HN Explorer

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uberman
Can someone provide a summary?
Permit
> As of Friday Russia had about $630 billion of foreign currency reserves, a large cushion designed to allow it to withstand economic sanctions and prop up the value of the ruble. But “foreign currency reserves” are not an objective fact; they are mostly a series of entries on lists maintained by foreign-currency issuers and intermediaries (central banks, correspondent banks, sovereign bond issuers, brokerages). If those people cross you off the list, or put an asterisk next to your entry freezing your funds, then you can’t use those funds anymore.

> The bulk of Russia’s foreign reserves are held in the form of securities, deposits at other central banks and deposits at foreign commercial banks. A ban on transactions with Russia’s central bank means that it can’t sell those securities or access those deposits

ddlatham
How will this impact Russia's will to continue to supply gas and oil to Europe? Is Europe paying them in euros or some other currency? Where is it "stored"? If Russia's money is frozen, what use is it? Or even if it's not frozen, but they cannot use it to buy goods and services in exchange, then why would they bother selling the oil and gas?
commandlinefan
> people basically trust it to be reliable and neutral and rules-based

I'm continually shocked at how many people believe that this is actually a bad thing.

Arnt
You may misunderstand many of them… the key word is "rules-based", which is plural. Is someone who violates one of the key rules still covered by the others?

What Russia did was violate the sovereignty of Ukraine, and sovereignty has been a core rule for almost 400 years.

adhesive_wombat
Turns out the real Bored Ape Yacht Club was in the central banks all along and it's all non-fungible if you go too far.

Doesn't "Gee, Sorry you lost all your money, but you just didn't do your own research and understand the system and technology" sound familiar?