
Venezuelan Gold to the Rescue
March 1, 2019
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Whether there should be or not, an intense international focus on Venezuela has arisen recently. Part of this focus involves gold, and is a testament to how important precious metals have become on the world scene today. While many governments don’t officially like to acknowledge the importance of gold as an important bedrock of the financial system, their actions often speak louder than words.
While many consider the Dollar to be the center of the financial universe, some don’t have the luxury of living in that world. Whether by sanction-induced poverty, or sanctions for sanctions sake, more than a few nations are prevented from using Dollar-based assets. This requires them to look elsewhere to find the means to buy and sell in world markets. Many of the nations under the most stringent sanctions by the US are oil producing nations, such as Iran, Russia, and Venezuela. These nations have begun to trade oil directly for other goods and services available worldwide. While Russia is able to sell energy directly to China for Chinese currency, Iran and Venezuela often trade oil for gold and other goods and services. It is much harder to track who is using their sanctioned oil, when there are no electronic financial transactions involved with the sale.