via National Interest
The hastening began with the Ukraine war, with the United States forcing the West into a round of sanctions against Russia. With the Russians placing a limit on the price of their gold, Russian investors were stuck with an undervalued ruble, therefore forcing it to rise vis-a-vis the dollar. In the last six months, the ruble has steadily strengthened. Then Putin added the double whammy that oil purchasers must buy in rubles. Or gold. If they buy in gold, they are effectively getting a discount on the oil. This also heaps pressure on the supply of gold, raising the price.
In effect, the West’s commitment to burn the ruble has backfired. The strengthening of the oil price has had a concomitant strengthening effect on the ruble. The upshot of this? In the land of paper, commodities are king. Russia and China are now able to control the prices of gold and oil, which is epoch-defining. We are moving away from Westworld.
At last year’s St. Petersburg Economic Investment Forum, the CEO of Gazprom forewarned about the shift to a new dynamic: “The game of nominal value of money is over, as this system does not allow to control the supply of resources.” It signals the emergence of “outside money,” to quote Poszar again, rather than “inside money,” i.e. the use of debt and fiat currency. The post-Lehman Brothers world has been built on the property stripping of the world, using cheap debt for institutional investors to wrest more and more property under their umbrella. The world of the dollar reserve system is coming to an end. Inside money has been artificially inflated by the West in order to cheaply buy the assets of the Orient. Now it’s payback time for the Orient. The West emphasizes rules and laws as a means to accrue wealth; in the Orient, the workhouse of the world, wealth is created through labor and invention. This is the fundamental malaise of the Anglophone world: it is not the absence of fruit in the supermarket post-Brexit; it is the civilizational surrender of the very ethos which gave the nations their success in the first place.
Here
New information so I have a new theory.
The moves by the US and EU to so heavily sanction the West will be seen as the opening shot of the next world war.
At the very least it will be seen as being the reason behind the huge shift into a basket of currencies.
A few conservative talk show hosts are talking about how China could wreck our and their economy simply by dumping dollars at a time and place of their choosing.
But there is an upshot I haven't heard anyone talking about. China has been hoarding gold like crazy! They'll get hit but they'll weather the storm to a certain extent. So will the elite in the US but the little guy will get utterly crushed.
I warned about the crazy sanctions but no one listened. Are they now? I doubt it. Normalcy bias is strong (Goon taught me that one...I had it bad too!).
But let me hit you with one more theory.
I wonder if the US would actually risk a major war with China over Taiwan (the Taiwanese have doubts)?
We would happily engage in a major war with China if we felt that it was endangering our way of life...if it would literally plunge us into a depression.
I get nervous when both sides of the isle are talking happily about war.
If you've been paying attention the "freedom and democracy" talk has been replaced with a simple "we will not be dictated to by China".
War is inevitable.
China seems to know it and appears to be planning accordingly.
Meanwhile in the US, we're still acting as if all is well while our elected officials are ramping things up (even with the totally ineffective and morally deficient Milley wants stuff tamped down).
I don't know if we're militarily, economically or socially ready for a big fight right now.
Sidenote. If the need is extreme then all you bubbas (retirees, vets, etc..) could be involuntarily recalled up to the age of 60...you ain't in the clear yet! I'm just the messenger. Your commitment to the defense of America does not end at your EAS (or so they told me!).
