by Pepe Escobar, first published at The Cradle and posted with the author’s permission
Challenging the western monetary system, the Eurasia Economic Union is leading the Global South toward a new common payment system to bypass the US Dollar.
The Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) is speeding up its design of a common payment system, which has been closely discussed for nearly a year with the Chinese under the stewardship of Sergei Glazyev, the EAEU’s minister in charge of Integration and Macro-economy.
Through its regulatory body, the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), the EAEU has just extended a very serious proposal to the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) which, crucially, are already on the way to turning into BRICS+: a sort of G20 of the Global South.
The system will include a single payment card – in direct competition with Visa and Mastercard – merging the already existing Russian MIR, China’s UnionPay, India’s RuPay, Brazil’s Elo, and others.
That will represent a direct challenge to the western-designed (and enforced) monetary system, head on. And it comes on the heels of BRICS members already transacting their bilateral trade in local currencies, and bypassing the US dollar.
This EAEU-BRICS union was long in the making – and will now also move toward prefiguring a further geoeconomic merger with the member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The EAEU was established in 2015 as a customs union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, joined a year later by Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Vietnam is already an EAEU free trade partner, and recently enshrined SCO member Iran is also clinching a deal.
The EAEU is designed to implement free movement of goods, services, capital, and workers between member countries. Ukraine would have been an EAEU member if not for the Maidan coup in 2014 masterminded by the Barack Obama administration.
Vladimir Kovalyov, adviser to the chairman of the EEC, summed it all up to Russian newspaper Izvestia. The focus is to establish a joint financial market, and the priority is to develop a common “exchange space:” “We’ve made substantial progress and now the work is focused on such sectors as banking, insurance, and the stock market.”
A new regulatory body for the proposed joint EEU-BRICS financial system will soon be established.
Meanwhile, trade and economic cooperation between the EAEU and BRICS have increased 1.5 times in the first half of 2022 alone.
The BRICS share in the total external trade turnover of the EAEU has reached 30 percent, Kovalyov revealed at the BRICS International Business Forum this past Monday in Moscow:
“It is advisable to combine the potentials of the BRICS and EAEU macro-financial development institutions, in particular the BRICS New Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), as well as national development institutions. This will make it possible to achieve a synergistic effect and ensure synchronous investments in sustainable infrastructure, innovative production, and renewable energy sources.”
Here we once again see the advancing convergence of not only BRICS and EAEU but also the financial institutions deeply involved in projects under the China-led New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Halting the Age of Plunder
As if all that was not game-changing enough, Russian President Vladimir Putin is raising the stakes by calling for a new international payment system based on blockchain and digital currencies.
The project for such a system was recently presented at the 1st Eurasian Economic Forum in Bishkek.
At the forum, the EAEU approved a draft agreement on cross-border placement and circulation of securities in member states, and amended technical regulations.
The next big step is to organize the agenda of a crucial meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on 14 December in Moscow. Putin will be there – in person. And there’s nothing he would love more than to make a game-changing announcement.
All of these moves acquire even more importance as they connect to fast increasing, interlocking trade between Russia, China, India, and Iran: from Russia’s drive to build new pipelines serving its Chinese market – to Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan discussing a gas union for both domestic supplies and exports, especially to main client China.
Slowly but surely, what is emerging is the Big Picture of an irretrievably fractured world featuring a dual trade/circulation system: one will be revolving around the remnants of the dollar system, the other is being built centered on the association of BRICS, EAEU, and SCO.
Pushing further on down the road, the recent pathetic metaphor coined by a tawdry Eurocrat boss: the “jungle” is breaking away from the “garden” with a vengeance. May the fracture persist, as a new international payment system – and then a new currency – will aim to halt for good the western-centric Age of Plunder.
Certainly a western redline has been crossed. Looks like this war to which the Ukraine is only a battle field is going to go on for a long time.
This recent development seems to spell the end of it. Or guarantee a quicker death for the usd. The western financing for the Ukro-nazi boondoggle is about to dry up. The crisp, new, shiny bills, freshly printed won’t be worth the paper they’re printed on. Nor will they be accepted in BRICS countries.
Anyone dreaming of a long and protracted will now have to “fight for free.”
There is no evidence that these country’s intend to stop trading with America.
There is evidence. That mentioned before, when “trading with America” being a net importer (not exporter), they may be required to pay for imported goods from BRICS countries, in the BRICS denomination of choice.
Gold.
(Tiawan now controlled by CNP (KMT) produces 60% world’s chips, and 90% of the world’s specialty chips by TSMC.)
Sure. What does US offer? Market for China and few other countries. Does it manufacture products that Africa and Asia need? Can it finance the investment need in Africa and Asia?
No it can’t. It can only sell military products and it can only do that because it has coopted the corrupt elite and kept them in check by exploiting the divide.
Now the problem was there was no other ecosystem which could provide an alternative.
Now China can provide the funds, technology and Russia the food and energy and both can give military hardware which is three times cheaper and effective.
US on the other hand has no money to provide any longer to Africa. So it will become increasingly irrelevant. Once the difficult task to remove or convert entrenched elite to another ecosystem is done it’s very difficult to imagine what is it that US and Europe can offer. Every thing they have to offer is many times more expensive and it no longer has the money to bribe the corrupt China can do that on a bigger scale while giving them goods , investments, infrastructure where chances of making more money exists.
Make no mistake the world has changed.
Very well said Masr!
Cheers
Col
Quite right Masr. By design the collective west is captive to rapacious finance so by definition is incapable of providing real capital that engenders growth. The war will continue as long as the USD can be leveraged against the world – when it ends then so too the current US will end, and its colonies will have to find their way. Reading Dimitry Orlov’s works doesn’t leave a sense the collective west is well situated to cope with these new facts.
If there is one thing that can bring the USA into a war, it’s a threat to the US Dollar. We have seen it with Iraq and Lybia.
If there is substantial and tangible progress on this project while the Russian’s SMO or CTO, depending on what it will soon be called, in Ukraine is still ongoing, I think the USA will look for an incident, even a false flag, to officially enter it with boots on the ground. Not that they will be able to prevail, I think they won’t, but they will try anything to prevent the demise of the only reason of their domination today, the USD.
While this scenario will accelerate their descent, it will be much more bloody. The good think is that they can’t win a war against Russia in Eastern Europe. And Russians will again take the responsibility of stopping insanity before it engulfs the entire world, and all people from the global South should be grateful to them for that as a minimum, and help them in this fight if it’s ever launched by the psychopaths ruling the global West..
Absolutely!
Maybe by the end of ’25 we may start seeing the end of the tunnel. Basically it is a decade of conflict, and I am afraid there will be openings of other fronts as well..
I wonder how long the flaming wreck of the USD economy can hold on. It’s very interesting that the Lula engineered election steal in Brazil seems to be failing, along with the Ukraine operation.
What’s going to happen when US federal employees start to realize their pensions are no longer?
Minor issue already addressed. Legalization of euthanasia, assisted suicide and non-resuscitation on request are on the way. Maybe a little push from the media would be needed.
‘What’s going to happen when US federal employees start to realize their pensions are no longer?’
Then all those police extra-judicial killings, all the hounding by the IRS and all the rules and regulations which have bound the hands/impeded/extorted the small & medium businesses will have been for nothing in the land of the FREE. sarc
Deu em nada foi a tentativa de roubo eleitoral de Bolsonaro. O fascista perdeu, apesar de gastar BILHÕES para comprar votos.
It came to nothing was Bolsonaro’s attempted electoral robbery. The fascist lost despite spending BILLIONS to buy votes.
sorry…way I have see it…army will restore Bolsonaro as president of Brazil…..
Bob/EmErrEb… with all due respect I think you have got your call wrong but Sejmon may still be right about the army backing Bolsanaro. However if they were intending to back Bolsanaro, why have they not already done so?
Perhaps we should try to answer the real questions by reflecting on the huge amount of groundwork in the last 22 years that Lula has already done in moving towards a South American trade zone, plus a joint currency that was to be called the “South”.
He even had a vision of a collective South American regional central bank that would be completely divorced from the Nazi-inspired BIS thieves based in Basel with their tentacles also reaching out from the City of London and New York. In short, Lula was basically using a Colonel Gaddafi-style blueprint and as such massively risking life and limb in the process.
In absolute contrast to Lula’s agenda, the fact that Bolsanaro, knowing he lagged well behind in the polls all year, has been desperately trying to sell the majority state-owned Banco Brasil, Petrobras, and the postal and electric public utilities to predatory international corporations who could then proceed to victimise the entire Brazilian population, even on a much larger scale than they do now, proves his allegiances to me… actually beyond any shadow of doubt.
Quoted from a 2018 article as background is a link entitled…
“Welcome To The Jungle”… https://kboo.org/media/68893-welcome-jungle-pepe-escobar
“His [Bolsanaro’s] ascension was facilitated by an unprecedented conjunction of toxic factors such as the massive social impact of crime in Brazil, leading to a widespread belief in violent repression as the only solution; the concerted rejection of the Workers’ Party, catalyzed by financial capital, rentiers, agribusiness and oligarchic interests; an evangelical tsunami; a “justice” system historically favoring the upper classes and embedded in State Department-funded “training” of judges and prosecutors, including the notorious Sergio Moro, whose single-minded goal during the alleged anti-corruption Car Wash investigation was to send Lula to prison; and the absolute aversion to democracy by vast sectors of the Brazilian ruling classes.”
… end quote…
How dare Lula attempt to take his country out of the clutches of the thieving western banking cartel? How dare he try to secure public utilities and resources to develop the social and economic wealth of his society? How dare he challenge multipolarity and the AAZ hegemony which assumes it has some sort of god-given right to rape and pillage all of Latin America and indeed the entire globe.
I just hope Lula’s security is absolutely top notch otherwise this could all end in tragedy. Brazil is a huge deal within the context of the entire BRIICS+++ juggernaut, but particularly in the global south.
Most of this confusion seems to emanate from noise that is made by the West with factions that are trying to dress up Trump and Bolsonaro as some sort of global saviours. I regard this as simply a distraction in trying to unravel the Brazil conundrum. These parroted memes that are destructive to Lula being constantly repeated by all and sundry, and of course endlessly by the MSM are very dangerous.
Also, Biden and his lunatics in the halls of power could conceivably be quite content to have Lula as a temporary President-elect especially when his party is a fragile coalition which doesn’t even hold the House majority. After all, Warshington knows full well that Bolsanaro, with his many assets including state and federal police, and truckies, can basically make Brazil ungovernable in the interim so that Lula never even gets to take up office.
This way they could get rid of Lula and his Gadaffi-style financial independence aspirations for good. Depending on which way the military jumps, they will most likely end up the kingmakers in yet another example of deliberate destabilisation of Latin American countries…aka Murica’s sandpit.
… quoted from the same link above…
“His [Bolsanaro’s] ascension was facilitated by an unprecedented conjunction of toxic factors such as the massive social impact of crime in Brazil, leading to a widespread belief in violent repression as the only solution; the concerted rejection of the Workers’ Party, catalyzed by financial capital, rentiers, agribusiness and oligarchic interests; an evangelical tsunami; a “justice” system historically favoring the upper classes and embedded in State Department-funded “training” of judges and prosecutors, including the notorious Sergio Moro, whose single-minded goal during the alleged anti-corruption Car Wash investigation was to send Lula to prison; and the absolute aversion to democracy by vast sectors of the Brazilian ruling classes.
This evolving militarization of politics perfectly meshed with the cartoonish BBBB (Bullet, Beef, Bible, Bank) Brazilian Congress. Congress is virtually controlled by military, police and paramilitary forces; the powerful agribusiness and mining lobby, with their supreme goal of totally plundering the Amazon rainforest; evangelical factions; and banking/financial capital. Compare it with the fact that more than half of senators and one-third of Congress are facing criminal investigations.
The Bolsonaro campaign used every trick in the book to flee any possibility of a TV debate, faithful to the notion that political dialogue is for suckers, especially when there’s nothing to debate.”
…unquote…
I always break these apparent puzzles down to just one question alone, which is… in any particular situation what are the ultimate wishes of the thieving private banking cabal that causes more than 90% of the military, economic, and social mayhem in the world. IOW who do they want in office in order to aid their routine economic hitman playbook antics?
This makes it all extremely simple… Lula has been trying for 20 years or more to implement almost exactly the same nationalistic agendas for Brazil as Gadaffi tried to do for Libya. TPTB took him out in the cruellest fashion imaginable, right when he was well on into the process of transforming Libya into one of the economic powerhouses of the African continent.
In a recent interview with Danny Haiphong, Pepe also covered how Brazil and Lula’s part in it the recent G20 gathering in Indonesia was misconstrued simply because he was essentially a non-representative due to the change in the presidency and his not taking up formal office until January 2023.
Pepe made no bones about it… if he had the opportunity, Lula would have been one of the loudest voices condemning this attempted Natostan hijack of the entire meeting. Basically, the main take-home message for me was that there is a tidal wave of countries that now see Russia and the BRIICS+++ as the only way they can ever regain their sovereignty, and this was massively amplified in the aftermath of the G20 get-together in which Natostan showed their true colours in such an appalling fashion.
Nevertheless, I am hugely concerned and saddened about what is currently unfolding in the messaging around the world which is aiding the MSM. I believe it will be an absolute miracle if Lula can actually get through to take up office in January 2023 and then be able to steer it on the road to recovery.
Commentators getting this wrong are unwittingly aiding the monumental Mr Global collective, including the entire global MSM, in demonising Lula and taking him out of office either dead or alive. Why can’t we all see this blatantly obvious parallel?
It’s what I always say… Mr Global is one hell of a skilled recruiter… he is even successful at times amongst those who fancy they are fighting the good fight. He often stealthily coopts them into actually helping his own agenda. The Brazil situation is yet another classic, and very likely tragic, example, unfolding before our eyes right now.
How Brazil negotiates this transition of power is a huge deal, not just for the BRIICS+++ collective, but for humanity going forward into multipolarity and escaping the clutches of the western economic and military hegemony.
At the same G20 meeting, Xi Jinping also caused quite a stir by reaffirming the position that China is not in the position of imposing the Chinese model on any country. He basically said to the entire world… you are most welcome to study our model and learn from both our successes and our mistakes. Please, by all means, use this process to formulate your own custom models that will in turn fit your own individual national requirements.
The choices are simple and even the densest of leaders should be able to grasp that there are really only two possible choices…
#1 Stay with ZoneA/AKA Natostan and remain a second-rate vassal where you won’t even have a seat at the decision-making table…. or…
#2 Go with what I call the BRIICS+++ collective and formulate your own national models that allow you to be integrally involved in a massive new cooperative bloc whose absolute priority is to provide financial, trading, currency, and military security to all members in a manner that creates long-term wealth for all participants.
It couldn’t really be more graphic than that. When I look at this developing situation I would say that this is the beginning of the end of the G20 which we all should know by now is just another proxy tentacle deployed by the western hegemon to pull in its prey. Brazil and the Lula vs Bolsanaro is a hugely important piece in this global jigsaw puzzle.
My call is that the ship has already sailed and it is an inevitable goodbye and good riddance to western hegemony, and a huge welcome to a brand new paradigm in world diplomacy, polarity, and cooperative goodwill.
Such a novel idea!
Cheers from Downunder
Col
Apologies to EmErrE… I just reread your comment and I see there was a crucial word missing “IT”… probably in thr translation.
It probably was meant to read… “It came to nothing, >IT< was Bolsonaro’s attempted electoral robbery."
In which case IMO you are right on the money!
Cheers and apologies
Col
Food for thought here to from London Review of Books too.
I love these paragraphs…
“Brazil is evidently now a fractured society (like the US). As Lula stressed in his victory speech, it will take time to heal divides that have split families and ended long-standing friendships.
There were rousing speeches from the outgoing PT governor, Rui Costa, who is likely to play a key role in the new government, and the PT’s governor-elect, Gerônimo Rodrigues, once the result was official, around 8.30 p.m.
The festivities lasted through the night, with copious amounts of cachaça, beer and marijuana, along with song and dance. It was the party of a lifetime; an improvised mini-carnival. In the water at Porto da Barra early on Monday morning, swimmers complained of vicious hangovers. No one has any illusions about the gridlock that lies ahead.”
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2022/november/the-captain-in-his-labyrinth
Two points of immense importance:
1. Does the economist Dr. Michael Hudson detect even the slightest errors in the foundation of these plans?
He’s the person who can point out and fix any potential flaws.
2. Have those top leaders and their economists considered every potential blowback the US Financial Hegemon will use to destroy this construct? They are experts in finding weaknesses that will heavily impact their own manic need for Greed?
The experts who are to be “finding weaknesses” in this construct will be too busy trying to find real money somewhere else. Because Ukraine doesn’t have any. Or maybe someone will feel sorry for them because they’re broke…
When Russia’s oil & gas sit in storage in China-India, fertilisers-wheat from Russia-India in South African and Brazilian warehouses, planes and automobiles in the hangers and forecourts, beef and palm oil, and flour in retail shops across Zone B, then the rest is binary, ones and noughts in a computer chip.
The massive land and sea transit routes/networks for the efficient flow of goods and ‘real’ free trade barriers across Zone B, by-passing the GESTAPO’s extortionate and restrictive practice and control mechanisms = Sovereign Independence.
American-Anglo Zionist interference will be nullified by the most advanced integrated missile defence apparatus known to man.
China, Russia and India should ensure that they set up fertilizer plants, Refineries and grain processing plants and other food processing plants in Africa so they don’t have to import it from Europe.
India can show ( I believe it already is) how to be self sufficient in milk, meat and food for most countries in Africa. Those who don’t have enough land for agriculture can import raw materials from Russia and South America and process it in Africa.
You’ve seen the fibre cable cuts recently, then gas pipeline blown up too.
That’s a taster for what’s to come for the Asia/Africa/Europe. Life will grind to a halt as a punishment, that’s what.
Poor and middle classes will fight it out among themselves. You’re “either with us or against us” all over again. Only this time more and more people are laughing at the blatant lie.
Third world countries are used to routine power cuts except for very large cities most of India functions normally without electricity
In fact Rural areas rarely have power 24hours. People know how to live without internet. Only businesses, electricity grids and Other key infrastructures and trains depends on internet.
Already most business including google, twitter and many banks and even large business are required to keep data within India. Satellite internet is possible in India with its own satellites. If Russia China and India get together they can send hundred large communication satellites every year.
They certainly have the technical capabilities and capability to deploy hundreds of thousands more people in these industry in matter of few years.
India started huge data farm complex just two months back. I think the reason is precisely this.
The world is at a stage that it can rapidly delink itself from US and Europe in a couple of short years.
Most of what is needed for normal life is available in zone b or can be rapidly built.
My understanding is that the individuals and companies that use the present MIR, UnionPay, RuPay and Elo payment cards cannot be spied upon by the USA, as we Europeans who use Visa and Mastercard are. The new single payment card will facilitate things.
Thanks for posting this great article by Pepe Escobar. “Slowly but surely, what is emerging is the Big Picture of an irretrievably fractured world featuring a dual trade/circulation system: one will be revolving around the remnants of the dollar system, the other is being built centered on the association of BRICS, EAEU, and SCO.” Despite the emerging fracture, London, Washington, Paris as usual are pretending to look relaxed and civilized by pushing some very fantastic deceptions such as the so called Green Program, Agenda 2030 and other WEF gender bending nonsense. But we should expect that as soon as the new Eurasian, SCO, BRICS+ currency/financial system take effect, the west will discard the veneer of civilized behavior thus switch into modern version Conquistadors only this time under a joint US-NATO operation. That’s when Mr. Sarmat will be waiting to give them some business cards.The cool garden can’t live without the jungle’s energy, titanium, rare earths … therefore they must either start regime change across the Zone B or accept defeat and learn to live with the New World Order led by BRICS+, SCO and EAEU.
With what army?
Combat Arms in the US military used to be filled with, predominantly Southern white men with
a history of formidable martial abilites. Those men have been driven out and aren’t enlisting.
The US military has become a woke pile of shit built around expensive high tech gear that was
designed more for political benefits than military needs.
It’s a paper tiger. All they can do is threaten big plans, but if people simply say no they have very limited power unless they’re willing to fling nukes and end civilization as we know it.
If I were one of the big rats in charge I’d be looking for a small quiet fiefdom to ride out the coming storm in.
I wouldn’t be doubling down with my name and face. The good people left are looking for exits. No one good is going to stay and fight for this corrupt government.
“The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”
One man and courage, make a majority.
> Combat Arms in the US military used to be filled with, predominantly Southern white men
they did because there were no decent non-farming jobs there… most of the black men had left for the northern states when the white men there went off to fight WWII
so, south with racism, low quality to no education, limited career opportunities meant they were ripe to be recruited… not by Airforce or Navy. Only the Army
They could always bribe (support) potential Zilinski-type wannabes in each of the Zone B countries and start fomenting regime change.This costs nothing to US-NATO as long as the FED can print unlimited amounts of dollars in their computers.
The problem with being exposed as a venal culture and the massive contradictory propaganda being pushed is eventually everyone gets to understand the reality.
Once that’s done , the soft power is gone you cant get people to die for bankers and elite. Not sure how many people would like to die for blinken Or Trump or Nuland. Or even Biden and his trash.
Osama Bin Laden ( an creature created by US) understood this he wanted US to become more bold and it to become more aggressive and in doing so because of it’s unlimited power mask after mask will fall off the US system and then shorn of all the soft power both Americans and rest of the world will see for themselves who the US elite is and what is their agenda.
If Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen unmasked US and UK then Ukraine has unmasked whole of Europe.
Best part is no enemy could have done what they are doing to themselves.
Excellent summary Pepe. A beginning to the end, of the “Age of Plunder.”
The bulk of the world’s external surplus is now found in a few large economies that are challenging the rules-based international order (RBIO).
“the big surplus countries in the world aren’t buying US bonds for example, so the flow dynamics that support the US twin deficits have gotten complicated …”
Russia’s surplus is set to top $250 billion.
Saudi Arabia’s surplus should top $200 billion.
The other monarchies in the Gulf should have a surplus comparable to that of the Saudis—if anything, it will be a bit bigger.
And China’s reported current account surplus should top $400 billion this year, and its true surplus could be bigger.
Summed up, these non-Collective West countries surpluses should total about $1 trillion in 2022.
The De-Dollarization has entered the accelerate phase and gaining momentum!
https://www.cfr.org/blog/new-geopolitics-global-finance
“Russia’s surplus is set to top $250 billion.
Saudi Arabia’s surplus should top $200 billion.”
So what do you think that Russia and Saudi Arabia will do with these digital surpluses, that are just data entries on bank computers? Will they buy gold, pump up their stock markets or invest in infrastructure ?
You ask what they’ll do with the surpluses? They will buy gold. They will pump up their stocks. They will invest in their infrastructure. With gold-backed currency, that aren’t “just data entries.”
Here’s a look at what they’re starting to do.
https://newspunch.com/putin-russia-debt-banks/
Buy steel, concrete, invest in factories in countries which need them finance infrastructure growth in poor countries so that demand for their energy and manufactured products increase.
only problem with your theory is this: the US will plant a dictator there who will confiscate (nationalize) these industrial assets and bring in a PE from the US to cannibalize it after they have given themselves enough dividends…
until the above problem is fixed, investment will only come at a great price
China has already diluted 30% of it’s reserves it’s down to less than a billion from 1.4 trillion, Japan by 10%. More will follow. Saudi elite and gulf Arab elite have been quietly removing their substantial personal investments from the West. I’m sure official state holdings will also follow over next couple of years.
Already major energy producers like Iran Venezuela are out of the US system, Libya too. Most of the slack was taken up by Russia which is out of the system now. Once these other energy producers come back online they are not going to risk their earnings in dollars. Even if they have a bit of loss it’s better to stay away from dollar which means all of their earnings can be confiscated.
By the way please understand that the foreign exchange reserves of a country often include the earnings of the big western countries who operate there all of it doesn’t belong to the state or it’s own companies.
With the venal attack on Qatar on the world Cup consequences will follow over the next couple of years.
Russia is saving in gold, investing in its imports,… to enhance its economic security. Overall, Russia isn’t going into debt to survive! Russia’s debt per gdp is only 14%, compared to U$A’s 125+%. What is the U$A not investing in to pay towards its debt? What happens when nations stop using the US$ in the international trade?
Saudi Arabia is allocating towards its infrastructure developments, sovereign wealth fund,…
Nations with surpluses are also loaning and helping nations with deficit, reducing the demand for dollar loans.
A nation has three OPTIONS in the global arena, depending on their surplus/trade balance, debts, motivations, resources, capabilities,… :
– SHAPING the global order. A nation with large surpluses in the Multilateralism world has the apparatus to influence and dominate. The U$A has been in this position since 1945 due to dollar’s dominant position enabling its hegemony through fictitious IOUs. This is a very expensive option for a nation in the long term.
– REFORM & Reconfigure. A nation with positive trade balance, strong capabilities and good leadership team pursues this option. China, Russia, & EU/Germany are in this category. The U$A will most likely move to this position because of its mistakes, but will need to generate positive trade balance. No more $ money from thin air,…
– ADAPT to the global order. Not strong, no global institutional strength, weak administration, lack of natural resources,… Japan, India, South Africa, Singapore, Vietnam, Poland,… are in this category at present. Japan adapts but is in a better position than India due to its positive trade balance. A nation can remain neutral.
The unipolar order is history. What are the key success factors to excel in MULTILATERALISM?
What makes all this possible is the indomitability of The Armed Forces of The Russian Federation. Without that, none of this occurs.
Changing of the guards in progress we are moving from a unipolar world order to a multipolar world order. History in our time.
when you say world. will countries have no choice to join or will they have a choice to join.
Obrigado ” The Saker” esse é o meu primeiro comentário.
Pepe Escobar obrigado por me fazer amar a geopolítica e o mundo da diplomacia
Esse Artigo é absolutamente sensacional, os grandes homens a lutarem por um sistema de pagamentos e transferências internacionais visando na conjugação das aptidões de todos estes (EAEUE) para o bem estar e do próprio equilíbrio da economia mundial e inclusive da humanidade.
Se a Equidade é a arte de sair no Direito para entrar na Justiça. Equidade deve ser visto em três perspectivas: Juízo, bom senso e Valor. Então temos Estados Soberanos EAEUE a discutirem sobre um sistema geoeconomico que vai facilitar e permitir com segurança transações de moesdas de diferentes Estados de forma equitativa por via de contratos de exploração ou compra de commodities de um Estado para outro por via de um sistema seguro que oferece uma gama vasta garantia de diferentemente do Dólar que é do Império do mal ou do caus com o seu instrumento “UE”que só sabem sancionar ou prejudicar os outro “estados” que não cumprem a sua vontade, impedindo o desenvolvimento económico e harmonioso de outros estados impossibilitando as suas capacidades económicas internacionais por via de bloqueios e embargos dos seus fundos ou das commodities.
Esse sistema é sem dúvida mais viável que o Dólar.
Obrigado pela atenção…
“Russian President Vladimir Putin is raising the stakes by calling for a new international payment system based on blockchain and digital currencies”
Just my opinion, but that’s the key paradigm-shifting sentence.
Anyone who accurately anticipates which blockchain ledger(s) will be utilized, wins the game.
My guesses: (not financial advice)
XRP for cross-border payments
SOLO for commodities exchange
CORE for inter-ledger operability
We know our final destination- a planet of global peace and prosperity, a sustainable civilization in balance between Mother Earth and Father God. We are reverse-engineering our future in order to arrive at the place we started from, the place we remember in our dreams
History is not linear. History is a cycle. The dark age is ending as it always does, and the dawning of the golden age has begun, as it always does. Long ago a galactic civilization collapsed, and for thousands of years knowledge of it has been kept secret. But we are remembering, and what we have seen with our third eye cannot be unseen.
“If thine eye is single, then thy whole body shall be filled with light”
Heaven on Earth awaits. Keep the faith
Confirmation I’m not crazy:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DHhgLnIvuAs
Agree with your overall sentiment, however I think your guesses are off for cross border payments. XRP isn’t really a blockchain. A ledger yes, distributed not so much, decentralised no way! Another problem is Ripple Labs is a US company, they control the XRP ledger, so there’s room for political influence. This makes it a non-starter.
If I had to pick on layer one blockchain it would be Cardano. Why? Because the academic approach they take to development, extremely secure network, and the chain is actually decentralised. Security and decentralisation are the two critical aspects for a chain to even be considered for cross-border payments. Zone B countries won’t touch anything that’s open to western influence.
To clarify, the reason my opinion is that XRPL isn’t truely decentralised is for 2 reasons: 1. there’s only a small number of total validators (UNLs) that decide finality; 2. Top 10 holders own almost 70% of all XRP tokens in circulation.
Payment systems are only part of banking. For example, who will own the BRICS banks, will they be privately owned as in the US, or owned by their respective governments, as is the case in China ? The answer to this question will determine whether the BRICS members will become prosperous, or mired in debt.
What debt? Amongst the BRICS economies, debt is eliminated at border trade by their 1:1 new digital currency equivalent. Holding the same value from country to country. Gold.
With gold backing each trade, or simply through trading commodities of similar value.
Yes, but who creates the BRICS currencies ? Will it be private banks who create it as interest bearing debt, or will it be created by government owned central banks without incurring debt. No currency in the world is currently backed by gold. In any case where would the gold come from, who would pay for it in the first place? If trade imbalances were settled on a yearly basis using gold ingots, who would determine their price ?
Here’s one example, copied from the above article:
“… Russian President Vladimir Putin is raising the stakes by calling for a new international payment system based on blockchain and digital currencies.”
The fiat dollar is on the way out…
Kapricorn4
A fundamental premise of the new Zone B system development is based on the increasing disenfranchisement of privately owned banks and central banks.
In this system, banks will be owned under state and cooperative models which will reduce the cost of credit because there will be no third party taking massive parasitic and opportunistic profits. Under this system infrastructural projects only cost a fraction of what they cost in borrowing this money on the international market.
A savings mentality will re-emerge in populations as the wealthy and retired deposit funds in the cooperative banks, gaining a reasonable yield, but also this wealth when leveraged out, provides further capital for business loans and home building of the younger members of society. This money all gets soaked up in the productive economy and doesn’t go into blowing giant bubbles or the malinvestment that always comes from the Zone A “Money For Nothing and Chicks For Free” mentality of Zone A.
In this system where money is channelled into the productive sector, long term wealth is generated but also there are almost zero inflationary effects. China proved this using these banking models after lifting their GDP ~27 fold and yet experiencing no destructive inflationary pressures.
The risks of currency shifts for coountries making principal repayments exorbitant, or sometimes even impossible, will be eliminated because the loans can be made within the country and the money is created backed by state assets or using the reserve trading currency of the group.
The implementation of the discipline of moral hazard will become a much greater force in eliminating bad behaviour as oversight will be much more localised and informed. Habitual chicanery such as the bundling of toxic mortgages and securities and selling them off to second and third parties should become a thing of the past.
Private banks who wish to survive will have to become competitive with these coop models. They don’t need to be taken out of existence, they will survive or fall according to their own merits.
The transition to Govt owned central banks is no big deal either, as there are only 9 CBs in the entire world left that have substantial private ownership. The 62 national central banks that are BIS owner/members will gradually see the light, and as such distance themselves and their policy from its influence making the BIS, like the IMF and the WB, all increasingly irrelevant institutions.
Russia will be one of the first to complete this divorce process and I dare say South Africa too, given that they are key members of the BRIICS+++ collective… being the “R” and the “S” in the acronym.
Regarding fiat currencies, it is paramount in the new paradigm that this self-destructive idea is done away with completely. It was the combination of fiat currency and private banking bad behaviour that wrecked the old system.
Gold backing alone of currencies in transitioning back out of fiat would never work… indeed it was no longer functional back in the 1960s either, hence why in 1971 Nixon took the $ off the gold standard.
As I understand it, the new currencies will be backed by up to 20 commodities, including gold and silver, and this will take away the problems of lack of stability in commodity prices and the risk of the repetitive insistence of redemption in just one commodity. In the agreement, the groups’ individual national currencies will have a peg to the main trading reserve currency and as such to one another.
This should tidy up all of the current arbitrage and speculative nonsense that currently exists. For countries like NZ with a minuscule economy and GDP that currently have a tenfold trade in their currency (from currency speculation) in comparison to what you would expect from the volume of our money supply, this will be an absolute breath of fresh air.
All of this seems to be taking an awfully long time and indeed it has been work in progress now for more than 20 years. Incidentally, Brazil’s Lula was one of the shining lights in all of this in his first 2 presidential terms (2003-2010)… as such it is self-evident as to why he has since trod a very rocky road in order to even survive, both personally and politically, as he clearly challenged the Zone A hegemony so openly.
The upside to this slow and measured development is that the systems are in essence parallels that have developed in an orderly and tested fashion so that when the entire gambit is rolled out, all of the individual components are already known to function. As frustrating as this has been, it has also been a godsend, as it has at the same time given Zone A the time to self-destruct because of its own innate idiocy, incompetence, and outrageous dishonesty.
Bring on Zone B!!!
Col
would canada have to follow suit ? is there any hope for this stupid country i live in. should i move to zone B ?
btw i love your entry’s in the comment section
danp
I’m afraid Canada is a ‘dead ringer’ (scuse pun) of NZ and Ausy when it comes to entrapment by what Pepe refers to as the “western-centric Age of Plunder”.
I have discussed the similarities at length in a 45-minute zoom with your very own awesome homegrown Mathew Ehret from Montreal. By the way Andrei just aired a wonderful expose written by Matts’s brilliant partner Cynthia Chung.
Matt and I came to the same conclusion… that as residents of junior members of the Five Eyes Group, and de-facto Natostan members, with the same Head of State, and truly feckless Mr Global asset, King Charley, we really have very little in the way of recourse at any level in this continued agenda of entrapment and genocide.
As such I believe that these three countries will be the very last to realise that we have backed the wrong horse. Having said that, at least Canada has one strong voice (Danielle Smith) that has the courage to call out the current abject debacle. NZ doesn’t have a single incumbent politician that will even squeak on this subject.
Ausy has some very powerful voices in both houses but, Victoria just voted in for a third term a completely rabid lunatic in Daniel Andrews with a huge majority. Victorians have to be the most classic archetypical self-flagellates ever to set foot on this planet… that is if the dominion voting machines weren’t massively programmed… either way there is something very putrid in the state of Victoria.
Consequently, all the Ausy states are well and truly off our shopping list. With dangerous idiots like Andrews being voted back in as premiers/governors that completely negates the theoretical advantage of any notion of state autonomy as a saviour.
Quite frankly Danp, I would have given up all hope of escaping the WEF agendas if it hadn’t been for this fantastic new BRIICS+++ initiative. Just me but I think the populations of Canada, Aus, and NZ will have to see the Zone A system crash and burn comprehensively before we rethink our alliances.
In the meantime, all I can do is try to get the word out as to just how bright the long-term future is for all those countries that jump on board with Zone B. I seem to be the only commentator in NZ even mentioning this subject… so I feel very much like a voice in the wilderness with a very strong gale trying to drown me out completely.
Sadly the transition for our Five Eyes countries will be slow and extremely painful, especially for pensioners and the highly indebted. I think, regardless of the financial situation, that NZ is doomed anyway, as we move relentlessly closer to a Zimbabwe model of extreme separate development and seething racial apartheid. An imported colour revolution is alive and absolutely thriving within our midst
I am doing my due diligence on emigrating, but so far I haven’t come up with any safe and viable alternatives. I feel I am too old to move to a country with major language barriers… as such this excludes many of the strong Zone B contenders.
My partner and I want to check out Singapore and Thailand and also some Latin American countries… fingers crossed the language challenge won’t be too great and we can find somewhere to settle for our twilight years.
We are also in complete distrust of every single aspect of our “health” (sic) system and don’t ever wish to set foot in a hospital for the remainder of our lives. We would visit a local vet rather than seek an appointment with any of our Doctors… such is our profound mistrust in the entire medical system.
What a change… coming from being a 5th generation, and fiercely proud Kiwi, I am now profoundly ashamed of my entire country, not to mention the incredibly slovenly intellectual capability of our modern-day society.
Cheers and warmest regards from the south seas
Col
i might have an option on moving to Italy, i like to avoid all possible events of a collapse in this country. what do you recommend i do escape or stay, im 24 years old
It just so happens that Italy is one of my favourite countries on the planet Danp.
I haven’t been their since the 1980s but I loved the scenery, the fascinating history, the wonderful culture, and particularly the people with their profound passion and style. However, I haven’t been there since the eighties and so much has changed. I wonder if the fun-loving atmosphere might not be the same anymore… I certainly hope I’m wrong about this.
Also, the country’s debt is absolutely massive and although they seem to have a bright new star in Meloni as their Prime Minister, there appear to be many apparent contradictions when she talks the talk, and I think her tenure remains very precarious with many people in high places only too happy to make things extremely difficult for her.
Also, Italy’s banking industry is in complete disarray and like the US their central bank is totally privately owned. Their northern neighbour Switzerland’s Credit Suisse, one of the dodgiest banks on earth, is in serious danger of going under and starting a contagion that could domino right around the world.
So too in France, their western neighbour with their two biggest banks being in the top 5 G-SIBS in the world. Everywhere else in Europe is in the shit now too, including even the 3 Euro members, Germany, Netherlands, and Luxemburg, who habitually ran large surpluses. In short, I see this entire area as being on the cusp of becoming damaged almost beyond repair.
I did a wee expose on this subject back on November 5…
https://www.facebook.com/colin.maxwell.129/posts/pfbid02FTaFJWF4Tdi1mz9g7NnbGDLWgVWAz6JJmSrBvtm7w3omsBCVaAkJQrcBrhrn6Datl?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUWnciPvqnml9zoWyATHIW5jd806VLTkBJd4GrPCnsh-4GPbznskt7MhgOsCe4a8mDVw2vgJ8NXNpQF3pXRjdQOPppsTvAeroRRaoVJ8gg1JZe5t4mQVh4a7UFde1o47PA&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R
Also, this quote from Russell Napier highlights the fact that these countries have learnt very little about the dangers of the fiat money spigot… and most precarious of all in this list is Italy…
“Just to give you some statistics on bank loans to corporates within the European Union since February 2020: Out of all the new loans in Germany, 40% are guaranteed by the government. In France, it’s 70% of all new loans, and in Italy it’s over 100%, because they migrate old maturing credit to new, government-guaranteed schemes.
Just recently, Germany has come up with a huge new guarantee scheme to cover the effects of the energy crisis. This is the new normal. For the government, credit guarantees are like the magic money tree: the closest thing to free money. They don’t have to issue more government debt, they don’t need to raise taxes, they just issue credit guarantees to the commercial banks.”
Having said all that, much of the inevitable tragedy that will unfold in Europe this winter will bring with it opportunities as well, and as such we need to do our own extensive due diligence according to our own unique personal circumstances, before making a decision of this magnitude.
Clearly, I’m not much help here, as I am facing the same quandary and don’t have a clue where to move to myself, especially when countries can degenerate so quickly. The only other thing I can say is to perhaps look closely at the countries that are most likely to embrace the huge BRIICS+++ initiatives, as they are the ones that are least likely to end up as economic wrecks in this new transition to a multipolar reality.
Cheers and have a great weekend
Col
Should be interesting when the new system takes off, and the dollar system is composed of countries trying to get rid of farmers and fossil fuel.
Isn’t hard to see which way most countries will go.
@ Pepe
Obrigado, Pepe, as always.
Pepe is now navigating with the wind in his sails, his prolific production the result of a story foretold for decades, from the times of Pipelineistan to his vision years ago of a Eurasian century centered on Russia and China.
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<Slowly but surely, what is emerging is the Big Picture of an irretrievably fractured world featuring a dual trade/circulation system: one will be revolving around the remnants of the dollar system, the other is being built centered on the association of BRICS, EAEU, and SCO.
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Which brings us back to Gramsci’s concept of crisis, “where the old hasn’t died, and the new hasn’t been born.” The geopolitical tectonic plates are getting fractured into what would be a new division East/West-North/South. At stake is another Gramscian concept, “hegemony,” which was brought to the fore by the “Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei,” quoted by Pepe in his former article, – “the main confrontation”, he said, is with “global hegemony.”
The hegemony of the “dollar-based economic world order,” as Glazyev calls it, has been imposed by the force of weapons, and any time a challenge to that “order” appeared (Hussein, Gaddafi), it has been crushed mercilessly. The new challenge spearheaded by Russia, aimed to break the backbone of that hegemony, the dollar, is only possible because, as WTFUD pointed out in a comment above,
/the-global-south-births-a-new-game-changing-payment-system/#comment-1163067
American-Anglo Zionist interference will be nullified by the most advanced integrated missile defence apparatus known to man.
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Unquestionably true.
Pushing further on down the road, the recent pathetic metaphor coined by a tawdry Eurocrat boss: the “jungle” is breaking away from the “garden” with a vengeance.
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Nauseating euro-bastard Scholz is only parroting Robert Kagan’s “magnus opus” The Jungle Grows Back, which became a de rigueur book to quote by Neoconstan.
Here is a short review of the book by no less than the neoconish Brookings institution.
Recent years have brought deeply disturbing developments around the globe. American sentiment seems to be leaning increasingly toward withdrawal in the face of such disarray. In this powerful, urgent book, Robert Kagan elucidates the reasons why American withdrawal would be the worst possible response, based as it is on a fundamental and dangerous misreading of the world. Like a jungle that keeps growing back after being cut down, the world has always been full of dangerous actors who, left unchecked, possess the desire and ability to make things worse. Kagan makes clear how the “realist” impulse to recognize our limitations and focus on our failures misunderstands the essential role America has played for decades in keeping the world’s worst instability in check. A true realism, he argues, is based on the understanding that the historical norm has always been toward chaos–that the jungle will grow back, if we let it.
“The Jungle Grows Back” has been referenced by several prominent political figures including German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas and Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland.
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And here is Heiko Maas, formerly Germany’s foreign minister under la Merkel, quoting the book.
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/maas-freeland-ambassadors-conference/2130332
Speech by Foreign Minister Heiko Maas at the opening of the 16th Ambassadors Conference at the Federal Foreign Office
“…’The Jungle Grows Back’ is the title of US political scientist Robert Kagan’s new book. Kagan argues that, with the US is retreating as an enforcer of order, the world is now returning towards its original natural state.
A free interplay of powers with changing alliances in which the strongest dictate the rules.
Not at all a rosy prospect. After all, we Germans in particular can have no interest in a “jungle growing back in the world order”. We must resist this to the best of our ability. And we must lay our hands on the right tools when the jungle beckons.
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And here is neo-nazi Chrystia Freeland, current deputy prime minister of Canada and former Canadian foreign minister, granddaughter of nazi propagandist Michael Chomiak, quoting from the same book.
“…Asked by ICFR President Dan Meridor about her views on the worldwide decline in liberalism, Freeland said, “We may have believed that all the people of the world had a common human desire to have their rights, peace, and prosperity.” However, she agreed with Robert Kagan, author of The Jungle Grows Back, who posits that “the base state of human society is a jungle.” Freeland added, “We must be very assiduous gardeners.” She went on to say with regard to the worrisome trend of politicians around the world undermining the legitimacy of the judiciary that “our courts are often at their most powerful when they go against the will of the majority. That is not a flaw in the system, that is the whole point…”
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The “garden,” (the Saker’s “Zone A”) vs the “jungle” (the Saker’s “Zone B,” aka “niggers”) is the neocons/neonazis/zionazis worldview, and the fact putrid mongrel Scholz (no offense to the mongrels) parroted Kagan’s book while braying at the European Diplomatic Academy in Bruges, Belgium, speaks volumes about how Kagan’s book has become part of the curriculum and education of Eurostan’s new generation of bastards…I mean, diplomats.
On another note, closing on a comment that was supposed to be short before reading to the end of Pepe’s article, one of the dangers for the new project of integration BRICS+ with the Eurasian alphabet soup, is the potential for the empire to break the BRICS+ brick by brick, attacking the weakest link in the chain, e.g. Brazil. A troglodyte tin-pot coup d’etat in Brazil, that reverses Brazil’s integration into the new multipolar world, can also create a chain reaction and affect other members such as India, still playing sitting on the fence with the Empire of Lies, and block other potential members from joining.
Lula has an enormous weight on his shoulders, his fate hanging on a thread, the potential for a disastrous end of his career, and his life, will depend on sundry variables, mostly out of his control.
As usual, let’s hope for the best…
Lone Wolf
Forgot
———
Link to speech of la neonazi Freeland.
https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/canadian-fm-freeland-tells-wjc-forum-antisemitism-is-very-real-even-in-canada-and-we-must-continue-to-speak-and-act-against-it-11-4-2018
Maybe Freeland should work on Educating the World on Canada’s very real Holocaust perpetuated against Canada’s First Nations over hundreds of years. In schools they get weeks of Auschwitz education and lip service to the Genocide conducted on behalf of The Crown.
Cheers M
A neonazi giving classes on antisemitism….
Besides the Huge credibility gap, isn’t that just … priceless.
Well said Lone Wolf!
The importance of Lula and Brazil in this equation cannot be underestimated.
I am tremendously saddened that 9 out of 10 commentators in NZ are supporting Bolsanaro, having been completely sucked in hook line and sinker by jab noise and farcical left vs right prejudices and canards.
If Brazil and Mexico can able to re-establish their sovereignty this is a huge deal in ensuring a healthy global transition into this exciting new multipolar paradigm.
Cheers and warm regards from Downunder
Col
@ Col… \’the farmer from NZ\’ on December 01, 2022 · at 3:02 am EST/EDT
I was thinking about you and your prescient comments about Lula and Brazil, when writing the last paragraph to my comment. The Collective West will activate all their special ops intel branches, dust off all the dirty tricks boxes, assassination, sabotage, misinformation, false flags, you name it, to block or put a break to the new creation.
They will focus on the most vulnerable targets, and in Latin America they can always find a Pinochet-like military whore who would sell their country for peanuts. Brazil’s been there, done that, Goulart is not that far back, the military are not happy with the result of the elections, the country is deeply divided, Lula’s political mandate is weak (he won by about 2 million votes), and Bolsonaro’s forces are up in arms.
A military coup d’etat could enact a new version of their old “Doctrine of National Security,” also written in the US, which bars Brazil from “extra-continental” memberships besides those approved by their Anglo-Saxon masters to the north, i.e. OAS, the Ministry of Colonies, as beloved “Che” Guevara called it. Hopefully Lula will be able to foresee the threats and neutralize them before becoming active, there will be an opportunity cost in his policies, which might not be as “left-of-center” as we could have expected.
Back to the waiting game…
Cheers, Downunder friend.
Lone Wolf
“The system will include a single payment card – in direct competition with Visa and Mastercard – merging the already existing Russian MIR, China’s UnionPay, India’s RuPay, Brazil’s Elo, and others.
That will represent a direct challenge to the western-designed (and enforced) monetary system, head on. And it comes on the heels of BRICS members already transacting their bilateral trade in local currencies, and bypassing the US dollar.”
The Western monetary system is the basis by which the West is able to live off the blood, sweat, tears, labor, and resources of the Rest of the World.
Now their parasitic system and way of life are being challenged–if not terminated.
No wonder the Americans and Europeons are throwing the Mother-of-All diaper-wetting temper tantrums.
Let’s hope that the Americans and Euros don’t get any ideas about playing with their nuclear toys as a result.
Russia and China are offering the BRICS nations a potentially bright future with economic stability, growth and prosperity. Before any of that can materialize it must be stated that many of the BRICS nations need to clean up their own back yard first and deal with serious violent crime among their own citizens and rotten political corruption taking place in their own countries. For those nations who truly yearn for a more fair and equal world order BRICS is a tremendous and rare opportunity.
This sounds wonderful but does it really take away the power of the U.S. Treasury Dept to punish countries that defy our will?
Weapon #1, the Treasury Dept fines foreign banks that hold U.S. dollars.
This is how we prevented S. Korea from paying Iran for the oil Iran already delivered to them. It does not matter if that bank also does transactions in non-U.S. currency, if they touch the U.S. $ we do this.
Weapon #2, attack any company that uses this alternate currency by confiscating all assets held in the U.S. or in U.S.$.
This is how we stopped Malta and Greece from shipping Venezuelan oil, we threatened the ship owners and insurers.
I don’t think a single card system is the way to go. It’s better if different systems learn and take over their local markets and are offered overseas wherever their influence is. They can have a joint system with the original and a common entity also.
Insisting on a common card from get go will restrict growth.
India launched the UPI system and based on it many digital payment systems like PayTm ( Chinese 51% share registered in Singapore) Google Pay, PhonePe and couple of others. These have expanded the reach of mobile digital payment system to remote corners and has extended the digital payment to even the extremely poor. For instance even road side vendors selling vegetables on carts with income of $300-400 a month have this even for transactions of $0.10 .
The beauty of this is there are no transaction costs either to vendor or buyers the costs to banks who interface the bank accounts with the UPI system are compensated by the govt to the tune of nearly $500 million annually.
This payment system has increased the reach of non cash payments multiple fold in just a couple years. So much so that UPI has taken 60% of market share in debit card payments.
They launched credit card payments system which is more complex and has a element of risk just this year. So far it has got 20% penetration this is under the Rupay credit card system linked to the UPI interface( both owned by govt. , banks give out both debit as well as credit cards branded as Rupay similar to Master Card and Visa. The other payment system mentioned in previous paragraph works off a Phone app)
The issue with Credit card payments is it’s more entrenched and big ticket transactions take place on credit cards even though volume of transactions is very low as is penetration. Still that is because of the 3% fee and the cash back offers that businesses which sell goods. For instance I routinely get 5% cash back on purchases of appliances, Airline tickets, School Fees etc.
Thus the credit card payments still are about 55% of total value of non cash transactions ( except cheque and bank transfer s)
There is a risk element in credit card transactions and more layers involved. Still govt can change the playing field by charging very small amount on RuPay cards and by changing law on offering Cashback. the American card companies and big ticket sellers will take the issue to courts and indian courts will not stay the decision for a couple of years. And by the time a decision comes the playing field would have changed most consumers and banks would have moved to RuPay and Visa and Master will be a very very distant second.
Rupay works now in a couple of gulf states and France has given permission, few other east Asian states and North African states have shown interest.
Also other countries are asking India for the intellectual property to set up their own solutions.
I see this whole process taking minimum 7-10 years but this will essentially mean the death knell of Visa and Master Card system in Zone B that is not China and Russia.
I’m sure Russia, China and Turkey will promote their own systems which is good. Once substantial penetration is done world wide then common card payments systems can be setup.
There is no “credit card” in the new system, only a debit card. It was rumored a paper-note may appear as a counterpart to digital currency within a country. Or not.
“Banks” are not on the same footing within the new framework. Usury fees are eliminated. Debt is erased.
A central gold vault (ie ‘bank) may be established, as opposed to many, or private ones. The idea of “amassing” large individual quantities of gold is eliminated, reserved now for the common good.
The whole idea of a gold-backed, universal currency is to eliminate foreign debt during international trade transactions at a 1:1 exchange rate. Either by using gold as a currency instrument, or goods traded for other goods of equal value. A single payment card may be used as tender anywhere within the “co-op” regions such as BRICS.
A large or small country with zero exports will eventually go broke, due to lack of industry.
A large or small country with zero imports will never go broke, due to an industrious and motivated work force that can amass wealth.
…just some off-the-cuff examples of what a universal currency might represent.
Lots of details to be worked out yet for sure by the many brilliant people involved in it’s design.
Aaaaaah! The Anglosphere’s worst nightmare emerges, the Eurasian Embrace – only within a larger, much more powerful heartland and without Germany, for they have finally found (after more than a century) a way to get the country to fall on its own sword. But the Sea Power’s only true way of exercising itself militarily against the Land Powers has been completely emasculated by hyper-sonic weapons. It can’t end well (for the world’s population that is) for these psychopaths are completely mad…