Wednesday , 25 December 2024

Currency Wars: Here’s What They’re Really All About

A currency war is a battle, supposedly an economic policy to cheapen a country’s currency compared to that of others, to promote exports but the real reason, the one that’s less talked about, is that countries actually want to import inflation – a way of creating monetary ease and importing inflation. Let me explain.

The above edited excerpts, and the paraphrased comments below, are from an article by Jim Rickards for internationalman.com entitled A Brief History of Currency Wars which can be read in its entirety HERE.

There have been three currency wars in the past one hundred years.

  • Currency War I covered the period from 1921 to 1936. It started with the Weimar hyperinflation in 1921 in Germany followed by France, Belgium and others in 1925.
  • Currency War II raged from 1967 to 1987. The seminal event in the middle of this war was Nixon’s taking the U.S., and ultimately the world, off the gold standard on August 15, 1971.
  • Currency War III began in 2010 when the U.S. tore up the deal to maintain the purchasing power of the dollar and have its trading partners link to the dollar or some peg to the dollar.

The lesson of currency wars is that they don’t produce the results you expect which are increased exports and jobs and some growth. What they produce is extreme deflation, extreme inflation, recession, depression or economic catastrophe.

Have your say on the subject via:

We’d like to know what you have to say.

Related Articles from the munKNEE Vault:

1. New Global Currency Will Be Backed By 20-40% ($7,000) Gold

Jim Rickards is of the opinion (see HERE) that a global currency reset is coming in the not too distant future in the form of an IMF issue, known as a Special Depository Receipt. It will be backed by 20-40% gold from the reserves of the global central banks which will necessitate revaluing bullion to around $7,000 a troy ounce, or there won’t be enough of it to do the job. The unknown factor is the timeline: does this happen this year – or in five years?

2. Currency Wars Can Work to Your Advantage – Here’s Why & How To Do So

Looking for a simple way to outperform the market on your international equity index portfolio? Here’s how.

3. The Currency War: Which Country Will End Up With the Fastest Currency in the Race to the Bottom?

We believe that we are in the “competitive devaluation” stage presently [see graph below] as country after country is printing money in order to lower rates and doing whatever possible to devalue their currency – to have the fastest currency in the…race to the bottom – in order to export their goods and services. [The next stage will be protectionism and tariffs. This article gives an update on the race to debase.]

4. Gold Has a Clear Advantage in Developing Global Currency War – Here’s Why

There is an increasingly disorderly currency war going on out there, and the advantage of gold is clear– they can’t print it, they can’t default on it, and there will always be demand for it. Simply put, in the global currency wars, owning gold is like abandoning the battlefield altogether. Words: 270; Charts; 2

5. Here’s Why the U.S. Dollar Is Going Through the Roof

When markets expect that U.S. interest rates will be hiked, it typically strengthens the dollar because people rush to change other currencies into dollars where they can make more money and this higher demand for the USD drives its value up.

6. The Euro Will Crash, Then the U.S. Dollar Will Crash, and Then..?

It’s safe to say that the EU, the U.S., and quite a few other jurisdictions are nearing currency crashes, and in all likelihood, the euro will go before the dollar. When the euro and U.S. dollar fall, however, there is a very sound alternative – and it is NOT gold!

7. Skyrocketing U.S. Dollar Is a VERY Bad Sign For Global Economy – Here’s Why

Yes, someday the U.S. dollar will essentially be toilet paper but that is not in our immediate future. What is in our immediate future is a “flight to safety” that will push the surging U.S. dollar even higher – and when the U.S. dollar soars the global economy tends to experience a contraction so the fact that the U.S. dollar has been skyrocketing lately is a very, very bad sign.

8. Demise of U.S. Dollar Quickening Due To These Events

The Great Quickening has commenced in an alarming fashion. In just the last 3 weeks, 10 significant events have taken place suggesting that 2015 will go down in history as extremely messy, extremely chaotic, and extremely important in the demise of the U.S. dollar. This article identifies each of the 10 events and their enormous implications and fallout.

9. The U.S. Dollar Is Surging In Value – Why?

The U.S. dollar surged in value by 11% in 2014, appreciating against all main currencies in the world in 2014 including gold. The infographic below attempts to answer the obvious question, “What is behind this surge in value for the dollar?”