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‘The dollar is losing credibility’: why central banks are scrambling for gold
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
396 points (99.0% liked)
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The us has lost all credibility to me, and a lot of others here in the UK. Only the idiots, the corrupt, and the sycophants seem to still believe in it.
In 2015ish I was all "Hey, usa peeps. I require your TV entertainment. Your movies. And some of your fast foods. A bit of the Google, and a bit of the Amazon."
In 2016ish I was all "Are you seriously going to elect this idiot? Wow. Ok, usa peeps, I require your movies, a bit of Google and Amazon."
By 2019ish to 2023-24 I was all "Hey, usa peeps, I use Google when I have to but you shove everything else up your arse. Oh, and, FFS, jail that slimy child raping orange, traitorous, convicted criminal piece of shit. For god's sake. Christ!"
In 2025 I was all "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING, electing that kiddie fiddling thing for the first term was almost forgivable, almost. But you've got no excuse this time. None whatsofuckingever. I want nothing from you. NOTHING. Until you actually make the obese cunt feel consequences I want nothing. And if you don't do something then I'll remember what has happened for the rest of my life. And you'll never be forgiven. Ever."
I actively won't use anything from the us now.
And, you know what, by the many conversations I've had I'm not the only one who hates what's going on. I've only ever met one person who actually supports Donvict Drumpf here. And that person is the local towns' gossip hound and blatant racist...that everyone tries not to talk to.
Unfortunately, many UK voters don't realize they're setting themselves on the same path in the next election. The UK has one of the most fragile democracies in Europe, and its system is ill-prepared for a fascist majority in the Commons. Farage may be less of a moron than Trump (a low bar), but his voters are cut from the same cloth as Trump's.
But we know how this works, we've been in this ride 100 years ago. Why do neoliberals always forget that democracy only works so much until it breaks if they just keep concentrating power? They are inevitably more afraid of a little socialism than fascism...
What do I do if I'm a U.S. citizen though? Someone who actively tells other in uncomfortable conversations that their vote for the mad mango king is a vote for an evil fascist child Diddler?
Serious question. I feel like I'm on a sinking ship and don't know how to survive.
With the racist tRUMP supporter down the road it took quite a few 'debates' about politics and immigration but first I just kept on calling tRUMP a paedo and stupid for going bankrupt 6 times.
There's no point in talking to these type of people about fascism and racism, they are proud of that. However no one will admit to liking the raping of children and women...
I hammeref on about the different accusations and trials about all the sex assaults. And then I started on the numerous rape trials and conviction. The pussy grabbing stuff. The child pageant thing where he'd barge in on the young girls. The thing where he'd talk about dating his own daughter etc.
Then the paedo stuff, talking about the 13 year old girl who he raped with his best mate Epstein. I have it saved on my phone so I could read from it, then said "this info is easy to find but I'll send this website to you if you want..."
On another occasion I went on about the Jeffery Epstein stuff and his convictions for the paedo and child trafficking stuff, and the island they all used.
The court cases and fines for the stealing of money from children's charities etc etc.
At the end of all these debates I'd end it with something like "but, hey, if you're ok with that type of stuff then that's up to you. Anyway I've got to go..." It puts the onus on him to think whether it's ok or not.
Or something like "right I'm off, but now you know what I've just told you about his liking for little kids would you trust him with your daughter...if so then, wow... Anyways, see you later"
I never waited for a reply because I wanted him to think about it, not justify things to me.
The very last time he tried to talk politics I finished it with "...and that's the type of person you support. Which is fine if that's what you want, but I judge you by his disgusting reputation. And, believe me, if I do that then so do others."
Since then he never talks to me about politics.
The thing is you need to know the info about the rape stuff, the kiddie stuff, the Epstein stuff, the criminal stuff, etc etc. You have to back it up and not let them hand wave it away.
Tell them how shitty he is, back it up with facts, point out that's the person they support, then leave.
Protest. Protest. Protest. It's inconvinient and maybe even dangerous to make banners, find the closest protest against MAGA and get out on the streets (peacefully). But it is your best bet to stop this regime from fully building a fascist dictatorship. If the regime wins, it will be bad for us (in Europe, and generally around the world). But for you, it will be catastrophic.
It's been relatively easy for me to stop using US products and services here in Japan. A few things like corn and cheese seem to use US ingredients. For everything else, I can pretty much find a substitute that is made domestically or a non-US country (mostly Chinese).
I've cancelled the only subscription service I had, which was Google One.
Completely agree and I'm on the same train. I boycott as much as I can from the USA.
When the rest of the world catches up, dumps us bonds, treasuries, stocks, and revokes ridiculous copyright protections that prevent repair or circumvention to disenshittify, then I'll be satisfied.
Cause we are fucking nuts!
Is this what state-collapse looks like?
Yes.
I carried Euros as emergency cash to exchange (our national currency is not easily available) on a recent trip.
Its more than just the dollar. The end of the rules based order and a sane and predictable business environment means that all US financials are poisoned. Visa and Mastercard are now strategic liabilities that the world will actively replace. Trading on American exchanges is a liability. Any asset denominated in USD is a liability.
Any past credibility of business friendly law, courts and SEC regulation have gone poof meaning counterparty risk just shot through the roof and is currently on an extrasolar trajectory passing Jupiter at present.
Wall Street is now a sinkhole. Capital Controls in 3..2..
Part of this is deliberate. Scott Bessant'a background is as a currency trader and his plan is to devalue the dollar to inflate away the gargantuan national debt while making exports cheaper.
There has been a spike in short term debt issuance by the Treasury and tariffs are raising import prices to encourage domestic producers while making exports cheaper by bringing down the value of the USD.
Its a high stakes gamble and it doesn't look like its working.
We are living in times of hybrid wars. Are the US seriously this stupid or is it deception for something else?
The administration is made up of the dumbest motherfuckers to have ever walked the Earth.
The newspapers and media companies play along, but are owned by billionaires who could force congress to impeach Trump.
But they are also the dumbest motherfuckers who have ever walked the earth. You don't need to be smart to be an oligarch.
Some heirs are, but the majority of billionaires is clever enough to understand that alienating all allies will destroy their fortunes.
I think once you have more billions than you know what to do with, you don't care about money, or allies or material things anymore.
You start to believe you are a god and you deserve to rule the world. Hence why they are all going along with the fascism.
It's a mental disease. People shouldn't be allowed to have this much money for their own health and once they do, the only medicine is the guillotine.
Putin and Trump are some of the worst cases of this disease and need that medicine ASAP.
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The techno feudalists and their demented puppet are sabotaging the country quite effectively
That is what media owned by billionaires is telling us. However, it doesn't make sense to throw away power like they seem to do. The techno feudalists are also not the only ones with influence.
They believe they will be able to “fix” it later. They also believe their money will protect them.
Trump is devaluing the Dollar. Their companies lose global influence if China becomes the hegemon. If things continue unchanged they won't have anything to fix.
They believe they can rebuild the world how they see fit. Even if they devalue their wealth they are still WAY RICHER than everyone else.
The business leaders tried a coup in the 1930s. This time they are succeeding.
China will rebuild the world if they are not careful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_steel_production
China is playing chess, we (the US) out here playing tic tac toe and losing.
I don't think so. Trump is a distraction.
The US cannot continue with the image of world police if every atrocity can be seen on Youtube. The US is reinventing itself for the information age.
The information about the explosion of the north stream pipeline has left the world guessing who did it. I think the US has committed to being ambiguous at all times.
They are playing a new game.
Their loyalty is to themselves, they are profiting from the destruction of the nation, just like the nobles of old were doing before the French Revolution.
Without the nation there won't be a military to secure their companies.
They believe they can buy an army for each one of them.
China is going to take the technological lead sometime after 2027. A single billionaire can't field a competitive army unless they can get AI and robots ready by then.
They will try and the common people will suffer, but I personally don't think they will succeed.
Why should they try? Billionaires make money by selecting good strategies for their companies. As a group they can't be dilluded about the risks of splitting up the West.
This is exactly where the US is weakest and where we'll be hurt the most. If the value of the dollar drops significantly and/or the market for Treasury Bonds collapses, the US is FUCKED.
The USD has dropped significantly already. A year ago 1€=1.0279$ today it is 1€=1.1595$. That is a nearly 13% drop in value.
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Putin loves watching a little more chaos.
Either Americans start doing something to save what is their country, or where I live, we could be possibly forced to learn how to speak in Mandarin, as already we import more Chinese goods and thus we are still so much under Xi's thumb.
"...losing it's undeserved-for-decades credibility."
I’ve lost all faith in economy ‘experts’ ever since they pulled the “well the US=Rome and have to do something they are in debt and everyone needs to work and bring jobs back to the US and stop being so codependent that is THE entire problem here” and these so called experts failed on the fundamental understanding of how trade debt works and how insubstantial of a factor it was to how the dollar value is affected by treasury and borrowing during that first round of tariffs.
The thing is that the Dollar needs to lose credibility to weaken Trump. He can just print arbitrary amounts of money; this needs to end. Fiat currency needs to end. There should be sth like a gold standard again.
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