GOLD — A NEW MONETARY ROLE?
China and Russia are agitating for a demotion of the dollar in the world monetary system with a new “super-sovereign” basket of currencies, possibly even including gold as the Russian’s have suggested, gaining stature as the new lynchpin.
Though such talk may hearten the advocates of gold, the possibility of any sudden change in the world monetary system seems remote, if only because no alternative can provide the, necessarily very large and very liquid capital markets necessary to accommodate reinvestment of reserve assets now held in U.S. dollars.
And, for all their talk, the Chinese, the Russians, and the Europeans would not welcome the revaluation of their currencies (and loss of exports) that would accompany any move away from the dollar.
Whether or not there is much discussion of a new international monetary order at this week’s meeting of the Group of Twenty, the topic will surely come up again and again in the months and years ahead . . . and, if it gains traction, gold could be a surprising beneficiary.
