Thursday, March 10, 2011

Vietnamese Government Crackdown On Greenback Trading Heats Up

For a ban that was supposed to be introduced gradually to get people used to it, the Vietnamese government has been pretty rigourous in enforcing it. As reported by Phammuoi Nguyen in the Wall Stret Journal's Market Beat blog, the Vietnamese government hauled away four U.S. dollar traders in a well-publicized sting. They were ready to trade $400,000 for 8.5 billion dong. Gold traders took the arrests as a thinly-disguised lean on them: gold prices fell after the arrests were publicized.
“More players are switching savings from dollars and gold into the dong funds after police forces have announced that they will arrest anyone who trades dollars outside the banking system, and will confiscate those dollars. The move has brought great benefits to the stock market,” a Vietcombank Securities trader.

If y'all don't mind me saying so, the move has brought real similarites to the United States War on Drugs. Welcome, Vietnam, to the "War on Dollars."

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