Alastair Crooke — Behind Korea, Iran & Russia Tensions: The Lurking Financial War

While out of paradigm with MMT, the conventional thinking underlying the scenario that Crooke depicts reflects a widespread view that is shared by most political leaders who are responsible for shaping the world through their decisions. This thinking lies at the basis not only of global finance but also geopolitics and geostrategy. So, it is important to understand it because it is shaping emerging events of great consequence. Financial warfare can easily turn into military warfare, and there are a number of hotspots already as we enter 2018 — North Korea, the South China Sea, Taiwan, Ukraine, Syria, Iran, Yemen, etc. The fuse is burning.

Strategic Culture Foundation
Behind Korea, Iran & Russia Tensions: The Lurking Financial War
Alastair Crooke | Former British diplomat, founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.

Joseph Joyce — The Continuing Dominance of the Dollar: A Review of Cohen’s “Currency Power”

Good summary of currencies and why the USD will continue to dominant for the foreseeable future. Short, too.

Angry Bear
The Continuing Dominance of the Dollar: A Review of Cohen’s “Currency Power”

Joseph Joyce

Yves Smith — Michael Hudson and Leo Panitch on BRICS Development Bank Salvo v. the Dollar

I would call this the first salvo across the bow of the US. Major countries are getting tired of Washington's program for globalization under the dominance of Western elites. A collation is building of the Global South against the Global North, and there is also bad blood building in the EZ between North and South.

One could also point to growing tension in the US between the North and West Coast, and South and West. And not to forget the tension and long-standing animosity between China and Japan. 

The general rule is that division results in conflict, so this is not a good sign.

Naked Capitalism
Michael Hudson and Leo Panitch on BRICS Development Bank Salvo v. the Dollar
Yves Smith

Yves Smith — Wolf Richter: Kremlin – If The US Tries To Hurt Russia’s Economy, Russia Will Target The Dollar

Yves gets it right, of course.

Yves here. While I have every reason to assume the Russians mean to act on the currency front, on the surface, the remarks Wolf discusses in his post appear to be based on a misapprehension. First, Russia does not have the ability to tank the dollar, and a modest depreciation would be a plus for the US export sector. Second, the US is not dependent on foreigners to fund its fiscal deficits (we will not take the space to explain here, but we’ve gone over this terrain extensively in other posts).

However, there is a third possibility: that Moscow knows the economic reality full well, and is using aggressive “target the dollar” talk to shore up the ruble, which has fallen sharply and is far more exposed to speculative attacks than the world’s reserve currency. Russia’s best economic defense is not in the currency markets, but its ability to withhold oil and gas from Europe, which already has a flagging economy and is not well positioned to take a shock in terms of much higher energy prices.

Naked Capitalism
Wolf Richter: Kremlin – If The US Tries To Hurt Russia’s Economy, Russia Will Target The Dollar
Yves Smith

Lars Schall interviews Chris Cook

The internationally acknowledged energy consultant Chris Cook addresses in this exclusive interview the new IEA report; the pre-dominant factors in the oil market; his version of a commodity-based currency; why an attack on Iran is rather unlikely; and the consequence of a rising oil price for gold.

GoldSwitzerland
THE MATTERHORN INTERVIEW – November 2012: Chris Cook
“The Petrodollar is Either Dead or Dying”
Lars Schall interviews Chris Cook