The declining power of the `ol American greenback...should we start panicking?

12 Reasons Why Gold Should Bounce Sharply Higher in 2014 
(Lorimer Wilson)
Munknee.com

edited excerpts by Jason Hamlin (goldstockbull.com) from his original article entitled: 12 Reasons Why Gold Will Rebound and Make New Highs in 2014.

[...]

#4 – Dollar Losing Status as World Reserve Currency

   The exorbitant privilege of being able to print the world reserve currency is coming 
   to end.

   --“It is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-   
   Americanized world,” said a statement by Xinhua, the state news agency of China — which 
   holds some $1.3 trillion in Treasury bonds.

   --“The United States will inevitably lose its reserve currency monopoly,” wrote economists 
   Hélène Rey of the London Business School.

   --Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas of the University of California, Berkeley, and Emmanuel Farhi of 
   Harvard University said. “It can only be a matter of time before the world becomes multipolar.”

   --The IMF echoed this sentiment, stating how “reserves concentration in the government debt 
   of one country introduces idiosyncratic risks to the international monetary system.

   Several nations now have bi-lateral trade agreements that bypass the dollar.

   --China has made arrangements to swap Yuan’s for for local currencies with Japan, Russia, 
   Australia, Iceland, South Korea, Malaysia, Brazil, India and South Africa. The BRICS nations 
   are emerging as a powerful economic force and they are intent on conducting affairs without 
   use of the U.S. dollar.

   --The growing rift with Saudi Arabia threatens the petrodollar.

   --Oil-rich countries that have attempted to sell their oil in currencies other than dollars include 
   Iraq and Libya, both bombed into submission.

   --Iran is now trading oil for gold, bypassing the U.S. petrodollar. This is likely the real reason 
   they are now in the crosshairs of the U.S. military.

   --Syria is seen as a stepping stone to attacking Iran, but widespread opposition from ally 
   countries and citizens alike stopped the recent war momentum.

   --As the influence of the petrol-dollar continue to wane, so too will the power of the U.S. dollar 
   as the world reserve currency. Without the ability to deficit spend and export our inflation, it   
   will come home to roost and the dollar will suffer or even collapse as have other debt-ridden 
   fiat currencies throughout history....

[Click here to read the full article]

Related articles:
--Learn how the 'petro-dollar' got started

Welcome to the money of the future: GOLD

Fancy a chunk? No, it's not chocolate... It's a solid gold bar you can break up (and could be the future of money if there's economic meltdown)

• Swiss refinery marketing gold bar that can be easily broken into 1g chunks to be used as payment in a crisis
• Wealthy individuals in Switzerland, Austria and Germany said to be lining up to buy the gold 'CombiBars'
• Value of gold has gone up more than 500 per cent since 2001

By DAMIEN GAYLE
DAILYMAIL
December 21, 2012

With Christmas coming, sales of chocolate gold coins have no doubt soared as parents get ready to fill their little ones' stockings with edible treasure. But wealthy individuals worried about what the New Year could bring are instead stocking up on gold chocolate bars.

Swiss refinery Valcambi has been selling its CombiBar to private investors in Switzerland, Austria and Germany who are worried about a return of Weimar Republic-style hyperinflation.

 
Gold chocolate bar: An employee divides a gold Combibar at a plant of gold refiner and bar manufacturer Valcambi in the southern Swiss town of Balern. Sales have soared amid economic uncertainty in Europe


Crisis currency: Swiss refinery Valcambi has been selling its CombiBar to private investors in Switzerland, Austria and Germany who are worried about a return of Weimar Republic-style hyperinflation

The size of a credit card, the 50g gold CombiBars are easily be broken into one gram pieces to be used as money in times of crisis. Now the company wants to bring them to market in the U.S. and build up sales in India - the world's largest consumer of gold, where it has long served as a parallel currency.

Investors worried that inflation and financial market turmoil will wipe out the value of their cash have poured money into gold over the past decade. Prices have gained almost 500 per cent since 2001 - compared to a 12 per cent increase in MSCI's world equity index, a benchmark for the value of the world's business investments.

Sales of gold bars and coins were worth almost $77billion in 2011, up from just $3.5billion in 2002, according to data from the World Gold Council.


Stocking filler for the wealthy: The divisible gold bar has a purity of 99.9 percent, weighs 50 grams and also has predetermined breaking points which allow it to be easily separated into 1g pieces without any loss of material

'The rich are buying standard bars or have deposits of physical gold. People that have less money are buying up to 100 grams,' said Michael Mesaric, CEO of Valcambi. 'But for many people a pure investment product is no longer enough. They want to be able to do something with the precious metal.'

Mr Mesaric said the advantage of the CombiBar - dubbed a 'chocolate bar' because pieces can be easily broken off by hand - is that it is easily carried and is cheaper than buying 50 one gram bars. 'The produce can also be used as an alternative method of payment,' he said.

Valcambi, a unit of U.S. mining giant Newmont, is building a sales network in India and plans to launch the CombiBar on the U.S. market next year. In Japan, it wants to focus on CombiBars made of platinum and palladium. In Europe, demand is particularly strong among the Germans, still scarred by post-World War One hyperinflation, when money became all but worthless and it took a wheelbarrow full of notes to buy a loaf of bread.

'Above all, it's people aged between 40 and 70 that are investing in gold bars and coins,' said Mr Mesaric. 'They've heard tales from their parents about wars and crises devaluing money.'
The CombiBar is particularly popular among grandparents who want to give their grandchildren a strip of gold rather than a coin, said Andreas Habluetzel, head of the Swiss business of Degussa, a gold trading company.

'Demand is rising every week,' Mr Habluetzel said. 'Particularly in Germany, people buying gold fear that the euro will break apart or that banks will run into problems.' Stephan Mueller, who manages bank Julius Baer's $6billion gold fund, said one problem with using gold as a method of payment is that people have to take its value on blind trust.

'Gold is a useful store of value,' Mr Mueller said. 'However I doubt whether it will succeed as a method of payment.' Nonetheless, as developments in the euro zone lurch from one crisis to another, demand for gold that can be sold in vending machines is also growing.

'Sales rise according to the temperature of the crisis,' said Thomas Geissler, whose firm Ex Oriente Lux operates 17 gold vending machines in Europe, the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates. The machines saw record sales in 2010, one day after the then Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann raised doubts over whether Greece would be able to pay its debts. Since the launch of the machines, which operate under the name 'GOLD to go', 50,000 customers have withdrawn more than 21million euros in gold. The average buyer is male, over 50 years old and well off.
'
Customers are hoarding gold mostly at home as a precaution against a crisis, just as their fathers and grandfathers did before them,' Mr Geissler said.