I'm really surprised I didn't read more about this today, but I imagine in the coming days more people will have something to say about it. China and Russia announced today that they would only be trading in their respective local currencies for trade between their own countries and abandoning trade settlement with the US dollar. This is big news. Ever since the abandonment of the gold standard, all international trades have historically been settled using the US dollar. This coveted position is known as the US Dollar's Reserve Currency status, and it effectively gives protections for the United ...

Most people don't realize it, but the current form of printed money we all know and love is actually worthless. While the dollar value on the paper may say $5 or $10, it only holds that relative intrinsic value because each government says it does. There are unfortunately no assets or underlying resources protecting that value, something that has the potential to rapidly destabilize any given currency in the event of an economic or wide-scale crisis. This type of currency is known as a fiat currency, and it has become the standard in the last 40 years or so. Prior to the conversion to fiat currencies ...