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France pulls last gold held in US for $15B gain (www.mining.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/finance@thelemmy.club
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https://www.mining.com/france-pulls-last-gold-held-in-us-for-15b-gain/

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52 comments in c/world@lemmy.world view that post
[–] 157 points 7 months ago* (21 children)

Germany should do the same, why haven't they already?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/24/repatriate-the-gold-german-economists-advise-withdrawal-from-us-vaults

USA no longer deserves to be the financial center of the world they've been for many years.
Gold reserves, petro dollar, global reserve currency, and as collateral damage, the continued flood of brain power coming from around the world will stop. It will all collapse because the American population is too stupid to elect an even somewhat sensible government.

It's kind of sad, because the ideals USA claimed to protect were fine, it just turned out to be a lie. And now they are not even protected but are falling apart inside USA too.

USA no longer deserves our trust, and not even our respect anymore.

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  • [–] 52 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    As an American I feel like I should be disputing this but all of your points are quite good.

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  • [–] 18 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    I were going to make a list here of just the most outrageous offenses the US has done to US allies in just the last months. But the list kept getting too long for the short witty response I wanted to make...

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (13 children)

    It's kind of sad, because the ideals USA claimed to protect were fine

    Claimed is doing a lot of work here. For many / most periods in U.S. history those claims were clearly demonstrably lies and lip service - as the U.S. continually committed atrocities to its citizens and those abroad in the name of capital power.

    Reminds me a bit of the US evangelicals who profusely worship the bible as, but are blatantly and guiltlessly committing mortal sins - see Secretary Pete “Kegs Breath” for a nice example.

    It’s a very American phenomenon

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (12 children)

    As a European and USA being the major part in saving us from Nazism in WW2, and the Marshall help after, we tended to believe in USA as a force for good. And the moon landing in 69 demonstrated the American superiority at the time. So we chose to support the American global dominance because we had similar ideals of democracy and human rights. In EU today respecting human rights is even part of the requirements to be a member. Unfortunately USA has forgotten the ideals, and are now using their strength exclusively to serve the interests of the 1%.

    USA blockading Cuba is an example, Cuba did nothing to deserve that, Trump probably wants to build big hotels and holiday resorts.
    And yes it is double standards, like insanely immoral Christians that celebrate taking away healthcare from people, and killing brown people. Ironically a lot of those Christians are brown too?!!

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    And yes it is double standards, like insanely immoral Christians that celebrate taking away healthcare from people, and killing brown people. Ironically a lot of those Christians are brown too?!!

    They might think they are Christians, but they'd be wrong. They are Mammonites.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    and USA being the major part in saving us from Nazism in WW2

    The soviets toppled Hitler.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    They too had help from USA. Soviet only defended themselves, and instated another almost as bad regime throughout the countries they occupied.
    There is no comparison.

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  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    They too had help from USA.

    Yes, they did. I never implied otherwise.

    Soviet only defended themselves,

    What? They literally invaded Berlin. Arrived days before the americans.

    and instated another almost as bad regime throughout the countries they occupied.

    So you say. You're entitled to have your own opinion.

    There is no comparison.

    You're free to keep idolizing the USA too. Their propaganda is really good.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    https://www.vox.com/2014/6/16/5814270/the-successful-70-year-campaign-to-convince-people-the-usa-and-not

    tl;dr in 1945 nobody was confused that the USSR defeated the Nazis, it took until the 1990s for this perception to shift to the belief the US defeated the Nazis.

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  • [–] -3 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Stop your revisionism, the USA was not the major part of in saving us from the Germans. They convinced us they were, that much is true.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago

    the USA was not the major part of in saving us from the Germans

    Strictly speaking, they were more pivotal in the Pacific front of the war, where they saved China from Japan.

    But you've really got your blinkers on if you're going to ignore the Lend-Lease program, which provided the Soviets with 400,000+ trucks, 14,000+ aircraft, 13,000+ tanks, and 4.5 million tons of food.

    Like, it was a team effort. No single country single-handedly won (or lost) WW2. The real tragedy of the war's end was our inability to disarm and diplomacy our way to a real unity planet. In that sense, everyone ultimately lost WW2.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

    You're an idiot

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago*

    even if that's true, telling them this doesn't help them or solve their ignorance - just a thought that we can have more or less useful reactions to ignorance, we don't want to incentivize doubling down on false beliefs for example

    EDIT: I thought you wrote "you're an idiot" in response to the person claiming the US defeated the Nazis, nevermind.

    Most Europeans in 1945 believed the USSR toppled Nazi Germany, it really is only after the USSR collapsed four decades later and the US took global supremacy that people started to say things like the US defeated the Nazis.

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    • [–] 35 points 7 months ago (7 children)

    Due to rising gold prices, the move helped the bank to generate a capital gain of €13 billion ($15 billion), bringing it to a net profit of €8.1 billion for the 2025 financial year after a net loss of €7.7 billion in 2024.

    If they sold gold in New York to buy gold in Europe, how did they turn a profit? Is this some accounting magic I’m too poor to understand?

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  • [–] 60 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

    "they simply sold the older, less pure gold bars in New York for what they were worth in U.S. dollars as gold prices were reaching all-time highs, then pocketed the cash and bought bars that met their updated weight and purity standards in Europe, as prices conveniently pulled back."
    -https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2026-04-06/bank-france-sells-its-129-tonne-us-gold-reserve-then-buys-it-back-europe

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  • [–] 20 points 7 months ago*

    Well, in Accounting terms, once you sell your investment you have realized the gains on it (and if you're a person or a company, are now liable to pay tax on those gains), even if you use the money from the sale to buy the same thing again.

    Gains on an investment which hasn't been sold yet are unrealized gains (in common parlance "paper gains") and don't really count in accounting terms until you sell that investment so you don't have to pay tax on it.

    Amongst other things billionaires use this to pay no tax when the share value of the companies they own goes up: if they need money rather than sell their share holdings they take loans using the shares as collateral, and because the shares aren't sold any gains aren't realized, hence no tax is due.

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    • [–] 33 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Before Trump steal it.

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    • [–] 16 points 7 months ago (12 children)

    What's up with that body text? I assumed they're always manually written by whoever submits the post

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    no body text appears for me. I would be annoyed at an automated one. The body to me is supposed to be the start of the conversations from the poster.

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  • [–] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (6 children)

    Lemmy automation that doesn't work. As a poster you can do nothing. The worst kind of automation there is.

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    It all looks good on my end. Could be the app I use corrects it in translation tho.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    Are you claiming to not see this?:

    ERROR: The request could not be satisfied www.mining.com

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    [–] 4 points 7 months ago

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    [+] -13 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    all gold is inherently worthless and pure speculation. it shouldn't even have $1 in value.

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    6 comments in c/hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se view that post
    [–] 22 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    instead of refining and transporting the gold, it opted to sell the bars and purchase new bullion in Europe.

    And

    BdF Governor ⁠Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the decision to keep the new bars in Paris is “not politically motivated,”

    Stood out to me.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    So the sold gold is still physically in the US.

    On the one hand they say they want the bullion in their possession in France.

    On the other hand, they are saying it’s too much of a bother to transport. Which makes its value questionable if it is too far to ship conveniently. It’s somewhat contradictory.

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    • [–] 9 points 7 months ago

    Pretty smart move, be more sovereign without too much looking like you’re pulling out, and make some money on the side!

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