You should not look at the war in Ukraine as an isolated phenomena with no bearing on the global economic order. The war in Ukraine is a symptom of the breakdown in the Western dominated “rules based” international order and this disruption is reverberating around the world. The recent coups in Africa, for example, are another sign that the vassals of the Western feudal lords are no longer willing to be de facto colonial subjects. They want some measure of independence and are turning to Russia and China to find a way out.Don't focus on particular events, especially shiny objects. Look at the dynamics of the world system.
A Son of the New American Revolution
The Rise of BRICS and the Fall of the G20
Larry C. Johnson | CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm with expertise combating terrorism and investigating money laundering, formerly Deputy Director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (1989-1993, and CIA operations (1984-1989)
The G20 is has become largely irrelevant, having been eclipsed by the BRICS bloc. Putin of Russia didn’t bother to show up in New Delhi, nor did Xi Jinping of China. They don’t see the G20 as important anymore. No one cares. The world has changed.
ReplyDeleteThe final declaration of the last year’s G20 summit in Bali (15–16 November 2022) referenced “aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine.” For this year’s summit the USA wanted it to again revolve around condemning Russia, but the final 35-page declaration in New Delhi didn’t condemn Russia at all.
During the last twelve months, the UK and USA have lost so much power than they both praised the final declaration, even though they didn’t get anything they wanted. The USA had added the European Union and corrupt African Union as G20 members, but it made no difference.
Zelensky of Ukraine is furious, but Biden is powerless to do anything but apologize to him, and promise to send him more billions.
I suspect that the G20 will be dissolved within in a year, and the next G20 summit (scheduled for Nov 2024 in Rio De Janiero) will be canceled. The USA will fall back on the G7: a little group of vassals that get weaker every day. (US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada, and the EU.) For the G7 the next summit will be June 2024 in Italy. Members will spend it doing nothing but crying about Russia, China, and BRICs, which will have six new members.
The USA is frustrated by this concept of multi-polarity. Not only because it is an erosion of Washington’s uni-polar power, but because Washington doesn’t know how to deal with an entire world of non-aligned nations. Washington prefers a Cold War. It could understand, for example, if India took Washington’s side, or India took Russia’s side. But India takes India’s side. Washington boasts and swaggers and tells India that it needs to be on the “right side of history,” but India shrugs with indifference. “Whatever. We’re busy making money.” This makes Washington howl in frustration.
In the article above, Larry Johnson writes, “I do not think that the majority of the West’s financial gurus are comprehending the significance of the BRICS countries earnest effort to create an alternative to the dollar. They are calculating that the BRICS countries will fail and will be compelled to be under the thumb of the U.S.-led international financial order.”
I don’t think the West’s gurus are “calculating” anything. I think they are idiots, going along with the herd. They are blinded by group-think, and by fear that the political mob will flame them if they speak the truth. They know that the West is doomed, but it is taboo to admit that. So everyone talks about Ukraine “winning,” and about Putin being “Hitler,” and about how America’s GDP is ten times larger than China’s, and blah-blah-blah. Nothing but denial and empty posturing. This is not “calculating.” This is buffoonery.
Larry Johnson mentions the Huawei vs Apple rivalry. The Chinese government has banned iPhones for all government personnel, and is preparing a giant public relations blitz to promote Huawei, and to wean China off Apple. China will not ban Apple (since China is not as dastardly and chicken-sh*t as the USA) but the social change will be set in gear. For a billion Chinese, Apple was chic because it was Western. Now being Western is increasingly uncool.
It was asinine for the USA to send most of its manufacturing to China, and then declare an economic war on China. IDIOTS!
Rules based order? Try FOOLS based order.
What alternative to the dollar? Some nonsense fixed exchange/gold standard/sdr type of system? I'm waiting. They're all exporters.
ReplyDeleteThe world socioeconomic system remains unchanged. The physical laws that govern world systems remain unchanged. Meanwhile, Larry Johnson wants to build the conflict in Ukraine into something it isn't.
ReplyDeleteUkraine is about splitting Europe from Russia. That mission has been accomplished - for now. Slavs killing each other is a bonus. If Moscow can be goaded into occupying all of Ukraine, that would be another propaganda victory for Washington.
They may be idiots, but they know how to exploit historical issues.
Q. “What alternative to the dollar? Some nonsense fixed exchange/gold standard/sdr type of system? I'm waiting.”
ReplyDeleteA. The alternative to the dollar is for nations to trade with each other in their respective currencies, rather than use any single currency as a global intermediary.
In this way nations can evade U.S. attacks, and can also accelerate trade with each other while reducing the costs of international transfers, since there will be no dollar-denominated middleman to take his “cut.”
Such trade agreements are now multiplying rapidly. China and the Saudis trade with each other in yuan and riyals. India and the Saudis trade with each other in rupees and riyals. India and the UAE trade with each other in rupees and dirhams. Russia and China trade with each other in yuan and rubles. Brazil and China are trading with each other in reals and yuan. Brazil and Argentina have been trading with each other in pesos and reals since 2005.
And so on. The alternative to the dollar is not some new reserve currency (or new “BRICS currency”) but a global trading system in which no single nation or currency is the top boss. This is what multi-polarity is all about. It’s what Russia and China constantly talk about.
Most Americans cannot grasp this, since the USA is [1] uni-polar, meaning that most Americans are programmed to believe that someone has to be the top boss, and [2] Manichean, meaning that most Americans are programmed to believe that someone has to be the “moral leader,” with the rest of the world being evil, or morally inferior.
That is, most Americans see the world as an Old West town in which someone is the moral and political boss.
This uni-polar attitude is fast becoming obsolete. Therefore the USA is in denial. Janet Yellen says the USA will always dominate the world, and Washington will always be full of “God’s Chosen People,” since “No currency exists that could displace the greenback.”
Sorry, but ALL currencies are replacing the greenback.
The USA is desperate to maintain its unipolar dominance any way it can. Washington demands that the entire world grovel to “LGBTQ (P) rights,” “Climate change” protocols, vaccine mandates, the “rules based order,” hatred of Russia, worship of Israel, U.S.-dictated “intellectual property” laws, attacks on “white privilege,” and so on.
The USA especially wants all nations to be neoliberal -- i.e. ruled by financial markets that are parasitic and psychopathic.
Also the USA is doing things like financially supporting both opposite rivals for the Argentina presidency (Javier Milei and Patricia Bullrich) as long as both rivals keep talking about adopting the US dollar as Argentina’s currency, so that Argentina will be more enslaved than ever. (The General Election will be 22 Oct 2023.)
Argentina’s current president, Alberto Fernández, opposes this dollarization scam. Fernández is allied with Brazilian President Lula, who is 100% pro-BRICS. Rival Argentine candidates Milei and Bullrich are both anti-BRICS, since they are both U.S. puppets, while they pretend to be total opposites.
These multiplying agreements between nations to trade in each other’s currencies include special clearing houses in each participating nation, plus new bank offices. For example, the Bank of China has an office in Brazil, and vice-versa.
So let's forget about a “BRICS currency.” The only people chattering about this are confused American “experts" who get paid to deny reality.