole damn country. As for china's so-called products not being as affordable... I say GOOD. Maybe people will stop buying that cheap junk and we will start making shit here in the US like we used to!!!

This whole fuckin thing... Gets me all Waltered up.

[DigitalBuddha]

That article is not really surprising. It's has been happening for a long time now, but the dumb shits in government aren't doing dick to rectify the situation. It won't be long before china owns the whole damn country. As for china's so-called products not being as affordable... I say GOOD. Maybe people will stop buying that cheap junk and we will start making shit here in the US like we used to!!!

This whole fuckin thing... Gets me all Waltered up.

The Chinaman is definitely becoming the issue here, dude. Fuckin' eh!

[jdurand]

This has been an ongoing discussion in some machining forums I'm in.  A point constantly made is you can buy cheap junk made in any country and you can also (for a price) find and buy any quality item you want made pretty much anywhere.

The reason China sells us so much cheap junk is that's what we ask for.  People seem to be happy to buy a new iThing every year and toss the old one, so why should they be made to last more than a year?  Flash over substance.

My company started buying some custom items direct from China when we could no longer find a USA company we could work with.  Things like "you want a different color...that doubles the price".  "You want us to add one extra cut...double the price."  While the company we deal with in China happily makes our stuff any standard color for no extra charge, an extra cut...very tiny charge for it, etc.  AND they have excellent customer service "We were looking at your drawing and wanted to verify this isn't a typo before we build it."  AND they match the quality from the USA companies.

There was a time I needed to find video camera parts like are in your cell phone.  I found a company in the USA that made a nice camera and contacted them.  They said if we were already producing the product with someone else's chip they would happily help us to redesign our product to use their chips.  BUT, if this was a new product, they would not sell us anything or provide any design information.  So... I contacted a company in Korea, had samples air-shipped to me (for free), and had an engineer assigned to help me design in the Korean part.  I never considered the USA company again.

[meekon5]

Now I have to admit that this source is really out on the fringe but I have been hearing people talk about this shit for years, specifically the Yuan replacing the dollar as the world reserve currency, Could this be the start of something big?

For "world reserve currency" do you mean Sorros' safe (haven) currency?

This will always be an effect of pure economics (supply and demand, and uncertainty in the money markets).

If you look at what Soros himself is saying on the matter.

First understand that a "world reserve currency" is used by governments (large funds, banks, and very well off individuals) to try to hedge against loses on international markets due to (economic) uncertainty. It is unrealistic to expect one currency to hold this position in an ever more globalised economy with new policies in China allowing huge investment in third world countries.

Also:

For instance, on 30 August 2002, the Straits Times run the title "(The) Greenback
still a safe haven currency" and three months later the International Herald Tribune argued
that "U.S. dollar loses its appeal as world's 'safe haven' currency." Similarly, at the end
of May 1993, the Business Times highlighted that "(The) Mark loses shine as safe haven
currency," but one year later the opposing view dominated.

Though this article is interesting it is a bit of an oversimplification. Yes China's involvement in purchasing $'s will have an effect but that was inevitable anyway:

Safe Haven Currency

Definition - What does Safe Haven Currency mean?

A safe haven currency is a currency that investors and traders believe is stable enough to keep its value compared to other currencies in times of economic uncertainty, inflation and other forms of crisis. Generally, safe haven currencies are from countries that have very stable economies, so the currency does not change much in value.
ForexDictionary explains Safe Haven Currency

In times of crisis, wealthy investors may seek to diversify their cash holdings away from their home county's currency to reduce the risk of losing wealth through depreciation in the currency. By storing their wealth in safe haven currencies, an investor can cut down the risk of any single country seeing its currency sharply revalued. At the same time, traders try to read the moves in to and out of safe haven currencies in order to take up positions that profit from the buying and selling pressures these currency moves create.

Although the label of safe haven doesn't always apply, the U.S. dollar (USD), Japanese yen (JPY) and Swiss franc (CHF) are often considered to be safe haven currencies.

This article makes the (false, in my opinion) assumption that dollars are always the safe option. When, if you look historically, the safe currency has fluctuated due to economic policy and history. Before the first world war the Pound was considered a safe bet due to the gold standard (the fact that a pound note was actually redeemable for that weight of gold, but after the war (when the gold standard was dropped), due to the US having financed the latter part (of the war) for the allies and the debt they owed the US it was briefly the dollar that was a safe bet, then the yen during the period after the Vietnam war due to vast American investment in the Pacific to fund and supply it's Asian conflicts.

This article takes a very "American-centric" point of view on what is actually a much more complex situation.

The bigger thing to fear is when the world stops dealing oil in dollars, then you're done for.