recap of main stories this out before we leave you and i've been protests in the french capital. after 3 people were shot dead in the center of the city, the shooting happened near kurdish cultural center. ah, shooting later violent protests in the nearby streets, riot police fire tag asked to disperse the crowd. people are angry. the gun was previously investigated for a racially motivated attack. french president emanuel mack corners treated that the courage community had been the target of a heinous attack. it's ashley butler has more from paris. and we're demonstrators from paris is curtis community. many of them had come here to protest because they felt that that shooting happened earlier today was specifically targeting them a man who 69 years old. he was arrested by police, opened a fire in an area where there's a courage, community center, a restaurant, and addresses what we know is at least 3 people died. and many others have been injured. i should say, several of the i've been injured. the arctic bloss known as elliot is enveloping most of the us and canada. well than 200000000 people on the weather warnings, at least 700000 homes have lost power. and thousands of us flights have been canceled. the 23 on group which has seen swathes of territory in the congo, has pledged to retreat from a strategic frontline position 5 to say they'll give up the town of cuba to a regional commission. the gesture of goodwill, the conflict is forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes since october. china's claim that it's as no reports of new covered fatalities as being disputed after the video is really showing dozens of body bags piled up at a funeral parlor in chain the sound way. pages recently changed the definition of code the death to only those caused by pneumonia or spirit re faith. while health organization is called on aging, to provide more detailed information about the spread of cases. chinese top health far, she says nearly 37000000 people might have been infected with cove it on a single day this week or counting the cost as the program coming up next on al jazeera will be back with you tomorrow morning from joe hall about 25 minutes time as well as 2022 jewels to the we were slacks on the major stories it say tele julie now does even for a series of in depth of looking back at this year and a half to 2020. ah ah, i hello, ma'am. rob matheson, this is counting the cost on all 0. your weekly looked at the world of business and economics this week. got a more bang for your buck. the dollars been on the up in 20. 22. what's next for the greenback. also this week, gold hasn't been due so well this year, but could now did the perfect time for investors to pile back in questions over cryptic crypto prices have been slighting all year. we're going to look what's next for these in tangible assets. as the industry struggles to regain trust, now the u. s. dollar is stronger now than it's been for 2 decades. that's because of the federal reserve. what the central bank raises interest rates. it makes the green back more appealing to investors around the global, but the global economy is teetering on a cliff edge. and the fears mount of a world wide recession dollars a scene. it's a safe place to hold your money. now this shows how the dollar's been doing against nearly all. busy other g, 20 economies. overall, the picture seems pretty good. the greenback rallied around 19 percent in 2022. the dollar is still strong. even though the u. s. economy has been weakened by the coven pandemic, and a threatening global recession. it's be going up going up thanks to aggressive rate hikes by the federal reserve. you cannot make issues overseas and geopolitical uncertainty from the war in ukraine. but there's one big stand on the dollar versus the russian rule. but we're going to get into that later on to discuss all of this and join know by francesco, papa. dia francesco is former director general for market operations at the european central bank. he's also currently a senior resident fellow at the brutal thank. thank. thank you very much. indeed for being with us. the dollar is still dominating the investment markets around the world, the currency markets around the world. and yet the u. s. economy has over the last few years because of the pandemic try models, but other issues being faltering. why is it that the dollar is still so popular still? well, the dollar has characterised, you know, other currency has, 1st of all, the most to develop the sophisticated financial market in the world, then an economy that, notwithstanding, the current issues is still the most important economy economy in the world. then beyond that, there is the strength of the us as a country, merely to really, politically that remains of the most dominant country in the world. so it's no surprise that the dollar is says here having the site important the currency market in the financial world. one of the things i think that might surprise a lot of people is the fact that the rubles been actually performing pretty pretty well. it's not more than 30 percent against the dollars since march. and yet, as we know, the russian economy is said to be struggling at the moment. what do you attribute that to? well, i don't think i would give a lot a way to do that. first of all, we don't know how liquid that the mike, the rubel is that we know that there are 4 and a change controlled. and then it's a fact that the inputs of russia just because the sanctions have gone down very that shall be. so the current account in, in high circles, so i would not take the strength of a rouble as a final strength of the underlying russian economy. we've heard stories for saudi arabia, for example, just recently said that it was going to do trade deals with china in remember, as opposed to other currencies. which means, of course, that saudi arabia is building up a stockpile of remember, does not in any way limit saudi arabia in terms of its ability to trade for other countries, particularly against the dollar. well, i mean, there is no comparison between the re, may be and the dollar in terms of liquidity in terms of underlying financial markets, where they heard what they hear about different countries putting a part on their reserve. they mean, be it's pilot just to test the market just to see how it works. there is nothing substantial and the, the weight of that, i mean, be, for instance in foreign reserves is very limited on the cost of that. i mean, be, is one of the case of the, of the, the, are about these is a more a political than economic economics that there is a future for the re, me be, but just that a future, nothing carrying to in terms of people's reliance on the dollar, how much of it is down to the fact that as you were talking about before the dollars structure that is built around the dollar is so strong that actually it would take a great deal to logistically and pick all of that in order to focus on another currency is that a legitimate argument is to some degree and inertia for people wanting to have to go to the effort of detaching themselves and the dollar. well, there is no shame in the way it is called the konami network effect, which is the clear case for telephone, for instance. um, it makes no purpose of having a telephone if you have nobody on the other side of the line and the more people you can reach you with the telephone more of the telephone. and that's the same with, with a dollar. i mean, there is a strong network effect and inertia, but i would repeat is based on the strong foundations, i mean, the only country that could revolt the dollar is that you repeat unit that is far behind in many, including the sophistication of the financial markets. and everybody else is, is way, way, way below. what does surprise, a lot of people, myself included, is the exposure that many countries of the around the world have to the dollar, particularly at times of crisis when we see be the level of antagonism. for example, we see between russia and the u. s. and china and the us and that the holdings of dollars and china, of dollars by china and russia still seem to be significant. do you think, given recent worse world events, but countries like that are perhaps going to try and move away from the amount of dollars that they have in order not to expose themselves to the level of sanctions that the u. s. can subsequently bring in. but i think there is a difference between russia and china. i mean, the holding of dollars of china are being commensurate, really higher than the whole being gone by, by russia. so just kind of a precision point on your question. i'm sure there is the wish to move away from the dollar, but we're doing the wish and the realization. there is the fact that no other currency, as i said, with the very partial exception of the euro dollar have the same liquidity, the same ability to trade, the same underlying force of the financial market. so yes, there is a wish to do it. but then when it comes to it, it's very difficult to do it. and for instance, for china, but the killer, differentiating the trillions of dollars of reserves into other currency is very, very difficult. also, because any move of that kind, i would say doesn't the value of their own return? and so, you know, way they are caught into this and it's difficult to move away. yes. so they will try, but it's difficult to do it. i mentioned before uniform, a director general for market operations, the se be given your level of experience. how do you see the currency markets and the dollar market particularly moving forward in the next few years? are we going to see any significant changes the way that dollars and other currencies are trading? well, the foreign exchange market is this, when it comes to large guarantees. so, so euro dollar, yen dollar stalling, euro is the most resilient or the most sophisticated market in the world. of course it doesn't have much of a structure in the sense that much of that just goes on bilateral deals. but it's a very strong market and it's a market that never stopped functioning, even during the most deep crisis. the only competitor to that in terms of the creativity is the treasury market of the united states. but we know that there have been some trend mostly in that market as well. so i would say that for a change market, these are the most resilient market in the global financial, global financial world. so there is a need to have more transparency into, into the market. and so i see that that could be moved in that in that direction. but i don't think that there will be dramatic changes seen the way the major guarantees are exchanged. francesco poverty, or we really appreciate your giving us the benefit of your expertise. thank you very much for joining us on kind of cost. you welcome. so what's next to for gold? well, it's always been seen as a safe haven for investors. many turn to the precious metal to protect the heart own savings when high inflation hits other investment products, but gold is denominated in dollars, so the strength of the green bank can have a significant impact on its price. well, with us now is milan that he's the chief investment strategist for middle east, north africa, the well known international brokerage all parties joining me now from london. very good to have you with us in your estimation, what's been happening to gold over the last year say thank you very much. know firstly, what's really precious global financial. the share included us the moment stuff says this is true for the greenback. as she pointed out, the green back to the us dollar had had strongest year in roughly 20 years. and we haven't seen the pace of us interest rate increases from the federal reserve be so aggressive in a generation. so essentially that's true for the dollar has pushed all global assets to lower, including us denominator assets such as god. so this is essentially what happens at gold price. we still look up a long term goal is roughly about $1760.00 to give. this is an all time high for gold, pretty much historically whether gold prices have dropped as much as 20 percent based on the dollar strength hits for cover and now, but the strength from the dollar, which is like each store to remain supported as much make gold crisis, i mean it's all done to the interest rate rises with, but there are other other elements that could be playing into this as well. essentially, yes, the us interest rate rises up against this, but we say the global economy right now. let's say it's a large piece of cake. now this change is divided into different pieces. we call us interest rate increases because inflation rates globally with god such to the global energy practice. of course we're still seeing the drawbacks from the cobra and damage, and the impact of government are in and locked down. at the same point we've got, that's very unfortunate, that's taken place in eastern europe. all of these factors altogether has been what driven the dollar towards, you know, its highest level and roughly 20. yes. and we can't say to anyone isolated the fact that all of these factors combined, i'd really consider the dollar. at the same point. there is some hope that the dollar has peaked, which would be supporting the gold prospects and other global assets over the medium sound as well. some is around that in the event that interest rates, right? interest rates do come down. i would like to see people making an exodus from gold or and if so, where would they be likely to go or do they stick with it? actually the concern is going to be on verse with likelihood because lower interest rate, dictations are science that we've seen that peak and interest rates, obviously, inflation to remain a very sustained level. we know this, but it's signs of a cool down could actually increase to get towards precious metals like gold. and this is because the page of the us interest rate increases, which is obviously the dollar significantly the share that's likely to cool down. so we see proper taken on the us dollar, we are more than likely to see rebounding gold prospects. and this is a trend that we're starting to see over the past couple of weeks in global financial markets. china understand, ya and russia are 3 of the main producers of gold in the world. what kind of impact does that demand have on their economies? if anything? well, if you're looking for the longer term go, practice is still very high. $1750.00 above this level would still be 10 years ago . the highest level which seems to global financial crisis. and as we saw the peak in because of and damage or go to 2000, we also saw a rebound source. those levels are the beginning of the ukraine bull. and since then we should go down. but generally speaking of the longer term go, crisis is still strong. so this is still supported. suppose those economists produces gold at the same time, obviously. and of course, if we do see a rebound increase in gold regulation, there should be positive news for those of producers also. i'd so far it all seems very positive. but historically speaking, has there ever been a time when gold prices, or at least gold, as an investment, has become really not worth that? and we've seen people moving away from it. and if so, what would be the signs that we should look for in the event that was likely to happen? this is an excellent point. i'm wondering, i point out here is the global economic concerns. and the potential crisis where now is completely different to the global financial crash the 15 years ago. now, 15 years ago this was seen as like the birth of gold. something that really pushed all precious higher. but the same point then interest rates globally would be in push slower. today we're having a completely different set of forces, a push and interest rates higher, which is being negative for gold prices. at the same time, we do think best potential as long as you can see around the global economy continue to extend it right. course thing is cross there that we can see optimistic 2023 for gold. if you had any spare cash lying around with gold, be your 1st option or would you be looking at other possible investments as well? not necessarily because you have to follow the trend and very clearly, the trend is being your friend in 2022. and that friend has been the us dollar an uncertain times such as the very sensitive dynamics we've taken place right now in the global economy. the donors still your best friend. hopefully we see a bit of a change towards the global circumstances that might mean the dollar. it's not so much of your best friend, and we can start to bring over friends into the mix, such as gold, show me that we appreciate you being with us all kinds of cost. thank you very much indeed for your time, sir. well, that's not been a great year for trip to currencies, particularly the companies behind them. the still isn't much oversight of the market. and there are growing calls from regulators and even some crypto industry leaders for more controls but kind dominates the market. it's search by 300 percent at the start of the pandemic in 2020 investors. we're looking for safety for economic volatility since and high inflation fuel shortages and the water ukraine. or caused a sell off and perceived risky assets like stocks and crypto currencies. so the markets already volatile and key crypto lenders have seen a slew of other setbacks for the industry, including withdrawal limits and the collapse of the crypto giant, f t x, which would be causing more panic. and more cells. want to talk about those issues in more detail. let's bring in hugh robert space, director of research and analytics that conte insight in london. very good to have you with this. what's your assessment of how the industry has been working, say over the last 12 months or so? oh, to bit of background 1st, because content we come to be from a macro perspective. so when we're looking at an industry like what we're really thinking, well point does this kind of new, relatively new industry start to behave a bit more like a traditional financial asset. and a short answer there is for the 1st part of this year, it wasn't trading like a macro instrument. it was like an equity or a commodity, or any other risky asset. it was being driven by news that was specific to crypto. so it was nice things like the merge, i guess for syria. but around early summer time, our model showed that actually all the major currencies, bitcoin, us area, i'm all moved into new macro regimes. and what we mean by that is that all of a sudden they behave much more like traditional financial markets. they care about inflation. they care about what the state is doing. they care about what sister asset classes, whether they're dollars strengthening, with a credit spreads widening. and the main message from that was in a period of high inflation and to the state and others, central banks, hiking interest rates that was negative or risky assets including crypto. so the bear market was something that was entirely consistent with the kind of broad macro fundamental conditions prevailing. how much is it also about faith? i don't understand a tremendous amount about crypto currency simply because to me it's incredibly technical. but to an outsider like me, it seems as though it is essentially based on the trust of the people that are creating the cryptic currency that is going to work and the trust of people investing in it, that it will work. but as soon as that trust is gone, then things start to come apart. how fragile is the market? would you say, even though it's at a macro macro economic stage that you're talking about? yeah, i mean, that's a very fair summary. i mean, in a way that the central tendons, this whole decentralization means that you remove a trusted are going to central counter party. now for traditional financial players . now, one of the big lessons from the 20082009 financial crisis was the important of the counter party. you and i could have a bet now on whether the dollar is going to get stronger this year next year. and i might be right and you might be wrong, but if i say i was a counter party, then you got no one to actually pay out your winnings. so the importance of the ex trust at the counter party is absolutely critical to the financial system. and as soon as you lose that trust, and that's obviously we've had a few blows already, but the latest f t x as obviously just taken us to a whole new level. so i think your summary is very fair and i think the short answer to your question is, this is done. i'm told damage to the industry as a whole, and you've got to think that will be some die hard to stick to the end. but anyone who is a marginal participant, you've got to think this is very scary news. how much of this is done to the reliability for want of about a phase of crypto currency itself and how much of it know is about the efficient running of the companies which are supporting it as for example, the example, the used f t x. yeah, absolutely. so i think the that the 2nd part of that question is probably the most important part. i mean, they were just know what we can tell our i'm not a specialist in the area of regulation or compliance, but you know, the more news that emerged in november with regards to the s t x story suggest a complete absence of control. so all the normal regulation and compliance checks that should be seen at the most basic one segregation of accounts. people who are depositing money with f t x. it was in the contract. that money should not be there lent onto a trading arm. and yet there was a back door citing that money out. so that is just about basic one or one company policy company regulation. and if you, if you destroy that and it does a lot of damage reputation and yes, it's going to again, the only question is going to really damage trust or the loss here. so we've seen or heard stories of a significant number of governments from a local level up to a national level investing and things like bitcoin and other crypto currencies. there are countries which are bringing it, are attempting to bring it in as legal tender. is that a mistake or do you think that actually they are doing the right thing as long as the company's running it are regulated? yeah, i'm then i have no degree of specialization in this area, but i would towards that not being there, you can actually get a good thing. now, a lot of the technology underpinning this now to block chain. i don't know, some of the advantages that it brings are clearly beneficial for individuals for companies, for the broader system, but for it to operate completely outside of any control has to be a mistake in my opinion. so i think having kind of central bank digital tokens, given the central central banks have to main roles. typically it varies country by country. but on the whole, central banks are there to fight inflation, keep inflation under control and oversee that countries financial system and ensure stability. so they have a vested interest and ensure that there are no blocks on their watch. so central banks having involvement in this, and the crypto industry to my mind is, is almost inevitable. taking the wider view. and i appreciate, of course, that you know that that's what you do want inside. and if it gets to the states where crypto currencies are, do become regulated in a similar way to say regular banks. if they become more exposed to the macro economics that we see around the world. what's the benefit of them compared to regular currencies, for example? and investments a technical advances that it gives you the efficiency from a kind of traditional financial market asset allocation perspective. if you like. the way that the traditional investor will think about things as well. given where we are an economic cycle, what's the best asset class to, to put my money in? so if we're in a kind of an economic boom, then you'll invest in risky assets like equities, crypto is still going to be viewed as a risky asset. so it will tend to do well in good times. if we're in the aspect ratio scenario, as many people say, or maybe taking over into recession in 2023, then people will look for safe havens. now one point crypto was how does a safe haven? i don't think anyone would really buy that argument today. but the other argument that gets rolled out with script currencies is an inflation hedge. and actually we have the ability in our models to look at the independent relationship between an asset and all the various macro factors, including inflation and been going does do a good job of tracking inflation expectations. so these relationships have been flow, that's the whole one to the business on the white markets trade. but i can see advantages for crypto over and above the, the technical, technological advances that it brings as potentially maybe the information. for example, here of it's a director of research and analytics content site in london. we appreciate your being with us. i thank you very much. i need thank you. and that is our show for this week. but remember, you can get in touch with this via switch. i use the hash tag aging c t c. when you do, all you can drop as an email out address is counting the cost at al jazeera dot next . but there's more for you online that al jazeera dot com slash c t c. that's going to take you straight to a page and get individual ports links an entire episode for you to catch up on. and that's it for this edition of kind of the cost i'm roll matheson and the whole team . thanks for joining us. the news in algebra is next ah. with full january analogies even almost a decade after joining the e. u croatia, adults the euro, despite fears, it could lead to price increases and already tough. economic times immersive personal short documentaries, africa direct showcases african stories from african filmmakers can public private partnerships sold some of the wells most pressing challenges when government business and civil society leaders meet for the world economic for rigorous debates and unflinching questions. up front, cut through the headlines to challenge conventional wisdom. senegal host, the all africa musical celebration of talent and creativity from all corners of the african continent. january on al jazeera, from inside the walls of a west african prison, comes home for a chance to create, to express that emotion. and take the 1st steps towards rehabilitation. renown choreographer shares his passion for dance, inspiring prisoners to perform and to reach beyond the ill deeds of their pass and the confines of their presence. the dance a thieves, a weakness documentary on al jazeera, to discover a world of difference determination. i'm talking about with me, but we are moving freedom snapshots, soldiers among the 16 people with corruption and compassion al jazeera world, a selection of the best films from across our network of channels. ah.