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MNeagle
7th November 2010, 07:28 PM
World Bank President Robert Zoellick Calls For Return To "Old Money" Gold Standard


Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/07/2010 20:26 -0500

Barack ObamaCapital MarketsFederal ReserveInternational Monetary FundMexicoPrecious MetalsQuantitative EasingrecoveryRenminbiReserve CurrencyWorld BankWorld TradeYen


One of the most serious condemnations of the race to the currency bottom to date comes not come from some peripheral media, but from the head of the World Bank itself, who in a just released Op-Ed in the Financial Times says that since the system of floating currencies established by the 1971 Bretton Woods II system, has broken down, it is time to look to a new international system of commerce, one which "should also consider employing gold as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values." In other words, welcome back gold standard 2. Of course, this proposal will never attain more than a casual academic reference, as even a partial gold standard will immediately establish a lower bound on how much any given monetary authority can debase its (and, by retaliation, others') currencies. What, however, if very curious, is why this proposal is being floated precisely 3 short days after the Fed has launched its most ambitious attempt to reflate global asset prices and devalue fiat paper. And as is well-known, the IMF has also been quietly proposing a return to an ven more powerful version of the SDR.... Just what will take for the scales to tip, and for the dollar to remain a reserve currency just in retrospect.

From the FT:

Writing in the Financial Times, Robert Zoellick, the bank's president since 2007, says a successor is needed to what he calls the "Bretton Woods II" system of floating currencies that has held since the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate regime broke down in 1971.

Mr Zoellick, a former US Treasury official, calls for a system that "is likely to need to involve the dollar, the euro, the yen, the pound and a renminbi that moves towards internationalisation and then an open capital account". He adds: "The system should also consider employing gold as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values."

His views reflect disquiet with the international system, where persistent Chinese intervention to hold down the renminbi is blamed by the US and others for contributing to global current account imbalances and creating capital markets distortions.


Of course, with a market primed to discount every inflationary possibility, it would not be surprising to see precious metals to continue their near parabolic move higher over the past few days. Silver is already flirting with the $27 in the spot market tonight.

Full comments by Zoellick:

With talk of currency wars and disagreements over the US Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative easing, the summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Seoul this week is shaping up as the latest test of international co-operation. So we should ask: co-operation to what end?

When the G7 experimented with economic co-ordination in the 1980s, the Plaza and Louvre Accords focused attention on exchange rates. Yet the policy underpinnings ran deeper. The Reagan administration, guided by James Baker, the then Treasury secretary, wanted to resist a protectionist upsurge from Congress, like the one we see today. It therefore combined currency co-ordination with the launch of the Uruguay Round that created the World Trade Organisation and a push for free trade that led to agreements with Canada and Mexico. International leadership worked with domestic policies to boost competitiveness.

As part of this “package approach”, G7 countries were supposed to address the fundamentals of growth – today’s structural reform agenda. For example, the 1986 Tax Reform Act broadened the revenue base while slashing marginal income tax rates. Mr Baker worked with his G7 colleagues and central bankers to orchestrate international co-operation to build private-sector confidence.

History moved on after the huge changes of 1989 and the experience of the 1980s is still being debated, but this package approach was significant for its combination of pro-growth reforms, open trade and exchange rate co-ordination.

What might such an approach look like today? First, to focus on fundamentals, a key group of G20 countries should agree on parallel agendas of structural reforms, not just to rebalance demand but to spur growth. For example, China’s next five-year plan is supposed to transfer attention from export industries to new domestic businesses, and the service sector, provide more social services and shift financing from oligopolistic state-owned enterprises to ventures that will boost productivity and domestic demand.

With a new Congress, the US will need to address structural spending and ballooning debt that will tax future growth. President Barack Obama has also spoken of plans to boost competitiveness and revive free-trade agreements.

The US and China could agree on specific, mutually reinforcing steps to boost growth. Based on this, the two might also agree on a course for renminbi appreciation, or a move to wide bands for exchange rates. The US, in turn, could commit to resist tit-for-tat trade actions; or better, to advance agreements to open markets.

Second, other major economies, starting with the G7, should agree to forego currency intervention, except in rare circumstances agreed to by others. Other G7 countries may wish to boost confidence by committing to structural growth plans as well.

Third, these steps would assist emerging economies to adjust to asymmetries in recoveries by relying on flexible exchange rates and independent monetary policies. Some may need tools to cope with short-term hot money flows. The G20 could develop norms to guide these measures.

Fourth, the G20 should support growth by focusing on supply-side bottlenecks in developing countries. These economies are already contributing to half of global growth, and their import demand is rising twice as fast as that of advanced economies. The G20 should give special support to infrastructure, agriculture and developing healthy, skilled labour forces. The World Bank Group and the regional development banks could be the instruments of building multiple poles of future growth based on private sector development.

Fifth, the G20 should complement this growth recovery programme with a plan to build a co-operative monetary system that reflects emerging economic conditions. This new system is likely to need to involve the dollar, the euro, the yen, the pound and a renminbi that moves towards internationalisation and then an open capital account.

The system should also consider employing gold as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values. Although textbooks may view gold as the old money, markets are using gold as an alternative monetary asset today.

The development of a monetary system to succeed “Bretton Woods II”, launched in 1971, will take time. But we need to begin. The scope of the changes since 1971 certainly matches those between 1945 and 1971 that prompted the shift from Bretton Woods I to II. Serious work should include possible changes in International Monetary Fund rules to review capital as well as current account policies, and connect IMF monetary assessments with WTO obligations not to use currency policies to remove trade concessions.

This package approach to economic co-operation reaches beyond the recent G20 dialogue, but the ideas are practical and feasible, not radical. And it has clear advantages. It supplies a growth and monetary agenda that parallels the G20 financial sector reforms. It could be built upon prompt incremental actions, combined with credible steps to be pursued over time, allowing for political dialogue at home. And it could help rebuild public and market confidence, which will remain under stress in 2011. Perhaps most importantly, this package could get governments ahead of problems instead of reacting to economic, political and social storms.

Drive or drift? How the G20 decides could determine whether multilateral co-operation can achieve a strong economic recovery.


Little can be added here except for one recent popular quote, which explains why we eagerly welcome more and more high level individuals condemning the fiat system, and petitioning to a reversion the system that actually worked without creating quadrillions in imaginary debt-money (and the inevitable fiat devaluation that always follows): "What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere."

zerohedge (http://www.zerohedge.com/article/world-bank-president-robert-zoellick-calls-return-old-money-gold-standard?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedg e+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+fo r+everyone+drops+to+zero%29)

Trinity
7th November 2010, 07:53 PM
I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is slightly positive for Gold.

Buster
7th November 2010, 08:37 PM
Time to back up the boat? ;D

Libertarian_Guard
7th November 2010, 09:51 PM
http://i41.tinypic.com/2a9v7gx.jpg

Ragnarok
21st November 2010, 06:55 PM
When Zoellick - and others say things like:

"should also consider employing gold as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values." In other words, welcome back gold standard 2. Of course, this proposal will never attain more than a casual academic reference, as even a partial gold standard will immediately establish a lower bound on how much any given monetary authority can debase its (and, by retaliation, others') currencies. What, however, if very curious, is why this proposal is being floated precisely 3 short days after the Fed has launched its most ambitious attempt to reflate global asset prices and devalue fiat paper."...

...they are not referring to a 'customary" gold standard where the metal price is fixed, but to a concept known as "freegold". That is, gold used as reserves is marked to market in every currency, and taken out of the political mainstream entirely. Of course, they will find a way to screw this up also, but if we see "freegold" adopted, it will mean a much higher (permanently) price of gold in fiat currencies. There are several fora out there discussing this possibility for quite some time . One is at fofoa.blogspot.com, and the Another/FOA USAGOLD archives, and the Steve Netwriter forums at http://neuralnetwriter.cylo42.com/forum.

fyi, R.

hoarder
21st November 2010, 07:03 PM
I'm not even going out on a limb to suggest this is positive for world government. Attaching gold to a world currency might make it easier to overcome resistance.

gunDriller
22nd November 2010, 07:12 AM
I'm not even going out on a limb to suggest this is positive for world government. Attaching gold to a world currency might make it easier to overcome resistance.


it's already attached, via the free market (well, i mean, manipulated market) prices.

my guess is, if the central banks return to a gold standard with a fixed gold-currency, they will have a hell of time sticking to it because the hedge funds will find a way to arbitrage the official exchange rate.

but Zoellick's words do carry more weight because he is an "official."

hoarder
22nd November 2010, 09:10 AM
my guess is, if the central banks return to a gold standard with a fixed gold-currency, they will have a hell of time sticking to it because the hedge funds will find a way to arbitrage the official exchange rate.
If the central bankers have any intention of going to a gold standard, it is with that in mind, the global currency will be loosely attached to an ambiguous and manipulated definition of gold's market value.

Ragnarok
23rd November 2010, 10:08 AM
"Loosely attached", instead of fixed, is the goal of "freegold". Gold will become the reference it was meant to be and currencies will float against it along with each other. If nations want their currency(ies) to have value/acceptance in the markets, they will have to manage the currency's value against gold, not the other way around. Gold will become an important reserve asset with an (unmanipulated) mark-to-market price. And it looks like that price will initially be far higher than today's, thus the need to get what you can now, before the reset.

R.

Trinity
2nd December 2010, 05:45 PM
Those are some pretty high numbers for Gold in that FOA article Ragnarok.
http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2010/05/reflection.html

I must admit it is much higher than I believe it is going. My guess for many years has been between 3 and 4 grand an ounce.