Dollar liquidity / eurodollar shortage Acute shortage ▼

Snider: energy shock = dollar shock — expensive oil forces importers to scramble for dollars, tightening the offshore (eurodollar) system; the gold/silver liquidations are the telltale (Turkey swapping gold as collateral to raise dollars, India curbing precious-metals imports to preserve dollars for oil), with Asian governments "increasingly desperate." The deeper the shock gets, the more short-run downside for metals — and a spreading dollar shortage is exactly what stops the central-bank hiking story.