THE USE OF KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

In A Time Of Universal Deceit, Telling The Truth Becomes A Revolutionary Act. (Orwell)

ALL TRUTH PASSES THROUGH THREE STAGES; FIRST, IT IS RIDICULED, SECOND, IT IS VIOLENTLY OPPOSED, THIRD, IT IS ACCEPTED AS BEING SELF-EVIDENT. (Arthur Schopenhauer)

I WILL TELL YOU ONE THING FOR SURE. ONCE YOU GET TO THE POINT WHERE YOU ARE ACTUALLY DOING THINGS FOR TRUTH'S SAKE, THEN NOBODY CAN EVER TOUCH YOU AGAIN BECAUSE YOU ARE HARMONIZING WITH A GREATER POWER. (George Harrison)

THE WORLD ALWAYS INVISIBLY AND DANGEROUSLY REVOLVES AROUND PHILOSOPHERS. (Nietzsche)

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Showing posts with label MNCs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MNCs. Show all posts

Thursday, November 30, 2023

China faces an imminent and colossal financial crisis


November 26, 2023

Amidst the deflation of the Chinese bubble gaining momentum, Beijing is responding with increasing desperation, resorting to extreme measures to salvage the nation’s financial stability.

The property market is at the epicenter of the storm, with policymakers applying unprecedented pressure on banks to address a monumental $446 billion funding shortfall. This funding is urgently needed to stabilize the industry and complete millions of unfinished apartments. A draft list of eligible developers, including industry giants like Country Garden Holdings Co. and Sino-Ocean Group, reveals a strategic pivot to aid some of the most distressed builders.

However, the challenges are far-reaching, encompassing millions of homes sold but left unfinished. More property developers defaulting on debt adds to construction delays and stalls residential projects, triggering a vicious circle of diminishing confidence in the housing market. Analysts estimate around 20 million units of uncompleted and delayed presold homes across China, necessitating over $440 billion to finish these homes.

In a desperate attempt to address the liquidity gap facing developers, China contemplates allowing banks to offer unsecured short-term loans. This move, though, is fraught with risks, as critics warn of the vulnerabilities of stretched banks engaging in unsecured developer lending.

As China grapples with the daunting task of rescuing its financial sector, a multi-trillion dollar black hole looms large. The challenge extends beyond the realm of developer debt, with local government debt exceeding $12 trillion and a $3 trillion trust industry. The unfolding crisis, marked by dwindling confidence, defaults, and liquidity shortfalls, paints a sobering picture of China’s economic teeter-totter, with global implications that echo far beyond its borders.

Sources:

Credit Bubble Bulletin: Weekly Commentary: Really BIG

🚨JUST IN: MAJOR CHINESE SHADOW BANK DECLARES ITSELF 'SEVERELY INSOLVENT'

China's major shadow bank Zhongzhi declares 'severe insolvency' with a $36 billion shortfall, signaling liquidity problems in the $2.9 trillion Chinese shadow banking sector.

Known for real estate… pic.twitter.com/DQnIoXziCv

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 25, 2023

China is ramping up pressure on banks to support struggling real estate developers, signaling President Xi Jinping’s tolerance for property sector pain is nearing its limit pic.twitter.com/ILuO4F53GO

— Win Smart, CFA (@WinfieldSmart) November 24, 2023

China 🇨🇳 home prices fell the most in eight years in October, signaling the property slump is worsening even after the government ramped up efforts to revive demand: pic.twitter.com/DFg73QbpAf

— Win Smart, CFA (@WinfieldSmart) November 25, 2023

Friday, September 22, 2023

BlackRock Recruiter Claims Senators Can Be 'Bought' For $10k, War 'Good For Business': O'Keefe

The undercover chaps and lasses at James O'Keefe's new undercover media venture have done it again - this time tricking a BlackRock recruiter into making several damning admissions.

In a series of covertly-recorded meetings, recruiter Serge Varlay describes how BlackRock - the world's largest asset manager - is able to "run the world," and that it's easier to pull off shenanigans when "people aren't thinking about it."

According to Varlay, US Senators can be 'bought' for as little as $10k.

"The senators…are f***ing cheap – you got 10 grand, you can buy a senator," he remarked.

You can take this big f*** ton of money and buy people, I work for a company called BlackRock…It’s not who is the president it’s who is controlling the wallet of the president. You could buy your candidates. First, there is the senators these guys are fuckin cheap. Got 10 grand you can buy a senator I’ll give you 500k right now It doesn’t matter who wins they’re in my pocket. -OMG

Blackrock is also apparently loving the war in Ukraine, which Varley described as "real fuckin' good for business."

Ukraine is good for business, you know that right? Russia blows up Ukraine’s grain silos and the price of wheat is going to go mad up. The Ukrainian economy is the wheat market. The price of bread goes up, this is fantastic if you’re trading.  Volatility creates opportunity for profit…

According to Varley, it's "exciting when shit goes wrong." 

"So what are you gonna do if you’re a trading firm? The moment that news hits, within a millisecond, you’re going to pump trades into whoever the wheat suppliers are. Into their stocks. Within an hour or two that stick goes f*cking up and then you sell and you just make, I don’t know, however many mil," he continued. "The Ukrainian economy is tied very largely to the wheat market, global wheat market, prices of bread, you know, literally everything goes up and down. This is fantastic if you’re trading.

"Volatility creates opportunity to make profit. War is real fucking good for business."

Watch:

BREAKING: @BlackRock Recruiter Who “Decides People’s Fate” Spills Info on Company’s World Impact

“It’s not who the president is- it’s who’s controlling the wallet of the president”

“You got $10K? You can buy a senator"

“War is real f***ing good for business” #BlackRockExposed pic.twitter.com/DZIy1DuZKF

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 20, 2023

As the Post Millennial notes, Varley also described himself as a person who "decide[s] people's fates."

"Every f*cking day, I literally decide how somebody’s life is going to be shaped," he said. "I’m not actually a finance guy, I just know what happens because I’m recruiting people who do these things."

More via the PM:

Varlay said these banks run the world because "you acquire stuff. You diversify, you acquire, you keep acquiring. You spend whatever you make in acquiring more. And at a certain point, your risk level is super low. Imagine you’ve invested in 10 different industries, from food to drinks to technology. If one of them fails it doesn’t matter, you have nine others to back you up."

Varlay said that once "you own a little bit of everything… you can take this big f*ck-ton of money and then you can start to buy people."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/blackrock-recruiter-claims-senators-can-be-bought-10k-war-good-business-okeefe?ao_status=passthrough

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Who Rule the World?

The dark corners of secretive global powers

Would the collapse of the US dollar come as a surprise? History tells us it shouldn’t. On its current trajectory, it seems destined to go the way every other fiat currency in history has gone; towards its destruction and eventual collapse.

Money creation via debt issuance must be balanced with economic growth. As the debt burden increases, growth increase is required, and when this growth falters, as is the case, so does the entire system unless the debt is expunged. So, the only questions for the Dollar are:

  • When will collapse happen? and;
  • Is there a finger hovering above the “Destruct” button?

The difference this time around is that the whole world would be affected.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” (Aldous Huxley)

So who really controls the world? The Illuminati? Freemasons? The Bilderberg Group? Or are these all red herrings to distract your prying eyes from the real global elite? The answer, like most topics worth exploring, is not quite so simple.

Have no doubt, there are secretive global powers whose only goal is to keep and grow that power. But it really may not be as secretive as you’d think. And that’s what makes it even more criminal…

Let’s explore the three main categories: Financial, Political and Media. This is a harder task than you may imagine, since they all work in concert by design.

For the Financial Elite; follow the money. Systems theorist James B. Glattfelder sheds light on the dark corners of bank control and international finance with his scientific process analysis he pulls some of the major players out of the dark.

“From a massive database of 37 million companies, Glattfelder pulled out the 43,060 transnational corporations (companies that operate in more than one country) that are all connected by their shareholders. Digging further, he constructed a model that actually displays just how connected these companies are to one another through their ownership of shares and corresponding operating revenues.”

Huge Amount of Concentrated Control in Small Number of Hands

Only 1318 transnational corporations form the core of the economy. In attached graphic, the Super connected companies are red, very connected companies are yellow. The size of the dot represents revenue.

Above image is a chilling one that looks like some sort of intergalactic light globe. Glattfelder has done a remarkable job of boiling these connections down to the main actors — as well as pinpointing how much power they have over the global market. These “ownership networks” can reveal who the key players are, how they are organised, and exactly how interconnected these powers are.

“Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. What’s more, although they represent 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the 1318 appear to collectively own through their shares the majority of the world’s large blue chip and manufacturing firms — which is the “real” economy — that represents a further 60 per cent of global revenues (GDP).

When further untangled the web of ownership, tracked back to a “super-entity” of 147 even more tightly knit companies — all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity — that control 40 per cent of total wealth in the network.

According to his data, Glattfelder found that a top  of 730 shareholders control a whopping 80% of the entire revenue of transnational corporations.

And — surprise, surprise! — They are mostly financial institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom. That is a huge amount of concentrated control in a small number of hands…

Here are the top ten transnational companies that hold the most control over the global economy – and if you are one of the millions that are convinced Big Banks run the world, you should get a creeping sense of justification from this list:

    • Barclays plc.
    • Capital Group Companies Inc.
    • FMR Corporation
    • AXA
    • State Street Corporation
    • JPMorgan Chase & Co.
    • Legal & General Group plc.
    • Vanguard Group Inc.
    • UBS AG
    • Merrill Lynch & Co Inc

Interconnectedness of Top Players

Some of the other usual suspects round out the top 25, including JP Morgan, USB owner of Credit Suisse, and Goldman Sachs. What you won’t find are ExxonMobil, Microsoft, or General Electric, which is strange. In fact, only China Petrochemical Group Company at number 50 is the first company in the row that creates something.

The top 49 corporations are financial institutions, banks, and insurance companies — with the exception of Wal-Mart, which ranks at number 15… The rest essentially just push money around to one another. Here’s the interconnectedness of the top players in this international scheme:

Who is the Main Player?

The number one player is Barclays: “Barclays was a main player in the LIBOR manipulation scandal, and were found to have committed fraud and collusion with other interconnected big banks. They were fined $200 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, $160 million by the United States Department of Justice and £59.5 million by the Financial Services Authority for “attempted manipulation” of the Libor and Euribor rates.

Despite their crimes, Barclays still paid $61,781,950 in bonuses earlier that year, including a whopping $27,371,750 to investment banking head Rich Ricci. And yes, that’s actually his real name…”

These are the guys that run the world. “It’s essentially the “too big to fail” argument laid out in a scientific setting — only instead of just the U.S. and U.K. banks, these form an international cabal of banks and financial institutions so intertwined that they pose a serious threat to global economics.”

Effectively, instead of “too big to fail,” these are “too connected to fail”…

Who is Who of Global Power Brokers

 Glattfelder contends;

“a high degree of interconnectivity can be bad for stability, because stress can spread through the system like an epidemic.”

It is one thing to have suspicions that someone is working behind the scenes to control the world’s money supply.

It’s quite another to have scientific evidence that clearly supports it. But these guys can only exist within a political system that supports their goals. And those political systems are pretty much operating in the open…

The Political Elite has made every major geopolitical decision of the last seven decades that went through one of the following organisations: the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations The Bilderberg Group and the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Trilateral Commission cofounded in 1973 by the infamous David Rockefeller to create a group of the world’s power brokers that work together — outside of any official governmental or political allegiance — to bring about cooperation between North America, Western Europe and Japan. Launched under the guise of working together to solve the world’s problems. A noble goal — but their “problems” are very subjective.

It actually is a global who’s-who of power brokers. And while the Trilateral Commission excludes anyone currently holding public office from membership, it serves as a revolving door of the rich and powerful from the financial, political and academic elite. To familiarise yourselves with the entire member list take a look at: 

http://www.trilateral.org/download/file/TC_list_12-13(2).pdf

You’ll be shocked at who else is part of this secretive organisation. Just recently, this site is removed by the Google cabal.

Yet the Fed, other central banks and governments continue to manipulate the free market and strip future growth and earnings. Entrenched financial institutions and politicians continue to enrich themselves to maintain their wealth and power at our expense.

Discover what lies dormant beneath the surface of the people and motivate citizen’s spirit to rise up, to take back what the “Bad Guys” have stolen from us. If we the people WAKE UP now it will happen because we have the majority in numbers, open your eyes and your heart to the options that are available.

To be Continued, Stay Tuned…

https://finalwakeupcall.info/en/2023/09/12/who-rule-the-world/

Friday, September 1, 2023

Who murdered God’s Banker?

Banco Ambrosiano Scandal

The apparent suicide in June, 1982 of an Italian financier known as ”God’s banker,” who was found hanged beneath London’s Blackfriars Bridge, has added to the mystery of a major Italian financial scandal in which the Vatican appears heavily involved.

Five days after he vanished, his secretary jumped to her death from a window of the Milan bank. Mr. Calvi 61 years old was found in London hanging from a rope under Blackfriars Bridge on June 18, 1982.

He had joined Milan’s Banco Ambrosiano as a clerk, worked his way up to become its president and, along the way, through a series of spectacular deals, transformed what had been a modest regional bank into a major financial power, with assets of $18.7 billion in 1981.

”The Ambrosiano affair makes everyone wonder about the Vatican’s finances, but it really illustrates the fragility of the international banking system that we are all trying to preserve,” said Guido Carli, a former governor of the Bank of Italy and now a prominent industrialist.

As usual with such scandals in Italy, there are also unverifiable reports of the involvement of organised crime figures and even a recently discovered secret Masonic lodge opposed to the government that are somehow involved.

There are also reports that Banco Ambrosiano may have been a target of the British secret service, which is said to suspect it of financing Argentine arms purchases during the war over the Falkland Islands.

The Bank of Italy first became suspicious about Banco Ambrosiano in 1978 during a general crackdown on bank fraud, but immediately ran into a heavy political opposition.

This Vatican bank is officially known as the Institute of Religious Relations, from 1971 to 1989 its President was Archbishop Paul Marcinkus from Cicero, Illinois. Before that, he worked as a bodyguard for Pope Paul VI. However, he will be remembered for a scandal that broke out in 1982.

 Suicide Corrected as Murder

The scandal began with the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, one of Italy’s largest private banks, with a debt of $1.4 billion. Soon after, Roberto Calvi, the bank’s managing director and friend of Marcinkus, was found dead hanging under a bridge over the river Thames in London, in England.

The location of Blackfriars bridge was seen as indicating a link to P2 because members of the illegal group referred to themselves as ‘frati neri’, Italian for ‘black friars’.


The death of Calvi, the bank’s chairman and a P2 member, was initially deemed to have been a suicide. But subsequent investigations pointed to it having been a murder which Italian prosecutors believe was the work of the Sicilian Mafia.

The organised crime syndicate had used Ambrosiano to recycle funds, some of which were moved out of Italy via the Vatican bank. No-one was ever convicted for carrying out or commissioning Calvi ‘s murder.

Five people, including mafia boss Masonic grand master Licio Gelli were tried in connection with his murder, but were all acquitted. It is best known internationally for having been at the heart of a murder mystery involving both the Mafia and the Vatican that centred on the death of “God’s banker”!

It appears that the Vatican, through the Vatican Bank, is the main shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano and that they have channelled a billion dollars from the bank to 10 subsidiaries. Several rumours surrounding the scandal were, that other shareholders at the bank were involved in this organised crime and some were even members of the secret Masonic lodge-P2.

When Italian investigators tried to interview Marcinkus about the scandal, he was uncooperative. He refused to leave the Vatican and even refused to answer questions, referring to his diplomatic immunity.

Marcinkus was eventually indicted, but he never went to trial because the charges against him were dismissed. He remained in charge of the Vatican bank for seven years.

Prince Bernhard vetoed Pope John Paul I

The scandal even gave rise to some conspiracy theories. The most famous was used in the plot of Godfather Part III, as Pope John Paul I was assassinated by the mafia on orders in August 1978. John Paul I had been chosen as Pope in 1978, but Prince Bernhard the prince of the Netherlands vetoed it. He was found dead in bed after only 33 days in office. The official cause of death was a heart attack, but no autopsy was performed. According to the conspiracy theory, he was killed because he wanted to end the relationship between the church and the private bank.

According to senior officials investigating the scandal who do not wish to be identified, the Banco Ambrosiano affair centres on the close but ambiguous relationship between Mr. Calvi and Archbishop Paul C. Marcinkus, a 60-year-old native of Cicero, Ill., who for the last 10 years has run the Vatican’s free-wheeling but extremely secretive bank. The bank’s formal name is Instituto per le Opere de Religione, the Institute for Religious Works, and it is commonly referred to as I.O.R.

Archbishop Marcinkus, a former chief of papal security, has been a controversial figure in financial circles because, as head of the Vatican bank, he was responsible for the Vatican’s losing a reported $30 million in the collapse in 1974 of the business empire of Michele Sindona, the Sicilian financier.

During 1980 and 1981, investigating officials say, the late Mr. Calvi mounted an extensive lending program to the Peruvian, Nicaraguan and Nassau subsidiaries of the Banco Ambrosiano group, using funds borrowed in the Eurodollar market that eventually totalled some $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion.

Most of this money was then lent to a series of Panamanian companies with names such as Bellatrix Inc., Manic Inc. and Astrolfine Inc., most of which are thought to have no more than mail addresses. The loans were granted roughly evenly by Banco Ambrosiano in Milan and by its Luxembourg subsidiary, Banco Ambrosiano Holdings.

But Mr. Calvi lent these funds, investigators say, only after receiving what bankers call ”letters of comfort” from the Vatican bank. These letters, though vaguely worded, implied that the Vatican had an interest in the companies and was aware of their borrowing plans. Although such letters do not constitute a legal guarantee that the signatory will repay the loans, they are often issued to reassure lenders that a borrowing company has reputable backing.

But the Vatican bank also demanded and received what investigators call a ”counter letter” signed by Mr. Calvi and absolving it from all legal and financial responsibility for the loans to the Panamanian companies.

Investigating officials believe the Vatican did have an interest in the Panamanian companies and probably controlled a number of them. But they are convinced that Mr. Calvi was also part owner and effective manager of most of the companies and used the money they borrowed to buy shares in Banco Ambrosiano and probably in other companies as well.

By now, one senior official involved in the investigation estimates, the Panamanian companies own around 20 percent of Banco Ambrosiano.

House of Cards

As interest rates rose and the dollar strengthened, investigators found it likely that it became increasingly difficult for Mr Calvi to pay his loans in dollars with the dividends from his shares, which were often paid out in weak Italian lira. To remain solvent, he was forced to borrow more.

”It was a house of cards that was bound to fall down,”

one official said.

There is speculation that the Archbishop may have agreed to the deal to help out an old colleague and financial adviser since Banco Ambrosiano is regarded as one of Italy’s ”Catholic” banks with longstanding links to the Vatican. He may also have wished to protect the Vatican’s own stake in Banco Ambrosiano, which is assumed to be far more than the 1.8 percent shown by the latest official figures.

In the view of the Italian Treasury Minister, Nino Andreatta, and of Mr. Campi, the central bank’s governor, the Vatican acted improperly in issuing letters of comfort to Banco Ambrosiano at the same time as it asked the bank to absolve it from any responsibility for the Panamian companies. They believe it must therefore bear at least a moral responsibility for any losses incurred, according to senior officials.

Toward the end of his life, Mr. Calvi is said to have become increasingly involved with suspected underworld figures as his needs for ready cash increased. There are also rumours that he lent Peru $200 million to buy Exocet missiles for the Argentine forces during the Falkland war and thus became a target for the British secret service.

In light of the rumours, officials at the normally staid Bank of Italy and Finance Ministry expressed amazement at the finding by a London coroner that Mr. Calvi did indeed commit suicide by hanging himself under the bridge. The common reaction was:

”Why bother to go to London to do that?”

Scandalised Money Laundering

Paolo Cipriani, director of the bank, and his deputy Marco Tullio have resigned after the arrest by Italian tax police of a Vatican monsignor who used to work as a senior account manager in the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), which manages Vatican real estate holdings. The monsignor, Nunzio Scarano, is being questioned in jail over allegations of money laundering, corruption and fraud.

Pope Francis is scandalised and angry at the goings on behind the scenes at the IOR. He has decided to begin his planned clean-up of the Roman Curia, the central government of the Church, with a complete shakeup at the IOR.

Vatican security officers have been instructed to freeze any attempt to meddle with IOR documents, while an internal commission of inquiry with wide powers prepares a secret report on the current financial shenanigans, for the eyes of Pope Francis only.

The Vatican Bank has a damaged image at a time when the Pope is urging his flock to turn their attention to the plight of the world’s poor. There is speculation that one of Pope Francis’ options could be to dissolve the IOR altogether and transfer all Vatican banking to a reliable commercial bank.

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FINAL WAKE UP CALL

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The Bankers of God (Film 2002)

https://rumble.com/v2cvjks-i-banchieri-di-dio-il-caso-calvi-the-bankers-of-god-the-calvi-affair-film-2.html?mref=fnp0r&mc=5q83h


The Bankers of God: The Calvi Affair (Italian: I banchieri di Dio also known as The God's Bankers) is an Italian drama film directed in 2002 by Giuseppe Ferrara. Audio in Italian with English subtitles.

The film tells the story of the scandal of Banco Ambrosiano, mainly related to the figure of Roberto Calvi. The Clearstream scandal exploded as a case full of intricate affairs involving the financial world, the Vatican, the Masonic Lodge P2, the Italian Secret Service, the Secret Intelligence Service, the Italian politics, the Mafia and the Banda della Magliana. The movie narrates in detail all these connections, trying to reconstruct events and plots.

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

7 Reasons Why 'The China Crisis' Has Finally Arrived

As predicted in my book, “The China Crisis,” China’s economic structure is proving to be unsustainable.

In my last post, I argued why the China Evergrande bankruptcy is not the end of the economic crisis in China but just the beginning.

Knowing that such predictions have been made in the past by China observers, including yours truly, why should anyone think that it’s happening today?

A bit of historical context helps provide an answer to this question.

In 2012, I was asked by Wiley and Sons to write a book on China’s economic structure from my contrarian point of view. You may or may not recall that, at the time, China was the economic marvel of the world. Unlike most observers, I could see several critical problems with China’s political economy model and wrote about them in “The China Crisis.”

I identified seven key areas—given the basis upon which China or, more accurately, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operated—that made China’s economic model unsustainable. I wasn’t the first to see this. Gordon Chang wrote about it in 2001 in his book, “The Coming Collapse of China.” Mr. Chang predicted a collapse by 2011, which, of course, did not occur. This is an update of sorts.

 
Instead, China’s economic clout and technological prowess continue to grow and develop. That explains why, at that time and for the next seven years, all kinds of terms were coined to describe China’s burgeoning economic status. There was the “Beijing Miracle,” “The China Model,” “Chinese State Capitalism,” and other glowing pronouncements that gave near-unanimous affirmation of China’s progress and prognosis for a bright future.

Instead, China’s economic clout and technological prowess continue to grow and develop. That explains why, at that time and for the next seven years, all kinds of terms were coined to describe China’s burgeoning economic status. There was the “Beijing Miracle,” “The China Model,” “Chinese State Capitalism,” and other glowing pronouncements that gave near-unanimous affirmation of China’s progress and prognosis for a bright future.

In fact, many experts, economists, and observers were predicting that China’s state capitalism would be the model for emerging nations around the world because of how fast it had transformed China’s economy. It was also predicted that China would soon eclipse the United States in GDP and replace it as the global hegemon.

Regarding this last prediction, it’s important to acknowledge that it appears as if it's actually coming to fruition. In that regard, however, keep in mind that it's mostly due to U.S. policy failures rather than what China is doing.

But even our leaders' traitorous actions that have aided our adversaries in Beijing can’t compete with or prevent the venal nature and deleterious policies that the CCP has inflicted upon the Chinese people for many decades. The United States and other Western nations’ financial and technological investments have certainly delayed the inevitable but won’t stop it.

At its root, of course, is the corrosive nature of corruption. For the CCP, corruption in the form of political graft, wholesale theft from the private sector, and abuse of the financial system are the means to maintain control and gain wealth. Obtaining absolute power is the end goal, not a healthy economy.

Below is a brief look at how seven factors erode the social and economic sustainability in China.

1. Excessive Overuse of Factors of Production

When greasing the palms of Party officials is the main requirement for a project or policy, waste and fraud are not only unavoidable but lead to inefficiency in leveraging factors of production. In 2013, China used 10 times more factors of production than the United States to produce the same product. Has that improved? It’s hard to say, as accurate statistics that reflect poorly on the CCP and Xi Jinping, in particular, are difficult to find.

2. Inefficient Allocation of Economic Goods, Activity

This is related to No. 1 and is manifested in many ways, such as the theft of profitable companies by the Party and turning them into inefficient, debt-ridden "zombie" state-owned enterprises that destroy value and efficiency. It also transfers wealth from the middle class to the Party elite.

3. Stifling Innovation in Middle Class

Lack of freedom of information and the punishment of violators stifles innovation and creativity. Individuals are not allowed to solve problems by themselves. Successful private firms can count on being confiscated by the state at some point. Successful entrepreneurs who speak out about the abuses of the CCP are disappeared and reeducated. This engenders total fear of and reliance upon the state, both of which are what the CCP wants. Crushing individual creativity and innovation stifles a nation’s greatest resource—its people.

Developed economies are based on a broad middle class—precisely what has not been attained in China.

4. Lack of Enforcement of Regulations, Standards

From critical areas such as food production to pharmaceuticals, corners are cut, and quality is compromised. Over the years, this not only negatively impacts the health and safety of the people, but it undercuts the authority and legitimacy of the Party.

5. A False Economy: Debt-based 'Growth' Is a Cancer on Economy

In a capitalist economy, most development is based on market need, which is determined by local prices and market conditions, which then attract capital. Distorted “development” driven by political expediency isn’t development but a waste of time, money, and resources.

The Evergrande collapse is a prime example of the CCP’s distortion of the economy. China’s overreliance on overdevelopment could be compared to healthy growth in muscle tissue from working out versus that of a cancerous tumor from exposure to toxicity. The former builds up strength and vitality; the latter destroys it. Thus, at some point, even state-owned debt from a state-owned central bank becomes unsustainable.

6. Rampant Pollution Making China Unlivable, Causing Social Unrest

China is one of the worst polluters in the world. For example, it is rapidly losing its arable land to toxicity from mining, manufacturing, and desertification. This is happening because decades of state ownership have led to indifference about what happens to the natural resources, also known as the “tragedy of the commons.” Losing arable land by either toxicity or desertification is not easily reversible and leads to greater dependence on external food sources to feed itself.

Water pollution is another environmental disaster brought about by the CCP. When I wrote “The China Crisis,” about 40 percent of China’s waterways either could not sustain life or were unsafe for human consumption. Today, that number is up to 70 percent. Moreover, 80-90 percent of its groundwater is undrinkable.

China’s air pollution is known for being the worst in the world, responsible for millions of premature deaths. State officials claim that air pollution is decreasing in China. Yet, at the same time, China is adding more coal mines for energy production, leading to more pollution, not less. The CCP’s inability to address its pollution crisis reveals its economic model's failures, adding to civil unrest rather than social support.

7. Dystopian Depression Among Young Generation

When young people lose faith in their nation, they lose faith in their future. One outcome of that pessimism is the decision not to have children. China is not alone in this phenomenon, but like South Korea and Japan, it’s a big problem. Without the energy, drive, creativity, and belief of the young, the fall in population and its effects on consumption, taxes, and other economic factors make China’s economic future bleak.

Unfortunately, its unbalanced social and economic structure will lead to more excessive actions, internally and externally, as economic and social conditions worsen.

James R. Gorrie is the author of “The China Crisis” (Wiley, 2013) and writes on his blog, TheBananaRepublican.com. He is based in Southern California.

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

The Global Uprising Against Central Bank Digital Currencies Has Begun!


Central bank digital currencies (“CBDCs”) are deeply unpopular with the general public and we have a chance of stopping them in their tracks, writes James Corbett. We’re already seeing a massive global pushback against the CBDC agenda. And this pushback is already causing the banksters to panic and pull back on their grand plan for world domination.

If you listen to the stenographers and presstitutes of the establishment dinosaur media, you’ll believe that CBDCs not only represent an exciting opportunity to bring our outdated paper money system into the digital age but that they’ll be bestowed on us by the benevolent central banker technocrats in the next year or two (if we’re lucky!).

If you listen to the pundits in the alternative media, however, you’ll believe that CBDCs not only represent the greatest threat to human freedom in our lifetime but that they’ll be forced upon us by the evil central bankster overlords in the next year or two (no matter what we do to fend them off).

Do you see the similarities in these two “competing” narratives? In both cases, you and your opinion about CBDCs are utterly irrelevant. It’s a fait accompli. You can love ’em or hate ’em, embrace them or recoil from them, but whatever your position, you will be forced to use them.

But this just isn’t true. In fact, we’re already seeing a massive global pushback against the CBDC agenda. And this pushback is already causing the banksters to panic and pull back on their grand plan for world domination.

Global Pushback

As we all know, when globalists are looking for a population to test out their latest technology of enslavement, they turn to Africa. From genetic manipulation to vaccine experiments to agricultural “revolution,” there is no shortage of examples of pathocrats disguising their experiments in technocratic tyranny as philanthropic concern for the poor, beleaguered people of that continent. It’s hardly surprising, then, that Africa is once again serving as a laboratory for the latest globalist technocrat pet project: digital money.

Accordingly, Nigeria became one of the first nations in the world to adopt an official, national central bank digital currency when the Central Bank of Nigeria (“CBN”) launched the eNaira amid much fanfare in October 2021. Promoted with the slogan “Same Naira, more possibilities!” the bankster class collectively held its breath as it watched this trial run of digital money unfold before their eyes.

The early results of this experiment, however, were not promising for the money manipulators. Despite a massive push of the eNaira by the government and breathless coverage of its rollout in the establishment media, it was revealed one year after the digital currency’s launch that a mere 0.5% of the population – one in every 200 people – had actually used it.

Not to be dissuaded, the CBN imposed new banking regulations last December, limiting cash withdrawals from ATMs to just ₦20,000 ($45) per day in a bid to increase the adoption of the nation’s CBDC.

The result? Again, utter failure. In fact, worse than utter failure. An actual uprising!

Nigerians took to the streets in February of this year to protest the cash restrictions and even attempted to storm the central bank.

CBN officials are now rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, upgrading the eNaira app to allow contactless payments, as if that was what was keeping people from using the banksters’ new digital enslavement tokens. But, try as they might to cover it up, the results of this experiment in monetary manipulation are now clearly visible for all to see. The eNaira is a failure of such gargantuan proportions that it now serves as a cautionary tale to central bankers around the world about how pear-shaped things can get when a digital currency is shoved down an unwilling public’s throat.

But it isn’t just Nigeria where people are saying “no, thanks” to the banksters’ digital money agenda.

In the European Union, protesters are already marching against the European Central Bank’s (“ECB”) proposed “digital euro.” In Croatia, for example, activists are warning that their government’s adoption of the euro “will be followed by the introduction of a digital euro, and then you will have to kiss all the freedoms you know goodbye.” In the Netherlands, meanwhile, demonstrators have staged rallies warning about the coming European CBDC and the ECB’s plan “to control the spending habits of the population.”

In Russia, too – where Putin has just signed the Central Bank of Russia’s “digital Ruble” into law as an official national currency – people are already threatening to go Nigerian on their government. Recent polls show that a mere 6% of Russians are actually excited about their opportunity to use the new CBDC. This widespread distrust of the digital Ruble is reflected in the coverage of the currency on the nation’s alternative news websites, which are filled with articles decrying the technocratic tyranny. One such article sums up the situation by noting that “we can only say that if citizens actively use non-cash transactions, then they themselves will enter the electronic banking concentration camp, seemingly completely voluntarily.”

And how about in the bastion of liberty, the beacon on the hill, the good ol’ US of A? Well, the grandstanding politicians – always eager to get in front of a parade and pretend they’re leading it – are already introducing (and even passing) legislation to ensure CBDCs never sees the light of day in America.

Of course, readers of this column will know that these political promises aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Nevertheless, the proposed legislation is important because it reflects two underlying realities. Firstly, it demonstrates that the American public is not on board with the CBDC agenda. And secondly, it signals to the Fed and other central banksters that they risk upsetting their whole rigged monetary system if they push this agenda too far and too fast.

Banksters Running Scared

Yes, it’s safe to say that, on the CBDC issue at least, the momentum is not in the banksters’ favour. In fact, things are so bad that the establishment is now beginning to contemplate whether the mad dash toward CBDCs might just wake up the public to the whole monetary scam.

In a revealing op-ed in The Financial Times last month, Brookings Senior Fellow Eswar Prasad warned, “Central banks must not be blind to the threats posed by CBDCs.” After dutifully detailing all of the nifty features of programmable money that would-be world controllers can take advantage of (“imposing negative nominal interest rates to disincentivise saving,” for example), he then cautions the central banksters that their pretence of “political neutrality” might be exposed for the self-evident sham that it is if central banks start meddling in people’s everyday transactions.

Central banks could be viewed as political agents if their visibility into payment transactions is used for law enforcement or surveillance purposes. [. . .] Central banks already face threats to their independence, credibility and legitimacy. The more extensive the functionality of the money they issue, the greater the political pressures they will be exposed to. At a minimum, such innovations pose risks to the integrity of central bank money.

Oh, won’t somebody think of the central banksters’ credibility!?

And – wouldn’t ya know it?! – just as Prasad and others are beginning to warn that the banksters might be pushing too far and too fast with this whole “programmable money” idea, it looks like the monetary mafia are now stepping back from the CBDC brink . . . at least publicly.

Just this past week, the Central Bank of Colombia issued a white paper on the “Expected Macroeconomic Effects of Issuing a Retail CBDC,” which admits that if central banks push the cashless agenda too far and the situation “reaches a point where the use of cash is about to disappear, central bank money could lose its role as a monetary anchor for deposits and other forms of private money.” Also this past week, the Bank of Canada issued a report on “Unmet Payment Needs and a Central Bank Digital Currency,” which acknowledges that “consumers face few payment gaps or frictions and therefore might have relatively weak incentives to adopt and – especially – to use CBDC at scale.”

In other words, central bankers are quietly admitting there are no real advantages to retail CBDCs, and there are even potential downsides to their introduction.

Of course, as my astute readers will already know, this does not mean that the issue is settled, that the bankers have given up, and that the CBDC dream is officially done. No, it just means that they have to change tack and try to find other ways to cajole the public into the digital gulag. Perhaps this is why the central banking minions are now openly strategising about how best to sell their digital money agenda to an unwilling public.

Take the Bank of Israel, for example. It just released a new white paper purporting to identify “Principles for creating ‘Acceptance’ and ‘Network Effect’ for the Digital Shekel,” or, in plain English: “Ways to convince the rubes to use our virtual slave coins.” The document considers ideas for leveraging the “Network Effect” to artificially stimulate the adoption of the digital shekel. Naturally, the plan does not focus on ways to incentivise the use of CBDCs but rather on ways to enforce their acceptance, including obligating banks, payment providers and merchants to participate in the scheme or forcing the government to officially declare the digital shekel to be legal tender.

On its face, the fact that the banksters are now openly plotting how best to stuff digital money down the public’s throat may be a worrying development.

But, upon further reflection, the fact that the banksters are now turning from the carrots of incentives and bonuses and discounts to the stick of government regulation and enforced adoption does not mean that the anti-CBDC movement is doomed to failure.

On the contrary. The fact that the banksters are now actively engaged in a struggle against the general public are signs that we are winning and that CBDCs are not inevitable.

Resistance is Fertile

I’ve made the point before, but it bears repeating: the constant stream of propaganda, conditioning and censorship that we are subjected to from governments, establishment institutions and their lapdog media is not a sign of their strength. It is a sign of their weakness.

The fact that they have to spend billions of dollars a year pumping lies and misinformation into the heads of the citizenry to keep people from seeing the truth is a tacit admission that our thoughts and opinions actually do matter. After all, why would they bother propagandising to us at all if they didn’t require our approval (or at least our docile apathy) to continue pursuing their agenda?

Similarly, the fact that the banksters are ramping up the next stage of their CBDC indoctrination operation – attempting to convince an increasingly sceptical public that a complete overhaul of the fabric of our monetary reality is somehow beneficial to Joe Sixpack and Jane Soccermom – is a tacit admission that we are the ones who decide whether CBDCs are implemented or not. They can tout the benefits of their digital slave tokens all they want, but if we refuse to use them, then the CBDC world order will not come to fruition.

The banksters, for one, are well aware of this fact. But are we aware of it?

I understand why this message – that pushback and protest do matter and that the globalist agenda is not inevitable – is such an unpopular one in the “alternative” media. If the message is simply: “Relax, everyone! The battle is over and CBDCs have been defeated! Now go back to sleep!” then it is indeed no different from enemy propaganda.

But that is not the message here. Instead, the message is that the public is – for the time being, and until the propaganda machine kicks into high gear – overwhelmingly on our side. People DO NOT WANT programmable money and the vast majority see it for what it is: another trick on the part of the establishment to take more power and control away from everyday people and put it in the hands of the banksters and their cronies.

That’s why this is the time to seize the momentum of public opinion and steer it into actual productive activity. We can encourage Cash Friday awareness. We can build up local trading communities based on alternative and complementary currencies. We can introduce those around us to Agorist.Market. We can promote community currencies and precious metals and decentralised cryptos and barter circles and the million other forms of survival currency that clued-in Corbetteers have been researching for years.

The time has come to harvest those seeds you’ve been planting! The public is on our side!

Yes, your resistance and pushback do matter. It does make a difference. We do have a part to play in this. Now, let’s go out there and put the final nail in the CBDC coffin.

What are we waiting for?

The Corbett Report is an independent, listener-supported alternative news source. It operates on the principle of open-source intelligence and provides podcasts, interviews, articles and videos about breaking news and important issues from 9/11 Truth and false flag terror to the Big Brother police state, eugenics, geopolitics, the central banking fraud and more. 

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Friday, May 26, 2023

The Hunter Biden Dossier: PDF Download

 

May 12, 2023

The Hunter Biden Dossier: PDF Download

Executive Summary of Alleged Crimes (73-page full report below)

https://open.substack.com/pub/jasonpowers/p/the-hunter-biden-dossier-pdf-download?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Project White Light

Jason Powers

Hunter Biden through a complex scheme has allegedly acquired a 20%+ stake in 2 U.S. LNG projects, specifically for exporting LNG to European Union by 2026 or to China. This crime potentially includes transactions outside of the United States (wiring funds) to Chinese business partners (or their China-based replacements) from his 2017-19 dealmaking intrigues gathered from the “Laptop from Hell.” Mervyn Yan’s Coldharbour Capital LLC proximity to the American Stock Transfer & Trust (promoted by CATHAY Bank) provides one conduit for transfer.[i],[ii],[iii],[iv] COSCO Group (HK) is a CCP operation that may provide the other conduit or transaction portal being the owner of Gemini-Rosemont Realty of which Hunter Biden was once, or still is, a shareholder.[v],[vi] Each would route through Georges Berges Art Gallery – for Hunter.[vii]

Using Macquarie Group veteran, Brendan Duval, who is based in New York City, the operation locally included Continental Stock & Trust assignment that were held in a blind trust ownership managed by Brendan Duval, the CEO of Glenfarne. Glenfarne uses JPMorgan Chase, Scotiabank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, Natixis and Davivienda International to finance Glenfarne and subsidiary companies during merger transactions. Glenfarne (& its subsidiaries) use Greenberg Traurig[viii], White & Case, K&L Gates (lobbying) for its legal work in SEC filings.

On April 6, 2023, Glenfarne closed out their initial business formation, 10 business days after their March 23, 2023, SEC filing deadline. But, shortly thereafter, President Biden FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) approved Texas LNG regarding advancing to their FID (Final Investment Decision) for late in 2023. Glenfarne still holds this asset – though former shareholders were dissolved out of the company. No further SEC filings made by Duval, so far.

Lobbying done by K&L Gates dates to the fall of 2017 regarding both Magnolia and Texas LNG, through Stacy Ettinger et.al., a former staffer for Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Ettinger also lobbies for U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) where Hunter Biden was a director from 2012-2018.[ix] Biden personally knows CEO Elizabeth Schrayer of USGLC.

Ettinger filed lobbying documents for the 1st quarter of 2023 regarding Texas LNG just as Glenfarne ceased their 2-year business formation charter (through SEC filings).[x] Ettinger is a notable lobbyist for ByteDance (TikTok) in 2023 just as Congress attempts to use that CCP problem for passage of the RESTRICT Act: an authoritarian upgrade of the PATRIOT Act.

Given the Biden Administration’s actions regarding energy policies, from the Keystone XL pipeline[xi], draining of U.S. strategic oil reserves[xii], to allegations made by Sy Hirsh regarding the Nord Stream 2 pipeline sabotage by the United States military and intelligence forces[xiii], this deal’s ongoing progress to consummation is odd and requires investigation at the local, state, and federal levels. Potentially providing LNG exports to “friend” and foe alike, along with key circumstantial evidence gathered, this may rise to the level of Treason against the United States by the 46th President. Through Joe’s son, and a vast array of lawyers and intelligence connections, they have jointly conspire to give aid and comfort to our known enemies.

READ MORE

https://jasonpowers.substack.com/p/the-hunter-biden-dossier-pdf-download

--- --- ---

[i] https://archive.ph/2z9jk#selection-1185.0-1201.35

[ii] https://archive.ph/3T7s8#selection-271.46-279.19

[iii] https://archive.ph/1gwHn

[iv] https://opencorporates.com/officers/277316457

[v] https://bidenlaptopemails.com/biden-emails/email.php?id=20160823-132110_60800

[vi] https://archive.ph/b23g0

[vii] https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17811/hunter-biden-corruption

[viii] https://fintel.io/doc/sec-glenfarne-merger-corp-1818880-corresp-2021-march-04-18764-8228

[ix] https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/lobbyists/summary?cycle=2020&id=Y0000052525L

[x] https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/lobbyists/summary?cycle=2023&id=Y0000052525L

[xi] https://globallnghub.com/report-presentation/keystone-xl-the-end-of-the-line

[xii] https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_ending_stocks_of_crude_oil_in_the_strategic_petroleum_reserve

Saturday, April 29, 2023

De-dollarization kicks into high gear

April 27 2023

It is now established that the US dollar’s status as a global reserve currency is eroding. When corporate western media begins to attack the multipolar world’s de-dollarization narrative in earnest, you know the panic in Washington has fully set in.

The numbers: the dollar share of global reserves was 73 percent in 2001, 55 percent in 2021, and 47 percent in 2022. The key takeaway is that last year, the dollar share slid 10 times faster than the average in the past two decades.

Now it is no longer far-fetched to project a global dollar share of only 30 percent by the end of 2024, coinciding with the next US presidential election.

The defining moment – the actual trigger leading to the Fall of the Hegemon – was in February 2022, when over $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves were “frozen” by the collective west, and every other country on the planet began fearing for their own dollar stores abroad. There was some comic relief in this absurd move, though: the EU “can’t find” most of it.

Now cue to some current essential developments on the trading front.

Over 70 percent of trade deals between Russia and China now use either the ruble or the yuan, according to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

Russia and India are trading oil in rupees. Less than four weeks ago, Banco Bocom BBM became the first Latin American bank to sign up as a direct participant of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), which is the Chinese alternative to the western-led financial messaging system, SWIFT.

China’s CNOOC and France’s Total signed their first LNG trade in yuan via the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange.

The deal between Russia and Bangladesh for the construction of the Rooppur nuclear plant will also bypass the US dollar. The first $300 million payment will be in yuan, but Russia will try to switch the next ones to rubles.

Russia and Bolivia’s bilateral trade now accepts settlements in Boliviano. That’s extremely pertinent, considering Rosatom’s drive to be a crucial part of the development of lithium deposits in Bolivia.

Notably, many of those trades involve BRICS countries – and beyond. At least 19 nations have already requested to join BRICS+, the extended version of the 21st century’s major multipolar institution, whose founding members are Brazil, Russia, India, and China, then South Africa. The foreign ministers of the original five will start discussing the modalities of accession for new members in an upcoming June summit in Capetown.

BRICS, as it stands, is already more relevant to the global economy than the G7. The latest IMF figures reveal that the existing five BRICS nations will contribute 32.1 percent to global growth, compared to the G7’s 29.9 percent.

With Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Indonesia, and Mexico as possible new members, it is clear that key Global South players are starting to focus on the quintessential multilateral institution capable of smashing Western hegemony.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) are working in total sync as Moscow’s partnership with Riyadh in OPEC+ metastasizes into BRICS+, in parallel to the deepening Russia-Iran strategic partnership.

MbS has willfully steered Saudi Arabia toward Eurasia’s new power trio Russia-Iran-China (RIC), away from the US. The new game in West Asia is the incoming BRIICSS – featuring, remarkably, both Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose historic reconciliation was brokered by yet another BRICS heavyweight, China.

Importantly, the evolving Iran-Saudi rapprochement also implies a much closer relationship between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as a whole and the Russia-China strategic partnership.

This will translate into complementary roles – in terms of trade connectivity and payment systems – for the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), linking Russia-Iran-India, and the China-Central-Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor, a key plank of Beijing’s ambitious, multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Today, only Brazil, with its President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva caged by the Americans and an erratic foreign policy, runs the risk of being relegated by the BRICS to the status of a secondary player.

Beyond BRIICSS

The de-dollarization train has been propelled to high-speed status by the accumulated effects of Covid-linked supply chain chaos and collective western sanctions on Russia.

The essential point is this: The BRICS have the commodities, and the G7 controls finance. The latter can’t grow commodities, but the former can create currencies – especially when their value is linked to tangibles like gold, oil, minerals, and other natural resources.

Arguably the key swing factor is that pricing for oil and gold is already shifting to Russia, China, and West Asia.

In consequence, demand for dollar-denominated bonds is slowly but surely collapsing. Trillions of US dollars will inevitably start to go back home – shattering the dollar’s purchasing power and its exchange rate.

The fall of a weaponized currency will end up smashing the whole logic behind the US’ global network of 800+ military bases and their operating budgets.

Since mid-March, in Moscow, during the Economic Forum of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CSI) – one of the key inter-government organizations in Eurasia formed after the fall of the USSR – further integration is being actively discussed between the CSI, the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS.

Eurasian organizations coordinating the counterpunch to the current western-led system, which tramples on international law, was not by accident one of the key themes of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s speech at the UN earlier this week. It is also no accident that four member-states of the CIS – Russia and three Central Asian “stans” – founded the SCO along with China in June 2001.

The Davos/Great Reset globalist combo, for all practical purposes, declared war on oil immediately after the start of Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine. They threatened OPEC+ to isolate Russia – or else, but failed humiliatingly. OPEC+, effectively run by Moscow-Riyadh, now rules the global oil market.

Western elites are in a panic. Especially after Lula’s bombshell on Chinese soil during his visit with Xi Jinping, when he called on the whole Global South to replace the US dollar with their own currencies in international trade.

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), recently told the New York-based Council of Foreign Relations – the heart of the US establishment matrix – that “geopolitical tensions between the US and China could raise inflation by 5 percent and threaten the dominance of the dollar and euro.”

The monolithic spin across western mainstream media is that BRICS economies trading normally with Russia “creates new problems for the rest of the world.” That’s utter nonsense: it only creates problems for the dollar and the euro.

The collective west is reaching Desperation Row – now timed with the astonishing announcement of a Biden-Harris US presidential ticket running again in 2024. This means that the US administration’s neo-con handlers will double down on their plan to unleash an industrial war against both Russia and China by 2025.

The petroyuan cometh

And that brings us back to de-dollarization and what will replace the hegemonic reserve currency of the world. Today, the GCC represents more than 25 percent of global oil exports (Saudi Arabia stands at 17 percent). More than 25 percent of China’s oil imports come from Riyadh. And China, predictably, is the GCC’s top trading partner.

The Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange went into business in March 2018. Any oil producer, from anywhere, can sell in Shanghai in yuan today. This means that the balance of power in the oil markets is already shifting from the US dollar to the yuan.

The catch is that most oil producers prefer not to keep large stashes of yuan; after all, everyone is still used to the petrodollar. Cue to Beijing linking crude futures in Shanghai to converting yuan into gold. And all that without touching China’s massive gold reserves.

This simple process happens via gold exchanges set up in Shanghai and Hong Kong. And not by accident, it lies at the heart of a new currency to bypass the dollar being discussed by the EAEU.

Dumping the dollar already has a mechanism: making full use of the Shanghai Energy Exchange’s future oil contracts in yuan. That’s the preferred path for the end of the petrodollar.

US global power projection is fundamentally based on controlling the global currency. Economic control underlies the Pentagon’s ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ doctrine. Yet now, even military projection is in shambles, with Russia maintaining an unreachable advance on hypersonic missiles and Russia-China-Iran able to deploy an array of carrier-killers.

The Hegemon – clinging to a toxic cocktail of neoliberalism, sanction dementia, and widespread threats – is bleeding from within. De-dollarization is an inevitable response to system collapse. In a Sun Tzu 2.0 environment, it is no wonder the Russia-China strategic partnership exhibits no intention of interrupting the enemy when he is so busy defeating himself.

ByPepe Escobar