12.6.14

Ecuador, gold, and farewell

466000 ounces of Ecuadorian gold flying to Goldman Sachs (link here). Why?

Mr. Correa runs out of cash. After controlling his Central Bank (he changed the law to get rid of the Bank's autonomy), he decides to make a deal with Goldman Sachs. GS receives the gold and in return they provide cash to Ecuador. Fortunately for Ecuador, they cannot increase the monetary supply because they are using USD. Otherwise, we all know what they would have done: money printing ad eternum. So, the only solution they found was to ask for a loan backed by "the barbaric relic" (for Bernanke but, it seems, not to GS), also named as gold. Just for safety, GS also wants to take physical possession of the gold bars.

Will Ecuador be able to repay their loan? Will Goldman Sachs be able to return the gold to Ecuador? This whole swap could easily finish with an undercover sell of gold. Perhaps, Ecuador will have to say farewell to their gold...