Remember all the talk about BRICS and the gold backed currency? This was all the rage among the goldbugs.
Look at this headlines from Business Insider:
Robert Kiyosaki is a successful author who really stuck "gold" with his Rich Dad Poor Dad series. Unfortunately, it turns out the guy is a first class clown.
Of course, he was not the only one. Even on Hive I had people telling me this currency was going to be announced at the BRICS summit.
What happened?
Did we get the currency? I will wait for someone to point out where it came into being.
There was no talk of a gold backed currency. Seems like this was more nonsense from the usual suspects.
That said, there was something that was said which has people like Kiyosaki once again claiming the death of the U.S. dollar.
Trade In Local Currencies
What was announced was the decision to increase trade in local currencies. This is a way to circumvent the USD and threaten it.
Or so we are told.
Here is what we find in Bloomberg:
Brazil, Russia, India and China pledged to study ways to use their currencies, instead of the U.S. dollar, in local trade at a heads-of-state summit of the four biggest emerging economies.
From this quote, it looks like this is some serious tactics being employed.
There is only one problem.
Here is the article the quote was taken from:
So this is an idea that was agreed to 13 years ago. Why should we believe this is the time considering it was the goal 13 years ago?
There is a reason why the BRICS were not able to significantly increase their trade volumes in local currencies. This is the point that gets overlooked.
More Then Trade
People like to focus upon trade. The reality is the BRICS, one the financial stage, are nothing. This is a statement that includes China.
When it comes to currencies, the BRICS are nothing. Central banks around the world have nothing in BRICS currencies as reserves, including the Yuan. FOREX Derivatives (FED) which hedges against exchange risk is 75% USD and more than 10% EUR. The BRICS do not even chart.
The reality is that if you want to be an international player, the currency best be international. There is only one international currency: the eurodollar.
That is right. It is not even the USD. This is where the entire conversation takes a turn from theory into reality. When looking at trade, everyone wants to focus upon the payments. Yet, the most important factor is the funding of global trade.
In this arena, the eurodollar, i.e. entries on the balance sheets of financial institutions, is king.
The infrastructure of the global financial system is built around this. As they say, if you want to get to the bottom of things, follow the money.
BRICS Becoming Irrelevant
The BRICS are becoming irrelevant as a coalition.
Two of the recent additions are Saudi Arabia and Iran. This is a guarantee to never have unanimous consensus. Iran and the Saudis agree on almost nothing.
Saudi Arabia is the wild card for one single reason: they want protection. The Saudis have no interest in becoming part of a growing coalition. Their problem is there is one country that provides their security and that is the United States. The challenge is the U.S. doesn't seem very interested in providing that much longer.
Hence, the Saudis are on the market for a daddy. Perhaps China will fill the role is the thinking. Nothing pertains to trade, currency, or supporting the coalition.
Do you see where this is already heading?
The BRICS thread to the USD is non-existent. Trade is their best option and even that is minimal. When we look at the structure of the financial system along with the different markets, BRICS, other than China, are not even on the radar.
This is just another example of why understanding how things work rather than believing in theory espoused by economists or ideologies, both of which are not part of the real world, is crucial. It quickly becomes evident how much of what people espouse is nonsense.
Kiyosaki is a best seller author but that does not preclude him from drinking the Kool-Aid.
He did, after all, state that bitcoin was "God's money".
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