A new world order may be coming in global finance, writes Frank Giustra. And this sort of transition isn’t always peaceful.
Not long after the first gunfire erupted at the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia fired another multi-pronged shot, straight across NATO’s financial bow.
First, and as a reaction to the crippling sanctions and its exclusion from the global SWIFT money transfer system imposed by the West, it moved quickly to protect the ruble by raising interest rates to 20 per cent (subsequently lowered to 11 per cent) and imposing capital controls.
Then it demanded that all “non-friendlies” (the West) could only use rubles or gold to buy its much-coveted oil. Russia, which has spent the better part of the last decade getting rid of its U.S. dollars and increasing its gold reserves, also offered to buy gold (mostly from its captive gold-mining sector) at the rate of 5,000 rubles per gram.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is advocating that BRICS economies look into creating an international reserve currency using the basket of their own currencies. Finally, he started making noises about creating a gold-backed ruble. Why is there any significance to these moves?
For the rest of this column: https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2022/07/05/a-giant-shakeup-looms-for-the-world-financial-order-and-the-us-might-be-the-big-loser.html