Friday, September 15, 2023

In Vladivostok, the Russian Far East rises — Pepe Escobar

Russia's pivot to the Far East, and away from the West.

The Cradle
In Vladivostok, the Russian Far East rises
Pepe Escobar

1 comment:

Konrad said...

“Putin made clear that ‘the global economy has changed and continues to change. The west, with its own hands, is destroying the system of trade and finance that it itself created’.”

Yes, and not only with the sanctions and the weaponization of the dollar. The chief reason why the West has doomed itself is financialization. That is, the West used to have an economy that manufactured stuff. Now it manufactures debt.

This is why everything is so unaffordable. All monies ultimately flow upward to the creditor oligarchs. Everything and everyone ultimately serves the 1% who suck up all energy like vampires.

The parasites are killing their host, which thrashes about as it dies. We see this in BLM riots, rampant looting, rampant censorship, rampant anti-whitism, runaway debt, runaway housing prices, LGBTQ(P) supremacy, all forms of wokery, urban dystopias, “pandemic” hysteria, mass drug addiction, and on and on. No one can stop this, since no one dares to admit it.

As a result, last Tuesday (12 Sep 2023) the US Census bureau said the U.S. poverty rate rose from 7.8 percent in 2021 to 12.4 percent in 2022, the largest one-year jump on record, including any single year during the 1930s Depression.

Pepe Escobar sees all this and contrasts it with Russia and China. This makes Escobar a bit overly enthusiastic about Russia and China.

Russia, for example, has lost its (former) staunch ally Armenia, which is now conducting military exercises with U.S troops. Meanwhile U.S. Central Command oversees “Regional Cooperation 22,” conducted 10 to 20 August 2022 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Since 2004, “Regional Cooperation” has been an annual exercise that focuses on enhancing U.S. power against Russia, which doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to its own back yard, except for Ukraine.

Participants from the United States, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan were involved in a six-day command post exercise. In addition, Tajikistan and the United States conducted a five-day bilateral field training component at the Fakhrabad Training Center. Participating were US National Guards troops from Arizona, Massachusetts, Virginia and Montana.

Meanwhile regarding Ukraine, maybe Russia wants it to drag it out, since Russia is making more money than ever, and is exporting more goods than ever. Belgium and Spain import more Russian LNG than anyone except China. Europe is buying more metals than ever from Russia, more fertilizer, more wood products, more mineral fuels / oils / distillation products, more organic chemicals, more seafood – more of almost everything.

Maybe Ukraine is a profiteering racket for all sides. Certainly it’s a money-laundering racket for the West (those endless billions don’t actually go to Ukraine). And it’s a distraction used by Western politicians. (Our cities are crumbling, but let’s just blame white people. Besides, the price is worth it, since we are defending democracy in Ukraine.)

Anyway, even if we ignore the role of de-dollarization, the USA is doomed because of financialization.

Making money from money creates an Empire of Debt, which is not sustainable.