Russia confirms Brazil's preference for using national currencies instead of USD rather than launching a new currency with all the complications and uncertainties that such a project involves. It's over for now.
RT — Question More (Russian state-sponsored media)
Kremlin pours cold water on BRICS single currency speculation
32 comments:
Don't reinvent the wheel, folks.
There is some misconception about replacing the US dollar. This is understandable, since the West is severely autistic. The West looks at the world and does not see reality. The West sees only itself and its anti-self -- i.e. its mirror image.
Therefore, because the West wants to enslave the planet, the autistic West assumes that China wants to enslave the planet in the same way. The autistic West assumes that if the US dollar is dethroned, then some other currency will assume the throne.
This is an error for two reasons. First, de-dollarization is not simply about reducing the US dollar’s supremacy. It is about opposing the West’s neoliberalism and de-industrialization – i.e. opposing the supremacy of debt, finance, and market swindles. All these parasitic evils are ultimately dependent on US dollar supremacy.
Second (and more importantly) de-dollarization is about moving toward something like Keynes’ original idea of a post-World War II “bancor.” This would not be an international currency. Instead, “bancor” would be a unit of account used to track international flows of assets and liabilities. The tracking would be conducted through an International Clearing Union, something like the Bank of International Settlements, but more global and multi-polar. Nations would keep their own sovereign currencies.
All international trade would be valued and cleared in bancor. Gold could be exchanged for bancors, but bancors could not be exchanged for gold. Individuals could not hold bancor, or trade in bancor. Bancor could not be spent like a regular currency. It would be a clearing system.
Keynes explained all this at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods New Hampshire (“Bretton Wood Conference,” July 1944). All participating nations loved the idea, but the USA, represented by Treasury official Harry Dexter White, rejected it in favor of US dollar supremacy and IMF predation. With dollar supremacy, countries with trade deficits would fall into an inescapable trap, paying more and more interest to service more and more debt. Ultimately the USA was able to bully a war-weary world into submitting to dollar supremacy.
Now, because of financialization and de-industrialization (i.e. because of the supremacy of Wall Street, debt, and creditor oligarchs) the US dollar system has reached an impasse, and has also been fully weaponized. The World outside the West wants to replace it.
However, setting up an International Clearing Union will be complex, and it will take time. A million questions must be answered, and they eventually will be.
Incidentally I hear people talk about a “gold backed” BRICS currency. MMT students know that such talk is silly, since no currency has even been authentically “backed” by gold, except as a marketing gimmick to get people to use the currency. Gold is not “real money,” and never has been. Gold is a commodity. Gold gets its monetary value from monetary systems, which exist just fine without any gold.
The US dollar, for example, is not “backed” by gold. The dollar is backed by humans -- i.e. by the “full faith and credit” of the dollar’s users.
Of course, if a person stupidly rejects the basics of MMT, then he cannot be reasoned with, and it is useless to try.
@ Konrad
Right.
I would add that the MMT position is that taxes payable only in the currency of issue is a sufficient (but not necessary condition) to create demand for a state currency (chartal).
However, a payment vehicle that is not a state currency has a different conditionality, since taxes are not imposed on such an entity that ensures demand for it over time. This is an issue with bilateral trade in national currencies such as is being resorted to now.
Rather, it is a necessary condition that counterparties to trade are willing to save in it the vehicle used for settlement. This is dependent on confidence and expectations. Thus, this includes its own conditionality, for instance, stability of value, which is why a commodities-based vehicle is regarded as important. A legal structure must also be in place and proven to function.
That is to say, the vehicle must a be embedded in an institutional structure up to the task. As Yvew Smith observed in a recent post at Naken Capitalism, this is no small matter and it will take time, effort and cooperation to create an alternative financial system. The issue is not just replacing SWIFT with an alternate payment transfer apparatus but includes the infrastructure in which it is embedded.
This was developed by the financial elite of the West, chiefly the US and UK, and it is controlled by them. For example, The African Sahel is controlled by France through imposing its financial arrangements on the countries of the region, and this is part of the revolt that is going on there now.
This is the issue at present. But the wider issue is decolonization, of which dedollarization is only one aspect. But because decolonization (the real meaning of "multipolarity") is a key component of the present moment in the historical dialectic, it has become part of the Zeitgeist. The process is underway and it is unlikley to be a short path, let alone a straight one. We are witnessing that now.
Part 1 of 2
“I would add that the MMT position is that taxes payable only in the currency of issue is a sufficient (but not necessary condition) to create demand for a state currency (chartal).”
Yes, and I propose that one of the main reasons for federal taxation is to maintain federal power and legitimacy. Obviously the U.S. government has no financial need for tax revenue in its own sovereign currency.
One of the paradoxes of society is that everyone will agree (if you explain it to them) that the federal government creates its spending money out of thin air, and yet most people act as though they do not agree. They act as though the US government must borrow its spending money, or get it from taxes. Therefore people do not complain when half of a lottery jackpot, for example, is seized as federal taxes. People tell themselves that those taxes go to pay the “national debt,” when in reality federal tax revenue is effectively destroyed upon receipt.
In 2019 the US Congress was instructed that a “pandemic” was being planned, so the Congress ordered the Treasury to create $2.2 trillion out of thin air for the CARES Act, which became effective 27 March 2020. That was 16 days after the WHO declared a “pandemic.” Did the U.S. government borrow that $2.2 trillion from someone? No, but people pretend that it was borrowed.
Western civilization is a vast nexus of pretense, hoaxes, myths, legends, and flat-out lies. It is a house of cards.
“However, a payment vehicle that is not a state currency has a different conditionality, since taxes are not imposed on such an entity that ensures demand for it over time. This is an issue with bilateral trade in national currencies such as is being resorted to now.”
Yes. Taxes are not an issue between nations, but loans and repayments are. So are trade balances.
Continued below
Part 2 of 2
“Rather, it is a necessary condition that counterparties to trade are willing to save in it the vehicle used for settlement. This is dependent on confidence and expectations. Thus, this includes its own conditionality, for instance, stability of value, which is why a commodities-based vehicle is regarded as important. A legal structure must also be in place and proven to function.
Yes, and all this will take time to develop. A million questions must be answered. Russia, China, etc are working on it.
This is one reason why the West sees China as such a “threat.” If de-dollarization was simply a matter of replacing dollars with Chinese renminbi (aka yuan) then the rich could value their assets in renminbi, not dollars. The rich would still be rich, and they would still be able to rape and enslave the poor. However multi-polarity is not about replacing one currency with another. It is about a new system of settling international accounts that is not weaponized, not parasitic, and not unjust. This makes it a profound “threat.”
During the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa was a bandit just like the rich. The rich didn’t worry about him. They worried about Emiliano Zapata, who sought to make the entire land ownership system more just and fair. Zapata was a “threat,” and so he was assassinated. Eventually Pancho Villa became a threat of a different kind. He didn’t want to change the whole system like Zapata did, but he challenged the rich and their puppet politicians for supremacy. Therefore Villa was assassinated four years after Zapata.
“As Yves Smith observed in a recent post at Naken Capitalism, this is no small matter and it will take time, effort and cooperation to create an alternative financial system. The issue is not just replacing SWIFT with an alternate payment transfer apparatus but includes the infrastructure in which it is embedded.”
Yes. SWIFT is merely a system of international remittances. It can be slow and pricey, as intermediary banks add their fees. SWIFT is not designed to settle accounts in overall assets and liabilities. Numerous alternatives to SWIFT already exist -- e.g. SEPA (Single European Payment Area payment system) which unites 46 countries. There is also Profee, Wise, cryptocurrency, China’s CRIPS system (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System), Russia’s SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) and so on.
“For example, The African Sahel is controlled by France through imposing its financial arrangements on the countries of the region, and this is part of the revolt that is going on there now.”
Yes, since 1960 France has used the CFA franc system to control the economies of fourteen African nations. (Meanwhile Nigeria’s economy is controlled by the Anglo-American bloc). Muammar Gaddafi wanted a new pan-African currency (the African gold dinar). Therefore NATO destroyed Gaddafi and his entire nation.
“Decolonization (the real meaning of ‘multipolarity’) is underway and it is unlikely to be a short path, let alone a straight one. We are witnessing that now.”
Yes. Global change will be painful but inevitable, and it is accelerating. There will be no going back.
With dollar supremacy, countries with trade deficits would fall into an inescapable trap, paying more and more interest to service more and more debt. Ultimately the USA was able to bully a war-weary world into submitting to dollar supremacy.
1. Why borrow in a foreign currency in the first place?
2. The USD is a natural reserve currency thanks to persistent trade deficits.
The current system works better than previous schemes, and there would be less of an issue if countries gave up on beggar-thy-neighbour trade policies.
Economic literacy minus American foreign interventionist policy = global economic trade 2.0
If you believe that version 2.0 will be without violence and exploitation, you're naive.
If you believe that version 2.0 will be without violence and exploitation, you're naive
That may be, but this will occupy another moment in the historical dialectic. Right now, the Global South/East is focused on freeing itself from the Evil Empire (the Global North/West led by the US). This is what "decolonization" and "multipolarity" are about. These are among the dominant memes currently.
Decolonization happened 50 years ago for some nations. Use of that term is pure rhetoric.
If New Caledonia were to gain independence from France, that would be an example of decolonization.
Multipolarity has existed since around 2010 in economic terms.
Freeing yourself from a colonial power, or the Evil Empire, means local despots will be entirely responsible for taking away your freedom. And these local despots will want their population to believe that problems at home are still the fault of enemies abroad. Informed Americans already know this. The issue isn't China or Russia, it is Congress.
The amount of hopium being written about BRICS is as bad as it is for Green Energy.
Q. “Why borrow in a foreign currency in the first place?”
A. All nations need to buy imports. None is 100% self-sufficient. If a nation's currency is not accepted by anyone outside the nation's borders, then that nation must borrow money in a foreign currency in order to buy imports. This is a common problem for many nations. That's why they have a foreign debt problem. Some nations do not have monetary sovereignty -- e.g. the 20 nations that use the euro. Euro-nations that have trade deficits must borrow from banks all the euros they use, and they are in debt.
This is economics 101. Before you smugly call other people naïve, you might consider honing your own skills a bit.
Just a thought.
“Decolonization happened 50 years ago for some nations. Use of that term is pure rhetoric.”
No. Colonization has evolved from physical occupation and direct military force to today’s financial colonization, in which nations keep other nations enslaved by foreign debt.
For example, Bangladesh owes $4 billion to the Washington-controlled IMF. Columbia owes $5 billion, Pakistan $7.4 billion, Ecuador $8.2 billion, Egypt $18 billion, and Argentina $46 billion. Many African states owe the IMF.
And speaking of Africa, France uses the CFA frank to control the economies of 14 African nations, which now want freedom from this form of financial colonization.
There is also cultural colonization, in which a nation saturates foreign nations with its broadcast and entertainment media. A particularly aggressive form of cultural colonization is LGBTQ supremacy. If you can make a society submit to this, you can make it submit to anything. Many nations understand that LGBTQ mania is an imperialist weapon. Therefore LGBTQ mania has been outlawed in 67 nations (and counting).
“The issue isn't China or Russia, it is Congress.”
For once we agree.
“The amount of hopium being written about BRICS is as bad as it is for Green Energy.”
The two are very different. Green energy is a scam. BRICS evolution is inevitable.
@PP
Classical liberalism, imperialism, and colonialism have been replaced by neoliberalism, neo-imperialism, and neocolonialism.
The latter is essentially the same thing as the former but with a veneer.
Same with feudalism and neofeudalism (neoliberalism)
Some would also say, I was just reading an article on this yesterday, that neoliberalism is neo-fascism similar to Mussolini's fascism.
@Tom Hickey
Perhaps PP objects to the term "colonialism" because woke liberals sometimes use the term to attack white people for being white. I am not a woke liberal. I use the term “colonialism” carefully and deliberately.
The Western neo-colonial exploitation of Africa is ultra-racist. The name of the game is to steal the resources: gold, oil, nickel, uranium, agricultural products, etc. This rape is called “bringing them Democracy” -- as in “Niger was the last outpost of Democracy in the Sahel.” (As I see it, some of the hatred of China also has racist elements.)
Again, I am not a woke liberal. I am a right-wing extremist. I never use the term “racist” lightly.
Speaking of racism, here is some trivia. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Gen. George C. Patton was born near downtown Los Angeles, and yet during World War II the city honored Douglas MacArthur from Arkansas, not Patton from Los Angeles. The city renamed parks and roads after MacArthur, not Patton. Reason: racial tensions in Los Angeles. MacArthur fought the “Japs.” World War II in the Pacific was a race war.
Speaking of race wars, Japan was a U.S. ally during the First World War. During the 1919 Paris Peace Conference that led to the Treaty of Versailles, Japan wanted an amendment added to the treaty that would honor racial equality among the members of the League of Nations.
The Anglo nations rejected Japan’s request (UK, USA, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand).
This caused great resentment in Japan which simmered for years. In March 1933 Japan withdrew from the League of Nations because of this racism. (The USA itself never joined the League.) Americans self-righteously imagine that the League expelled Japan for its invasion of Manchuria. Not true.
Because WW II in the Pacific was a race war, each side rarely took prisoners. When the USA took an island away from the Japanese, it simply executed all Japanese who surrendered.
Neo means "new". What is that prefix supposed to inform us about?
Economic subjugation is as distinct from colonialism as wage slavery is from slavery.
Is it racist to teach developing world economists orthodox dogma?
Is it racist to mock them when they believe what they're taught?
A. All nations need to buy imports. None is 100% self-sufficient. If a nation's currency is not accepted by anyone outside the nation's borders, then that nation must borrow money in a foreign currency in order to buy imports.
Have you never heard of the foreign exchange market?
When your currency is weak relative to others, imports are expensive, and your exports are cheap. No need to borrow unless the citizenry will starve to death because you're not self-sufficient in food.
What China offers is more of the same. We supply the debt, you supply the resources, It's win-win, trust us. Win for China, win for ruling class, and the rest is trickle down economics.
BRICS evolution is inevitable.
When you keep the same economic system, nothing evolves.
Furthermore, MMT is nowhere to be found in this, so it's a given that developing countries will pursue the same policy mistakes as they have in the past. There's no substance here other than label swapping.
The final irony is that Washington still intends to engage in foreign interference. Physical force imperialism hasn't run its course. Wagner will be busy.
“What China offers is more of the same.”
I disagree. Consider the Middle East for example. The USA destroyed it. China is rebuilding it. This doesn’t seem to me like more of the same.
In Iraq alone, China is currently building 8,000 new schools, plus 90,000 new houses in the Baghdad district of Sadr, plus 1,000 new healthcare facilities, plus an upgrade of Baghdad’s sewage system. China is also building the huge Nasiriyah International Airport in central Iraq, plus the Tallil military airport outside Nasiriyah city in the Dhi Qar Governorate. Plus new railways and motorways.
And that’s only Iraq. China is engaged in massive building projects in Saudi Arabia too, plus Africa and elsewhere.
China does this in exchange for oil and other things.
By contrast, the West does not exchange. It steals and swindles. It bombs and occupies, and it enslaves with debt.
Russia just erased $30 billion in African debt, and will erase another $90 billion. Russia is also shipping massive amounts of food to Africa for free, with free delivery. Does the West do this? No, the West dying, and it desperately focuses only on stealing resources. This is why it is losing more and more influence in the world. The US dollar was king, but when the U.S. weaponinized the dollar, the clock started ticking toward the West's end.
As I wrote farther above, “The West is severely autistic. The West looks at the world and does not see reality. The West sees only itself and its anti-self: i.e. its mirror image.”
Because of this we get statements like, “China offers more of the same.” No. The parasitic West has collective dementia, like Biden himself. It pretends that men can give birth. It encourages its children to have their genitals mutilated. In the USA, Democrat-controlled cities are dystopian wastelands. Washington DC is more of a cesspool than ever.
Regarding the need to borrow in foreign currency in order to buy imports, I should have clarified that this only applies to nations that have net trade deficits, and whose currency is not widely accepted outside their borders. If a nation has a trade surplus, it gets foreign currency by selling exports, not by borrowing.
“The final irony is that Washington still intends to engage in foreign interference. Physical force imperialism hasn't run its course.”
The West gets weaker every day. The U.S. military is corrupt, obese, feminized, anti-white, anti-male, and pumped full of toxic vaccines. From now on the West will only be able to try and foment proxy wars, and these will be more and more difficult to create.
China and Russia are not saintly. They are the West’s competitors. But they are rising, and the West is dying, faster and faster. The future will not necessarily be paradise, but I am confident that it will be different. Not “more of the same.”
Thank you for your comments.
Dollar Uber Alles
China does this in exchange for oil and other things.
This is called an investment. An oil producing country like Iraq can rebuild its infrastructure several times over. Is China investing in Iraq? Or is Iraq investing in its own people? If it's the latter, then China is merely a subcontractor that was hired to do a job. This is how the system is supposed to work. With that in mind, think about 'investments' made in China 30 years ago by American manufacturers.
By contrast, the West does not exchange. It steals and swindles. It bombs and occupies, and it enslaves with debt.
This is called imperialism. In the case of Western Sahara, it was a conquest.
Debt enslavement is economic subjugation. It happens to countries and individuals. It may be a moral outrage, but it isn't always illegal. In the end, might makes right.
Russia just erased $30 billion in African debt, and will erase another $90 billion. Russia is also shipping massive amounts of food to Africa for free, with free delivery.
Are you claiming they are humanitarians?
Africa's resource wealth is in the trillions. A case could be made that Russia, China or whoever could build Africa's infrastructure for free since it would be paid for in future resource sales. African countries themselves could make that case. If upfront loans are involved, then there is the possibility for scams.
So what is going on in Africa right now?
Resources are being extracted legally and on the black market. Every player including China, is involved in black market minerals. The blame for this rests with corrupt local officials. Each African country has its own equivalent of the US Congress.
To cite an example, I don't blame western oil companies for doing business with the despot in charge of Equatorial Guinea. He treats his people badly - that's on him. And I wouldn't expect Russian or Chinese oil companies not to do business with him.
Regarding the need to borrow in foreign currency in order to buy imports, I should have clarified that this only applies to nations that have net trade deficits, and whose currency is not widely accepted outside their borders. If a nation has a trade surplus, it gets foreign currency by selling exports, not by borrowing.
This is a strange occurrence. Did Venezuela fall into this category when oil prices were low and they couldn't import enough food?
How can a country borrow in a foreign currency, if it doesn't have anything of equivalent value to sell - now, or in the future?
Venezuela could do it, based on the assumption of higher oil prices down the road.
Other than that, I'd call such a situation a fraud in progress. Plenty of the IMF schemes turned out to be fraudulent, due to the bad intentions of multiple parties.
The West gets weaker every day. The U.S. military is corrupt, obese, feminized, anti-white, anti-male, and pumped full of toxic vaccines. From now on the West will only be able to try and foment proxy wars, and these will be more and more difficult to create.
I don't expect anything different, unless there's a mass lynching outside of Congress.
And I wouldn't wish for the opposite.
A US Empire that chose to invest in its own people would be a renewed source of terror to the world.
“Is China investing in Iraq?”
Yes China is investing in Iraq and elsewhere, but its investment approach is not like the West’s.
The West’s attitude is “win-lose.” No matter how much I proper, I do not feel successful unless others lose.
By contrast, China’s attitude is “win-win.” Everyone prospers. Ultimately this is a far more powerful and persuasive approach, which is why the West considers China to be such a “threat.”
“Are you claiming that the Russians are humanitarians?”
No, above I called the Russians competitors. They are out-competing the West because the West is suicidal.
“Africa's resource wealth is in the trillions. A case could be made that Russia, China or whoever could build Africa's infrastructure for free since it would be paid for in future resource sales. African countries themselves could make that case. If upfront loans are involved, then there is the possibility for scams.”
Russia and China are still industrialized. They invest in industry and in nations in order to reap profits on the back end.
Meanwhile the West is financialized, de-industrialized, and parasitic. The West is like the big automakers, which shifted their emphasis from making cars to making loans on cars. As such, the West demands maximum profits NOW. It thinks no further ahead than the next month, or to the end of this quarter.
In the West, everyone and everything ultimately serves Wall Street, the money masters, and the creditor oligarchs. The Federal Reserve does not care about average Americans. The Fed works for the financial carpet-bagger thieves. Meanwhile the Bank of China works for China. It is subordinate to the Chinese government. This is a huge difference.
“I don't blame western oil companies for doing business with the despot in charge of Equatorial Guinea. He treats his people badly - that's on him. And I wouldn't expect Russian or Chinese oil companies not to do business with him.”
I don’t see the Russians and Chinese doing that, simply because it’s not good business. The West’s use of “color revolutions” and puppet dictators (installed via rigged elections) has become more and more untenable. Niger is only the latest example.
Again, the Western attitude is, “What will bring me the most profits today?” The Chinese attitude is “What will bring me the most profits in the long run?”
“This is a strange occurrence. Did Venezuela fall into this category when oil prices were low and they couldn't import enough food?”
The normal rules of economics do not apply to nations at war. Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea are under extreme sanctions, which are economic warfare.
“How can a country borrow in a foreign currency, if it doesn't have anything of equivalent value to sell - now, or in the future?”
Simple. Predatory organizations like the IMF intentionally make loans knowing that the borrower cannot pay back the loans in money. Therefore the borrower must pay back the loans by surrendering all assets. The borrower must privatize all its roads, ports, airports, and natural resources –- i.e. surrender them to Western corporations. The IMF makes loans in dollars created out of thin air, and uses those dollars to steal debtors blind. This game has run its course, and the world is starting to reject it.
The West’s attitude is “win-lose.” No matter how much I proper, I do not feel successful unless others lose.
By contrast, China’s attitude is “win-win.” Everyone prospers. Ultimately this is a far more powerful and persuasive approach, which is why the West considers China to be such a “threat.”
The attitude of 99% of the ruling elite in the world is "what's in it for me?". That is their definition of "win-win". The people be damned.
Why do you believe only western officials are corrupt?
Do you believe people in Africa have more say over these deals than people in America have over what their government is doing?
No, above I called the Russians competitors. They are out-competing the West because the West is suicidal.
Western leadership is corrupt. African leadership is corrupt. Middle-Eastern leadership is corrupt. And there was a time when Russian leadership was corrupt - in other words, during most of Russia's history.
Russia and China are still industrialized. They invest in industry and in nations in order to reap profits on the back end.
It's also true to say that China is dependent on resource imports. Being manufacturer to the world places them in that position. If the US were to re-industrialize, the price of resource imports would rise. That is, if we're in an open competitive market.
I don’t see the Russians and Chinese doing that, simply because it’s not good business. The West’s use of “color revolutions” and puppet dictators (installed via rigged elections) has become more and more untenable. Niger is only the latest example.
They will do business with anyone. Human rights violations are an "internal matter". That is the flip side of "respecting national sovereignty".
The normal rules of economics do not apply to nations at war. Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea are under extreme sanctions, which are economic warfare.
Oil producer Venezuela has no excuse for its idiotic economic policies. Cuba I have sympathy with. North Korea is a disgrace no one can do anything about, because they have a nuclear deterrent. Sanctions don't work, except to harm ordinary people.
Simple. Predatory organizations like the IMF intentionally make loans knowing that the borrower cannot pay back the loans in money. Therefore the borrower must pay back the loans by surrendering all assets. The borrower must privatize all its roads, ports, airports, and natural resources –- i.e. surrender them to Western corporations. The IMF makes loans in dollars created out of thin air, and uses those dollars to steal debtors blind. This game has run its course, and the world is starting to reject it.
Both parties are corrupt here. I don't buy the argument that the borrower is naive or innocent. Sovereign nations can default on those loans and sign new deals with new "partners" the next day. Or perhaps they should pursue self-sufficiency, because the system we have is fundamentally flawed. Mutually beneficial trade (win-win) is only possible when participants are roughly equal in power, and when all signatories are acting in the best interests of their people. Meanwhile, the ideology being pushed is that "free" trade is the best of all possible worlds, which is clearly not the case.
I'm Canadian. With 8 billion people aspiring to higher living standards, the future is brighter for Canada than it is for China. Continents and regions with lower population density will be better off. High living standards require plenty of energy and resources. The more mouths that have to be fed, and clothed and given luxuries, the lower their per capita consumption. This is the game that will run its course, and there's nothing that can be done about it.
https://fee.org/articles/was-reagan-right-to-call-daniel-ortega-a-dictator-in-designer-glasses/
“ Ortega had visited the United Nations’ anniversary celebrations and was severely criticized for his visit to an Upper East Side optical shop where he allegedly spent more than $3,500 in designer sunglasses (about $9,228.68 in 2022’s dollars).”
Even the commies know the swankiest boutiques only accept USD….
As long as X stands up to US imperialism, abuses committed by X are given a pass. Ortega and Assad are two innocent little sweeties.
“As long as X stands up to US imperialism, abuses committed by X are given a pass. Ortega and Assad are two innocent little sweeties.”
This is a classic example of Western arrogance and myopia. If I say that everyone on all sides should treat each other fairly, the average Westerner responds with, “So you claim that everyone except us is a saint????”
No, I said that everyone (including the USA) should treat each other fairly
If I note (with proof and examples) that the USA bombs and destroys, while China builds and develops, the average Westerner responds with, “So you’re saying that China is an innocent little sweetie???”
No, I’m saying that we destroy while China builds. This is a simple fact.
The average Westerner is obsessively Manichean, seeing everything as good or evil. And since the average Westerner is “good,” everyone else is “evil.”
For the average Westerner there can be no win-win. There can only be win-lose. It is not enough than he succeeds. Everyone else must fail. Only in this way does the average Westerner feel “prosperous.” The more he can make others suffer, the more he is “superior.”
The West wages economic war, and calls its attacks “sanctions.” If a nation resists these attacks, that nation is condemned for being in “violation of sanctions,” as though Western “sanctions” are universal laws, and are not acts of hate. For example, sanctions against Cuba, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea are called “moral,” when in fact they are immoral, being designed to starve whole populations.
The USA commits brutal acts of piracy on the high seas almost every day, seizing foreign tankers that carry food, oil, gasoline, and natural gas, stealing their cargoes, and selling those cargoes for profit. This is happening right now. IF I AM CHALLENGED ON THIS I will provide a list of examples with specific dates, ship names, and web links.
The USA destroys nations (e.g. Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan) and yet the average American claims that everyone else is “just as bad.” Over 100 nations have banned cluster munitions, yet the USA sends them to Ukraine while saying that all other nations are “just as bad.”
The dying West has dementia. It treats Africans as garbage, stealing their resources and keeping them enslaved, while back home the West treats black criminals as saints, and straight white males as evil. This is a civilization which claims that men can give birth, and that anyone who opposes pedophilia is evil. It is a civilization with late stage dementia, just like its fake president.
Now the West is rapidly approaching collapse. It has been hollowed out by its own evil, and destroyed by its own greed. Many of us don’t have the courage and compassion to face this reality, so we scream, “Nuke China!” This is a form of cowardly suicide. We might as well become drug addicts and go live on the sidewalk with the rest, numbing our minds while we wait to die.
Whitewashing the abuses of Assad and Ortega is typical of the anti-imperialist "left". I suppose they feel the need to do it, in order to persuade their audience - who live in the west. They have to turn these foreign leaders into sympathetic characters.
"All your heroes are whores" sums up my position.
The good people in this world do their work in local communities. They don't get involved in national politics, and they don't make the news.
Whether he's an actual Russian Asset or merely a Useful Idiot, it is clear that Komrade Konrad carries water for Moscow.
Thanks for the laugh. I delight in watching you losers weep and moan as the West commits suicide. Consider how the weaponization of the dollar has started the clock ticking toward the end of the dollar. Consider how the U.S. violation of WTO rules has started the clock ticking toward the end of the WTO.
WTO rules prohibit countries from acting unilaterally in response to what they perceive as competitive threats by other countries. WTO members are instead required to use the WTO dispute settlement system for their complaints. This is intended to eliminate the possibility of a retaliatory spiral of protectionist measures. The USA’s unilateral blockade of advanced chip-making technology is a blatant violation of WTO law, and the whole world sees it. As a result, China is blocking the export of vital rare earth minerals to the West. Furthermore China will rapidly catch up in advanced chip-making, and China is already far ahead of the West in the manufacture of regular chips.
Likewise the West’s boycott on Russian oil drove Russia to simply sell to others. Meanwhile the West’s greed and arrogance toward Africa is causing the West to lose Africa and its resources.
Everywhere we look the West is shooting itself in the foot. This is a civilization obsessed with purging straight white males from all positions of leadership. A civilization whose young people are so depressed that they become drug addicts, or they become obsessively “woke.”
It’s over kids. In your pathetic impotence, all you can do is cry, yank your hair, and resort to childish name-calling, like little mice squeaking in tune. It's amusing to watch. :-)
“Everywhere we look the West is shooting itself in the foot.”
Recently the CEOs of American semiconductor giants Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm met with Biden’s handlers. The American high-tech CEOs begged Biden’s bosses to please reconsider their blockade of advanced chips to Chinese customers. The blockade has deprived American companies of the world’s largest semiconductor market, thereby destroying U.S. company profits. Furthermore the blockade is driving China to become more self-sufficient. Every U.S. attack on Russia and China makes them stronger.
Biden’s handlers don’t care. The USA is committing suicide as fast as it can, and all you losers can do is call me a “Russian agent” for pointing it out.
Pathetic.
Konrad, thank you.
Tom, please promote to post:
https://aurelien2022.substack.com/p/so-where-do-we-go-from-here?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=841976&post_id=135840401&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
@ Butch Busselle...
“I’ve written recently about the childishness, incapacity and amateurism of our declining western political class.”
Yes. Everything that has happened in the last three years has been fully predictable, but Western governments refuse to adapt to a changing world, preferring to live in a cocoon of denial.
Consider the Niger Revolution. France gets a third of its electricity from Niger’s uranium, and yet 21 million people in Niger (85% of the population) get no electricity at all. The West calls this situation “democracy” and the “rules based order,” and it wonders why there was a revolution. When you only focus on stealing resources, and you no longer even pretend to support the natives, you force a revolt.
Or consider Europe’s migrant crisis. The West’s theft of African resources drove millions of impoverished Africans to flee abroad, or to join “Road Warrior” gangs that terrorized their fellow Africans, and drove additional migration. Muammar Gaddafi gave decent jobs and livelihoods to these migrants. Mr. Gaddafi warned Europe that if it destroyed Libya, then those millions of Africans would continue north to Europe. However NATO destroyed Libya anyway, and then congratulated itself for its "superiority."
Europe’s migrant crisis was 100% predictable.
If you note things like this, you are branded a “Putin stooge” and a “Chinese agent.” Such childishness destroys empires, and speeds their collapse.
And speaking of Empires, you discuss World War One, which destroyed four empires (German Empire, Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire, and Austro-Hungarian Empire) and ended up destroying the British Empire. Always these endings are predictable. Always they are accompanied by mass denial.
“Because neoliberalism has spent forty years destroying the structures of society and the capability of government to manage it, we are rapidly approaching the point where western societies will fall below a critical level of functionality.”
Neoliberalism has hollowed out the West until now there is only a surface veneer; an empty shell. Many urban centers in the USA are crime-ridden dystopias that become worse every day. Again, if you simply state these obvious facts, you are labeled a “Communist” and a “Nazi.”
“Moreover, in many ways those societies have regressed to infancy.”
The dying West has dementia, like Biden himself. Wokery, for example, is a temper tantrum displayed by children who long for Mommy to take care of them. Or witness the current mania about flying saucers that saturates Washington and the corporate media outlets. This is an infantile regression. It is escapism.
“Vaccines were the magic bullet and anyone who disagrees is an Untruthspeaker, and should be censored.”
Yes, a large part of the population worships magic bullets, mystic charms, and divine elixirs to ward off evil spirits. For example, millions of people take anti-depressant drugs as magic bullets. Again, such childishness is to be expected in a dying civilization.
Such is the way of things. Human history consists of a series of empires that are born, thrive, and die. Each empire rises from the ashes of the previous empire, whereon the cycle repeats. While an empire is at its height, its people believe it will last forever. And while it is dying, its people go into denial and dementia. Our civilization was not the first to go through this, and it won’t be the last.
Aurelien sounds like a Covid hysteric:
If you actually want to see how the collective West handled a really grave crisis it’s enough to look at the Covid shambles, which I fear is the pattern for many future ones. In summary, the stages of western government reaction were:
Denial
Panic
Imposed magical solution.
More denial.
In effect, Covid has been cancelled. Vaccines were the magic bullet and have solved the problem and anyone who disagrees is an Untruthspeaker, and should be censored.
1. There was no crisis.
2. China outdid the west in collective stupidity with its "zero Covid" policy.
The Covid crisis illustrates this very well. A decision had to be taken in various countries about whether to close schools. It was argued that doing so would harm children’s intellectual and social development, which was true. It was argued that not doing so would only make the epidemic worse, which was also true.
No, this was false. Everyone would be exposed and no force on Earth could have avoided that. So children were harmed for no reason at all.
This guy needs to addresses his own denial, before casting aspersions on anyone else.
If you note things like this, you are branded a “Putin stooge” and a “Chinese agent.” Such childishness destroys empires, and speeds their collapse.
The chattering classes are childish, but there is more to a functioning society than them. The majority of the working class in each nation are people who have actual skills. They are the ones who do the work that keeps society running.
John Michael Greer has written about the PMC (Professional Managerial Class), and Aurelien claims to have read him, so why keep beating this dead horse?
The clerisy needs to go. If getting past their police and security could be done without bloodshed, they'd be gone by now.
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