QUESTION: Okay Marty,
You keep saying “the world monetary system will have to be reformed.”
Spill! What do you hear behind the curtain?
Cheers,
EM
ANSWER: I just returned from Europe where I had meetings with some high levels of interest. The great concern in Europe is the end of QE for there is a serious lack of liquidity. This is part of what is behind the drive to take Euro trading from London and hand it to Paris. The problem is obvious. There are those in Brussels who think that if the free markets go against them, they will be able to freeze the Euro to prevent a crash. I explained that they would not be able to take it from New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney without ending it as a free currency. When I asked if they intended to convert the Euro to the old Russian Ruble of Soviet days, I did not get a reply.
In the USA, there is the realization that it is NOT a good thing for the dollar to be the Reserve Currency. This has made the Federal Reserve the effective world central bank. That has resulted in the Fed losing the power to control the domestic economy because of lobbying not to raise rates from Emerging Markets, Europe, and the IMF because it will hurt their economies which are in worse shape.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to pass a law and declare that the dollar is not the Reserve Currency any longer. That is not a factor of anything that Washington can control unless they convert the dollar to a restricted currency much akin to the Japanese yen. Anyone can issue a contract or borrow dollars in any country. You cannot issue a note or bond in Japanese yen without going back to the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo for their permission.
The British have again canceled their currency up to the ten-pound notes. Try and spend a 10’er and you cannot. Go to a currency exchange and they will take it at a 20% discount. As for the coins, you can donate them to a charity who can exchange them but you can’t. This is why the US dollar is also the Reserve Currency – it has NEVER been canceled. Europe has always done this to prevent people from hoarding cash.