The Finance Insider blog

Search This Blog

Blog Archive

The Finance Insider

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Ask any economist and he would say that the words 'unlimited' and 'currency' should never be used together. This means that the money printing presses should not be left to operate indefinitely. If they are then eventually disaster would follow. The current round of money printing has been triggered by the developed economies. Through their quantitative easing programs they are flooding the market with their currencies. In effect they are deliberately depreciating the value of their currencies. And naturally this has huge global implications. Particularly for economies like China which rely heavily on exports as well as imports. Since it relies on exports, devaluation of the developed economy currency makes China's exports un attractive. This hurts them on the export front. But even on the import front they take a hit. How? Well the flood of money leads to higher asset prices. This includes prices of natural resources like oil. And China is a huge importer of oil. Therefore it gets hit on both ends.

This is why the Chinese Premier has issued a warning against the devaluation of currencies by the rich countries. This is not to say that China has not played any role in the currency wars. The country has artificially kept the value of its currency down and has prevented it from appreciating. Therefore for China to cry foul is a little hard to digest. Nevertheless the global implications of the QE programs are huge. Sadly even the people of these rich countries are suffering the after effects of their loose monetary policies. But their governments have turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to these problems.

In such a situation, gold is the only real currency or preserve of value that is safe from the hands of central bankers. You cannot mint excessive gold the way you can print paper money.

No comments:

Post a Comment