Mali uses the West African CFA franc as its only currency which is pegged to the Euro, with convertibility guaranteed by France. The 14 countries in Africa that use the currreny pool their foreign-exchange reserves, of which half must be deposited with the French treasury. French delegates sit on the central banks’ boards.
In country costs outside of USD denominated contracts will be pegged to the Euro. I'd say most major contacts would be written in USD. I wouldn't get over exited about the doomsayer of the AUD, sure we have over inflated property prices and bloated banks but at the same time we are a commodity driven ecomomy where weakness in the USD flows through the world economy as higher commodity prices. Also you've only got to look at the sort of one off events like the disaster in Brazil to see how reactive our balance of trade can be to commodity driven events. The world has set itself up to over value intangible assets, there is a price inflation in such assets, and relative undervaluation of tangible assets like commodities. For me this is a complete distortion which eventually will be unwound. I can tell you with a 100% degree of certainty that in 10, 50, 100 years, the world will still need steel, aluminium, copper, nickel, and all the other commodities we mine, but it won't need the next instagram picture of a dog on a surf board or worse, Champagne being poured over naked breasts.
The US asset bubble is being driven by wasteful consumption and loss of civic virtue which IMO is a marker for the beginning of the end of empirer.
In Edward Gibbon's six volume work on the fall of Rome published between 1776 and 1789, Gibbons says this about Rome. Esh
The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight.
RSG Price at posting:
$1.07 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)
