On Friday October 16, CME Group (NYSE: CME) decided that it wants to allow customers across the globe to use gold, physical gold, as collateral on all of its exchange products (alternative investment products, futures and options, etc). The member notice was sent out on late Friday, giving instruction on how the use of gold would work. Firms are allowed to post gold as collateral up to $200 million, the collateral will cover performance bond (margin) requirements.
According to the CME Advisory Notice tied to the announcement, the gold will initially be posted to JPMorgan Chase Bank in London -- with the potential for more depositories in the future. I question why the gold will be held in London at first, but that is neither here nor there, as I am sure that success in this program will result in American banks involvement. What I worry about is that this decision is going to take some value away from the American dollar. Some believe that there is a global shift toward one single currency, what with the recent United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reporting that the current system of currencies and capital rules is the reason for the global economic crisis and that the U.S. dollar should be replaced as the world's reserve currency. Let's face it, the American dollar hasn't been very popular of late, and CME's decision could move us one step closer to a one-world currency. I am not trying to fear monger here, this is a possible scenario.
What if CME moves to a system where the only collateral accepted is gold, and then the precious commodity plummets? Again, I am not saying that these situations are going to take place, but could we be looking at another credit crisis in the making?
What happens when the value of gold drops? Perhaps there are those out there thinking that should be an "if" proposition rather than a "when," but gold's recent meteoric rise may not be sustainable. If gold starts to drop, what happens then? Again, these are what-if scenarios -- but what does it say about the health of the American dollar and economy if we are going to start seeing gold accepted as collateral? There is no doubt that the precious metal is hot right now, as it well should be thanks to record highs. My biggest concern is that the malleable metal could soften and some of those looking at gold as the cure all could be left holding the bag (so to speak).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-19-2009 @ 10:39PM
ij70 said...
They will have to stop printing dollars.