How China Is Breaking The Colonial Effects Of Western Lending
In their latest Geo Economical Report economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson discuss Russia's move away from the 'West'.
The points on Russia are certainly interesting. But they also remark on the tussle between China and 'multilateral' international lenders about debt forgiveness. This is a theme that played out in Washington DC last week during a high-level sovereign debt roundtable on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring meetings in Washington.
In their talk Radhika Desai explains the basic problem with international debt:
RADHIKA DESAI: Well I think that the whole issue of debt, world debt in particular, has become a really important issue at this point, and it’s become an important issue because precisely now China is such a large part of the scene.I remember going back to the earliest days of the pandemic when Third World debt had also figured as a major issue. Already at that point, the key reason why the debt issues were not going to be settled is because the West could not come to terms with the fact that it had to deal with China, and that it had to deal equitably with China.
Because what the West wants to do is precisely to get China to refinance the debt owed to it so that Third World debt repayments go to private lenders.
And China is basically questioning the terms of all of this, because for example China is saying, “Why should the IMF and the World Bank have priority? Why should its debt not be canceled?”
And the West is saying, “But this has always been so.”
And China is saying, “Well, if you don’t want to reform the IMF and the World Bank, then we are not going to accept their priority. If we have to take a haircut, they will also have to take a haircut.”
They simply do not accept that these institutions, the Bretton Woods institutions, have any sort of priority.
And this is part of the undermining, as you were saying. This is one of the biggest changes since the First World War. And part of these changes is that the world made at the end of the Second World War by the imperialist powers, who are still very powerful, is now increasingly disappearing.
On Wednesday a Reuters report claimed that China was changing its stand on the issue:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China is expected to drop its demand for multilateral development banks to share losses alongside other creditors in sovereign debt restructurings for poor nations, removing a major roadblock to debt relief, a source familiar with the plans said.The development is expected at a high-level sovereign debt roundtable on Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring meetings in Washington.
Beijing would no longer insist multilateral lenders take “haircuts” on loans to poor countries, the source said on Tuesday, while the IMF and World Bank agreed to ensure their debt sustainability analyses of countries undergoing debt restructurings would be made available to Chinese authorities earlier in the process.
The rumor that China would change its principle position turned out to be wrong. Reuters being abused by anonymous sources to make politics is not unusual. But in this case the piece came with a picture of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen so its likely that she was the "source familiar with the plans" which pushed this false rumor.
As the New York Times reported yesterday in way too many misleading words the issue was not resolved:
WASHINGTON — China, under growing pressure from top international policymakers, appeared to indicate this week that it is ready to make concessions that would unlock a global effort to restructure hundreds of billions of dollars of debt owed by poor countries.China has lent more than $500 billion to developing countries through its lending program, making it one of the world’s largest creditors.
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The United States, along with other Western nations, has been pressing China to allow some of those countries to restructure their debt and reduce the amount that they owe. But for more than two years, China has insisted that other creditors and multilateral lenders absorb financial losses as part of any restructuring, bogging down a critical loan relief process and threatening to push millions of people in developing countries deeper into poverty.
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Ghana appealed to the Group of 20 nations this year for debt relief through a fledgling program known as the Common Framework after securing preliminary approval for a $3 billion loan from the I.M.F. That money is contingent on Ghana’s receiving assurances that it can restructure the approximately $30 billion that it owes to foreign lenders. Officials from Ghana have been meeting with their Chinese counterparts about restructuring the $2 billion that it owes China.
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Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Friday that China had put forward a three-point proposal that included calling for the I.M.F. to more quickly share its debt sustainability assessments for countries that need relief, and for creditors to detail how they will carry out the restructurings on “comparable terms.”
The three point proposal is not a change but simply a repeat of China's long standing position:
Spokesperson发言人办公室 @MFA_China - 15:09 UTC · Apr 14, 2023To effectively resolve the debt issue, the key lies in joint participation of multilateral, bilateral and commercial creditors under the principles of joint actions and fair burden-sharing.
The case of Ghana shows that the IMF, over which the U.S. has a veto, will only lend fresh money if bilateral lenders like China, but not the 'multilateral' IMF or World Bank, nor private 'western' lenders, take haircuts.
A long People's Dispatch piece about the IMF and Ghana's debt crisis describes how the debt spiral is hitting the poor but resource rich countries again and again. The debt is a continuation of colonialism and China has little to do with that:
Based on the World Bank’s International Debt Statistics, 64% of Ghana’s scheduled foreign currency external debt service, which includes principal and interest amounts, between 2023 and 2029 is to private lenders. 20% of the debt is to multilateral institutions and 6% to other governments. Notably, while mainstream reporting on Ghana’s debt scenario tends to emphasize China as the country’s “biggest bilateral creditor,” only 10% of Accra’s external debt service is owed to Beijing.Approximately $13 billion of Ghana’s external debt is held in the form of Eurobonds by major asset management corporations including BlackRock, Abrdn, and Amundi (UK) Limited. “Ghana’s lenders, particularly private lenders, lent at high-interest rates because of the supposed risk of lending to Ghana,” the open letter read.
“The interest rate on Ghana’s Eurobonds is between 7% and 11%. That risk has materialized… Given that they lent seeking high returns, it is only right that following these economic shocks, private lenders willingly accept losses and swiftly agree to significant debt cancellation for Ghana.”
In 2020 the G20 promised to implement a Common Framework for debt relief:
[T]he Common Framework had the opportunity to provide a broader debt cancellation, involving private creditors alongside bilateral lenders in the process to ensure that countries’ debts became sustainable.“But very little was done to outline the details of how that would work. While the G20 stated that government and private lenders would be included in the scheme, however, multilateral lenders were excluded,” [Tim Jones, the head of policy at Debt Justice,] said.
“They did not give any new mechanisms to countries to negotiate a reduction in their debt owed to private creditors, leaving it to the debtor governments to say ‘If you want debt cancellation from governments, you have to negotiate the same deal from private creditors.’ But they did not offer any tools to help indebted countries to do that.”
There should of course be a mechanism by which countries can restructure their debt and in which all lenders make similar concessions. However the IMF and others offer no such thing. They are only willing to give more money when a country makes political concessions over IMF prescribed austerity measures and uses the fresh money to pay private 'western' lenders.
China is now determined to end that scheme. China insists that the IMF, the World Bank and private lenders take a similar share of debt losses as it is willing to take:
China is willing to implement the common framework for debt disposal with other countries, China's central bank governor Yi Gang said during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings, according to a statement released by the People's Bank of China on Friday.
Echoing Yi's remark, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Friday that China attaches great importance to the sovereign debt issue of developing countries and called for multilateral creditors, bilateral creditors and commercial creditors to participate in debt handling in accordance with joint action and fair manner.
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"China has contributed more than anyone else to implementing the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). Besides, we have played a constructive part in the treatment of individual cases under the G20 Common Framework," Wang said.
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In contrast, Western creditors claim they need to maintain their credit rating and have thus refused to be part of the debt relief and service suspension effort, Wang said, noting that unprecedented massive interest rate hikes have led to tightening of financial conditions worldwide, making the severe debt problems of certain countries even worse.
China continues to press for its new scheme of international debt relief under equal terms for all lender. I am not ware of any pressure point the 'West' could use to change that position.
The IMF and its abusive role in global debt was likely a subject matter in the hours long talks Presidents Xi and Putin had in Moscow last month. Lets remember what was said at the end of that visit:
“Right now there are changes – the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years – and we are the ones driving these changes together,” Xi told Putin as he stood at the door of the Kremlin to bid him farewell.The Russian president responded: “I agree.”
As Radhika Desai, quoted above, said about China's debt relief standpoint:
This is one of the biggest changes since the First World War.
Michael Hudson summarizes the consequences:
Well obviously, the one thing the characterizes the new global World Majority order is a mixed economy where other countries will do what China has done. They will make money and land, meaning housing, and employment into public rights and public utilities instead of commodifying them and privatizing them and financializing them as has occurred in the West.So we’re really talking about, in order to move away from the dollar-NATO-sphere, we’re not really talking about just one national currency or another.
It’s not going to be a question of the Chinese yen and the Russian ruble and other currencies replacing the dollar. It’s a whole different economic system.
That’s the one thing that is not permitted in the mainstream media to discuss. They’re still on the “There Is No Alternative” Margaret Thatcher slogan, instead of talking about: What is the alternative going to be?
Because obviously things cannot last the way they are now.
Posted by b on April 15, 2023 at 17:30 UTC | Permalink
next page »A bearer of such good news. Thanks b.
Top economist frets that US is getting ‘lonely’
Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has warned that America is losing global influence as other powers form trading blocsGlobalization and the American-led financial order are giving way to a more fragmented world economy in which other powers are aligning in trading blocs that diminish Washington’s global influence, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has claimed.
“There’s a growing acceptance of fragmentation, and – maybe even more troubling – I think there’s a growing sense that ours may not be the best fragment to be associated with,” Summers said on Friday in a Bloomberg News interview. He made his comments following a week of World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in which finance chiefs reportedly discussed efforts to “reshape supply chains away from China and other strategic competitors.”
Summers, a former World Bank chief economist who was an adviser to President Barack Obama and served as treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, suggested that US tactics have alienated some governments. “Somebody from a developing country said to me, ‘What we get from China is an airport. What we get from the United States is a lecture."
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USA is losing influence, and people are getting impatient and short-tempered generally. Things are getting hotter!
Posted by: G wiltek | Apr 15 2023 17:47 utc | 3
Thanks for the posting b.
Yeah, its getting ugly as Argentina inflation rate now at 104%
ZH has a posting up about another flank in the finance war with the title
IMF Unveils New Global Currency Known As The "Universal Monetary Unit" To "Transform" World Economy
The quote
So who in the world is the Digital Currency Monetary Authority?Honestly, I had no idea until I started doing research for this article.
The press release says that the organization consists of “sovereign states, central banks, commercial and retail banks, and other financial institutions”…
The DCMA is a world leader in the advocacy of digital currency and monetary policy innovations for governments and central banks. Membership within the DCMA consists of sovereign states, central banks, commercial and retail banks, and other financial institutions.
Basically, it sounds like a secretive cabal of international banks and national governments is conspiring to push this new currency down our throats.
There is nothing about this new money that says it is any more than another fiat or faith based money....GOT FAITH? The RoW doesn't and is about to win the global war on finance with sovereign finance that is by and for the people instead of the God Of Mammon cult and hangers on....and the RoW finance will have intrinsic value money.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 15 2023 17:56 utc | 4
Kamala Harris on her visit to Ghana, helpfully presented a financial advisor to assist the indebted government of Ghana to restructure it's debt at the next meeting between Rothschild bank in Paris, who represents the IMF and a delegation from Ghana. You seriously couldn't make this up.
The Chinese know the west basically survives financially by crippling third world countries with infinite interest repayments and austerity, and if China writes off the debts of one quarter of third world nations, that's all their debts, not just what China is owed, the city of London will collapse.
Go China!!
Posted by: Eoin Clancy | Apr 15 2023 17:59 utc | 5
With the decline of the military power of the FUSSA (the bankster's golem) and the rise of Alternate Trade/Banking channels, it won't be long before one or more Resource-Rich small Nations will go with the NASDAP Method- Repudiate and Invalidate all Debt to the 'City of London Corporation' and the BIS, then Issue Sovereign Currency backed by its Resources. (Note: the NASDAP Method in Germany was to Issue Labor Certificates, as the People were the Nation's basic Productive Resource)
Today, the FUSSA/NATO Military is Incapable of Crushing a Nation that tries to Escape the Debt Slavery of the (((banks))), and Russia and China are quite likely to Trade With, and thus insure the Safety of those Nations that Break Free of the (((slavers))).
Posted by: Gryphon | Apr 15 2023 18:23 utc | 6
U wanna lord over and make up the rules and break them at will, go win some wars first
Posted by: A.z | Apr 15 2023 18:27 utc | 7
The comment was targeted towards us if there is any confusion 😕
Posted by: A.z | Apr 15 2023 18:29 utc | 8
' public rights and public utilities.'
Now thou lettest thy servant depart in peace. The end of Thatcherism.
Allah Akbar. Thank you b.
Posted by: Giyane | Apr 15 2023 18:29 utc | 9
The history of IMF and World Bank Plundering of the Global South is very long, detailed and sordid, and mirrors the behavior of the Outlaw US Empire at WW1's end which is that of a Mafiosi. I've read all about that since the 1980s. I've yet to read the report on Russia, but my study of its political-economy since 2014 shows it began its return to a hybrid Soviet style system in the 2000s that's people-centered, its philosophy being: The only way to improve the condition of the state is to first improve the condition of its people. Yes, it's a riff on China's philosophy.
Either the IMF, World Bank and WTO undergo massive reform that finally democratizes them or they'll cease to exist after being replaced by new institutions, either of which ends the Outlaw US Empire/West's financial hegemony and the Free Lunch it's been getting for many decades. Putin called it Hegemonic Rent that will be ended. Of course, the Mafiosi will not willingly accept such a situation, but there's very little it can do. With China and Russia in the vanguard, the RoW has nothing to fear from the Mob Boss as the genuine balance of power has flipped--the "Police" can now control the Mafiosi and will eventually disarm it from its ability to exact financial hegemony.
As someone who ended up in the insolvency business, if you renage on your debt obligations then your fate is taken out of your hands. You are often screwed if even one creditor decides to make an example of you. Now I believe international debt is slightly different. In corporate or personal lending you can recover in 3 to 5 years. You mess with China and I'm thinking generations...
So anyone in charge of international debt restructuring needs to be similarly aware of the implications. One of those will be a flight from the USD$ if US controlled institutions are not seen to be equitable. Or even if they are. No one likes losing money.
We do indeed live in interesting times.
Posted by: marcjf | Apr 15 2023 18:38 utc | 11
China also has reserves of trillions of US dollars. If it sells off a large part of that it will devalue it and therefore take a hit, but maybe that's a price worth paying for de-dollarisation.
Posted by: Brendan | Apr 15 2023 18:39 utc | 12
Not really off-topic, Lula on CGTN:
Exclusive interview with Brazil's President Lula CGTN
It's a good interview, not boiler plate, Lula is very impassioned. He's not a WEF sleeper agent as some rant about but a decent guy who must walk a tightrope over a pit of alligators. Whether he can holdout and deliver is what matters.
My guess is that Bolsonaro being a fascist and a nationalist strove towards what is best for Brazil but specifically it's oligarchs, which is actually strong relations with Russia and even more so China than with the Empire. Lula has the same motivation but specifying the Brazilian masses rather than its elites.
The USA figured being on the hard right an backed by the military Bolsonaro was more of a handful than Lula who having been taken out once before was a better play for them to manipulate. Lula knows he's surrounded and is a brave guy sticking his head up twice.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 18:42 utc | 13
Will debt forgiveness be regarded as loan defaults?
What will it do to the Western Banks and the infinite cascade of interlinked derivatives?
Posted by: CitizenSmith | Apr 15 2023 19:08 utc | 14
Sometime in the early 2000s Moscow refused a IMF rescue package - When asked why Putin answered with a earthy and most amusing Russian folk expression.
Posted by: Exile | Apr 15 2023 19:17 utc | 15
In response to
"
What will it do to the Western Banks and the infinite cascade of interlinked derivatives?
Posted by: CitizenSmith | Apr 15 2023 19:08 utc | 14
"
History is written by the winners.
Think about the scenario of Jamie Dimon coming to see Xi/Putin and saying, "Hi, I have these derivatives saying that I own everything. Will you help me execute them?"
LOL!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 15 2023 19:20 utc | 16
The only Threat foreign lenders have to a sovereign entity is the threat - default and you‘ll never get another cent.
These days given the breakdown between the 12% (NATO+) and the 87% (Eurasia) ; I‘m thinking the threat is empty.
During the last Greek Financial Crisis - the Greek finance minister argued default was the best solution because without the burden of foreign debt service; the Greek economy was cash flow positive and could internally fund its own investment.
Posted by: Exile | Apr 15 2023 19:23 utc | 17
“Somebody from a developing country said to me, ‘What we get from China is an airport. What we get from the United States is a lecture."
Posted by: Outraged | Apr 15 2023 17:41 utc | 2
That person forgot all the other things you get from america: bioterror labs; military bases with an occupation force that cannot be prosecuted for its crimes; moral rot, the destruction of bonds between men and women, parents and children; satanism, nihilism, hollywood; shit food, shit music, homogenous clothing and lifestyle to replace anything traditional; torture chambers; child trafficking; and of course bombs, bombs and more bombs, often along with with radioactive and heavy metal poisoning; bioweapon attacks, infrastructure attacks, assassinations, medical terrorism, orwellian totalitarianism; the swift replacement of your politicians and leaders with drug addicts, criminals and sociopaths; and of course facebook/pfizer/blackrock/google.
A mere lecture, even if idiotic, obnoxious and full of tired slogans as it were, would be preferable to that.
Posted by: Mike | Apr 15 2023 19:23 utc | 18
How China Is Breaking The Colonial Effects Of Western Lending,
Well, if they are moving to nullify and erase artificially created 'debt', and instituting an honest system of balanced trade value accounting, then they are pointed in the right direction.
If they are trying to take control of the current debt based financial system and slap a cool sounding name on it (like new world order, or something), then, not so much...
Here is another great analysis from Black Mountain Analysis regarding the same topic. Asia, China, India etc.
https://bmanalysis.substack.com/p/economics-and-empires-4
Posted by: Thomas | Apr 15 2023 19:27 utc | 20
In response to
"
China also has reserves of trillions of US dollars. If it sells off a large part of that it will devalue it and therefore take a hit, but maybe that's a price worth paying for de-dollarisation.
Posted by: Brendan | Apr 15 2023 18:39 utc | 12
"
When the dust settles over our civilization war, the numbers game of fiat money will let China, with its trillion of US dollars, pay off many small countries debts to the IMF and World Bank......if push comes to shove.....the winners write the history and most IMF/World Bank debt is odious/immoral anyway
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 15 2023 19:29 utc | 21
If you want assistance you have to kick out particular Western NGO's, or allow Chinese or Russian bases to be built, or kick out the local CIA offices, throw out US troops, etc .... The possibilities are endless and since Russia and China seem to be happy to write off bad debts, they wouldn't really have anything to lose and lots to gain.
As a side note: Its obvious that certain " countries " are incapable of running modern, independent, capable nations. We can argue as to what the reasons for that might be, however, it doesn't change the facts on the ground. Whats the point of continually giving them loans and then writing the loans off ? There are far better solutions.
Posted by: Deplorable Commissar | Apr 15 2023 19:35 utc | 22
@ Mike | Apr 15 2023 19:23 utc | 18 with the great list of empire features but left off Dumbocracy and Freedumb
It is not just colonialism being thrown off but the Might-Makes-Right patriarchy of the past 2K+ years that is coming into question now. Women in the West have had no agency in our form of social organization and maybe it is time to share our humanity with them
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 15 2023 19:36 utc | 23
An important topic that is spoken and written about far too little. What has been needed for decades would be a bankruptcy procedure for states that laid down the rules for the liquidation of old debts. Just as it exists in every state for private companies. As long as there is none, the big creditors always have an advantage and can impose brutal conditions, as the IMF is in the habit of doing with its 'bailouts'.
Posted by: Pnyx | Apr 15 2023 19:37 utc | 24
China is acting out of weakness and desperation. Their dollar debt keeps rising and if they were serious about decoupling, they would have wiped it out a while ago. That means they lack sufficient dollars to buy out their dollar debt. And we're supposed to believe that a fiscally responsible government like Russia is just going to give them monopoly money? China is bleeding out. A guy being like, "Hey, I'm not playing with you guys anymore," while bleeding from a knife wound is hardly saying it from a position of strength. China has to just keep inflating the rip-off bubble. Think FTX.
And one can say, "they make all the stuff" but if one lives in a Yuan zone s/he cannot use that stuff, and since wealthy consumers are driving consumption, what makes anyone think they're going to want to live in China? Obviously wealthy consumers in China can't make up for the demand they're losing from Western suppliers.
China is a overleveraged beggar and it has to keep up this braggadocio so that its creditors don't freak out. It's more like a FTX or Binance than a Berkshire Hathaway. A giant ponzi. If you disagree, first read these before engaging in a discussion: https://aaronlee.substack.com/p/the-russian-financial-superpower https://aaronlee.substack.com/p/ruble-vs-yuan-part-2
Interesting points about Lula. Question-- then how do you explain his jab policy (Pharma money$$ for Lula?) which ties income support -- for those Brazilian masses he loves(!?) to whether they take the jab. No jab, no money. Dancing on a tight rope-- maybe. Making himself rich (young wife after all!) ?? Too soon to tell.
Posted by: CarolJ | Apr 15 2023 19:40 utc | 26
I do not know much about macro- economics but why can't China buy Sri Lanka's debt and pay it back in US treasuries. I understand that the US dont want that to happened, but if us refuse, would that not be a proof that US-bonds is a giant Ponzi.
(Why is nobody discussing SY Hersh lates report that Zelinsky and his extended family (generals and friends), is sucking Ukraine dry.
Or the new US base in Moldova. Will this madness never stop?)
Posted by: Pål Norwegian | Apr 15 2023 19:47 utc | 27
CitizenSmith @ 14
Will debt forgiveness be regarded as loan defaults? What will it do to the Western Banks and the infinite cascade of interlinked derivatives?
The other side of a debt is an asset. The bigger the debt the bigger the assets, the capitalist economy has always been a two edged sword, industrial capitalism gave us the Great Depression and a whole lot of big and small recessions throughout its 300 year history. Those recessions are not the benign hand of natural market cycles but the ruin of countless lives producing generational misery through the centuries. It's a price the capitalists, the 1%, ride out and write off but the workers pay with a heavy price, one example: The 2008 mortgage crisis where 5 million Americans lost their homes. Many of those families will take generations to dig out of that hole, some never will. For whatever vaunted benefit and "progress" capitalism produced it left as much if not more misery in its wake. However, in retrospect industrial capitalism was picnic for humanity.
Financialized neoliberal capitalism takes the "other side of a debt is an asset" and leverages that asset up to 40X into the non-productive incredible magic bubble machine enabled by the regulatory capture of the Fed, this to be clear is a Ponzi. It is obvious there can be no debt forgiveness - it's a Ponzi, you'd be pulling the plug!
As Michael Hudson points out the compound interest on that much debt in the western world will out run any potential for the economy to service it or wind it down, you simply can't out grow it. Again, there can be no forgiveness as that would imploded the Ponzi. Can't out grow it, can't forgive it, so:
"What will it do to the Western Banks and the infinite cascade of interlinked derivatives?" It will implode like any Ponzi. Why do you think the digital panopticon, elimination of cash & CBDC, covid scare-mongering and green passes, full spectrum media control, Patriot Act, Restrict Act, renascent fascism, all the rest plus WW3, are being implemented? When the financialized Ponzi goes the Great Depression will look like a day at Disneyland.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 19:48 utc | 28
I do not know much about macro- economics but why can't China buy Sri Lanka's debt and pay IMF- The World Bank and other creditors in US treasuries. I understand that the US dont want that to happened, but if us refuse, would that not be a proof that US-bonds is a giant Ponzi.
Posted by: Paul Norwegian | Apr 15 2023 19:50 utc | 29
@ Mike | Apr 15 2023 19:23 utc | 18
Oh indeed, DogDamned right. Yet the A-hole recounting the conversation is crying over Empires decline. Hardly likely to accurately recount the conversation. ;)
Cheers
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Dumping the Dollar: Will a New BRICS Currency Replace the US Currency for Trade ? InfoBRICS.org, Apr14'23
The BRICS collective, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is working on a common currency in an attempt to ditch the US dollar and push back against America’s dominance. The move comes as Moscow and Beijing call for de-dollarisation in the face of Western sanctions.The US dollar has been the official currency for international trade for years now. However, in recent times there has been talk of creating a new currency in an attempt to dump the dollar and push back against American hegemony.
This de-dollarisation has received a boost in recent times, especially after the Russia-Ukraine war began last February. And last week, this movement received further impetus when Alexander Babakov, the deputy chairman of the State Duma, was quoted as saying that the BRICS nations are in the process of creating a new medium for payments — established on a strategy that “does not defend the dollar or euro”.
Is the BRICS nations actually creating a new currency for trade? Who’s at the forefront of this movement? Will it benefit India? Will the plan actually fructify? There are several questions to this issue and we try to answer them all.
Dethroning the king of currency ...
It is not just colonialism being thrown off but the Might-Makes-Right patriarchy of the past 2K+ years that is coming into question now. Women in the West have had no agency in our form of social organization and maybe it is time to share our humanity with themPosted by: psychohistorian | Apr 15 2023 19:36 utc | 23
Honestly Psycho, I am baffled by your comment, did I miss an implied /sarc? In the real world, patriarchy is coming back in a big way, led by China and the Islamic world. Did you miss this story, "China Politburo Excludes Women for First Time in 25 Years"? In the west, Jacinda Ardern and Sanna Marin have left the building. If the west ever recovers from the last 60 years of degeneracy, the social result will look similar to the 1950s.
Posted by: Drifter | Apr 15 2023 20:00 utc | 31
Pål Norwegian @ 27
I do not know much about macro- economics but why can't China buy Sri Lanka's debt and pay it back in US treasuries.
That's brilliant, on some better planet you'd be nominated for a Nobel, not to mention some high-fives for having cocked a snook at the ol' Emperor.
Why is nobody discussing SY Hersh lates report that Zelinsky and his extended family (generals and friends), is sucking Ukraine dry.
It's very dangerous to discuss corruption.
Or the new US base in Moldova.
People in the west are are catching on and getting scared of the escalation escalator, it's stealth NATO expansion from now on.
Will this madness never stop?
Not in the lifetime of most of the old geezers on MoA. Hopefully for the younger set.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 20:05 utc | 32
Posted by: Pål Norwegian | Apr 15 2023 19:47 utc | 27
Because obviously it's broke.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 19:48 utc | 28
At 129% debt to GDP, I think the guy you're citing needs to brush up on his math. a 5% inflation rate wipes that out in a few years. Add 2% growth to that and it's nothing in a decade.
What is being described is an 'economic revolution' on a global scale. The 'reactionary powers' (the US,England, & NATO) will resist a 'new world order'.. The key question will be" how fiercely'. If the Russia/China Alliance is one, such that, an attack on one is percieved as an attack on the other (ala NATO); then this situation will be resolved on the side which has more depth, organization, and staying power. If the West is unable to dominate the table, so to speak, the 'powers to be' will have to decide whether it is better to sit at the table in order to have a say or to be excluded all together or to engage in a contest of annihilation.
Posted by: TMartin | Apr 15 2023 20:10 utc | 34
Posted by: Drifter | Apr 15 2023 20:00 utc | 31
Xi "stacked" the Politburo with key allies. None happened to be women. So what.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2023 20:28 utc | 35
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 19:48 utc | 28
Good comment, but I'll differ with you on one perhaps minor point. The 1% and even more so, the 0.1% do more than just "ride out" recessions and meltdowns and natural disasters. Where they are allowed or able, they actively cause them and then profit from them in part by buying up more assets when values are temporarily deflated and, depending on the nature of said assets, either using them to extract rent once the economy has been bailed out or sitting on them and drawing interest as their primary means of income, then passing them down to their progeny according to the modern method of aristocracy.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2023 20:32 utc | 36
First off, the West is famous for keeping the rest of the world destabilized so that the rest of the world can't compete with the West. In the Third World leaders who take on un-payable IMF / World bank loans get feted and lauded while those who don't take on un-payable IMF / World bank loans get disappeared. Its all about control, the US wants control over the rest of the world, the US wants to dominate the rest of the world.
China has observed how the West works with the Third World so naturally China copies the West in this regard, because China also has global dominance aspirations. Russia of course has enough food, fuel and vodka so Russia doesn't care what happens in the rest of the world so long as its not too near Russia's borders.
So now some Third World turds are being strangled by both the West and China at the same time, and neither side wants to cease its strangulation attempts because doing so would impair its control over that particular Third World turd. So now the West and China want to agree about how best to lessen their strangulation attempts to allow the turd some room to breath at least, however both sides don't actually want to cease the pressure they are exerting, they want the other side to cease the pressure. Meanwhile the turd is dying.
So yes, China is breaking the West's strangle hold on the Third World, and the West can't survive without this stranglehold, so China is basically killing the West. But China is doing this for its own benefit, not for the Third World's benefit. Its 2 drug dealers, one old and one new, fighting over territory, both of whom don't give a damn about the populace in that territory, they just want their dough. (And now some Chinaman is probably going to complain that China just wants to work in peace and harmony with the rest of the world via its humble Belt and Road initiative while the Westerners are going to say that they are just spreading peace and happiness / democracy via the humanitarian IMF / World Bank in the rest of the world. Yawn)
So Russia is fucking up the West militarily and China is fucking up the West economically, either one of those 2 fronts is going to succeed, or both.
Posted by: gT | Apr 15 2023 20:33 utc | 37
Aaron Lee @ 33
At 129% debt to GDP, I think the guy you're citing needs to brush up on his math. a 5% inflation rate wipes that out in a few years. Add 2% growth to that and it's nothing in a decade.
It's the private sector debt! It exists in the derivative universe, it's trillions piled up upon trillions. US or EU GDP as some sort of confidence collateral wouldn't even begin to bail it out if it all went down at once. That's what too big to fail means, it would take out the system - The Fed, The ECB, The BIS.
This will make you happy: Since Dodd-Frank all Fed, Treasury, banking, and Wall Street shenanigans will be hidden from public view, so the odds of it all crashing at once are very slim. If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it? If all the trees fall in a domino effect? However, you will notice, what they won't be able to hide, is a slow, relentless, year after year, decade after decade erosion of living standards. Sound familiar? If not take a better look around.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 20:39 utc | 38
Posted by: Aaron Lee | Apr 15 2023 20:06 utc | 33
Sorry but "first you must go to my own monetize(d/able) Substack site, driving traffic numbers for me and only then will I have a conversation with you about my blatant assertions" doesn't work for me. If you can't be bothered to lay out your arguments on China here, in condensed fashion, I don't think too many of us are interested in playing this game. Just bein' honest.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2023 20:41 utc | 39
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 20:39 utc | 38
There's a counterparty so most of those zero out. How many times out of 100 is that counterparty Chinese? Not very often. I heard this same thing in 2008 with CDS (Credit Default Swaps). They were like "There's 8 quadrillion in CDSes. We're doomed!" And when it all unwound, it turned out the counterparties were mostly domestic.
Let me repeat myself. There is always a counterparty. Your debt is someone else's asset. China is underwater in this regard.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2023 20:41 utc | 39
People with nothing to say will always question why intelligent people do.
@Pål Norwegian | Apr 15 2023 19:47 utc | 27
@LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 20:05 utc | 32
An actually clever idea would be for Russia and China to establish an International Court of Economic Equity while Russia chairs the UN, and determine reparations due from colonialism, economic piracy, asset forfeiture and plain old looting. After deducting that from amounts owed, buy the remaining debt from smaller countries, telling remaining creditors to get paid from Russia's dollar and gold holdings in US and European banks when it is released. Then Russia and China could reduce the debt and interest rates to the debtor countries, enabling them to repay the remaining balance by means of a small surcharge on their transactions over time.
They could also institute a system based on transaction and wealth taxes paying a much better than minimum basic income, and adding a transaction tax to all transactions with countries not adopting a substantially similar system at similar rates. This would result in a rapid transition away from the Western system. For a way this might work (at US rates) see the spreadsheet at Exponential Asset Tax and Automated Payment Transaction Tax.
Posted by: Hermit | Apr 15 2023 21:01 utc | 41
Tom_Q_Collins @ 36
The 1% and even more so, the 0.1% do more than just "ride out" recessions and meltdowns and natural disasters.
Yes, of course, disaster capitalism. As "brevity is the soul of wit" I try to keep it to a few paragraphs. I happily let other commentators fill in what I forgot, skipped, or didn't know... or (heaven forbid) correct what I got wrong.
The expansion is appreciated.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 21:02 utc | 42
Hermit @ 41
Good God, man! How much could the Empire handle? They will definitely nuke us all.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 21:04 utc | 43
Xi "stacked" the Politburo with key allies. None happened to be women. So what.Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2023 20:28 utc | 35
The 'what' is that Xi is immune to 'Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity' (DIE!) which has been used (under other catchphrases) for 50 years to stack the western leadership with grossly unqualified people, including many women. Societies which are not suicidal are meritocracies. Meritocracies do not artificially empower unqualified women in the public sphere. Xi has rejected the cultural Marxism of early communism 100%. I really have no idea what psychohistorian was smoking, but we have already seen peak feminism, and it has been a disaster, especially for most women and all the fatherless children. The future will look more like the past.
Posted by: Drifter | Apr 15 2023 21:06 utc | 44
People with nothing to say will always question why intelligent people do.
Posted by: Aaron Lee | Apr 15 2023 20:59 utc | 40
Nah, I actually went and read your site. It's an odd mix of anti-socialism, at the same time demanding more and better public services (funded by whom? taxes on tech firms and billionaires?) and a litany of provably false assertions about China.
So I repeat. If you want any engagement here vis a vis China, please spell it out here rather than directing people to your potentially monetized personal website.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 15 2023 21:09 utc | 45
I see that not very long after granting Russia naval facilities, Sudan is faced with a military revolt.
https://maritime-executive.com/article/sudan-s-leader-agrees-to-host-russian-naval-base-on-red-sea
Mordor still disposes of much power...
Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | Apr 15 2023 21:10 utc | 46
I hope a few barflies will be able to appreciate the story Pepe Escobar relates in his latest, "All Roads Lead to Beijing":
"This is the tale of two pilgrims following the road that really matters in the young 21st century; one coming from NATOstan and another one from BRICS."
Pepe's pilgrims are Macron and Lula. Some will scoff at Pepe's narrative and say it's completely artificial. But I'm not one of those for I know quite a lot about China, although not nearly as much as I'd like. While you read, recall that China now confronts the West from a position of strength unlike any the West has seen before and is clearly confounded by that fact.
Deplorable Commissar @ 22:
I see what your comment is hinting at: that some countries would be "better off" under the direct thumb of their former colonial masters who plundered their resources, turned their farms and herds into export-oriented plantations and ranches, and reduced their peoples to poverty and starvation levels of health and well-being; than to govern themselves and deal with their problems.
In the first place many if not most of the problems facing former colonies were not of their own making but inherited from their colonial masters: among other problems, legal, political and economic / taxation systems and arrangements benefiting the colonial elites and local elites educated and trained by their masters; national borders separating ethnic or religious groups or lumping several ethnicities or religions with little in common together; and certain national resources such as oil being under continued control by powerful foreign private corporations using bullying tactics and leaning on the British or the US to overthrow governments in the former colonies if there was any hint that they (the corporations) might be required to pay more taxes or stump up more money to help with infrastructure development needed to get their precious oil, minerals or other commodity out of the ground.
Then there is the fact that the former colonies have been ruled by politicians often of the US or Europe's own choosing, while those politicians actually wanting to improve their electorates' living standards and establish their own nationally based corporations to exploit their territorial resources are instead undermined, overthrown or assassinated in favour of US or European-owned lackeys.
In most former colonies there is still considerable meddling by former colonial powers to control these countries' economies and finances, or to deny them the funding needed to improve people's lives to a level where they can become self-suffient and enterprising. Countries in western and central Africa that were former French colonies are still tied to France through the west and central African franc in a common market. Mali only recently threw out French peacekeepers because their presence was causing more violence than their absence did. It is likely that British and French embassies and consulates in their former African, Middle East and other colonies are conduits for spying and other forms of interference and bullying including regime change.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Apr 15 2023 21:15 utc | 48
This is what I had to say over on Consortium News:
I remember when I first heard the US’s China bashing “BRI is a debt trap” line, I laughed out loud. The real debt trap operation is the IMF which is a clever operation to allow multinationals, especially US multinationals, to buy up the assets of former colonies who remained poor at distressed fire sale prices whilst keeping said countries in debt slavery.
China isn't going to bail the West's ass out.
Posted by: Jeff Harrison | Apr 15 2023 21:23 utc | 49
Posté par : Drifter | 15 avril 2023 | 31 & 44
"China Politburo Excludes Women for First Time in 25 Years"
is only a more partisan formulation of fact that this politburo do not include woman, which is problematic I grant you. Even the original title of the article you link had been modified to sounds more "China-bashing", read the link : "china-politburo-includes-no-women-for-the-first-time-in-25-years"
"Women in the West have had no agency in our form of social organization and maybe it is time to share our humanity with them", is about fairness and justice.
We haven't seen any feminism peak ultimately, it is/was not feminism but only pseudo/entretainement feminism
feminism calls for equal pay, not for giving a woman's name to a tunnel
Posted by: Tak-Tik | Apr 15 2023 21:25 utc | 50
Pal Norwegian @ 27:
A big part of Sri Lanka's debt is the monies borrowed from Chinese banks to fund the construction of Hambantota port and port facilities in southern Sri Lanka. I believe there was some arrangement under which Sri Lanka leased the port to China for 99 years, starting in 2017, and a Chinese company (state-owned?) has a majority 70% equity stake.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Apr 15 2023 21:30 utc | 51
Posted by: Aaron Lee | Apr 15 2023 20:59 utc | 40
Some revisionism there. Not many, if any, of those CDS’s were unwound, because of the myriad interconnections between various counterparties. The global financial authorities (including “Tanks in the Streets” Paulson) were staring at the financial equivalent of gravo-thermal collapse and took the only option available, and that was to bail out the underlying with an alphabet soup of ‘special measures’, e.g TARP, QE etc.
None of this has been fixed BTW, kicking the tin can down the road has continued, except the can has now grown to the size of a 55 gallon drum.
Posted by: West of England Andy | Apr 15 2023 21:40 utc | 52
@TMartin | Apr 15 2023 20:10 utc | 34
Using an approximation of 0.7 for the natural log of 2 the time it will take to depreciate an investment by 50% (1/2) is 70/annual inflation rate as a percentage.
So 70/5 = ~14 years.
Meanwhile, with interest at 6.5% to 8.5% depending on the rating set opaquely by the US oligarchs, the amount payable will increase at a rate of 1.5% to 3.5% annually, wiping out any gains and doubling the capital every ~20 t0 ~47 years. This is how the West currently extracts some $US 4 trillion a year from the developing world, and the amount owe continues to rise.
Dumping the entire system is the only same approach, and it will happen sooner or later.
Posted by: Hermit | Apr 15 2023 21:47 utc | 53
@LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 21:04 utc | 43
Nuclear weapons cost a fortune to store and maintain, and the delivery systems are even more costly.
Having already lost both military preeminence and a meaningful first strike capability, I suspect that when the dollar goes into free-fall, or the US collapses, both of which appear imminent, I think the threat will be greatly diminished. Sadly the ecological and nutritional challenges will remain, which is why I don't expect this to prevent human extinction. However, humans are ingenious. Just maybe, with the help of AI, we might yet thread the needle, so in the Words of Hugh Grant (Music and Lyrics, an underrated film), Don't Write Me Off Just Yet".
Posted by: Hermit | Apr 15 2023 22:02 utc | 55
Little China has a total land area of 9,596,961 km²
Big China has a total land area of 11,418,174 km²
Source:
https://www.diffen.com/difference/People%27s_Republic_Of_China_vs_Republic_Of_China
After WW2 the US at the point of a gun forced little China to not conclude the end of the Chinese Civil War.
The ONLY reason "big China" still exists is because the US Government would kill people if the end of the Civil War happened.
Posted by: Hot Carl | Apr 15 2023 22:03 utc | 56
The debt should be haircut by the proportion of the debt service.
In other words, high interest rate lenders would have a greater share of the principle written off, the inverse to their high interest rate disproportional share in the total debt service.
Posted by: Webej | Apr 15 2023 22:04 utc | 57
I know that this is off topic, but I think it is intimately related to Global South debt burden and war in Ukraine. What is going on in Sudan? Seems that fraction of the Sudanese military broke off and is currently trying to conduct a coup in Sudan. This fraction is potentially stimulated or even controlled by the West. Or is it? Can someone shed some light. I know that current regime agreed with Russia to have a navy base on the Red Sea. Is this the reason for this attempt of regime change in Sudan?
Posted by: Milos | Apr 15 2023 22:04 utc | 58
@Refinnejenna
A “big part”? What percentage exactly? Seems like “small part” would be a far more honest statement.
Posted by: BillB | Apr 15 2023 22:09 utc | 59
Aaron Lee @ 40
There's a counterparty so most of those zero out.
Really! If that were the case there would have been no need for a decade of quantitative easing. No need for TARP, no bad banks needed to avoid having to mark to market the toxic trillions that would have unplugged the Ponzi and made they system unsalvageable. The financial system would have automatically marked to market itself as it all zeroed out.
You are actually accepting the false narrative that the 2008 crisis was a liquidity crisis and denying the reality that it was a solvency crisis, a systemic one that was only salvaged by pretty much USA, UK and EU federal banks buying up trillions of toxic debt for 100 cents on the dollar, just like SVB recently. You are also leaving out that China had maybe a bigger hand than the Fed and EBC in saving the world economy. Much unheralded China went heavily Keneysian internally to pump up import demand of real products and services from the west to keep the real global economy alive. Your reasoning is your prerogative, I'm not sure if you are a troll or just incomplete in your understanding.
Let me repeat myself. There is always a counterparty. Your debt is someone else's asset. China is underwater in this regard.
I have no idea what the private sector holding of western assets in China are, probably a lot, the real productive investment by Chinese corporations in the west is indeed huge and at risk, however with an internal market of close to 1.5 billion people I think they can weather it and with some commie meets Keynesian economics convert demand over to their domestic market. When the USA was an economic powerhouse in the 1950s it had a domestic market of 160 million people, China today has almost 10 times that. And, of course there's the RoW market, many times the golden billion, which has no problem with they way China operates economically or politically.
Here’s where China wins hands down. China is like a person who invested their time and money to become a world class heart surgeon. If that surgeon in middle age were to make some bad investments and lose everything, McMansion, trophy wife, Mercedes, bank savings, he would still be a highly skilled in demand heart surgeon able to immediately earn big money. Over the last forty years China developed a world class, advanced industrial and high tech economy, in some sectors they are state of the art and have no peers, certainly on the capacity of timely mass production and distribution. They launch something like 60 rockets a year into space and have landed five times on the Moon and once on Mars with flawless accuracy and mission success.
If China were to lose their US treasury holdings, and a fair share of private investments, sure, it would suck, it's huge money, the forex represents the state/people's savings of 40ys of hard work and discipline, but like the heart surgeon, it’s still an advanced highly skilled economy, it can never lose that, and could go right back to earning big money, rebuild its savings, after just few years of belt tightening restore its living standards. China is only underwater in your one dimensional understanding.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 22:14 utc | 60
@Posted by: Aaron Lee | Apr 15 2023 20:59 utc | 40
You obviously have no real clue what you are talking about given your assertions, and we have no need to go into the twisted logic below such ridiculous assertions. And yes, some of us on this site are highly educated on financial matters and have decades of experience in capital markets. So if you want to play such games another site with less knowledgeable commenters is probably a good idea.
China's net external debt to GDP is in the low teens percentage wise, and is going down as a percentage of GDP (and I provide an independent external reference for this below). That's the main metric used to validate a nation's solvency. The other is the trade surplus, which is massively positive. The nation also has capital controls to manage its capital flows effectively. The level of holding of US Treasuries is being run down slowly, as it is not in the interests of China to completely blow up the world financial system. They are a patient nation, and will boil the West slowly.
https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/china/external-debt--of-nominal-gdp
An action of consequence: "Siluanov dismissed from post of Russian envoy to EDB council":
Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has been dismissed from the position of Russia’s envoy to the Council of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB)."In connection with the profound changes taking place in international relations Russia’s Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov has been relieved of performing the duties of the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation in the Council of the Eurasian Development Bank until the subsequent appointment of a new plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation to the Council of the Eurasian Development Bank," reads the Russian government’s order, uploaded to the official Internet portal of legal information on Saturday.
The EDB is an international financial organization carrying out investment activities in Eurasia with the aim of expanding economic ties and comprehensive development of the participating countries (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan). Projects with an integration effect in the areas of transport infrastructure, digital systems, green energy, agriculture, industry and mechanical engineering account for the main share of the EDB's portfolio.
I suspect internal politics at EDB. This TASS report is the only one I've seen.
At 129% debt to GDP, I think the guy you're citing needs to brush up on his math. a 5% inflation rate wipes that out in a few years. Add 2% growth to that and it's nothing in a decade.
Posted by: Aaron Lee | Apr 15 2023 20:06 utc | 33
Ceteris paribus, Aaron, you are correct. However, two major factors are not constant.
One is interest rates. Rising interest rates defend the US$ and attract international funds. To me, that is the only reason the Fed has jacked up rates. Any fool knows that you cannot address supply-side inflation via an increase in interest rates. Yet the benefit to the US$ is more than outweighed by the increase in US Treasury debt service, now between $800 and $900 Billion/annum and soon to be greater than annual US Federal tax revenues, which will render the US government technically insolvent.
The other factor is the principal of the US federal debt, which has been and continues to increase at an astounding rate, with no end in sight. The US’s social breakdown includes a breakdown in fiscal prudence at all levels.
The party’s over. The sooner the US accepts that, the less pain, suffering, and overall misery the US and the world will experience.
Posted by: Ciaran | Apr 15 2023 22:19 utc | 63
Ciaran @ 63
The US’s social breakdown includes a breakdown in fiscal prudence at all levels.
Damn good point.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 22:42 utc | 64
@Posted by: Drifter | Apr 15 2023 20:00 utc | 31
Re; Chinese patriarchy - agree.
The America hating crowd so well represented here, at Larry Johnson's, grouchy, sourpuss hypocrite (he left Russia for the US) Andrei Martyanov's and similar forums actually believes that a world run by a China hegemony would be a better place (does anyone seriously think the Russians would be an equal? They have nothing other than fuel that China wants). I think their emotions (hatred) have gotten the better of them. They see only the bad the America has done and none of the good, which is considerable. They refuse to consider all of the bad done by the CCP. In fact, mass executions, political imprisonments, "re-education" camps, lack of individual rights, etc are all just Yankee lies in their twisted minds. It's weird how people blindly adopt beliefs with religious fervor and demonize those who have a different perspective - of course, some people are paid agents and say what they do because it's their job.
The Chinese have slaves digging Cobalt and other minerals out of the ground in Africa. Not colonialist in the extreme?
Anyhow, as you say, China is in as much economic trouble as the US; probably more. They are beholden to the USD. The US could punish them to the point of destruction by defaulting on debt owed to China. There are other macro-financial mechanisms that the US could use.The US wouldn't do that? Don't count on it. Look at what the US tried to do, economically, to Russia (including Nordstream).
I get it though that tossing out red meat to the base about China destroying the US keeps the America hating readership happy.
Posted by: Eric Newhill | Apr 15 2023 22:43 utc | 65
" Deplorable Commissar @ 22:
I see what your comment is hinting at: that some countries would be "better off" under the direct thumb of their former colonial masters who plundered their resources, turned their farms and herds into export-oriented plantations and ranches, and reduced their peoples to poverty and starvation levels of health and well-being; than to govern themselves and deal with their problems.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Apr 15 2023 21:15 utc | 48 "
Thats alot of assumptions on your part I never said anything about former colonial powers ruling them. However, its obvious some " countries " have to much corruption and entrenched ruling classes for them to be successful on their own and currently dont have the mentality to run a nation fairly for the benefit of all.
What I'm suggesting is that the country taking a loan from Russia or China falls under their stewardship for a time being, during which, China and Russia can run those nations and train their civil servants in beneficial ways of operating said country. Additionally, while under that stewardship they would be militarily protected negating the need to waste money on useless military expenditures. The Chinese alone could teach these nations about proper self governance. Constantly throwing money at this problem solves nothing as it just gets siphoned off by the ruling elite.
Posted by: Deplorable Commissar | Apr 15 2023 22:44 utc | 66
In any sane meritocracy, Kamala Harris would be a waitress, along with several other unqualified women. I also wonder if at some point, the US will have to "restructure" it's massive debt. And what privations we could expect.
Posted by: Immaculate deception | Apr 15 2023 23:01 utc | 67
thanks b...
i 2nd @ 54 outraged book recommendation, if others haven't read it...
Posted by: james | Apr 15 2023 23:02 utc | 68
Immaculate deception @ 67
In any sane meritocracy, Kamala Harris would be a waitress.
"Hi, I'm Kamala I'll be your waitress today, are you ready to order?"
"Yes Kamala, I'll a large word salad."
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 23:04 utc | 69
Akk, wrecked my dang joke:
"Yes Kamala, I'll have a large word salad."
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 15 2023 23:06 utc | 70
Exile | Apr 15 2023 19:23 utc | 17
------
That was Yanis Varoufakis with his terrifying Marxist heresies. And along came Alexis Tsipras and Syriza, obedient vassals of Westworld neoliberals. Varoufakis was sidelined by TINA. MMT bailouts for me; austerity for thee ... continues to this day.
Posted by: Doug Hillman | Apr 15 2023 23:08 utc | 71
OT on "Will this madness never stop?"
The madness is the end. This is the end right now this last year but however long it (the end and the madness, one and the same) will last is anyone's guess.
It's already over when western "elites" rant about balloons while handing out billions to nazis yet "can't" (don't want to) spend sufficient money for inflation-adjusted paychecks, or a rudimentary society, or shut down nuclear power stations in an ongoing energy crisis, and blow up their own pipelines while leaking their own propaganda and prattling on about "gardens" as if the original Eden was a chippy in Scotland.
We're not "done", we're already burnt to a crisp and the fire isn't stopping :)
I'm amazed I'm still alive. I don't need to see any more to know the above. I would like it if sanity could prevail right here and now in "the west" but that's a very greedy and unrealistic demand for something that we sure as hell don't seem to deserve or be anywhere close to. Most people here seem happy enough to live and suffer in complete ignorance and disdainful arrogance no matter what.
Any slight hint of truth (such as that there might be problems) and people go defensive and nasty doing the mental equivalent of plugging their ears and singing "la la la". Well so what, the world will do without us.
Europe was given a stay of execution this winter yet things nearly blew up so let's see what happens if we make it to the next one (I'll try as well lol, no promises, summer is hard).
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Apr 15 2023 23:13 utc | 72
In any sane meritocracy Kamala would be a prisoner.
Fixed it for you but it still ruins the joke, sorry :)
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Apr 15 2023 23:16 utc | 73
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 15 2023 21:11 utc | 47
"I hope a few barflies will be able to appreciate the story Pepe Escobar relates in his latest, "All Roads Lead to Beijing""
"This is the tale of two pilgrims following the road that really matters in the young 21st century; one coming from NATOstan and another one from BRICS."
"Pepe's pilgrims are Macron and Lula. Some will scoff at Pepe's narrative and say it's completely artificial.
But I'm not one of those for I know quite a lot about China, although not nearly as much as I'd like."
That was an excellent article by Pepe. And for you to really appreciate it, I'd say you do know a great deal about Chinese culture (and other similar Asian cultures). I always enjoyed and am thankful to the analyses you've posted here.
Posted by: TonyL | Apr 15 2023 23:20 utc | 74
Just FYI, here:
Eric Newhill is a U.S. military sychophant who once romped around Pat Lang's website, decamped from there to Larry Johnson's spot, and is now "gracing" b's boards with his presence because, presumably, he's slowly waking up to the fact that no, the U.S. (which, in his grossly flaunted stupidity, he calls "America") is not actually all that exceptional nor virtuous in comparison to any other nation-state.
I sort of pity him, except that he's been far too arrogant and selfish in his arrogation of national superiority in the past. I find it comical that he posts now, here, under the same name he's made so ugly on other boards, while attempting to abuse the regular posters here as "anti-American."
Very much the same unrecalcitrant McCarthy-ite troll he has always been, elsewhere. It would be best to ignore him; he has nothing of value to offer any intelligent or informed discourse.
Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Apr 15 2023 23:26 utc | 75
Posted by: Eric Newhill | Apr 15 2023 22:43 utc | 65
Heh heh...most of us just see reality, but you seem to think that is America hating only. Many of us dislike the policies of the USA, but not necessarily the common folks, just their political elites who worship Mammon and dabble in witchcraft, demon worship, adrenochrome harvesting and obviously, child abuse. That is what most of us hate, the weirdo crap. Many regular folks in America are just fine, but it is the WEF crowd that is uniting us.
Posted by: Arcticman | Apr 15 2023 23:27 utc | 76
Seems many missed the key points of this article which is the West expects China to write off loans to 3rd world countries, but the West is exempted from doing so.
The West will "restructure" their govt to govt loans and sell it to private lending institutions who'll charge high interest rates effectively crushing these economies with high interest repayment. Not even touching repayment of principles. Then these countries choking need to borrow from the World Bank/IMF to pay the interest rates and forced to privatise public services and cut social programs. There is NO forgiveness of loans by the West at all but a tightening of the noose keeping these countries in perpetual bondage just servicing the interest rates.
Posted by: Surferket | Apr 15 2023 23:36 utc | 77
Most of the debt involved is odious which ought not to be repaid on the grounds that repaying it only encourages predatory financing and political interference- moral hazard, as they call it on Wall St.
The game is an old one and the US is an old hand at it: they lend money, at high interest rates with repayment guaranteed, to governments which invest it in foreign real estate, Swiss bank accounts, yachts and personal security detachments.
On a larger scale this is what has been happening in Colombia since the 'neutralist' socialist Presidential candidate was assassinated before most of the people reading this were born. It happened in Guatemala too, and Iran and it has been repeated in just about every former colony, including Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam in the world.
The security detachment soon grows into an army, officers trained in Fort Leavenworth or Georgia, weapons purchased, with borrowed money, from the MIC. The vicious circle has started: repaying the loans, in a country whose economy has not benefited from them in any way, becomes a job for gangster muscle- the people, poor to start with have to be bled, their property, small as it is, is taken from them and sold to the old colonial comptrador class, who, often as not, follow the East India Company's example and convert grain fields and pastures into plantations for cocaine, poppies or some other source of profit rather than nutrition.
The people protest, nationalist and socialist popular politicians arise. And they get Allende-ed or Nkrumah-ed, perhaps even Lumumba-ed, at least Ghaddifi-ed. And the people get massacred.
This is the story of imperialism in its neo-colonial phase: the business of collecting the 'debt' most of which was incurred in the conquest and plundering of the territory in the first place, is no longer carried out by sepoys commanded by white men with bad breath in shorts. The sepoys are there still but the white men are no longer needed, their place is supplied by be-spectacled young men with degrees in 'Economics' and careers in the system.
Neo-colonialism, neo-conservatism, neo-liberalism are all part of the same system- globalised capitalism or imperialism in its late phase.
It is the last resort of the capitalists whose power has long been based on their control, as a class, of the legal system, which defines their interests as just, and the state which imposes their laws by violence.
The Imperialists are putting on a clinic in Ukraine that explains in dramatically simple terms how the system works.
First the Imperialists choose a government that can be counted upon to follow orders from the metropolis- that was what the Maidan coup was all about.
Second, the new 'government' re-shapes the national budget in accordance with neo-liberal principles-all social spending is decimated, the educational system is turned into a means of indoctrinating the population into accepting imperial rule and the theft of all public property and the transfer of resources to foreign capitalists.
This impoverishes important sections of the population which resists by declaring its independence from the new state, which promptly declares war on all dissidents.
The war is financed by massive high interest loans from the Empire- loans underwritten by the puppet government's promise to compel the population to repay its 'debts.'
The debt increases as the war intensifies, the country is impoverished, its population halved as millions flee, its infrastrucure is ruined, its industries broken up, its workforce, the source of the wealth pledged against the debt, shattered.
Only the debt increases: war demands enormous expenditure, corruption, invariably a part of the 'turning' of elites to serve as compradors for the Empire, syphons off vital funds.
Now the system is falling apart because there is a countervailing power, in the form of the Eurasian bloc, to the Empire.
The Empire has ceased to frighten Africa, Asia, Latin America. Saudi Arabia is no longer frightened, Iran most certainly isn't, nor is Venezuela. The Empire is learning that all its 'friends' in the world were merely its clients- the love they had for 'western values' was nothing more than their self interest and fear of the bully and his gang.
And this means that, we can get back to basics. In the system of usury known as capitalism it is as simple as applying the law- odious debt need not be repaid. Debatable debt, with odious characteristics, must be re-negotiated, certainly no interest is due. And any interest already paid can be deducted from the principal.
Here is a clear case for plebiscites. Ask the People of Argentina if they wish to honour the loans that Macri and others were given by the IMF and which were used exclusively for the benefit of Macri and his class. If they say that they do, they will be happy to impoverish themselves, starve their kids and allow their parents to go without care, so that shareholders in vulture funds can enrich themselves.
Ask the people of Ukraine whether the vast debt incurred in their names, much of which is being used to terrorise them and to bomb and kill their countrymen, in a period in which all opposition voices were silenced, many permanently and in which no public discussion or debate was allowed, is not a classically odious debt?
Does the IMF honestly believe that it will ever be able to collect the 'debts' incurred by the Uktaine in order to fatten Joe Biden's wallet and bankroll Nazi Tribute Acts?
Posted by: bevin | Apr 15 2023 23:37 utc | 78
Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Apr 15 2023 23:26 utc | 75
A bit off topic, but your pejorative use of the “McCarthyite” label is sadly in keeping with the MSM of the 1940s and 50s, who were agents of influence in acceptance of World Communism beginning with FDR’s inauguration in 1933.
A good book to read on the subject of subversion of the USA by such persons as FDR’s closest advisor, Harry Hopkins, and others such as Harry Dexter White is Diana West’s American Betrayal.
Upon reading it, you’ll realize that the lies put forth today by the US government and MSM are nothing new at all, and that they stem from Communism’s utter disregard for truth, examples of which are Stalin’s whitewashing of the purposeful starvation of the kulaks and the official USSR denial for decades of the Katyn Forest Massacre. Much became publicly available after the fall of the USSR, including the KGB’s running of dozens of agents in the USA and their influence on US bureacrats and newspapers.
McCarthy was on the right track, so was Martin Dies. Totalitarian Communism is a profound evil. This is China’s current major flaw.
Posted by: Ciaran | Apr 15 2023 23:49 utc | 79
A couple of reports on the developing conflict in Sudan:
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/who-are-sudans-rapid-support-forces-2023-04-13/
A snippet at the end of the al-jazeera link from Blinken urging a return to the transition process, "the situation was “fragile” as some actors “may be pushing against that progress”.
Would not be hard to work out who the main player for 'instability" is.
Posted by: Menz | Apr 15 2023 23:54 utc | 80
Vivek Ramaswamy - "Here’s how we protect Taiwan without going to war with China: open a branch of the
@NRA in Taiwan, put an AR-15 in the hands of every family, and train them how to use it. That’ll give Xi Jinping a taste of American exceptionalism." https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy
I support the right to own guns but this thinking is clearly a misuse of this freedom to create terrorism abroad.
I believe it will come the day of a world reckoning against us in America to stand against what we did, we do and we will do.
Posted by: Bertrand | Apr 15 2023 23:57 utc | 81
from b:
.. They [China] simply do not accept that these institutions, the Bretton Woods institutions, have any sort of priority. ..
Right, that's the ever final conclusion just today, and that will be the "Only final power" remaining behind any further US-like future aggressive approaches against "others" (China, Brazil, etc).
Let's watch where & how the US-like virtual monetary monsters - and their small industry-based economics background influence (Military & TransHuman Complex) will be stopped soon - by whome ? ..
Let's wait some decades .. Or only 1 decade as for a maximum delay ?
Posted by: spare_truth | Apr 15 2023 23:59 utc | 82
@ Ciaran | 79:
You are comically and entirely lacking any kind of genuine historical knowledge.
McCarthy worked with the FBI--the authoritarian secret police who instilled in you your entirely uninformed paranoia about "Communism"--to gut the Dept. of State of all its best and most capable personnel, aiding and abetting their replacement by CIA-beholden "Deep State" 0.1%ers and the full establishment of the U.S. authoritarian security apparatus the people of the U.S. currently suffer under.
Thanks to McCarthy, the FBI, and the CIA we are now living under utter incompetents like Biden, Sullivan, Nuland, et ilk.
Doubtlessly, with your historical love for McCarthy, you congratulate the citizens of the U.S. on their wildly unequal and unjust economy along with their fabulously incompetent "leadership."
Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Apr 16 2023 0:05 utc | 83
TonyL @74--
Thanks for your reply. In my reply to Pepe Escobar on his article I wrote that reading it reminded me of Lost Horizon I'd read many decades ago that confronted the mystiques and inscrutabilities of the Orient/Asian/Chinese that confounded the West then and still do today, particularly the socio-cultural behavioral code known as Guanxi.
bevin @78--
The Mafiosi tribute collectors and the Mafiosi itself now face a new police commissioner and unbribable police force on the streets that's giving backbone to all the small business owners that were terrorized by the Mafiosi into providing "protection" payoffs. In his own way, Lula just called out the head Mafiosi and told him to desist, while Macron before him struggled to say something similar. What will be uttered on tomorrow's talk shows? Will anything true be said? Given the print narrative direction, I doubt anything of substance will arise.
Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Apr 16 2023 0:05 utc | 83
You're wasting time talking to on obvious anti China troll with preset mind of a pre 60s China and nothing of the real China today. He's a true McCartherite seeing evil commies under every bed.
Posted by: Surferket | Apr 16 2023 0:14 utc | 85
@79
>>Upon reading it, you’ll realize that the lies put forth today by the US government and MSM are nothing new at all, and that they stem from Communism’s utter disregard for truth, examples of which are Stalin’s whitewashing of the purposeful starvation of the kulaks and the official USSR denial for decades of the Katyn Forest Massacre. Much became publicly available after the fall of the USSR, including the KGB’s running of dozens of agents in the USA and their influence on US bureacrats and newspapers.
The old saw is that when God wants to punish you, sometimes he will do it by giving you what you want. We should not want to lose the dollar as the global exchange currency, as is apt to be a really bad business for us. The most frustrating thing for me is that we are doing it to ourselves. As we are not currently as strong relative to other nations as we used to be, we should not expect the same level of accommodation. If we would pull our horns in a little we could keep our global dominance thing going for decades. Instead our foreign policy is more aggressive instead of less. And when we don't get our way we double down on nastiness. We are not so much losing support as pushing supporters away.
Posted by: Jmaas | Apr 16 2023 0:15 utc | 86
to the donbas devushka fans. read this entire thread it might enlighten you to a huge LARP and maybe then you see the disinfo. and outright lies.
https://twitter.com/MalcontentmentT/status/1647136343473143809
Posted by: hankster | Apr 16 2023 0:18 utc | 87
Here's an interesting article on the smoke and mirrors proping up US fake GDP.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-russias-economic
Posted by: Surferket | Apr 16 2023 0:18 utc | 88
Donbas D addressing the trolling and dxig of her by the alphabet souls.
Dear subscribers,
As you may or may not know recently I have been the subject of a number of accusations the so-called North Atlantic Fellas Organization. We nickname them the 'shibas' because they use animated Shiba Inus as their avatars. Unlike the dog counterpart these people are anything but cute, faithful companions. In this instance - they have gone beyond taunting and blocking to alleging loudly criminal activity and far worse from my point of view they have released my private documents and pictures of my daughter as a means of doxxing me. I don't care about them finding pictures of me - I came out with one of those last year. I do care though that they are going after my family.
I am going to now address some things starting with what I am accused of. I am accused of 'stealing money.' This is very strange. For a start ever since I started the Twitter username and the Telegram channel the commentary I started doing myself - and then what I started doing with a team - the content, the commentary has been open and free to the public. To the extent there has ever been anything involved with money it has been a paid subscription to locals or through a merchandise shop. Those things are accessed and contributed to only on choice. The t-shirts in question were delivered and made only a small profit per item. The money went to helping run the costs of the channel - for example by purchasing higher powered microphones for the podcasts so myself and the team could provide a better quality of audio recording for all of our listeners.
Part One
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/55369?single
Part Two
I also understand that some are alleging that when I worked for Uncle Sam that I leaked classified documents. Well - that is a little rich. As people can see from what is going on with Jack Teixera, I would not have been tweeting anything because unauthorized disclosure of classified documents is a federal offense - for a good reason - and that is met with a prison sentence. I am at liberty because I did not and I have not committed such a crime. As for being the alleged source of the leak, the channel did not solicit for these documents. The initial post that Bellingcat has seized on was - as we have covered - a set of screenshots sent to one of the admins. When I realized what had happened, I deleted the post and the admin who posted them has been disciplined.
The least important thing that has been said is that I am not Russian at all and just an American pretending to be Russian. Well, I have never pretended to be actually living in Russia and in numerous twitter spaces and podcasts I have made clear that my family moved to the United States when I was very young and I speak English as my first language. I have also had the opportunity to work in countries other than the United States. I have never hidden this or pretended otherwise. I am also a woman who is proud of being Russian and Jewish, and of the country and its people.
I also ask those posting pictures of my family to cease and desist. In some instances there have been clear implications in the posts you have that I should commit suicide. What you are doing is not just vile. It is illegal. To my understanding, under USC § 2261A - it qualifies as stalking. You think you are identifying how I might have violated federal law. You HAVE violated federal law. I suggest you stop right now.
That is all.
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/55370
Posted by: Surferket | Apr 16 2023 0:27 utc | 89
You are comically and entirely lacking any kind of genuine historical knowledge.
Doubtlessly, with your historical love for McCarthy, you congratulate the citizens of the U.S. on their wildly unequal and unjust economy along with their fabulously incompetent "leadership."
Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Apr 16 2023 0:05 utc | 83
Personal insults are a sign of intellectual weakness. I never fight with an unarmed man.
Posted by: Ciaran | Apr 16 2023 0:30 utc | 90
Posted by: Jmaas | Apr 16 2023 0:15 utc | 86
Sorry, in every sentence of this of Yours comment you use the word "WE" - why that and who is "WE" ??
Calm down - just nowadays - even possibly being like one of the newly educated by any Zionist schools ..
> but the "$s" won't help you anymore and anyway ..
Posted by: spare_truth | Apr 16 2023 0:34 utc | 91
Personal insults are a sign of intellectual weakness. I never fight with an unarmed man.
That wasn't a "personal insult." It was a statement of fact.
Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Apr 16 2023 0:34 utc | 92
If anything precipitates war with China it will be the outrage at the end of the money trail, the liberal oligarchs who depend on the public money cycling into their bank accounts, not to mention the control this will give back to resource-rich nations over their own resources. How often have the wars of the world since 1400 been waged over debt and finance? The collapse of the decadent rent-seeking stage in any phase of historical capitalism (Genovese, Dutch, British, US) takes the form of a colossal forced immolation of toxic finance.
It is worth comparing this with what happened internally during the Great Depression: FDR compelled industry to take a 'haircut' as the price for averting the consequences of working-class radicalization. The New Deal would redirect that radicalization against fascism (instead of the real class enemy) and placate it by government-funded social mobility at the expense of capital profits. In the end this was made possible only because the reconstruction of Europe, Japan, etc became the destination of US manufacturing. It was win-win.
Except for the US rich. FDR had established the hegemonic position of the US to avert a revolution during the Great Depression. The haircut for the wealthy was not catastrophic but very significant: in 1929 the gap between the wealthiest 5% and the poorest 50% reached its greatest extent to that point. By 1969—a mere 40 years later—the redistribution of wealth via the New Deal closed that gap to the narrowest it has ever been. History will recall (as boomer readers here can attest) that the two decades 1955-75 were a golden age of prosperity for the largest number of people in the USA, peaking in 1969.
But history also catches up with people. By 1970 the role Europe had played in underwriting this was over. The temptation to use the global hegemonic position of the US to coerce new dependent relationships from poor nations as well as to terminate the New Deal at home was too great. The left in the USA vanished because they were implicated ('If you're talking about destruction, you can count me out'). Baby boomers took this once-in-a-million historical windfall and converted it into soft imperial ('Google') power. The shareholders wanted their dividends back, the middle class became poor again (death of manufacturing USA, rise of financialised USA), investors switched to rent-seeking and the state in the USA returned to its former status as the instrument of oligarchic interests (union-busting, corruption, lobby-power, MIC, Big Pharma, etc). The gap widened again and surpassed the extent of 1929 by orders of magnitude. And here we are.
China doesn't need war; it can afford to wait out the internal collapse of the USA. The working classes are so fractured by identity politics, ignorance, social media and populist phantoms that a return to 1932-4's radical mobilization (5.5M members of the CPUSA in 1933!) is historically impossible. But the internal contradictions are the same even if the historical consequences will be comparable. How the USA will fall apart (balkanisation is my guess) is for others to speculate. To avert it many will look to war as the ultimate way to revive national cohesion—except there's no real New Deal to make it worthwhile. Maybe college or other debt relief? Proper healthcare? Revival of national industry? No appetite in DC for any of that. The 1% will never take a haircut again. But they need war bad. And the Chinese have made it clear that though they don't want to fight they will fight to the last if they have to.
China, in other words, is a latter-day FDR offering the world a real New Deal. We in Australia need to get on board with that (yeah right...) And what is the USA in this analogy? The forces of reaction, of fascism and capital's mobilisation of lies, violence and hatred to fight tooth and nail rather than surrender one penny of its position.
It's a hard rain's gonna fall.
Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 16 2023 0:35 utc | 93
@ Ciaran | Apr 15 2023 23:49 utc | 79 who wrote
"
Totalitarian Communism is a profound evil. This is China’s current major flaw.
"
I think facts more clearly support the following version
Totalitarian private finance is a profound evil. This is the West’s current major flaw.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 16 2023 0:38 utc | 94
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 16 2023 0:38 utc | 94
Just shows the troll's ideological ignorance.
Private sector in China contributes 60% of GDP and employs 80% of labour force.
That don't sounds like a "totalitarian communism" at all.
But to some, ignorance is Truly Bliss.
Posted by: Surferket | Apr 16 2023 0:47 utc | 95
Re: Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 16 2023 0:35 utc | 93
“ By 1969—a mere 40 years later—the redistribution of wealth via the New Deal closed that gap to the narrowest it has ever been. History will recall (as boomer readers here can attest) that the two decades 1955-75 were a golden age of prosperity for the largest number of people in the USA, peaking in 1969.”
My criticism of FDR relates to his relationship with Stalin, which resulted in Soviet totalitarian control of half of Europe for 45 years. The US could easily have opened a 2nd front against Germany through Austria and/or the Balkans, preventing Stalin from taking eastern Europe. The result was catastrophic for those people. FDR also repatriated several million refugees back to the Soviets, most of whom died in the Gulags, along with approximately 20,000 US POWs whom Soviet troops had gained control over as they advanced through eastern Germany and who were left to die in Siberia by FDR.
I do, however, disagree with your conclusion that FDR’s domestic economic policies had a causal relationship with the USA’s golden 50s and 60s, the greatest cause of which was the geographic insularity of North America during WWII, which left the USA with the only functioning Western industrial base.
Posted by: Ciaran | Apr 16 2023 0:52 utc | 96
I can't find the graphic but Steve Van Meter talked about a $600 billion hole in the economy in which bank assets are underwater - vastly greater than 15 yrs ago.
Posted by: Eighthman | Apr 16 2023 1:03 utc | 97
Totalitarian private finance is a profound evil. This is the West’s current major flaw.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 16 2023 0:38 utc | 94
Yes, agreed. But totalitarian oligarchic finance is only the antithesis of Communism within the framework of dialectic materialism, which itself is a grave evil in that it reduces human beings to our appetites and degrades human existence, which has higher ends than either can provide, even for the nomenclatura or the Western elites.
Posted by: Ciaran | Apr 16 2023 1:21 utc | 98
Posted by: Patroklos | Apr 16 2023 0:35 utc | 93
.. China doesn't need war; it can afford to wait out the internal collapse of the USA.
It may be a little bit difficult to follow your comment in some logical sense en-detail, but you've described the main todays's issue acc.to what the possible further replies & the future reaction of the "Chinese people" itself could be, if more-and-more confrontation occurs by Western MSM to them ('The China folk') from the abroad side by steadyly published Western manipulation.
(the opponent answer to your above comment, received by: Ciaran @96 should be ignored as a nonsense)
Posted by: spare_truth | Apr 16 2023 1:22 utc | 99
The "restrict act " will give the US government extraordinary powers. It's like the patriot act for the internet. Trying to hide it behind a ban of Tik Tok.
My view is this " leak " regarding the Ukraine war. Is a controlled leak by the intelligence community in order to get the " restrict act " approved.
It's just like when they sent Anthrax to those who wouldn't pass the patriot act to push it through. Of course the " restrict act " will be used to fight an into war against Americans.
Larry Johnson view on the " leak " explains why he thinks it was beyond doubt an intelligence community controlled leak.
Posted by: Derek Henry | Apr 16 2023 1:26 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
As to economic threats, I found this very surprising:
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3950467-is-there-a-worldwide-run-on-the-bank-of-the-united-states-of-america/
A credible source warning about the US - failing to compete with China and possible "collapse" is mentioned. We are beyond tin foil hats and fringe claims. It's getting serious.
Posted by: Eighthman | Apr 15 2023 17:41 utc | 1