Free Republic

Argentina's government on Tuesday accused the country's rightwing opposition of fueling a dramatic erosion of the peso against the dollar, and ordered an investigation Buenos Aires, Argentina: Argentina will pay for Chinese imports in yuan instead of US dollars in order to preserve its dwindling foreign reserves, Economy Minister Sergio Massa said on Wednesday. The South American country will be able to "program a volume of imports in yuan worth (the equivalent of) more than $1 billion from next month<" Massa said at a meeting in Buenos Aires with Chinese ambassador Zou Xiaoli. This would "replace" the use of Argentina's...

To say that Zimbabwe has not had much luck with its monetary system experiments, would be an understatement. After its disastrous adventures with hyperinflation denominated in its own currency... ... Zimbabwe decided to entirely abandon its reserve currency and shift to the dollar. As we reported over the summer, the Zimbabwe Central bank completely "demonetized" the old Zimbabwe Dollar which would be removed as legal tender after the currency's use was abandoned in 2009 following a surge in inflation to 500 billion percent. To do this, the bank would exchange up to 175 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars for $5 US dollars,...

Have you checked the value of your stocks or your real estate lately? In euros? Or British pounds? Has it all sadly disappeared seemingly while you were sleeping? Looking at the dire prognostications of currency analysts on television or in the newspapers lately would lead one to believe that all of your assets are evaporating like raindrops on a Phoenix sidewalk in August. Given the depth of the dread, I’m surprised that some of the Wall Street brokerage firms haven’t taken advantage of all this gloom by selling a currency-hedging strategy to consumers that would prevent the disappearance of home...