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#trump#russia#gold#more#against#war#countries#corruption#corrupt#going

Discussion (132 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

nfrankelabout 2 hours ago
Fun fact, France did exactly the same earlier this year (though the trend has been there for decades).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_repatriation#France

petre30 minutes ago
France made an even a smarter move as it sold its reserves in the US and bought higher purity gold locally.
stpedgwdgfhgdd12 minutes ago
Nl sold some part as well
andsoitisabout 3 hours ago
> “A more equal spread of the gold supply between North America, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. also helps to spread the risk.”

They’re not exiting all the gold held in North America; instead they’re rebalancing so that for more resilience against a backdrop of increased geopolitical risk.

conspabout 2 hours ago
No, but "removing" around half of it from one place is quite a bit. Though I doubt any single physical kg ever moved more than a few meters to the buying countries vault. edit: They physically moved 27 tons, the rest was traded away and bought again in London.
TheRealPomax28 minutes ago
That's the fun thing about gold. It's literal gold, not numbers on a spreadsheet. Moving it really means moving it: bars are stamped and owned, and if the owner wants to move them, those bars need to get transported to wherever the owner says they should be.

It's also the idiotic thing about gold, a metal that has no more or less inherent monetary value than a fiat currency =)

jbverschoorabout 2 hours ago
Can’t move what isn’t there
mg794613about 1 hour ago
That is what the pamphlet says.

Fact is, it was not a issue before, because of trust.

"for more resilience against a backdrop of increased geopolitical risk." is just nice wording for "Trump is burning down all bridges".

andsoitisabout 1 hour ago
> "for more resilience against a backdrop of increased geopolitical risk." is just nice wording for "Trump is burning down all bridges".

It is more multifaceted than that. To wit: they're leaving a substantial amount still in North America.

America's actions is a big part of it, but it isn't the only reason.

devin38 minutes ago
It's a hedge against the risk of the current government. Leaving a bunch here is part of the hedge. It's not as "multifaceted" as you're making it out to be.
roromainmainabout 1 hour ago
Considering the Netherlands’ strategic ties with the US, this sounds like quite a bold move. France doing so was one thing, but the Dutchs have always been rather Atlanticists.
Deukhoofd31 minutes ago
For what it's worth, the Dutch Central Bank argues that this is simply because it'd be easier to sell in London in a crisis situation.

They've previously stated to be far more worried about the dependency on VISA and MasterCard than the gold reserves in the US.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2560460-dnb-maakt-zich-zorgen-over-am...

stpedgwdgfhgdd11 minutes ago
That was indeed the case
Rover22215 minutes ago
They're still hoping to get back New York City some day.
1attice21 minutes ago
They are also consummate antifascists, which I suppose is in tension now with atlanticism
MadrasThorn41 minutes ago
Everyone now has to hedge against the dollar because Elon, bank run Thiel, and Trump have taken over the system.

I will not get better until they are removed.

It is not in their interest to save the federal government, US dollar, or the economy.

They are all BRIICS backed and want the dollar and trans atlanticism, backed by the US military, to fail.

Rover22214 minutes ago
What do you even mean by 'removing' Elon from 'the system'?
Nathanael_M41 minutes ago
Literally moves? Physically moves? Come on, doesn't this make your hands itch? Is it heist time folks?
jsiepkes28 minutes ago
It's in the article; They sold gold in NYC and with that money bought gold in London.
jmclnxabout 3 hours ago
This shows how much trust in the US has declined due to Trump. Netherlands is not the only or first country to do this, other countries have started this too.
appleappleappleabout 3 hours ago
And this lost trust will not suddenly reappear when he leaves office. He has damaged our reputation for a generation
kingleopoldabout 3 hours ago
No it's not simple to call "he" did this. WH people, half? of the country supporting him for 2nd time, and wealthy people that donated so much too, it's never "he". Nothing big like that is one persons responsibility. Actions have cons. ?

All elected and supported, especially AFTER how he and his supports lead the so many extra deaths in covid. I know your media does not bring facts but truth is out there.

appleappleappleabout 1 hour ago
Totally valid correction, thanks !
lokarabout 1 hour ago
Not half the country. Almost half of the people who voted.
vereloabout 1 hour ago
This! I get frustrated when i hear folks in the US claim Trump has failed them. You failed yourselves. The system is falling apart and barely half of people turn up to participate in elections? What are the rest of us expected to take away from this? Apathy is what I take away from it, and that does not earn my trust.
wartywhoa23about 2 hours ago
The legend about the sole man in charge has been carefully crafted and cultivated for ages, but it's never the puppet and always puppet masters in this clown show.
gwbas1cabout 2 hours ago
Sadly, the way people vote is more complicated than you might believe. Trump is the symptom of malfunctioning system that doesn't give people good options in the ballot box.
andsoitisabout 3 hours ago
Voters cannot be held accountable for all the specific things the person they elected do.

That much should be self-evident.

wccrawfordabout 2 hours ago
And I'd argue that it should.

He opened the door, and I find it very, very unlikely that either side will close it after this. Dems and Reps will both use this to take control in ways that would have been unthinkable prior to Trump's first election. The only way to restore any measure of that trust would be to pass laws that prevent this kind of abuse, and there's no way that politicians will give up power they've gained.

bluealienpieabout 2 hours ago
They had the laws to stop him but since congress stopped legislating, it gave the supreme courts wide discretion to approve executive actions. Strong executive isn’t a flaw of the system, it’s the inevitable consequence of years of media illiteracy and vast sums of money in politics enabled by citizens united.
unethical_ban43 minutes ago
The ideal would be that a new president is elected who uses current powers to reverse/rebuild what Trump has torn down and have their "one big bill" that Congress seems to pull off per president be a reforms package that locks in additional checks and legislative powers against the Executive. The Unitary Executive theory is the most dangerous attack on our Constitution in a long time.

On the other hand, a right-wing Supreme Court may try to block any reforms that check the Executive. The Legislature's ultimate oversight power of the Exec is impeachment, and they have decided that no amount of corruption or crime or destruction should be checked as long as it "feels right".

petre18 minutes ago
Trust in the US started to decline dating back in the Obama era when they listened to Merkel's phone etc. Trump has finally eroded what was left of it. Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe are still trying to keep a good relationship with thd US regardless, because they don't want to lose US support due to Trump's whims… err transactional diplomacy.
TalkingCodeMonkabout 3 hours ago
The sociopathic criminals who dominate American business and politics are the cause of the kleptocracy; plus the tens of millions of citizens indoctrinated with mental illness from their disinformation and psychological warfare.

None of this should be a surprise to you if you've ever watched Fox News and derivatives; propaganda so on the nose it would make a nazi blush.

retiredabout 1 hour ago
In the end it is all about money. Putin killed hundreds of EU citizens and we are still buying his gas, oil, uranium and fertilizer.

Trump can bomb cities in Europe and we would trade with the US. I doubt we will ever fully separate from the US.

adolphabout 2 hours ago
Another interesting aspect to this story is the flow of value from US Treasuries to gold.

  Total gold held by central banks globally was valued at approximately $4tr at 
  the start of 2026, surpassing, for the first time, the roughly $3.9tr in US 
  Treasuries held by the same institutions. This marked a reordering of reserve 
  asset preferences with significant long-term implications. [0]
0. https://www.investing.com/analysis/why-central-banks-are-bri...
bix6about 1 hour ago
What are the long term implications? Gold can’t reasonably be the medium so new currency baskets?
kaon_2about 3 hours ago
It may be quirky for Americans to hear this, but one pivotal moment when it truly dawned on the average european citizen how corrupt the US has become, was when Trump phoned Infantino to drop a red card during the world cup. Blatant corruption for zero gain that even the Putin's and Xi Jin Pings never attempted. Any toddler could see how wrong it was and it was felt deeply in many hearts.

Needless to say trust is close to 0% throughout the population - even the right wing populists distance themselves from Trump - and this is the consequence. I fear we are heading into dangerous times.

lemoncookiechipabout 3 hours ago
Unironically true. The average person could care less about following politics, but Europeans live football.
GJimabout 2 hours ago
> could care less

Surely you mean couldn't care less.

sphabout 2 hours ago
I just saw David Mitchell fall to his knees at a Waitrose
notabotiswearabout 2 hours ago
Weird Al - Word Crimes
ButlerianJihadabout 2 hours ago
Well, I could care less, personally. I wish I did care less!
justinhjabout 1 hour ago
Countries have different idioms.
AnimalMuppetabout 1 hour ago
vman81about 3 hours ago
> The average person could care less about following politics

Could they?

SAI_Peregrinus5 minutes ago
If they isolated themselves from all news, social media, and lived as a hermit, yes. They could care less, but it'd be difficult.
ramblermanabout 2 hours ago
I think you misunderstood the emphasis there - yes Europeans love football.

The point is that it's so blatant for such little gain, it's still a game. I.e. if he is willing to do that so openly for such low stakes, imagine what he does behind closed doors when it matters.

ericmayabout 1 hour ago
> Blatant corruption for zero gain that even the Putin's and Xi Jin Pings never attempted.... was when Trump phoned Infantino to drop a red card during the world cup.

FIFA, a largely European organization created by Europeans for a sport that Americans barely care about and in the center of multiple corruption scandals and controversies over the last few decades and you're really going to sit here and try to tell others that the real wakeup call was when Trump made a phone call to ask that a star player who by many respects shouldn't have received a red card over at best a technicality in the first place be reinstated for the good of sport and competition...?

And you're also going to claim that this "level of corruption" is something Vladimir Putin or Xi Jingping and their corrupt authoritarian regimes would never dream of attempting?

I guess Donald Trump's phone call was the real last straw, and something like, idk, 6,500 migrant workers in Qatar dying to construct World Cup facilities is just another day at the anti-corruption office? [1]

I'm going to assume you're being sarcastic...

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/r...

myrmidonabout 1 hour ago
There is a big difference between some sports association being greedy/unethical and elected officials abusing their position of power (especially when they sit in the highest positions and there are zero consequences).
ericmayabout 1 hour ago
Right, its just we all lose respect and we're real mad when Donald Trump makes a phone call about something that, well you know frankly the American public agreed with, and we don't lose respect or whatever and we're not outraged when that same extremely corrupt organization continues to do greedy, unethical, and corrupt things.

It's astounding that European governments would never do corrupt things. Totally never. And if they did, sorry they only draw the line at influencing FIFA.

watwut11 minutes ago
Yes, exactly that. And precisedly for that reason.

FIFA was corrupt. Infantino took it on another level, making it massively more corrupt then before. Then he created a peace price which combined corruption with astonishing lack of self respect and mockery.

And then Trump called over the red card, which contrasted with everything before as yes another never seen before level of corruption.

But second, FIFA is not an European institution. It is worldwide org and non European members are large contributors to the corruption. The middle east and afrikan members do like it corrupt, it suits their political goals.

> And you're also going to claim that this "level of corruption" is something Vladimir Putin or Xi Jingping and their corrupt authoritarian regimes would never dream of attempting?

Honestly, it even seems so. Trying to directly influence a soccer match, publically changing rules while not even understanding them is a new level.

Moreover, there is no reason to think Trump is less corrupt then Putin or Xi. If anything, he is equally or more corrupt.

ericmay3 minutes ago
A better way to think about it is imagine that FIFA is a massive, roaring inferno of corruption and Europeans are ignoring it and then Donald Trump walks by and tosses a Mcdonalds wrapper on the inferno and it grows every so slightly and now all of a sudden everyone is concerned. Sorry don't care. Most Americans agreed with him doing that as well since the foul was stupid.

There are things worthwhile criticizing folks for. Donald Trump is corrupt. So is FIFA. So are numerous European countries and organizations. But equating Trump making this phone call to "some unheard level that Xi Jingping and Vladimir Putin wouldn't dream of attempting" is absolutely absurd sensationalism that is, frankly, anti-intellectual, dishonest, and only serves to instigate flame wars and other such nonsense.

transcriptaseabout 1 hour ago
Yes but,

orange man bad

kichimiabout 2 hours ago
To add to this, because I think it is important context for Americans who may not be aware, football is seen very officially by many European nations and national governments as a cultural counterpart to many international treaties within Europe that were born out of the desire to bring our respective cultures closer together after the second world war.

It is so important, that many countries make it illegal to hide international football matches behind paywalls, specifically.

It is so important, that there are articles written about its importance on EU institutes websites. For example, this one reflects on Footballs importance in relation to the First, Second and Cold wars. https://www.iss.europa.eu/publications/alerts/european-footb...

To see Trump so flagrantly manipulate it sends a cultural signal that is hard for those outside of Europe to see, and that by some can be seen as the cultural equivalent of the political threats Trump has made against NATO.

At this point, your average European Trump supporter/right wing populist needs only reminding of Trumps interference to get a complete positional change - that's how bad it is.

geodel39 minutes ago
> It is so important, that many countries make it illegal to hide international football matches behind paywalls, specifically.

Sports is peak diversion from real issues, Whether Europe, US or India and so on. The countries can go to hell, people can drown in endless real problems. But if people can be smothered with sport entertainment so they ignore real things whats better than that.

In India whole country can become absolute crap. Worst on any social, economic indicator but as long free cricket broadcast is on TV and mobile, life is good.

petcatabout 2 hours ago
Nah it was an egregiously bad call by itself, and then the slow-mo VAR was used to justify it which is also against their own rules. So they corrected a mistake that could have severely impacted the result and integrity of the rest of the games.

But yeah, people got upset...

kabesabout 2 hours ago
Doesn't matter. There's constant bad calls being made by referees. It shouldn't be, but their humans and make mistakes and it's part of the game. But only the mistake against the US got corrected.
petcatabout 2 hours ago
How are we explaining Ronaldo not being required to serve his remaining 2-match suspensions at the start of the games?
josefritzishereabout 2 hours ago
Is this to prevent the Orange man from stealing it? What do they imagine the risk is?
conspabout 2 hours ago
Stated in another article it said the reason is it cannot be used as a bargaining chip during trade disputes. They specifically mentioned it would likely be more difficult to use in emergency situations when located in North America (without mentioning specific reasons).
ben_wabout 2 hours ago
Well, one of their near neighbouring countries is currently worried about Trump stealing their territory, and he's made threats to annex Canada too, so it's not exactly an unreasonable fear.
dukeyukeyabout 2 hours ago
Would you put it past Trump to use gold stores as a threat?
weatherliteabout 2 hours ago
Their national color is orange so they should get along with him fine
expedition32about 2 hours ago
Dutch gold reserve is only 50 billion which wouldn't even be enough to run the country for half a year. Other than the symbolical value it's pocket change.
conspabout 2 hours ago
It's the 11th largest in the world, or about 7.5% of the US reserves which is a lot more than the gdp difference (4.4%)
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maxdoabout 2 hours ago
Just in time before major European continental war begin. Strategic move.

For the context : German airport was officially attacked by Russia . And that’s only one of many incidents. UK is on the radar of official Russian hawks for a very long time

ben_wabout 2 hours ago
More a vs. US strategy than a vs. Russia strategy.

Russia has been weird for a long time, they are doing sub-threshold-of-war attacks for a while now.

But the USA? Outright threatening allies, talking about annexing some of them, making more threats against other allies who make moves to defend those allies? And he's got a known love for gold, started wars without bothering to inform allies he's now trying to punish for failing to provide help that he told them he didn't even want.

Muromecabout 1 hour ago
US is doing now to Europe and Canada what russia was doing for the last 30 (or 300) years to their neighbours. No response -- push further is the game
kakacik37 minutes ago
Yeah russia has been waging war against the west basically since putin came into power. That paranoid kgb fuck sees anything free as direct threat to their model of how to run a dictatorship and very much a personal threat on top of that (he may not be completely wrong given how proactive cia has been and their general methods of subversion). Divide and conquer, subvert EU and produce infighting on some emotional topics with ideal goal of breakup to pick countries one by one, subvert US to focus more inward and stop policing the world, ideally weaking it long term.

This is nothing new for anybody interested in the topic, its all very open and public (which is kind of the point I guess to manipulate public perception too). Every single secret service know this as 101 reality. In same way ie war in Ukraine started in 2014 in all measurable ways, not 2022.

US part... well its painful to watch, especially the incompetence or elephant-in-porcelain-shop part, of a shop that took many decades to build. But its good long term for Europe and rest of west - we became uber weak and over-reliant on US bases, their tech and power projection, and even if its 2026, influence not backed by real power means very little in actual world out there. Be provably strong or vanish seems to be mantra. Its smart to adapt to reality rather than expect the world to rearrange itself to some idealistic wishful thinking, however nice it may feel and however well it may have worked during easy peaceful times.

wafflemakerabout 1 hour ago
Thinking that there's a major continental war about to begin is exactly what Russia wants people to think and what they push through their propaganda machine. It's also good for some governments, because then nobody questions military spending. Poland just bought 96 Apache assault helicopters for 10B USD. It takes just 1M USD in drones to take them down, just to show how absurd show of loyalty to US that deal was.

There's issues with defending the east flank. Namely, without taking full control of the Baltic Sea, Baltic States and Finland will run out of provisions in weeks.

strictneinabout 1 hour ago
> It takes just 1M USD in drones to take them down

You can buy incendiary armor piercing bullets that could take one down for $5, but strangely they've been utilized for decades.

Finland will run out of provisions in a weeks? How so? Will Russia control their western border?

carlosjobim12 minutes ago
Here we go again... Finland and the Baltics are "the East flank" when Russia and Germany want to go to war again. Excellent and fun battle fields for them, without a doubt. Far away from important regions and important people.
somenameformeabout 1 hour ago
That was a rather obvious false flag attempt, presumably from Ukraine. It was a weaponized drone, the first that would have been directly used against NATO, that was found just outside a Ukrainian plane and by amazing coincidence just sat there instead of detonating.

When Russia wants to directly attack NATO they'll likely do exactly what the US/EU is doing and simply arm e.g. Iran/Houthis/etc with weapons/locations, let them push the button, and then go all Slava Allah or whatever while Russia is like 'oh we're not involved in this conflict you have with Iran.' Great precedent that's been set.

---

That said I do expect Russia is likely involved in at least some of the incidents of weapons factories and other things that have been going boom, but it's always going to be done with plausible deniability - sleeper agents with no direct ties to Russia, and the like. They're not going to just start bombing planes in airports with drones.

maxdo24 minutes ago
Wow. This post serves as a great example on how propaganda can brainwash people brain. Sure , Ukraine whose survival solely depends on EU, plans a false flag attempt . To achieve what ? Russia openly attacked territory of eu with drones , infiltration, poison operations , not to mention Slovakia , Orban etc . What is there to prove for Ukraine ???
somenameforme16 minutes ago
Ukraine is, in the absolute best positive framing - in a war of attrition that isn't going well. They want greater involvement, ideally much more directly, from NATO countries. And Germany is certainly going to be happy to play along because the AfD is quickly becoming the largest single party in that country. They are Euroskeptical and against continuing the war with Russia. A direct Russian attack on Germany would likely undermine the AfD's growing support.

But since I've been brainwashed by propaganda, perhaps you can enlighten me on what benefits you believe Russia would see for themselves in deciding to directly attack a NATO country in a way that would lack any plausible deniability. In particular you need to come up with some sort of argument here for how they might see this as viably resulting in an improved positioning for themselves.

Muromecabout 1 hour ago
Don't discount russian incompetence and sloppiness. They are really big on half assing everything
strictneinabout 1 hour ago
> That was a rather obvious false flag attempt

No, it wasn't.

> That said I do expect Russia is likely involved in at least some of the incidents of weapons factories

They're involved in all of them.

> sleeper agents with no direct ties to Russia

This isn't a movie. They pay criminals to do criminal activity. They're not utilizing "sleeper agents" to burn down a building.

>When Russia wants to directly attack NATO they'll likely do exactly what the US/EU is doing and simply arm e.g. Iran/Houthis/etc with weapons/locations, let them push the button, and then go all Slava Allah or whatever while Russia is like 'oh we're not involved in this conflict you have with Iran.' Great precedent that's been set.

What does this even mean? Are you equating Ukraine with Iran and the Houthis?

bell-cotabout 2 hours ago
> For the context:

Comparing that German airport "attack" by Russia to the 9/11 attack by Mr. bin Laden - would you say that all gold reserves should have been moved out of the USA back in 2001?

jabroni_saladabout 2 hours ago
Looking at TFA, they are moving it to a venue where selling off the gold can happen quickly. This kind of thing was not necessary for the USA's approach to funding the War on Terror because we decided on a really innovative combo of Taking On Debt and also Just Not Accounting For Things which will surely have no consequence later on.
blitzarabout 2 hours ago
Didn't dear leader (Trump) just say he was going to invade the Bond Market?

If a shooting war breaks out beween the US and the Bond Market, the gold isnt safe anywhere.

SH16qabout 1 hour ago
No, the German US lapdogs put out a statement that the drones in Leipzig “are known to us from other Russian hybrid operations and its war against Ukraine” and that they “pointed to a high degree of technical expertise”.

So high in fact that the operation malfunctioned. Precisely what a false flag would do.

The US indeed would like to expand the Ukrainian proxy war to the Baltics so it can carry out its own plans of getting various oil rich countries.

All that these stupid politics accomplish is that the AfD will have 35% in the next elections so Germany can enjoy Trump-like corruption and the industry can exploit people even more. At this point one wonders if the CDU is in on it and the AfD is secretly already part of the uniparty, public theater of forbidding the AfD notwithstanding.

strictnein23 minutes ago
A false flag attack would malfunction? Why not do damage to really up the reaction? Even after an explosion there's plenty of pieces left to investigate and figure out where the devices came from. Just throw some parts made in [insert target of false flag here] and you're all set.

> The US indeed would like to expand the Ukrainian proxy war to the Baltics so it can carry out its own plans of getting various oil rich countries.

What "oil rich" Baltic states are you referring to? Is the US going to takeover Norway?

jajaja12876 minutes ago
No damage because they need the Antonovs.

Parts can be obtained from Russia by Russian speaking Ukrainians that are indistinguishable from Russians.

You are making up "oil rich" Baltic states. The comment said "various oil rich states", i.e. Iran and Venzuela.

I assume you volunteer for the front?