Michael Hudson — On Finance, Real Estate And The Powers Of Neoliberalism
BRICS Keep Building
High Finance & Investment Colonialism
Michael Hudson | President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and Guest Professor at Peking University
2 comments:
“The Western press is brimming with stories about how difficult, if not impossible, it would be for the BRICS to do anything that would dent the position of the dollar.” ~ Radhika Desai
This brings up once again the widespread misunderstanding of “de-dollarization.”
Western culture is based on uni-polarity. Either the West must be supreme, or someone else will be supreme. Either the dollar must rule, or some other currency will rule. And since nations will not agree to the terms of a new single ruling currency, the dollar will always rule.
This is the West’s delusion.
However the BRICS vision of multi-polarity is not based on any single nation or currency being supreme. It accepts that nations can agree to accept each other’s currencies, like the Saudis accepting Chinese yuan for Saudi oil. If a new special bank is needed for international settlements, then this can be discussed later. Right now the BRICS goal is to form new political and economic alliances.
The point is that de-dollarization is not simply about changing currencies. It’s about creating alternatives to Washington’s “rules based order” that applies to everyone but Washington. The USA designs most of the international organizations that the USA is a member of, so that the USA will always have veto power over them, and will never have to follow the rules the USA dictates for everyone else.
If a player follows U.S. rules, but does well (like China in the WTO) then the USA condemns that player for succeeding “unfairly.” Nothing enrages a swindler like being beaten as his own game.
To repeat, the USA’s “rules based order” is for everyone but the USA. Rules are for thee, but not for me. For instance, IMF rules say the IMF may not lend to a country at war, or which cannot repay IMF loans. However the IMF ignores its own rules when it comes to Ukraine.
If you think this is hypocritical, you are a “Putin stooge.” If you think the USA should honor its agreements, you are a “Chinese agent.” If you favor a win-win approach, you “oppose democracy.” If you value integrity, you are “with the terrorists.” If you don’t like rigged elections, you are an “election denier.”
Therefore the alternative to the dollar is not simply doing trade in Russian rubles or Chinese RMB. It’s about creating alternatives to Washington’s tyrannical “rules based order.”
It’s also about decoupling from the USA’s suicide. Even though America has sent most of its manufacturing abroad, and has the world’s largest trade deficit, America uses sanctions to further cut itself off from any nation that trades with Russia. This is suicidal.
Furthermore the IMF and World Bank cease using debt to enslave any nation that does not grovel to LGBTQ(P) supremacy, causing those nations to instead get financing at far better terms from Russia or China. American stupidity is boundless.
The West cannot tolerate multi-polarity and cooperative win-win arrangements. For example, Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East is loaded with oil and gas. Russia wanted to develop these resources in cooperation with the USA, so that both nations would split the profits. Beginning in 1996, ExxonMobil started working with Russia, spending $300 million to develop Sakhalin Island, while Europe (e.g. Shell) dumped another 1 billion euros into Sakhalin Island plus other projects in the Russian Far East.
However the USA and Europe suddenly pulled out of the project when Russia invaded Ukraine to stop the extermination of ethnic Russians. China took over on Sakhalin Island, taking advantage of all the work the West had abandoned. Now China and India are getting the Sakhalin oil and gas.
Again and again the West shoots itself in the foot. The West insists on controlling everything, or else it sulks in a corner and starves itself to death. There can be no win-win.
Furthermore the West assumes that everyone else is as stupid as the West is. This stupidity and myopia is the basis for the false delusion that Western supremacy is unassailable, even as the West falls apart.
Yes.
Post a Comment