OBELA Analysis

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has a long history. Ever since the Inter-American Conferences of 1889, the need for a bank with these characteristics has always been mentioned. Since 1959, with the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, the United States began the creation of the IDB and the Alliance for Progress.

Since then, we have seen illegal US intervention in Nicaragua, Grenada, Honduras, Paraguay, Brazil and, more recently, Bolivia and Venezuela. All this forgets what was agreed upon in 1889 at the Inter-American Conference: sovereignty and not rights by conquest.

The IDB is about to be intervened by an official of the US National Security Council at the request of the President, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury. The reasons are to stop China's presence as a financier in Latin America, and to conclude the overthrow of uncomfortable governments that are not aligned with US power in the hemisphere.

The energy outlook is complicated by the drop in demand during confinement, especially for fossil fuels; however, the importance of oil remains crucial. China is the central player for both the global oil industry and the major player in terms of clean energy sources.

Economies such as Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia are heavily dependent on oil and gas exports; while Mexico and Brazil depend for their tax revenues on the oil companies Pemex and Petrobras.

The panorama shows a dispute between dirty and clean energies in a conjuncture of both energy change and crisis in energy demand. The crisis due to the pandemic may mean a boost to the transition towards cleaner energies under the leadership of China.

Record gold prices from 2019 onwards express the vulnerability of the international monetary system resulting from the US-China trade war and recently the impact of the COVID-19 on the global economy.

If the price of gold is linked to movements in the international financial markets and the expansive monetary policy of the US central bank: Does the current price of gold express speculation? Are there expectations of crises arising from the pandemic shock?

The current price of gold expresses the value of refuge in the face of a situation of uncertainty, channeled by investors through two large funds. The expectations of crisis were already in 2019 when the price began to rise as a reflection of the trade war and the fall in American GDP growth.