Category Archives: the US dollar

The North Atlantic Concept is Dying.

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In many ways, the present world situation was created in the 1930’s. The Soviet Union was considered the main threat to Western control of the world. The Soviet Union supported anti-colonial struggles throughout the Colonial World, which was controlled by Western European States and the US. Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President von Hindenburg on January 31,1933. The Nazis were the largest party in Germany. Every leader in the West knew who Adolf Hitler was. German-American and British-German friendship societies were formed glorifying German-Nordic race and culture. France and other Latin Countries of Europe were not included, even though they were the main pillars of European and Western Civilization. One cannot imagine Europe without its Greco-Roman foundation. All the sophisticated aspects of the English language are Latino-French.

Overnight, Germany became the dominant European power under Hitler. France, on the other hand, was not as influential and demanding as Germany; it had lost élan, vital in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Germany became unified under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor. France was easily defeated, and the Emperor, Napoleon III, was captured at Sedan in northeast France. France with its Allies was victorious in the First World War but the war was highly exhausting and destructive. In the interim period between the world wars, France had weak governments of short duration. Britain was also weak, but enjoyed a special relationship with the US. France, despite being the longest running ally of the US, did not have this special relationship…

The USSR was isolated. Despite its efforts to form an Anti-Hitler coalition, Russia had been spurned. The only ally remaining to it was Mongolia. The USSR and Mongolia defeated the Empire of Japan in the Battle of Khalkhyn Gol, Mongolia in 1939. Europe was sliding towards war. The only western European leader who could have prevented the Second World War would have been General Charles de Gaulle. Had he been the president of France during the 1930’s, he would have formed a military alliance with Russia. Germany, under Hitler, then would have been contained. De Gaulle would also have been able to restore the French elan.

In the 1930’s Hitler was on the march. All his foreign demands had been met and it was Anschluss with Austria in the spring of 1938 and then the takeover of Czecho-Slovakia in the Autumn 1938, via Munich Agreement. The USSR wanted to defend the  Czech interests but was not invited to attend Munich. The secret British and American idea was to entice Hitler to attack Russia, and establish Lebensraum {Living space}, for Germany in the East, which had been Hitler’s goal from the very beginning. The wheels of war were set into motion secretly by the West. When the Soviet-German Non Aggression Pact was signed in August,1939, the West was indignant. Russia, how dare you ! Only the West is allowed such games. The invasion of Russia was then postponed, but not for long…

When Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany with reluctance. The “Phony War” followed on the Western Front. Britain and France were more interested in helping Finland in the Soviet-Finnish War than fighting Germany. After the French defeat and the British graceful exit from Dunkirk, Hitler was ready to attack Russia on June 22, 1941. The Western press gloated. Germany would win in about six to sixteen weeks. There would be tripartite control of the world, the British Empire, Germany, and the US. Germany would control the USSR land mass, Britain and the US would control the rest of the world. The US and Britain gave Germany about three years to defeat the USSR, but it never happened. By 1944, it was apparent that Germany would lose the war in the East,  and the Western Allies panicked. The Second Front was organized with the Normandy invasion to share in the division of Europe. The Cold War started long before the Second World War had ended. Operation Unthinkable was suggested by Churchill, as well as other plans by the Americans to destroy the USSR. And the Cold War never ended when USSR dissolved…

The Cold War continues today in multiple forms. NATO is expanding even though it is decaying. The Montenegro elite want to join NATO. The currency war against the ruble is raging. Oil prices were decreased in an attempt to hurt Russia. Sanctions and trade embargoes are being waged. Russia and ISIL have been declared enemies of the US. This is crazy. This US wants to destroy Russia to save its failing economic system which ultimately cannot be salvaged. The boomerang of sanctions and embargoes against Russia are only hurting the European Union. The European economy is just as bad as the US’s, if not worse. The onslaught of refugees is destroying the fabric of Europe. The Russian plane and Paris tragedies are changing the very policies of Europe. Europe will drift away from the North Atlantic and embrace Afro-Eurasia. Latin America is already embracing Afro-Eurasia. The US is Introducing counter measures such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Policy, which may or may not work.

The US is in a difficult position. The world is coalescing around Russia and China, and it cannot do much about it. The US  has only known one means of control: the policy of confrontation and intimidation it has used since its very inception. The Ruling Elite of the country will not change, although some members of the Elite perceive the danger. In a previous post, I said that US finance capitalism is supported by three pillars: paper (the dollar), the stock market, and the bond market, and that all three of these are based on debt. If one falters, all three will fall and the US economy will enter a black hole, and the European Union will drift away from Canada and the USA. Only time will tell.

 

 

The Middle East is the Pivot of World History.

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The Middle East is on the verge of great conflict.  The lines of conflict have been drawn up. The policy of the US since 1948 has been to secure the existence of Israel. This policy still exists today. The US is more involved in the Middle East than ever before. The policy of Israel and the US is to destroy or fragment any state that opposes the existence of Israel. Israel is a very powerful state, militarily and technologically. Some consider Israel the fourth most powerful state in the world, after the big three countries, China, Russia, and the US. The Achilles Heel of Israel is water. It has to import almost half of its water, mainly from Turkey,  a clearly pivotal state to the existence of Israel. The Armenian Genocide of 1916 in the Ottoman Empire caused  by the Turks is not recognized by Israel nor the US. It is understandable as to why.

Egypt and Jordan have been neutralized and diplomatic relations with Israel established. This relationship is precarious at best though. Libya and Iraq have been severely damaged but not yet destroyed.The last man standing has been Bashar al Assad of Syria. The US has decreed that Assad must go, but he is not going anywhere. A famous Prussian general, von Clausewitz, declared that war is a diplomacy by other means. Creation of the Islamic State by the West is diplomacy by other means. ISIS or the Islamic State has been declared by the US to be a terrorist state…but not really. The US bombs ISIS.. but not really. With all those shiny, new Toyota trucks and modern weapons ISIS is moving with the speed of light across Iraq and Syria. Volunteers are coming from all over the world. Volunteers are mainly Moslem Youth. One famous US senator was photographed with the Islamic State group. Even so, Iraq and Syria are still standing. Russia and Iran have stepped in. A sort of alliance has been formed, composed of Hasbullah  of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Russia. The opposing forces are ISIS, the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States. The massive refugee problem which has been created by US policies in the Middle East is destabilizing Europe. The economy of Europe, already weak, is being weakened further by the onslaught of refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan. The vaunted economy of Germany is standing on one leg only. German exports are collapsing. Sanctions are hurting Europe more than they are hurting Russia. If Syria and Iraq win against ISIS, there will be a geo-strategic shift in the Middle East. The Palestinians are sensing this. A massive Palestinian uprising is in the making. China is developing new Silk Roads to Europe and Africa avoiding sea lanes controlled by the US Navy. Latin America is moving closer to Afro-Eurasia. Highways and high speed rail roads will be criss-crossing Afro-Eurasia. The US and its closest allies will face isolation…

Europe must re-consider its position vis a vis Russia. The Wall of Enmity that the US is’ building between Russia and Europe is not going to succeed. It is just a matter of time before the  people of the Ukraine rise up against the Kiev Junta and take their country back (with Russia where it belongs). The future of Europe is with Afro-Eurasia and Latin America. If the Palestinian Intifada turns massive and Israel feels threatened, it may use the nuclear option. Saudi Arabia also cannot be ignored, it is one of the key players in the Middle East. The Saudis are involved in mortal combat in Yemen with the Houthis and are about to lose big. If the Saudi dynasty is overthrown in the not too distant future and replaced by an anti-western leadership, you can kiss the petro dollar good bye. The dollar and the US economy would collapse. The US would face a series of crises it has never yet faced in its entire history. The Israeli economy, which is dependent on the US, would most certainly collapse. Perhaps, instinctively, the Palestinians are sensing that. I repeat again, a massive Intifada is in the works. No question, the Middle East is the pivot of world history.

The Big Shift

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The world is shifting, whether one likes it or not. It is inevitable. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are two international communities: the one of the West, and the other of the Rest. The International Community of the rest is much bigger, and consists of more than six billion people. The International Community of the West, up until recently, played the leading role. Not anymore. The International Community of the Rest refused to sanction Russia because of Crimea. The Western Community sanctioned Russia for which its members in Europe are suffering. The US wants to destroy Russia, partition it into three parts and exploit it. By destroying Russia, the West would be able to control China on all sides, hence achieving the domination of the world. But right now, the world is at a stalemate. This stalemate cannot persist for long because of the inherent instability; it requires too much energy. Projecting power a la US is very expensive. The US is able to do this because of the unique status of the dollar in the world. The dollar is after all, the official currency of the world. The world is supporting the use and value of the dollar, while the US prints it. What a beautiful arrangement!.

By trying to sanction Russia, the US wanted to destroy it. But the West does not know Russia, its people, its history, or its culture. Russia is an unassailable fortress. It is totally self sufficient. Morally and ethically speaking, Russia is on the right side of history. An American,Edgar Cayce, once said that Russia is the hope of the world. The Pentagon boys and the Wall Street boys should be aware of this. The International Community of the Rest is aware of this, and is siding with Russia. Defending the independence of nations is morally and ethically correct. Destroying countries, nations, and installing puppets is immoral and evil. The world is realizing this and is coalescing with Russia. Russia and China have close relations. In trade,they are using their currencies, not the dollar. There is the Shanghai Co-operation Organization composed of China, Russia, and Mongolia. Many of the former Soviet Central Asian Republics are also members, like Kazakhstan, Uzbehkistan. Tajikistan, and Kyrgizia. India and Pakistan have recently joined. Iran has observer status but it also wants to join. The Eurasian Union consists of Armenia, Kirgistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Russia. Vietnam recently joined. MERCOSUR of Latin America is negotiating with the Eurasian Union about joining. (Members of MERCOSUR are Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay.)

The US is also moving towards forming trading blocks in the Pacific and the Atlantic, known as Trans Pacific Partnership, and the Trans Atlantic Free Trade. The TPP is almost finished, but rans Atlantic talks are not going that well. There could be confrontation brewing between the International Community of the West led by the US and the International Community of the Rest coalescing around the Russia Federation. Nuclear war cannot be excluded.

Saudi Arabia will implode, then explode

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Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932, by Ibn Saud, who joined four regions of Arabia into one and proclaimed himself a king. The four regions are Hejal, Najd, Eastern Arabia, aka Al Ahsa, and Southern Arabia, aka Asir. Southern Arabia borders Yemen where civil war is going on. Saudis support ex-president Hadhi, who was overthrown by  the Huthis, the biggest ethnic group in Yemen. Eastern Arabia borders the Persian Gulf,and across the Gulf faces Iran. Eastern Arabia is rich in hydrocarbons, oil and gas. A large desert country, it has to import most of the food for its 30 million inhabitants, a quarter of them foreign workers. The workers are mainly from the Middle East and South Asia. All the important posts of the country are in the hands of the descendants of the founder of the Kingdom, Ibn Saud. The number of descendants is anywhere between six and ten thousand individuals. Women have few if any rights. The Wahabi form of Islam is the official religion. Saudi Arabia, in essence is owned by Royal family members. It is   like the Walton family who owns Walmart.

A special relationship had been established between Saudi Arabia and the US in 1945 during the Second World War when President Roosevelt was returning from the Yalta Conference. The Saudi King met President Roosevelt on an American warship in the Mediterranian Sea. This special relationship was sealed. Saudi Arabia would become the special servant of the US. In return, the US would provide protection.

The US defaulted on its gold obligation or politely stated, President Nixon took the dollar off of the gold standard in August of 1971. Up until then, the Central Banks of surplus dollar countries could exchange their dollar holdings for 35 dollars an ounce. The US was losing its’ gold. Over night the gold window was closed. President de Gaulle of France extracted as much gold from the US as he could in the 1960’s. He sent French warships to load up the gold that belonged to France and took it there. Other countries followed. Imagine how enamored US officials became of de Gaulle!  (Incidentally, de Gaulle was forced to resign in 1969. Massive demonstrations took place in Paris in May of that year. Could there be any connection to de Gaulle’s independent economic and foreign policy?)  De Gaulle told the Europeans not to accept Britain into the European Union. He warned that Britain would be the American “Trojan Horse”. Georges Pompidou, a banker, then became president of France. Britain then joins the Union. Any connection there????

The dollar started to drift, and inflation and gold were rising. President Nixon introduced price control, which was not too successful. The key country in saving the dollar was Saudi Arabia. How? Let me explain. The pre emptive war which Israel carried out against the Arabs was stunningly successful; the Arabs were devastated, they lost Gaza, the West Bank along with East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights of Syria, and the Sinai.  The Suez Canal was closed. Israel controlled the Sinai bank of the Suez Canal. Then, Nasser of Egypt died. The defeat was too much for him. Anwar Al Sadat, a general, took over. A deal had to be made. Sadat broke with the Soviet Union. Secretly, the Arabs were encouraged to win their lost territories back. The Yom Kippur War started in October of 1973. Israel was losing this war. Golda Meir, the prime minister pushed back by threatening to use the “Samson Option”: that is, using nuclear weapons to win the war. Nixon ordered a huge military supply to Israel. The front stabilized and negotiations began. The Arab World formed OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Saudi Arabia, being the biggest producer and exporter, played a key role. The Petro Dollar was born. From henceforth, all oil and oil products would be traded in dollars. Every importing country had to have dollars to import oil. As for the US, all it had to do was to print paper dollars.  In 1975 Americans were allowed to buy  gold for the first time since 1935. The Shah of Iran also played a major role in the formation of OPEC. But then the Iranian Revolution came about in 1979 and the Shah was overthrown. The US lost control over Iran. Hundreds of billions of dollars of Iranian assets were frozen in the US. They are still frozen to this day. The Islamic Republic of Iran became the implacable enemy of Saudi Arabia…

Saudi Arabia is afraid of revolution a la Iran, or the possibility of a secular revolution, though this is less likely. The Saudi Royal family hates both Iran and Syria and they share a common goal with Israel:  Israel wants Syria and Iran destroyed, which would give Israel a free hand in the Middle East. (They would get the waters of Lebanon, especially the Litani River which flows in the  shape of a hockey stick through the Bekka Valley of Lebanon into the Mediterranean Sea.) Turkey would like parts of Syria bordering  on its south eastern area in order to control the Kurdish problem. Saudi Arabia faces the Houthi independence of Yemen. The war is not going well, at least presently. The Houthis will deliver a hanjar (Arabic word for a dagger) into the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia. Europe is looking at Russia and Syria in a different light because of the massive refugee problem. If the world economy collapses further, the price of oil may go down to twenty dollars. That would implode the Kingdom, which would be followed by an Iranian style revolution. Israel will face a massive Palestinian uprising. The tragedy of this world is that morally and ethically speaking, the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are on the wrong side of history. Only time will tell…

The Dollar, the American Thunder Bolt of Zeus

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Most people do not know how much power and control the US holds over the world by the fact that the dollar is the reserve currency of the world. Until recently, it was the official currency of the world. By controlling the reserve currency, the US in fact, controlled the world. At Bretton-Woods, New Hampshire in 1944, the dollar was crowned Emperor of the World. The International Monetary Fund {IMF}, the World Bank, and the Bank for International Development were created to impose the rule of the dollar. These institutions have international sounding names, but they are as American as a McDonald’s hamburger…

After the Second World War, the Colonial World of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Carribean  were decolonized. Instead of being free and totally independent they went right into ” dollar debt dependency”. They jumped from the pan into the fire. In this Salto Mortale, they were guided and helped by, what do you know, the IMF, the World Bank, etc. The agenda was set by the US Government to fight Communism. They have been in hell ever since. Any leader who rebelled was overthrown, assassinated, hanged or impaled. Many communist countries of Eastern Europe were infiltrated and enticed into the beauty of dollar debt. Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia come to mind. Hungarian dollar debt was referred to as “Goulash Communism.” Communism is gone but the dollar debt remains. Also, Yugoslavia is no more, but the debt of the successor states has increased markedly.

Presently, the world is so indebted that debt can hardly grow. The burden of debt of the Third World and many countries of the First World has become unbearable. Individuals, countries, nations, and other entities  will start going into default. The US is the most indebted nation in the world ,but that is no big deal, because it is indebted in its own currency. The rest of the world supports the US debt by holding dollars. In the process it is subservient to US interests. In other words, whatever the US wants, it gets and the rest of the world pays, because US possesses the Thunder Bolt of Zeus.

It is immoral to entice individuals, and/or nations to go into debt, Christianity and Islam condemn usury; it is a criminal act. The Western media constantly encourages people to go into debt. Capitalism without debt is like life on earth without water. It cannot exist and thrive. The world’s debt is slowing down, hence consumption is decreasing which is leading to a deceleration of growth.  Wages are stagnant or decreasing. The velocity of money is at an all time low. The Baltic Dry Index is going down. World trade is decreasing. The recovery in the US has not been ” recovery”. Instead, it has been stagnation to the down side, with 94.5 million people in the US no longer in the labor force. The reported unemployment rate is 5.1. That is an outright lie and deception. Eric Blair, aka, George Orwell said that telling truth in an Age of Deception is a revolutionary act. We live in an age of lies and deception. The Modus Operandi of the present economic system is lies and deception. US power will persist as long as the Thunder Bolt of Zeus has juice. How long will it last? Nobody knows. The US will do everything possible, including war, to maintain it. However, it will be the rest of the world that will determine the longevity of the dollar. The Zeus of antiquity and his thunder bolts are no more.

No economic recovery is possible,if ever.

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There is constant talk that economic recovery in the US is taking place. Bluntly stated, there is no recovery. What is taking place is economic “shunting” of electronic money created by the Federal Reserve into paper assets. The Federal Reserve calls this shunting “channeling”. They must be psychic. No channeling will save the system. The life force (or energy) is leaving the US economic system. This is evident in that 94.5 million people are not working. 47 million people are on food stamps. The infrastructure is collapsing. In other words, the Main Street is dying. It means that energy is leaving the Main Street and going to Wall Street. Medically speaking , in septic shock shunting is a very grave sign…

Channeling is a very ineffective policy. It is also brutal. It seems to imply that as Wall Street gets richer they will spend more but things don’t really operate that way: the people who have been blessed by Wall Street already spend as much as they need. Instead, the denizens of Wall Street with excess profits speculate even more. Bubbles are created in which the rich wallow, be they stocks, bonds, high end real estate, and various forms of derivatives. They serve no useful purpose. They are parasites. They extract wealth from working people and Mother Earth. How long can this go on? Not very long.

Wall Street claims that it is the center of wealth creation. False!! In the casino which Wall Street is money is lost by the majority; only the casino wins. Gambling chips are no wealth, neither are paper investments. They are very , very ephemeral like late spring snow. All wealth comes from Mother Nature using human labor and ingenuity. As Leonardo da Vinci said, “God sells everything for the price of labor”. If labor is cheap or free as in slavery, Mother Nature sells its treasures for essentially nothing. For more than five centuries Western Europe and subsequently the US harvested the wealth of the world. Now,  this harvesting or plunder is decreasing.  Not enough wealth is harvested from the rest of the world to keep the system going.

Enticing the Third World Countries into debt was another way of controlling the resources of the country. If  the leader of the country rejected the policy of indebtedness, that person was demonized and subsequently overthrown. From Mossadegh of Iran, Patrice Lumumba of the Belgian Congo, Sukarno of Indonesia, to Allende of Chile, (and many others such as Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi), attempting to control the resources of the earth has been and is a very bloody business. The natural resources of the world are the food of capitalism; human labor its’ oxygen. There is plenty of oxygen, but the amount of food is decreasing. Right now, there is a struggle going for control of the food. Developing countries want to control their own natural resources. That means saying no, no to the US and to multinational corporations. Presently, natural resources are very cheap because the demand for resources is slowing the world over. Also, Third World Countries are also slashing prices to gain dollars to service the debt which is denominated in US dollars. This is one of the reasons why the dollar is so strong at the moment. The indebted countries of the world are caught in a vice  between a strong dollar and a huge debt denominated in US currency.  The end result will be  multiple country defaults, riots, violence, and revolution. This will have boomerang effect on  the US economy. The US depends on the rest of the world. If the debt of the rest of the world slows down as it is doing already the US economy cannot grow, hence it cannot recover. The US economy depends on the exploitation of the rest of the world…

What is in store for the West? Slow decay initially, then sudden collapse. The US will be one of the last dominoes to collapse.  One of the three pillars of paper on which the US economy is based has already started to collapse, and that is the Stock Market. The month of October is crucial. The Federal Reserve and Plunge Protection Team will do everything to save the system. Hopefully, they might succeed, but, it is unlikely. When the stock market starts falling in earnest, multiple bankruptcies will occur in banks, large and small; corporations, large and small; insurance companies large and small; private pension funds, large and small; fracking and mining companies large and small; hedge funds and derivatives, large and small. Personal bankruptcies on a large scale will occur. A year or two later the bond market and the dollar will follow. Possibly, all three will collapse almost at the same time. No recovery will happen. What will happen after is anybody’s guess. Possibly chaos, a long transition, and the development of a new socially responsible system. Or, nuclear war. Only time will tell.

The bullshit of the Fed raising or not raising rates.

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It is amazing how the whole world is awaiting the Fed decision. Economic decisions of great importance will be made in the economy of the world that will affect countries and millions of people. It is tragic that a group of individuals of average intelligence, who are unelected ,hold the fate of the world in their hands. Other “lesser” individuals study their every move. Economically speaking, the Fed is considered to be the “Fountain of Wisdom”; in actual fact it is a “Fountain of Nonsense”.

The “Great Recession” lasted from 2007 to 2009. The economic system was on the verge of collapse. Wall Street money centered banks were failing. A bazooka was used to save it. The Federal Reserve introduced a near zero interest policy and quantitative easing. Banks had to be saved and after all,that is the primary function of the Central Bank. That price stability and employment are primary functions of the Fed is nothing but a façade. The essence of finance capitalism is  banking, hence, the Federal Reserve is its guardian. It will do anything to save it, including financing wars and overthrowing governments. It must protect and protect the “Reserve Status of the dollar”.

No recovery occurred in 2009. Growth in the US is impossible because the energy entering the US economic system is decreasing, but the energy needed to maintain its internal and external obligation is increasing. This sitation is sustainable only because the dollar is the “Official Currency of the World”. The dollar position must be maintained at all costs, and that is the real function of the Federal Reserve.

There is no recovery in 2015. Third World countries are  or are entering hyperinflationary depression. Their currencies are collapsing vis a vis the dollar and gold. The prices of various commodities are in free fall. Their debt burden in dollars has become unbearable because the ever increasing export commodities are earning them less and less dollars. As a result, the export of manufactured goods is also in free fall. The world’s economy is in severe contraction, possibly entering a severe depression. The world’s stock markets are also in free fall. Interest rates cannot go up naturally or be raised by the central bank. The velocity of money is also in free fall. The only time interest rates will rise will be to protect the dollar. This will happen when the world starts to abandon the dollar in earnest. There has been no recovery and there will never be one until this economic system is radically altered or replaced by something totally new. Only time will tell.