The IMF gold has serious geo-political ramifications in the background because of the nature of foreign exchange reserves, credit default swaps and gold.  Wikipedia:

South Korea and Japan are both home to large numbers of United States troops and neither are going to invite a nuclear attack.  The Kuomintang, which the US backed, retreated to Taiwan [...]

Under a floating exchange rate, firms have a correct estimate of how risky it is to have unhedged foreign currency exposure. When a central bank artificially distorts currency volatility downwards, as RBI has often done, this gives out the wrong incentives to take on foreign currency risk. Now firms in India are lobbying that they [...]

When the U.S. government refused to bail out Lehman Brothers and no buyer could be found for the tottering investment bank, traders and investors around the world realized something terrifying: their profits—worse yet, their capital—were at risk, and the Fed’s lack of action proved no one was going to save them.
Results Round One
The result was [...]