The “rules-based international order” – as in “our way or the highway” – is unraveling much faster than anyone could have predicted.
By Pepe Escobar, posted with the author’s permission and widely cross-posted
The Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and China are starting to design a new monetary and financial system bypassing the U.S. dollar, supervised by Sergei Glazyev and intended to compete with the Bretton Woods system.
Saudi Arabia – perpetrator of bombing, famine and genocide in Yemen, weaponized by U.S., UK and EU – is advancing the coming of the petroyuan.
India – third largest importer of oil in the world – is about to sign a mega-contract to buy oil from Russia with a huge discount and using a ruble-rupee mechanism.
Riyadh’s oil exports amount to roughly $170 billion a year. China buys 17% of it, compared to 21% for Japan, 15% for the U.S., 12% for India and roughly 10% for the EU. The U.S. and its vassals – Japan, South Korea, EU – will remain within the petrodollar sphere. India, just like China, may not.
Sanction blowback is on the offense. Even a market/casino capitalism darling such as uber-nerd Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Poznar, formerly with the NY Fed, IMF and Treasury Dept., has been forced to admit, in an analytical note: “If you think that the West can develop sanctions that will maximize the pain for Russia by minimizing the risks of financial stability and price stability for the West, then you can also trust unicorns.”
Unicorns are a trademark of the massive NATOstan psyops apparatus, lavishly illustrated by the staged, completely fake “summit” in Kiev between Comedian Ze and the Prime Ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, thoroughly debunked by John Helmer and Polish sources.
Poznar, a realist, hinted in fact at the ritual burial of the financial chapter of the “rules-based international order” in place since the early Cold War years: “After the end of this war [in Ukraine], ‘money’ will never be the same.” Especially when the Hegemon demonstrates its “rules” by encroaching on other people’s money.
And that configures the central tenet of 21st century martial geopolitics as monetary/ideological. The world, especially the Global South, will have to decide whether “money” is represented by the virtual, turbo-charged casino privileged by the Americans or by real, tangible assets such as energy sources. A bipolar financial world – U.S. dollar vs. yuan – is at hand.
There’s no surefire evidence – yet. But the Kremlin may have certainly gamed that by using Russia’s foreign reserves as bait, likely to be frozen by sanctions, the end result could be the smashing of the petrodollar. After all the overwhelming majority of the Global South by now has fully understood that the backed-by-nothing U.S. dollar as “money” – according to Poznar – is absolutely untrustworthy.
If that’s the case, talk about a Putin ippon from hell.
It’s gold robbery time
As I outlined the emergence of the new paradigm, from the new monetary system to be designed by a cooperation between the EAEU and China to the advent of the petroyuan, a serious informed discussion erupted about a crucial part of the puzzle: the fate of the Russian gold reserves.
Doubts swirled around the Russian Central Bank’s arguably suicidal policy of keeping assets in foreign securities or in banks vulnerable to Western sanctions.
Of course there’s always the possibility Moscow calculated that nations holding Russian reserves – such as Germany and France – have assets in Russia that can be easily nationalized. And that the total debt of the state plus Russian companies even exceeds the amount of frozen reserves.
But what about the gold?
As of February 1, three weeks before the start of Operation Z, the Russian Central Bank held $630.2 billion in reserves. Almost half –
$311.2 billion – were placed in foreign securities, and a quarter – $151.9 billion – on deposits with foreign commercial and Central Banks. Not exactly a brilliant strategy. As of June last year, strategic partner China held 13.8% of Russia’s reserves, in gold and foreign currency.
As for the physical gold, $132.2 billion – 21% of total reserves – remains in vaults in Moscow (two-thirds) and St. Petersburg (one-third).
So no Russian gold has been frozen? Well, it’s complicated.
The key problem is that more than 75% of Russian Central Bank reserves are in foreign currency. Half of these are securities, like government bonds: they never leave the nation that issued them. Roughly 25% of the reserves are linked to foreign banks, mostly private, as well as the BIS and the IMF.
Once again it’s essential to remember Sergei Glazyev in his groundbreaking essay Sanctions and Sovereignty: “It is necessary to complete the de-dollarization of our foreign exchange reserves, replacing the dollar, euro and pound with gold. In the current conditions of the expected explosive growth in the price of gold, its mass export abroad is akin to treason and it is high time for the regulator to stop it.”
This is a powerful indictment of the Russian Central Bank – which was borrowing against gold and exporting it. For all practical purposes, the Central Bank could be accused of perpetrating an inside job. And subsequently they were caught flat-footed by the devastating American sanctions.
As a Moscow analyst puts it, the Central Bank “had delivered some volumes of gold to London in 2020-2021. This decision was motivated by a high price of gold at that time (near $2000 per ounce) and could hardly be initiated by Putin. If so, this decision can be qualified as very stupid, or even part of a diversionist tactic (…) Most of the gold delivered to London was not stored but sold and transferred into foreign currency reserves (in euro or pounds) which were frozen later.”
No wonder a lot of people in Russia are livid. A quick flashback is in order. In June last year, Putin signed a law canceling requirements for the repatriation of foreign exchange earnings from gold exports. Five months later, Russia’s gold miners were exporting like crazy. A month later, the Duma wanted to know why the Central Bank had stopped buying gold. No wonder Russia media erupted with accusations of “an unprecedented [gold] robbery”.
Now it’s way more dramatic: RIA Novosti described the American-dictated freeze as – what else – a “robbery” and duly predicted global economic chaos. As for the Central Bank, it’s back on the gold buying business.
None of the above though explains some “missing” gold that de facto is not under the possession of the Russian Central Bank. And that’s where a somewhat shady character such as Herman Gref comes in.
Let’s check this out with State Duma deputy Mikhail Delyagin, who had a few things to say about the gold-exported-to-London bonanza:
“This process has been going on for the past year. Exported, according to some estimates, 600 tons. [Head of Russian Central Bank] Nabiullina said – whoever wants to sell gold to get cash, or if you mine gold and trade it, keep in mind that the state, in my person, will not buy gold from you at a market price. We will take it at a big discount. If you want to get honest money for it, please export it. The world center of gold trading is London. Accordingly, everyone began to export and sell gold there. Including Mr. [Herman] Gref. The head of the formally state-owned Sberbank sold a huge part of his gold reserves.”
Look here for fascinating details about Sberbank’s Gref shenanigans.
Watch for the gold-backed ruble
It may be a case of too little too late, but at least the Kremlin has now established a committee – with authority over the Central Bank nerds – to handle the serious stuff.
It boggles the mind that the Russian Central Bank does not answer to the Russian constitution as well as to the judicial system, but in fact is subordinated to the IMF. A case can be made that this cartel-designed financial system – implying zero sovereignty – simply cannot be tackled head on by any nation on the planet, and Putin has been trying to undermine it step by step. That includes, of course, keeping Elvira Nabiullina on the job even as she duly follows the Washington consensus to the letter.
And that brings us back to the ultra high stakes possibility that the Kremlin may have wanted from the start to go no holds barred, forcing the Atlanticists to reveal their true hand, and exposing their system in a “The King is Naked” spectacular for a worldwide audience.
And that’s where the EAEU/China new monetary/financial system comes in, under Glazyev supervision. We can certainly envision Russia, China and vast swathes of Eurasia progressively divorcing from casino capitalism; the ruble reconverted to a gold-backed currency; and Russia focused on self-sufficiency, productive domestic investment and trade connectivity with most of the Global South.
Way beyond its confiscated foreign reserves and tons of gold sold in London, what matters is that Russia remains the ultimate natural resource powerhouse. Shortages? A little austerity for a little while will take care of it: nothing as dramatic as the national impoverishment under the neoliberal 1990s. And extra boost would come from exporting natural resources at premium discount prices to other BRICS and most of Eurasia and the Global South.
The collective West has just fabricated a new, tawdry East-West divide. Russia is turning it upside down, to its own profit: after all the multipolar world is rising in the East.
The Empire of Lies won’t back down, because it does not have a Plan B. Plan A is to “cancel” Russia across the – Western – spectrum. So what? Russophobia, racism, 24/7 psyops, propaganda overdrive, cancel culture online mobs, that don’t mean a thing.
Facts matter: the Bear has enough nuclear/hypersonic hardware to shatter NATO in a few minutes before breakfast and teach a lesson to the collective West before pre-dinner cocktails. There will come a time when some exceptionalist with a decent IQ will finally understand the meaning of “indivisibility of security”.
I can understand 10 to 20% gold/money reserves as bait for western looting but half is plain stupid. I’m sure all this was gamed out as the Nato nutters are highly predictable in their methods, ignorance and arrogance. The rest of the world is tired of these imperial games and just wants to trade fairly and live in peace.
You can’t fix stupid
You doubly can’t fix treason in support of the US run IMF….
Well, if everybody knew they’re “baiting,” some would even point to he hidden hook/trap and nobody would bite.
What if, (pure speculation), what if Russia has a real Au/Pt reserve and keeps that out of sight. I don’t think that IMF and the Global North (or “West”) set of rules specify how much one can hold under one’s mattress, do they?
But even if my conjecture’s proven wrong, would you still claim — “plain stupid,” they’ve been?
Cheers, JaKo
That is exactly the point right? 10-20% looks like bait…they wont use their trump card on bait…
Maybe as bait for the west to steal it, but consider the following:
You allow the traitorous central bank to behave as it will leading up to this moment in history
You allow the west to sieze a significant portion of your stated gold reserves out of country
This gives you an opportunity domestically to put the central bank on trial in the court of public opinion, fire and imprison it’s current staff, and replace them with your own staff
Then you tell the world you will be selling oil for gold at a discount to replenish your reserves. Oh, and you better check on your gold held in the west because it seems they like to steal
This causes a gold run on western deposits, and they do not have the gold, which destroys confidence in western finance even further
Because much of the gold in the west turns out to be fake, the reserves you have go up in price
This is all an immensely risky thing to do, but if you were hiding perhaps half the gold you had, it could function as an insurance policy if your plan fails, and you can keep that insurance policy in place if it succeeds.
This is all my own speculation. Whether or not Putin and company gamed this out I don’t know, whether they would take such a risk I also don’t know. It is all possible however.
Precisely. Really frustrating that a country like Russia can get cornered as such. All this was foreseeable and expected. Economists Michael Hudson, PCR and Russia’s own Sergei Glazyev have been warning and criticizing policies of Russia Central Bank. There are enough precedence how US/UK/EU behave towards other people’s money/gold and yet Russians are surprised!
Worst of all is this;
“It boggles the mind that the Russian Central Bank does not answer to the Russian constitution as well as to the judicial system, but in fact is subordinated to the IMF. A case can be made that this cartel-designed financial system – implying zero sovereignty – simply cannot be tackled head on by any nation on the planet, and Putin has been trying to undermine it step by step. That includes, of course, keeping Elvira Nabiullina on the job even as she duly follows the Washington consensus to the letter.”
As in seriously! One would have thought Putin has had sufficient political goodwill within Russia to undertake sweeping changes of Russia Central Bank. We can only hope from now onwards Russians and indeed other countries learn and act accordingly.
I wonder if Russia still has hidden gold. Putin is confident. This Bank of Russia story is very poorly told. Liberal people 5 columns of Russia have been stabbing Putin in the back for years. Russia will undergo a radical transformation: end Western NGOs and religions, change Russia’s central bank, accumulate gold, and ask young people fascinated by Lady Gaga to leave Russia.
the analysts and commentators here on the blog need to stop giving information to the enemy Empire of Darkness and lies.
Here in Brazil the STF – judiciary system, has just banned TELEGRAM in Brazil. The Empire is desperate with the possibility of losing Brazil. imperial fascism is now acting in Brazil with all its strength. We cannot sleep, we cannot entertain. A lot of concentration and focus now against Imperio
Interesting. We read how Bolsanaro is in talks with the Chinese & Russians, to hook up with the One Belt One Road System.
Is he walking a tight rope between the huge US interests in Brazil while eyeing the Chinese model?
Empire of Delirium
That Russia has hidden gold is almost a certainty. According to one analyst, it has more than 30.000 tonnes. When the military operation started in Ukraine, Russia must have been expecting additional sanctions, which arrived. And no, I do not believe that so much of their gold is outside Russia. Probably a tactical ruse, to conceal the fact that the bulk of the gold is still in the country.
Jon
None of us really know what is going on. I cannot believe that only 21 % of Russian physical gold is in Russia. The impression is that Russia has more gold than it is willing to admit (according to one analyst more than 30.000 tonnes). A clear picture should emerge later on.
Well, just to remind you all that both Putin and Trudeau et al share the same alma mater. This is just circus for the masses.
Absurd and very fake. Putin is in other galaxy of morality than Trudeau. Far above him.
Stop criticising Putin. He is the only enemy that the elites that tiranize all of us have in the world.
I am a westerner who know pretty well politics in Europe and Russia. I would exchange the situation in my country by Russia 1000000 times. Without doubt
Your falling for Schwab’s manipulative BS sucker, if you believe Putin graduated from Schwab’s “Young global leaders program.
…we are seeing this nonsensical about the Russian President, more often these days. Pac75, let me assure that’s just the invention of those who watch too many Hollywood trash movies’ own twisted yet vivid imaginations. Trudeau, BoJo, Biden, NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg… are WEF messengers and do everything in their powers to promote the globalist agenda including the US dollar. The more they do it the more income they make. On the other hand, VV Putin is basically crushing the entire globalist world order and as explained by the esteemed author of the article, is doing all he can to bypass the dollar.
If Putin was really a member of the globalist Schwabian sect of freaks, he’d be loved and fawned upon by all of them.
Actually, I could imagine this mild-mannered, poker-faced Russian KGB dude attending and observing… Nevertheless, I have yet to see any evidence of it.
This assertion has been debunked on this forum. If you have information in support, please post.
Indeed. All the world’s a stage.
How did come to this conclusion? Do you know what alma mater means?!
Putin grew up in the Soviet Union, the youngest of three, his two brothers died, the first in infancy and the other during Siege of Leningrad. Putin’s father was conscripted into Soviet navy and later was transferred to internal NKVD security work. Putin himself eventually went to Leningrad State University, and as most future politicians studied Law.
Trudeau grew up in Canada, the eldest of three, and son of the Canadian politician and former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau himself studied at McGill University completing a BA in Literature, and then a Bachelor of Education from British Columbia University. As a child of a sitting Canadian Prime Minister, Trudeau’s childhood was privileged to say the least, extensive travel, and the Trudeau family hosted the Nixon’s over for diner, who personally toasted the eldest son’s future.
Now, how did you conclude these two have the same alma mater exactly?
I think is pretty obvious that Russia wanted to expose the US blacklisting use of dollar, but didn’t expect that European Union will suicide along with the US.
6% of dollar in the Russian Central bank is a good gamble to demonstrate the “Empire” dominion and abuse of dollar.
They probably did not expect euro to do the same.
Anyway let don’t fire Russian Central bank. Anyway they have always behave pretty serious and this seriousness of them give them credibility in China, India, Brasil.
When the West behave unserious is their problem. Russia has frozen assets but the West lost its financial credibility all along with their prestige.
…”but didn’t expect that European Union will suicide”…Yes that’s my impression too.
The problem there is NATO. It is not an Atlantic Defense Pact from the 1950’s anymore. It is now a full-blown US colonial political structure, that allows the US to dictate most of Europe’s political and economic decisions, even when they are clearly against those country’s best interests. Obvious real world micro economic level examples are the German automotive manufacturers, essentially being forced to take Russian industrial plants off-line and cease trading in Russia, or else face US sanctioning themselves.
What would have been the encouraging signs from Europe that they wouldn’t commit suicide? After all Europe has been committing suicide for at least 50 years. Indeed, the whole Ukraine business exposes Europe’s status as a collection of corrupt, globalist vassal states. No, I think the Russians must have expected it. Who knows? Maybe they expect to get it all back.
Gold backed ruble.
Was reading a history book last night, in oder to catch up with the centuries-long struggles between Russia and Poles, Turks and others.
For the year 1892 my book reports:
“S.J. Witte as Finance Minister (…) stabilises the ruble through the introduction of gold-backed currency…” [Der Farbige Ploetz, Freiburg/Germany 1982, p. 373].
Bring it on, Russia. The free world is longing for honest money.
“But the Kremlin may have certainly gamed that by using Russia’s foreign reserves as bait, likely to be frozen by sanctions, the end result could be the smashing of the petrodollar”.
Combined with the negotiations for Saudi Arabia to end its policy of selling oil only for dollars, and selling to China (and others) for yuan. And plans for India and Russia to dedollarise their trade. Etc.
Also, China has a financial Tsar Bomba in reserve. It could sell all of its US Treasury holdings. Certainly, China would take the financial bath to end all baths. But it can afford it to topple the dollar.
As I see it, Russia and China had held back from such apocalyptic means for fear of triggering world war. But now Washington has moved into action, forcing Russia to intervene in Ukraine. Maybe Russia and China also feel forced to chop down the dollar beanstalk with the giant on top of it. With their nuclear forces on high alert just in case of any death throes.
Russia and Vladimir Putin need to act deliberately to achieve maximum impact and challenge the Imperialist.
Russia needs to sell its resources only in Rubles and currencies of friendly nations. Any nation that sanctions Russia needs to pay in Rubles. Stop funding adversaries. Germany, Japan, EU,… need to pay in Rubles. Also, all transactions need to be executed over its and China’s payment networks. They would benefit a lot by offering their payment platforms to other nations and integrating them. If the existing central bank team can’t recover their assets then they be fired for incompetence and threatening nation’s security.
Russia needs to end the floating of Ruble. It can follow China in this arena and manage its currency proactively to bring inflation down, prevent capital from moving abroad,… The only one who benefits from the floating of Ruble are the ones who want to move their wealth abroad or buy expensive foreign items. Drain all the credit from speculative activities.
It needs to create productive credit at zero interest and allocate that to entrepreneurs to fund productivity, import substitution, new creative ideas. China, Russia and India need to join together to create OPEN Source platforms in the high tech arena. This will result in a double whammy for the Imperialist companies.
Russia and China need to declare nations sanctioning them as adversaries and limit trade with them. They need to stop taking adversaries’ money as they will be frozen one day. Why offer resources and services for free to foes?
China and Russia need to unleash creativity and out innovate the Imperialist.
Good post.
Russia financial system need to be like China India and Vietnam little flow of capital in and out of system.
Only speculators gain as they did when ruble come under pressure.
Capital geared towards productive usage and Russia has all the skills.
···
Alea iacta est. The die is cast. We are witnessing, in real time, the suicide of the degenerate West. Economic suicide cheered on by the buffoons who think Trump won, who think Rachel Maddox is a journalist and think Boris Johnson is concerned about their well being. The 105 year war against Russia by the degenerate West has been lost and millions of innocent people in the West will suffer needlessly. The future is in the East and the global south. Glory to Russia. Glory to Donbas.
that old saying, “crazy like a fox”. I’d like to think most is true and fortunately if Glazyev is involved they are in excellent hands (I know there are many here who buy the Paul Krugman economic nonsense).
I don’t know if the gold-selling was some kind of cunning plan or not, but the simple fact is that any kind of currency standard is only needed by untrustworthy trading ‘partners’ or in the case of trades involving products or commodities where the relative values are disputed or unknown. In the latter case the intermediate standard becomes a negotiating instrument where the traders decide how much of the standard is desired/needed by each.
In the case of adversarial trades, the main purpose of the dominant trader (military or technical advantage) is to procure as much of the standard currency as can be extorted. When trades are for tangible commodities and products between responsible parties, the relative values can be based on the labor theory of value primarily, where labor is seen as universally valid and essentially equal between nations.
No doubt market forces will influence trade in terms of final transfer of payment(s). The trick is to minimize foreign and adversarial influences on market arrangements. The national currency trades – and the collaborative petroyuan – that are being negotiated now should help to reduce such outside – and malign – interference.
“procure as much of the standard currency as can be extorted” – I don’t have a reasonable grasp of the economic lingo and matter, but this makes me think of the “currency basket” and the Special Drawing Rights. Could you explain how these fit in?
Also, when you say “market forces”, are you referring to a theory such as supply & demand, or to players such as Black Rock?
Pepe, calm down! You are not making sense.
Did you really mean to say
“exporting natural resources at premium discount prices” ?
A premium is the opposite of a discount.
And in any case. We MUST get to the bottom of what has been going on at the Central Bank. Please focus there.
I too am confused.
Not clear if it was Sberbank doing the selling or the Central Bank.
Sberbank is the intermediary for the Russian miners, maybe they needed the money?
There will definitely need to be an investigation.
See the following
1. Why is Russia sending planes full of gold to London?
The State Duma wants answers as gold pours out of Russia DEC 2021
https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/why-is-russia-sending-planes-full?s=r
2. Russia’s gold reserves: The good, the bad & the ugly What’s actually going on here? Feb 2022
https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/russias-gold-reserves-the-good-the?s=r
3. Analysis / Opinion of US based russian gold analyst Simon Mikhailovich Feb 7 2022
“This is newly-mined gold being sold into the world market instead of entire production being bought up by the Russian government, as was the case when Russia was aggressively building up reserves. Sounds like a way for the private gold mining cos to export capital…”
https://twitter.com/S_Mikhailovich/status/1490357816758050817
If you inject too much of a commodity in the market, its price goes down. I think that this ‘newly-mined gold being sold into the world market’ was intentional.
The fact that Putin allowed those “central bank” thieves to be in charge of the nation’s gold during the preparation for a conflict with the West is mind-bogglingly stupid, *if* he had a choice at all. But now, if he doesn’t dismiss/arrest that Nabulina creature, I’m disowning him. :)
Hard to believe, but it raises possibility that Putin is part of WEF-globalist network masquerading as a great national leader (like many others).
The first thing that happened in 1917 after the western-funded revolutionaries took over was the shipment of ALL of Russia’s gold back to those same investors which included the bankster cartel grandees in Berlin, London, Zurich and Manhattan. It seems like the first thing that happened in the emerging next world war was the shipment of most Russian gold to London again. Some say the CIA is a City of London operation ab initio.
It would be nice if Putin is an honest patriotic leader and the current conflict will result in a clean break for Eurasia and a gentle decline for the West, but rarely are things that simple on the level where the international elites operate for in their realm nation states are transparent constructs useful mainly for keeping their citizens in line with various national narratives.
I think there are other interpretations that are probably more accurate: he’s not an expert at everything, and so doesn’t really have an alternative to putting trust in others, who sometimes don’t deserve it. This can occasionally produce disasters, but I don’t see what’s the alternative.
Also, Putin can’t fully dismantle the central bank system while at the same time being a part of the international system, which is necessary for trade. Dismantling it partially would be unlikely to work because the enemy would notice and react. However, leaving the terrible traitor Nabulina in control of the country’s gold was a disaster; not one Russia couldn’t recover from, but a huge one nevertheless. However, now that the IMF system was used to its full extent to damage Russia, it will be possible to completely exit the system. I don’t think the Russian people would accept such a departure and its terrible cost were it not forced upon them by an outside act.
Danijel, I agree with you about the simple and plausible explanation that VVP necessarily has to trust others because he cannot be an expert in everything. And the financial experts are not the only ones that have failed him.
It would be useful to know how this central bank system actually works, concretely, technically, how it is possible to have ones reserves seized or frozen, and how one could safeguard against that. Is there a central ledger somewhere that everyone accepts and that is administered by UK/US? Is it the BIS? How does it work exactly?
Putin might have had the same problem as successive ANC govts in South Africa.
Had they replaced her with a less market friendly governor there could have been a run on the rouble?
In a system like the one Russia adopted in early 1990’s but never changed fundamentally the central bank is in the hands of private commercial banks.
If rouble is freely tradeable then also in hands of Wall St bankers.
This is bigger than most people realise and would be a reason for the collective West to make war against even the collective East.
I will try to outline this, but first lets be clear what “Money” is – it is, always has been, and always will be, Gold and Silver. Everything else is “Currency”.
There is a very significant and very important difference between “Money” and “Currency” which few in the west recognise, indeed most people are taught that currency is money and they are taught to work for and save in currency as opposed to money.
As Franz famously explained:
“Gold is the Money of Kings,
Silver is the Money of Gentlemen and Merchants,
Barter is the Money of Peasants,
Debt is the money of Slaves”.
And as JP Morgan himself said:
“Only Gold is Money, all else is Credit”.
And as Jefferson pointed out to the people of the new USA when even Silver backed notes were being introduced:
Paper is not money, it is poverty, it is only the ghost of money and not money itself.
Back in 2014 I helped produce a Youtube interview (which attracted over 150,000 views in the 6 months or so it was up for) where a well known investor and economic analyst was interviewd about the weaponisation of Gold and Silver, and why thier so called “spot price” was fixed at a low level by the US and UK (ie it did not represent fair market value due to price suppression).
The video and channel was deleted by youtube in the great purge of 2016, so I cant offer a link, but from memory (In a nutshell), as long as the US Dollar can buy “Physical” Gold and Silver (as opposed to paper or digital promises of Gold and Silver, such an ETF) in the international markets, then it will continue to have sufficient value to serve as an international currency, if not the reserve currency, regardless of even if, quote, “they printed a Trillion Dollars worth of paper” (back in 2014 a Trillion Dollars was a lot of money).
However, the analyst stated that a powerful nation (or a group of such nations like Russia, China, India, and Iran) could smash the value of the US Dollar (and the UK pound and EU Euro) simply by attacking the international Gold market and causing a run on (and then a shortage of) physical Gold and Silver.
How?
Simply by establishing an “Arbitrage” between the Gold and Silver “spot price” and the price paid for “physical” metal at an eastern exchange or as settlement for trade, they could create a run on the western metal exchages, warehouses, and bullion banks, etc.
This would strip the US, UK, and EU of their physical Gold and Silver supplies and cause the currencies to loose value against the metals (and then eventually other commodities causing price inflation and other shortages).
The process couls be expediated by doing international trade settlements in phsyical Gold (and Silver).
A positive feedback loop could be created if done internationally in enough markets, eventually leading to an economic collapse in the West.
Back in 2014 a fair market price for Gold was suggested to be $3000 per Troy ounce, and $75 per Troy ounce for Silver (today perhaps $5000 and $100 would be more appropriate).
Oil sold for Gold in the form of “Good Delivery Bars” (which are the type held by London and New York) at the equivient of $3000 per T/oz represents a 30% discount at todays rate – but also represents a 30% reduction in the value of the USD as anyone in the US or UK would have to pay this differnce to buy physical back.
The analyst suggested that attempts to sell commodities such as oil, gas, wheat, and even finished goods for physical Gold, and to buy same with Gold, would be viewed by the US and UK as acts of financial warfare and result in actual warfare against any nation setting in place the mechanisms to do so (such as we did see with Iraq and Libya when they famously attempted to drop the USD and accept Gold for oil).
Gold and Silver are the tools that will destroy paper currencies and paper currencies is what the West use to pay for the war machines and bribe people globally. Therefore the ability of the west to pay for the war machines and bribe politicians globally will be violently protected.
Without the strangle hold on Gold and Silver, the USD, GBP, and Euro would become as valuable as the Zimbawe Dollar – so even WW3 would be fought to prevent such a change of status in the west.
We are beginning to see the escalation in economic warfare and Gold begin to reapear as the ultimate weapon of mass financial destruction.
Anyway, that is the best explaination I can do from memory, an analyst such as Jim Richards or Egon Von Greyez could explain this better, but this is much bigger than simply “backing” a currency with Gold – it is about the very ability to be able to pay for a war machine (and therefore maintain an empire).
Excellent idea. That will short squeeze the Wall Street/City of London gold bears up the Yin/Yang.
Thank you! Seems to be a very good explanation of what’s happening right now before our eyes – but nobody in the Lügenpresse a.k.a. MSM has the brains nor the honesty to spell it out loud…
Hitler said in a speech given to the industrial workers of Borsig works in Berlin, from memory: “People say that gold is important! That without gold you are nothing! But that is not true. When I came to power, I had to make do without gold. Because there was no gold. It had all been stolen. But we succeeded nonetheless in rebuilding our country. I didn’t have gold, but I realized I had you! You were my gold, and you are my gold!”
It’s a somewhat lengthier passage in reality and very passionate. I think there is a lot of truth in it. What matters in the end is the resources of the Earth (which Germany lacked) and the capabilities to produce and refine them (which she did have in the form of an educated and disciplined workforce and a lot of engineering talent), and to trade them with others (which she also had, not secured against pirates, though).
Gold is not needed for that. Germany and Latin American partners resorted to bartering, which worked very well, but was disliked by the parasites in London and New York, because it cut them out.
It is possible, though, that gold could undermine the paper/number empire of debt banking. Wouldn’t refusal of the dollar, pound and euro be enough? And the yen, too? That is a huge part of the formerly industrialized world. Maybe they could also be hurt by starving them of raw materials?
If Russia & China do choose to take on the Empire of Lies, they could need more allies.
Please prove me wrong, but I don’t buy this “bait” thing to let Atlanticists show their true hand. This stupid monetary policy is either incompetence or treason, tertium non datur.
I agree it was not bait. The Atlanticists were well-known crooks by the mid-1990s..
Rather it was about keeping Uncle Hegemon quiet and complacent while you rebuilt and reloaded. The correlation of forces were being worked on feverishly behind the scenes. Self-sufficiency and resiliency were being established in every sector. So you sacrifice an arm so that you may save the entire body tomorrow. And until then you endure what must be endured.
Also remember until they waged the catastrophic Arab wars of last two decades, the Hegemon had a patina of legitimacy and his financial-monetary system was the only game in town. Now folks see the true face and are racing for the exits
Yes, Ulrich. It would be like driving your car into a concrete wall to reveal the true nature of the concrete wall. As if the monsters ruling the West hadn’t sufficiently revealed their true nature over the past two decades. Russia was not ready for this. This mistake cannot be explained away. Attempts at rationalization (psychology) are futile.
It was in Syria that the West’s decline began , where VVP challenged the Empire to a duel over Assad
to the Empire’s “Assad Must Go” Putin said Nyet!!
It was then the USANato realized a Contender had arrived to challenge the Throne, they could not afford to throw away any more USD down the Afganistan black hole an beat a hasty embarassing Retreat!
Obviously the Empire saw its Nato push to Russia’s borders was in jeopardy.
The Empire lost in Afganistan , Syria, and now stands helpless before the Might of Russia in Ukraine.
For All the World to SEE the Big Bad Bully is Beaten down and the World can breath free again.
It is a Glorious Beginning of the new world order.
“they could not afford to throw away any more USD down the Afganistan black hole an beat a hasty embarassing Retreat!”
Hasty? A decade?
The retreat was slow at first; then much quicker
No intentions on feeding a troll. Try compairing the ten years’ pace to the frequency of the two weeks of actual withdrawal, that would completely fit to be described by “haste”.
You wouldn’t even leave your toothbrush fleeing a hotel, would ya, and the Hegemon just happen to forget loads of… millitary hardware…people… ?
Relaxed entities don’t do that.
Why would ANY country ever trust the West’s “RULES based Order” ever again? This is an established pattern of criminal acts – against Venezuela, Russia … they are acting like common thieves. When China-Russia-India-Iran-Venezuela-SCO… etc. etc. etc. becomes an increasingly solid alternative, who would any sane country want to trade with? How much Gold is it worth losing to establish this?
Exactly! I thought this too. It was intentional. There seems to be no other explanation since flooding the market with gold would only depreciate it…
”the financial system bypassing the U.S. dollar, being supervised by Sergei Glazyev. ” About time too. Glazyev is the Russian Michael Hudson. How come he was passed over and the likes of Elvira Nabiullina, 58 retained in the post of head of the Russian Central Bank for so long – good riddance to bad rubbish! She should have been pensioned off years ago.
I think she plays some kind of dual role. But I only think so.
Did you see that Putin put Nabiullina forward as Central Bank Chief?
https://tass.com/economy/1423957
Yes, we were all surprised when Glazyev disappeared into the mists into what looked like busy work. Now we see what work he actually did. I’m dying for details :-)
I think that it was Ruslan Ostashko who some years ago suggested that Glazyev was given the senior job at the EAEU in order to circumvent the neoliberal forces within Russia by changing the external environment in which Russia worked and traded. If true, this strategy seems to have worked. Glazyev was in a position to deliver his stinging critique in late February, but much of the environment was changed at the Far East Economic Forum, chaired by Putin at a university near Vladivostok last September. This was all described in English in Tass.com at the time. This is when India moved from the Quad to effectively signing up to the EAEU, planning to buy LNG and even to build its own LNG ships at the new shipyard near Vladivostok. India also signed up to buy coal for its steel industry.
In addition, Mongolia signed up for the forthcoming Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline to pass through Mongolia (giving it some gas plus transit fees, and thereby enabling it to reduce its dependence on low-quality coal) in order to go straight on to the heart of China’s most high-tech military-industrial complex due south of Mongolia. Previously the plan was for that new pipeline to go through the small gap between Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
Kazakhstan also signed up to the programme since it will get a new nuclear power station, which will enable it to export all of its gas and oil. Since then Russia and China have recently signed another deal whereby a Russian oil company will supply 100 billion metric tonnes of oil to China over a ten-year period through an already-existing Kazakhstan pipeline. . In addition, since last September or October China has been buying gas at a rate 30 per cent above the volume specified in the long-term contract covering the Power of Siberia 1
pipeline. It is paying for this additional gas in Yuan, I believe.
To me this implies that the Ruble will not need to be backed by gold, although Russia has 2,300 metric tonnes of gold in its vaults, according to a video recently posted on Martyanov’s blog. Russia continues to mine its own gold, and so the gold sold to London will eventually be replaced. . One could be talking of the era of the ‘Petro-Ruble’ or more pedantically of the ‘Hydrocarbon Ruble’. But of course what we are really heading for is the era of multi-currency trading. One only needs one (or perhaps two) global reserve currencies when communication between banks is difficult. That is no longer the case, with currency swaps already in place and more planned, and with software compatible replacements for SWIFT in place (in the case of Russia that has been true for six years now).
I imagine that few people will recall that in 2018 The Saker website posted a paper by me in which I described Sergei Glazyev’s paper at the Likhachev Conference of May 2018 in St. Petersburg. It was about the possible benefits and dangers of future cooperation between China and Russia. That paper by Glazyev was warmly supported by the Russian economists in the room, and there were none of the usual Western bankers there. Normally that “side room” discussion (away from the plenary session\) would have been chaired by a Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, such as Gatilov. The fact that Glazyev chaired the discussion instead was to me an indication that the Foreign Ministry was probably on board with this analysis, and certainly indicated his growing influence.
Yes, Glazyev moved to another important job at the EAEU: to supervise the build up of the new monetary and financial system that was planned at that time!
Different roles.
The central bank team are *operators*. They operate the (existing) system, whatever it is.
Glazyev looks more like a “system designer” to me.
User, What a great comment. That’s exactly how I see it.
Glazyev will now move to center stage as he builds the new de-globalised system.
The existing system disappearing before our eyes everywhere….Markets are broken.
Exactly! Glazyev has been in the wings for two decades, as a Russian strategic brain reserve.
@ Francis Lee
I Agree with you ,V Putin making a fatal mistake. The good people will go else !
Tom 123
I‘ll defend the Russian Central Bank here – sequestering central bank reserves is unheard of. No one could have possibly forseen that the War Party would simply freeze ( steal ) everything. The allocation of reserves was reasonable given the perceived risks.
Banking runs on trust. The War Party destroyed all trust in US, English, and EU banks. We will see significant capital flow slowly out of these Banking centers and into alternatives. The War Party destroyed in one sudden swoop all trust in their banks. The destruction in trust will have the biggest knock on effects in financial markets.
Note that all Central Banks are all banking cartels. They are not ‚regulatory‘ bodies. It’s a bankster criminal racket. Russia is no exception.
Finally.
Excellent developments. I have written a few papers with a proposal resembling this over the years – inspired by John Maynard Keynes proposal at Bretton Woods in 1944 for a world currency (he lost to the US).
Check out
(Spanish:) http://www.revistas.unam.mx/index.php/ROF/article/view/80785/71121
(English:)
https://folk.ntnu.no/tronda/econ/china-russia-lat-am-bancor.pdf
(And here also in English on an excellent China blog:)
https://mailchi.mp/herecomeschina.com/defense-budget-jumps-13361984?e=e717923427
I am not sure that we now need a world currency. Note that the most recent proposal from China is to have a currency based on a weighted basket of existing currencies, And India has just struck a Ruble-Rupee deal, which could become part of that new weighted currency.
Relax. There will be an exchange of monetary hostages sometime in the future.
All money is a placeholder IOU for as yet undetermined goods or services to be delivered in the future.
The system of “reserves” has been abused since the creation of the IMF and World Bank, by the US and Allies. Read “Confessions of an Economic Hitman”.
It is interesting that the 7 of 8 issuers of official IMF recognized world reserve currencies are all on board with sanctions against Russia. The USA, EU, Japan, Britain, Canada, Australia, Switzerland are all in, only China is out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_currency#Global_currency_reserves
I am amazed it has taken the global south and most of Asia this long to do something about it.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Russia-Oil-Exports-To-India-Soar-On-Sanctions.html
Oil exports to India actually increased this month
i would call it Putin’s gambit. he loses his bishop but he will take the adversary’s queen. me thinks he is attacking the west in all fronts.. liberate donbass, get rid of the ukro nazis, kill the US dollar, destroy nato’s reputation as a useless organization.
gain? buffer zone for russia, a russia friendly leadership will take the next government.. donbass liberated.. and he keeps talking about crimea.. he wants kiev to relinquish it legally and officially. the US is salivating for it.. crimea costs more than what wealth outside has been stolen by the west. as they say,, you win some, you lose some.. but putin will take it all.. russia, as the winner in this war will write history for the future generations. and this is the most important.
Maybe this time Russia will “finally” remember what was the route to prosperity both in the Capitalist world (before they went insane with financialization),and in the early Soviet Union. That is ,to develop your domestic market. Russia does a lot of exporting and that’s good. But its their domestic market (and those of allied states) that they need to build up to keep the economy growing.
As these “mistakes” (crimes?) come out more often. People are going to demand that the government,at least remove the people involved from influence. But even more that they be punished for what they’ve done.
That Secretary of Education looks like a tough nut to crack.
Thank you. Have been wondering for some time if Russia Central Bank was a trojan horse beholden to internationalist cartels and this piece has answered it (clearly, yes). So they managed to steal much of Russia’s gold reserves before the conflict. Meanwhile, Russia is perhaps the single greatest hard asset country in the world so apart from gold they are looking pretty good.
And as the author points out, what is going on is a form of Great Reveal. To those with eyes to see in various national corridors of power world wide, the USD Emperor has no clothes and most certainly does not wish them well. Rather, it is a selfish, greedy monster.
So be it. Things are going to get rough for a while but once Central and Western Eurasia have detached, seemingly now with most of the Middle East and India, then the West will be the one finding itself isolated and no doubt will begin consuming themselves from within – which is already under way – and with any luck will gradually deflate themselves out of Empire and minions of Empire and back into being normal countries again, ‘a consummation devoutly to be wished.’
With most of the Zone B observers, I see a few somewhat conflicting scenarios:
1) the degree of unnecessary Russian exposure to these sanctions is entirely inconsistent with their dedollarization of assets, and smacks of neoliberal sabotage / treason by finance authorities.
2) even if VV Putin & his circle are not financial geniuses, if even we can see this, then likely they can too. Lending some (perhaps too hopeful) credence to using these reserves as bait to get the Empire’s financiers to discredit themselves.
3) this may be all out economic warfare also by Zone B–crash the Petrodollar, USD as reserve currency; accelerate Gulf States’ withdrawal of reserves from Zone A; crash commodities markets; Western fiat currencies, derivatives, hedge funds, treasuries, letters of credit; insurance, etc.
4) it may be that neither Russia nor China wants a revolution–they don’t want to destroy all trust in private property, integrity of banking, debt servicing, etc. Rather, they want to uphold the principles that trust is based on, but in a separate financial system. Commodities (gold / oil) backed currencies, banking systems.
In which case Russia might look like it’s fighting with one hand tied behind its back, but only to the extent that they maintain themselves as a trustworthy actor in the founding of a new system.
I guess I hope it’s #4, but have no idea.
It is interesting to note that a part of Mr. Kaczynski’s ancestors were Polonized Jews from the ODESSA region of ukraine. One of his ancestors was a highly-decorated officer in the Russian Czar’s army, and another an official who worked for a Russian railroad company.
> Nabiullina said – whoever wants to sell gold to get cash, or if you mine gold and trade it, keep in mind that the state, in my person, will not buy gold from you at a market price. We will take it at a big discount. If you want to get honest money for it, please export it
that’s the problem. anything dug up or drilled out belongs to the people. all natural resources are for the state and the people only. yes, they can incentivize the private sector to invest in the mining and exploration for a percentage of the take, but not like how these plundering oligarchs are doing
so, what’s the ratio of owner of these resource assets? state to private operator?
Excuse me, but the U.S. dollar is not “backed-by-nothing”. It is backed by the very same thing that backs the Russian ruble, China’s yuan, and indeed every country’s currencies: the work that country’s people do, the sacrifice of the peoples’ time and energies producing goods and providing services. Ask yourself this: if aliens parked their spaceships above earth one night and sucked up every bit of gold, all the silver, and every paper and metal bit of all currencies, would we humans all suddenly lose all ability to create the world’s substantial wealth – the goods and services – and the ability to create a means to trade the workproducts we produce? Of course not. People would roll up their sleeves same as now and get busy planting, harvesting, building, making, providing, producing, parenting – creating wealth from the wealth nature has provided us. The aliens could fly off with their haul, and the animals and soil and sun and rivers and oceans and minerals and knowledge and people would remain, and then perhaps the people of Earth would finally understand that gold doesn’t back money; the work done by the world’s working families is what backs all money because money is symbolic wealth, symbol of substantial wealth which equals goods and services which equals work done. No work = no workproducts = nothing to buy or sell = money worth nothing.
Why does one country lend to another, or buy their debt? One reason: the lender is confident the people of the country they lend to will keep getting up and going to work, creating wealth by producing and providing workproducts.
This is the tip of the iceberg of the understanding all humans need about money, work, and wealth if we are going to deconstruct the wealthpower giants who are robbing us all blind 24/7/365, enslaving our families for eons and getting away with it precisely because economists and banksters have been cooking up so much hocus pocus baloney with so many moving parts that people cannot see the actually simple truth. If world wealth was distributed as evenly as world work is, everybody on this planet would be a millionaire and there would be no more wars with all their unaffordable knock-on costs the gigarich force US to pay for with our blood, sweat, and tears. That is NOT a knock on Russia’s special operation. I am well-aware that President Putin and the Russians did all he/they could to avoid having to conduct this self-defense and it is the wealthpower giants pulling the levers of usa government and nato whose premeditated plans are to blame.
Could we all please stop calling them ‘elites’? The word elite conveys ‘elect’ ‘select’ ‘choice’ ‘prime’ ‘cream of the crop’ or ‘superior’. They are no such thing. They are simply thieves who, via myriad legal thefts, raked other-earned wealth in such extreme quantities that it gives them the power to tyranize the rest of us with what they stole from us. All wars are rich men’s wars.
What the aliens suck away, copy pasted from Google: “According to Marx’s theory, surplus value is equal to the new value created by workers in excess of their own labor-cost, which is appropriated by the capitalist as profit when products are sold.”
And yes, the big pile of global lucre represents the reserves of the rich, for working people, or with small savings, the 99%, especially those in debt and who live paycheck to paycheck, all the money disappearing would have no real effect on their lives if the system was a model with out externalities – e.g. capitalist evil.
For the sate of argument the system could be restarted using MMT with no loss to the large majority of a country’s population. There does not need to be any loss to entitlements, pensions, small savings etc. Remember you can not be indebted to yourself; when you print a billion in currency and take in a billion in taxes (pretty quick) the liability is canceled while the productivity generated is real gains. Problem is when state debt is sold and owed to the markets, bond holders and banks, the parasites who get a free ride from their privileged connection to the state. The real Great Reset the 99% need is a giant global debt jubilee – up yours WEF! The collapse of dollar hegemony might be something in that direction. My guess is before that happens the overlords blow up the world, it’s the gangster mentality, “if I can’t have it no one can!”
The alien’s share: From Google: “According to Marx’s theory, surplus value is equal to the new value created by workers in excess of their own labor-cost, which is appropriated by the capitalist as profit when products are sold.”
All I know about money is that I’m in debt, which is probably the reason that I’m in debt, but maybe those who understand will find this useful. A Paul Craig Roberts interview.
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/is-russias-central-bank-chief-a-hostile-foreign-agent-deliberately-sabotaging-the-russian-economy/
“Russia is unable to use the vast power she has over the West, because Russian economists and the central bank have been brainwashed by American neoliberal economists that Russia needs foreign exchange to develop. This is amazing rubbish, as I demonstrated in my recent column— Indeed, Michael Hudson and I have explained it to the Russians a number of times. If you think your fate depends on foreign exchange, you continue keeping your enemy alive by selling your strategic assets to him…” Interview with economist Paul Craig Roberts.
It seems in today’s world, governments (may be the Russians too) need the exchange strength of the dollar in order to brandish it against their domestic population. It provides the government with an extra instrument while the average people grapple with the local currency. In other words, it gives them the elite status and leverage.
Igor Shuvalov is head of Russia’s state development corporation, VEB.RF.
He summarized the strength of the Russian people will carry them above any economic suffering imposed upon them by Machiavellian deviants.
See: https://www.rt.com/russia/552226-shuvalov-sanctions-character-ukraine/
Here is a list of at least 10 strategies Russia will deploy to defeat the robbery of its current and future wealth.
See: https://www.rt.com/business/552123-russia-sanctions-survival-plan/
However the bypassing of dollar system comes into realization, one thing is of vital importance and that’s Moscow’s close cooperation/coordination with her allies i.e. those countries not in the black list. At this moment the Uncle Shmuel is pretty much upset and is doing all at its disposal to coerce, bribe, buy those nations that are friendly with Russia. Regrettably, some might fall into Washington’s trap given how efficiently the 5/6th columns operate in most countries. Just today, the sleepy Joe, rudely, asked the Chinese to follow Western sanctions against Moscow. There’s going to be a lot more of it in the future.
“Unicorns are a trademark of the massive NATOstan psyops apparatus, lavishly illustrated by the staged, completely fake “summit” in Kiev between Comedian Ze and the Prime Ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, thoroughly debunked by John Helmer and Polish sources.”
Does anyone has the proof, that this meeting actually happened in Kiev? It sounds like BBC bollocks to me.
Unless Putin meant for some thievery to occur by the west so that other countries distance themselves from them, he needs to seriously shake down the entire Russian Central Bank. And knowing how these central banks are ran, and to whom they answer, there could be real evil in there to uproot and destroy. Russian central bank must be wholly controlled by the state, NOT private investors. This vestige, if it exists in Russia, must be eradicated. Letting private foreign interests operate within it is akin to letting the neo-cons and the pentagoons into the Kremlin and Russian MOD to do as they like. If Russia wants to really change the way the world operates financially and economically, it needs to go in whole hog, not pitter-patter around peripheries and only go as far until it starts hurting. Russia needs to perform serious invasive surgery to remove any and all neo-liberal tumors from its body politic and financial world. Yes, as with any surgery of this magnitude, there will be pain. But eventually it will go away and heal up. Half-measures will get Russia and China nowhere. I wish them luck.
“It boggles the mind that the Russian Central Bank does not answer to the Russian constitution as well as to the judicial system, but in fact is subordinated to the IMF. ”
Most central banks (that i know of) are not constrained by constitutions or laws. European central bank isn’t, and even each european country own central bank, which is directly linked to the central bank, isn’t.
They have no liabilities and general immunities, which they argue “contributes to safeguarding a central bank and its financial supervisor’s independence”, as it doesn’t allow meddling by the political branch.
Just found this nice imf document which explains further: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2018/08/02/Legal-Protection-Liability-and-Immunity-Arrangements-of-Central-Banks-and-Financial-46086
When they screw up in the national central banks, they are rewarded with being promoted to the european central bank (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADtor_Const%C3%A2ncio )
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67996
Pres Putin speech to the Regions 26 March …all economic strategic objectives must be achieved before 2030 etc
note these already have been delayed from 2024 due to the virus…this insistence and re emphasis of this time schedule any indication that the Ukr crisis will go on majorly until 2030-including international monetary crisis and “corrections”????.
The dollar dependence crap needs to end. It is unnecessary, and those doing so, including Russia, are basically underwriting their own misery.
I would compare the fear of switching away from the GD dollar to my switch years ago from windows to the Linux operating system. At first, I was worried that certain things would not work, or be unavailable. But I made the leap, and have never looked back. I worked out, or got around all kinks, and now, the situation has been reversed: when I think about using Windows, I shudder. I will never go back to using window$ ever again.
It can be the same with the dollar.
I liken the human being to one that has drove a million miles, you either turn something around or your body is going to tank.
We have a lot a drivers here, we are a driving society, we are either going to have to turn something around as a society, or continue to drive ourselves into tanks.
And I’m all in on the latter twos.
The fact remains Russia has lost 460B in reserves frozen and unlikely ever to be returned. Why this was not liquidated before action on Ukraine took place is mind boggling given the sanctions were inevitable. Someone needs holding to account for this. Why did Putin allow this to happen, surely all this must have been game planned given Russia was already sanctioned
This is the second time foreigners looted Russia’s gold. This also happened under Boris Yeltsin. The gold reserves vanished and with no explanation.
Russia is not Venezuela. If the U.K., EU, and U.S. refuse to let Russia re-patriate their gold, including the portion that was sold and converted into foreign reserves, it is an act war. The U.S. would never tolerate this kind of theft. Block the Suez Canal from cargo going to/from Europe and the U.S. Declare the eastern Mediterranean off limits to U.S. / EU warships, enforce by their hypersonic missiles. As Netanyahu would say, ‘take everything from them before they take everything from you’. Why should the U.S. / EU have free uninterrupted shipping after they deny you your own money.
BTW I’m okay with the EU / U.S. imposing a trade embargo. After all, no one should be forced to do business but this is not a trade embargo, it is theft.
IMPORTANT: if this is true, Nabulina is out:
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/uk-world-news/military-chief-arrested-head-russian-23426880
“Elvira Nabiullina, 58, reportedly handed in her resignation after arguing with Putin over the devastation caused by Western Sanctions on the Russian people.”
Translation: all kinds of pro-Western vermin will now be outed, and hopefully shot.
We first need to understand what money is. It not gold nor currency issued by anyone without power or influence because at the root, money is expectation — expectation that one can get something of value for it in the future. That ‘something’ might be settlement of a debt, acceptance for owed taxes, or getting some product or service from others, and it depends on some kind of cooperative abstract, perceptual system.
Gold may have a widespread acceptance or faith that it represents real value, but it also depends on being able to transport it, or on belief that it can or will be transported. Rather than physically transporting or holding gold usually value is transferred by some sort of accounting system of ownership. It’s value also depends on finding someone willing to buy it, for an acceptable price. All money is abstraction.
If an abstract system, such as money, breaks down, and/or is replaced by some other abstract system, then the tokens of value within the system lose meaning. If the world devolves into isolated bipolar blocks, without shared abstract systems, the each side loses power over the other except for physical interaction, such as transferring food, oil, or bombs. The sanctions the West imposes on Russia is resulting not in imposing power on Russia because it is severing the shared abstract systems used to affect Russia, but instead to further establish the alternative system, and the physical reality the abstractions represent. This can be seen in the difference between the internal real economy, value of rubles, and production of goods in Russia and the external world markets and international finance.
The more the US empire busts up international law, trade,and finance, to more international power it loses, and the more other countries can use the leakage and alternative paths in the international system. One cannot ‘win the game’ by ignoring the rules and devolving into a different game altogether, in which other players lose interest in playing and the scoring becomes meaningless.
Countries will be using dollars for a long time. USA put sanctions in a lot of other nations and nothing happened.
The world is addictied to easy money.
Along with Russia taking its rightful place in the world by “whatever it takes”, IMO, the JCPOA is one of the few keys to at long last release World Peace from its cage to run around the world. But because Iran is an existential threat to US national security, interests and foreign policy, the US must not sign the JCPOA; always and forever keep Iran in its crosshairs and never, ever “normalize” relations with it.
When WWII ended, there was a sort of informal, grudging agreement among the ruling classes of the so-called “western” nations that the nuclear-armed US should lead the world and that the USD, “backed up” by gold and brutal military force, would be the de facto currency of settlement in the west’s international trade.
Because the USSR almost instantly realized that the US and its newly-created vassal states ultimately intended to conquer it by “whatever it takes”, it took defensive and offensive measures to ensure its survival, and, in short, some of these were awful and, ultimately, self-defeating.
The post-WWII history of US interventions around the world – in particular, the US’s SE Asia genocide – until the pivotal year 1971 should be, by now, obvious to even casual students of world history. But true understanding of the present-day situation, including Jan 6 and “Ukraine”, requires closer examination of that period.
In 1964, Liar And Murderer In Chief (LAMIC) Lyndon Johnson delivered his so-called “War On Poverty” State of the Union address in which he also announced huge tax cuts. (IMO, this speech is well worth watching for a wide variety of reasons that will instantly become obvious to present-day viewers.) https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/lbj1964stateoftheunion.htm
The US Elite’s decision to cut taxes while simultaneously conducting a “war on poverty” and its genocidal war on the people of SE Asia was ultimately a fatal one and haunts the “western world” to this very day (again, including Jan. 6, 2021 and “Ukraine”). Simply put, in 1964 the elite and non-elite US taxpayers decided to start funding their wars by “borrowing” money from other countries; by selling to them treasury bonds that had an attractive rate of return – bonds that, upon their maturity, could be snail-mailed back to the US treasury to receive, in return, either more treasury bonds or physical gold stored in the United States Bullion Depository in Fort Knox, Kentucky or in other depositories at a few other locations in the US.
Of course the ruling classes (the truly microscopic percentages of the populations) of the US’s creditor nations also watched LBJ’s SOTU speech and, obviously, were alarmed by it to the point that they took action. A short but astronomically important excerpt from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorbitant_privilege
“In February 1965 President Charles de Gaulle announced his intention to exchange its U.S. dollar reserves for gold at the official exchange rate. By 1966, non-US central banks held $14 billion (in US treasuries), while the United States had only $13.2 billion in gold reserve. Of those reserves, only $3.2 billion was able to cover foreign holdings as the rest was covering domestic holdings.
By 1971, the money supply had increased by 10%. In May 1971, West Germany left the Bretton Woods system, unwilling to revalue the Deutsche Mark. In the following three months, this move strengthened its economy. Simultaneously, the dollar dropped 7.5% against the Deutsche Mark. Other nations began to demand redemption of their dollars for gold. Switzerland redeemed $50 million in July. France acquired $191 million in gold. On August 5, 1971, the United States Congress released a report recommending devaluation of the dollar, in an effort to protect the dollar against “foreign price-gougers”. On August 9, 1971, as the dollar dropped in value against European currencies, Switzerland left the Bretton Woods system. The pressure began to intensify on the United States to leave Bretton Woods.”
Very shortly thereafter came the legendary “Nixon Shock” of 1971 when the next LAMIC, Richard Nixon, announced that he had, in short, “temporarily” stopped the redeemability of US treasuries in physical gold. (“Temporary” is now about 51 years old and marching right on from here to eternity.) I cannot recommend highly enough to watch the video recording of that extraordinary, earth-shaking event in its then-live, 18-minute entirety – a speech which, BTW, if it took place today, would make Nixon a far-left-wing-radical democrat! (Even the DNC, let alone the RNC, of today would not allow him into their parties with such radical policies.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye4uRvkAPhA
Between the Nixon shock in 1971 and the year 1974, the US was in deep, system-threatening trouble, but the petrodollar very secretly came to the miraculous rescue of the USD in 1974. In order to understand what’s been going on between the US and the countries of the middle east, and far beyond, since 1971, you must read a May 30, 2016 article (originally published by Bloomberg but now freely available in “Economic Times”) entitled “The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s 41-Year U.S. Debt Secret; How a legendary bond trader from Salomon Brothers brokered a do-or-die deal that reshaped U.S.-Saudi relations for generations”
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/the-untold-story-behind-saudi-arabias-41-year-us-debt-secret/articleshow/52528470.cms?from=mdr
The importance of the secret establishment of the petroleum – dollar arrangement with Saudi Arabia can not be overstated. Were Saudi Arabia to sell all of its US treasuries today; to terminate the petrodollar arrangement with the US today; to stop buying US weapons today, and, say, to “do” a similar deal with, say, China today, the USD would lose de-facto reserve currency status tomorrow, and the lifestyle of average Americans would change dramatically for the worse almost as quickly………… at least until major systemic changes came into being within the US proper.
The miraculous petrodollar arrangement and the ensuing “Carter Doctrine”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Doctrine
explain most of the US’s military behavior in Latin and South America, as well as, more recently, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Somalia and Venezuela and “Ukraine”. In short, by adopting the petrodollar, the US had literally committed itself to use its military forces to control not only the middle east, but the entire world in order to maintain USD hegemony. From the get-go, that was a fatal mistake and that fatal mistake will now be proven to be fatal in the real world.
One important, real-world example of the petrodollar’s irresistible political power over the “the US” started on October 4, 2017 (not that long after the Tangerine Jackass’ Jan. 20, 2017 inauguration), when, for the first time ever, a Saudi King flew to Moscow and met with the head of the Russian Federation, who at that time just happened to be Vladimir Putin.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/05/saudi-russia-visit-putin-oil-middle-east
The King’s trip sent an earth-shaking, absolutely clear message to the US Elite, as well as to POTUS TJ. Nine days! after that unprecedented visit, on October 13, 2017 TJ announced that Iran was violating the JCPOA– the “Iran nuclear deal” — even though the IAEA had reported time and time again that Iran was NOT violating the terms of that painstakingly negotiated and detailed agreement.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/politics/iran-deal-decertify/index.html
The King’s visit to Russia and TJ’s announcement only a few days later were no mere coincidence. The King of the petrodollar was telling the LAMIC of the US military forces that unless the US President did his bidding, the USD would not remain the de facto world reserve currency for long.
TJ obeyed the King’s order and in May 2018, “the US” pulled out of the JCPOA. The rest of the “nations” that signed the deal have proven themselves to be incapable of fulfilling their own obligations to it. Therefore, “their” signatures on the agreement meant exactly nothing, and likely their future signatures on anything will mean the same.
The US’s petrodollar quagmire is also completely responsible for the US’s reaction to MbS’s murder of Khashoggi. Here’s my headline for this part of my narrative:
Tangerine Jackass Admits Bush’s War On Terror Is Actually President Lyndon Johnson’s War On Poverty —“I don’t want to lose an order like that.”
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/trump-promises-severe-punishment-behind-khashoggis-disappearance-1152147
From the above link:
……..
“When considering punishments if Saudi Arabia were found culpable, Trump was hesitant to suggest sanctions. ‘It depends on the sanctions,’ he said. ‘Let’s give an example: We are ordering military equipment. Everybody in the world wanted it: Russia wanted it, China wanted it, we wanted it, we got it, and we got all of it, we got every bit of it.’
‘So would you cut that off, or take…’ Stahl asked.
‘Well, I tell you what I don’t want to do: Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon, all these companies, I don’t want to hurt jobs, I don’t want to lose an order like that. And you know, there are other ways of punishing, to use a word that’s a pretty harsh word, but it’s true,’ Trump replied.”
_____
What Trump failed to mention is that, again, the US economy literally can not afford to “lose an order like that”. George Kennan explained exactly why just a few short years before the end of the Soviet Union. (What he said is even more true today.)
“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”
Again, the US will do pretty much whatever Saudi Arabia wants it to do and that means, among other things, keeping Iran in its crosshairs while exerting “maximum pressure” on Iran’s economy. Mr. Potato Head & Co. cares about the UN about as much as it cares about the WHO, the INF, the JCPOA, the ICC and international law in general — absolutely nothing.
Further in support of my proposition that the JCPOA the gateway to World Peace, there have been three very recent events that directly relate to the US’s reliance on the petro-dollar to maintain its USD-based hegemony.
First, 49 morons in the senate declared that they would not endorse any un-modified JCPOA that Mr. Potato Head might sign. These morons, obviously, were “sending a message” to Mr. Potato Head to not sign onto what would essentially be the same JCPOA that O’bomb’em signed.
Second, “Saudi Arabia’s” leak or announcement that it is considering selling a large percentage of its oil in other currencies — the Yuan in particular. To me, this is the equivalent of the Saudi King’s trip to Moscow in October of 2017; and, again, 9 days later the Tangerine Jackass announced that Iran was violating the deal and, therefore, that “the US” would pull out of the deal in a year.
Third, we have the announcement by the NYT just a few days ago that the whole Hunter Biden laptop “issue” was in fact not the Russian disinformation that it had previously reported it was. I believe that the owners/controllers of the NYT made this announcement to “send a message” to Mr. Potato Head, and that message was to not re-enter the JCPOA as it was originally written, because if he does so, Saudia Arabia is threatening to end the petro-dollar arrangement that has kept the US’s war-based economy on life support for since 1974.
To add un-needed fuel to the JCPOA fire, Iran and Russia have both very recently announced that “the US”, under Mr. Potato Head & Co.’s leadership, is “imminently” going to sign back on to the original JCPOA. I would be both very surprised very happy if this happens, because the US’s perpetual-war-based economy is at stake, and the three aforementioned entities perfectly realize that.
In short, World Peace is more of a threat to the US’s war-based economy than Perpetual War. That’s a rather strange state of affairs, don’t you think?
Ishkabibble,
I agree with most of what you said it was right to the point except the conclusion. Signing of the JCPOA, is just another temporary breathing space for the globalist to continue on with their status-quo arrangements. It would also give them more time to hurt Russia, China and Iran from within using their solid 5/6th columnists who rely on Uncle Shmuel’s regular paychecks.
It’s much better for Iran backed by Russia and China pressure Washington for concessions it cannot afford and the biggest one of those would be a solid strategic relationship between Moscow and Tehran. In the meantime both Russia and China should implement a functioning financial system bypassing the U.S. dollar as mentioned by the author. When that’s finished, it would require a little effort by Iran to bring the S.A. and other Arab Sheikhdoms on board, cause we know them and have the means to otherwise make life very difficult for them.
The US+ just doesn’t give up their trouble making attitudes by signing official documents. The criminals in Washington are way past their limit to be trusted using legal formalities. No country on earth (even the ordinary Americans) today trust the LGBTQ cabals in Washington DC, London, Ottawa, …, especially after they started this game of freezing and taking over other countries’ gold/cash reserves.
Thank you, Ishkabibble, for this extensive write-up on the matter of the petrodollar, including the interesting links to flesh out the narrative, which I believe to be true – except for the bit about the US taking orders from the King of Saudi Arabia to cancel the JCPOA. I don’t speak Arabic and have never travelled to Saudi Arabia, but it would seem to me that the monarchy is not in a position to wag the US dog.
Conversely, it makes sense to assume the US has a vested interest in keeping Iran and Saudi Arabia hostile to each other (as long as Iran does not submit to US rule as the KSA does).
The US does not intend to play fair with Iran. As you said, the US are liars and murderers, see Soleimani terrorism and subsequent UIA-752 terrorism (looked like thrust reversal on the starboard engine, remotely triggered, probably via SATCOM).
The JCPOA seems to have been part of the Obama deception that would make it appear to the Muslim world that the US was somehow & somewhat pro-Islam, a strategy in support of Arab Spring destabilization attempts and ISIS militia grooming (kind of US foreign legion), at the same time fooling & frustrating France & Germany, countries led by what amounts to little more than US puppets.
So, no, the tail does not wag the dog, and the Kind does not give orders to the POTUS. If the King wants to achieve a better situation for his country, he should seek better relations with his Iranian neighbour.
Love reading Pepe, agree with most of all of everything, learned a lot over the years, kind of “Geopolitics-Macro Economics For Dummies. I owe him one for having de-manufactured the 50ys of consent in my head, but he is the comic book version of macro economic/geopolitical writing. No one throws $400 billion or whatever down the toilet just to preform some sort of cosmic geopolitical macro economic judo move that’ll flip the planet on it’s head. That’s just silly.
The gold back ruble seems like a truly bad idea (see Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World) but I’ve read what I could find from Glazyev and he’s not a comic book economist so I defer. Russia’s money is backed by its bonds which are backed from real earnings not fairy dust bubble economy hegemony pilferage, earnings on real inviolable in house hard assets, Russia’s natural resources. Not sure why they need to back it with gold.
Putin is not the sole undisputed ruler of all Rus. Moscow’s corridors of power were (are?) full of all sorts of pro-Western / pro-Globalist creatures. Anyone who was there, was involved in strategic business sectors, was involved in politics (at least on the periphery) was aware of that. In Moscow hardly anyone would listen when a lone Western guy pointed these things out; still five years ago there were things happening you would not believe. As such the question of where Russia’s wealth is stored and why it seems as if a good part was not where any sane person would put it, is more a question why after half a generation a good part of Russia’s power and economic elite still hoped to be allowed by the Anglo Empire to play as a full member on the world stage. Sadly the number of Russian elite who really understands the West is as small as vice versa. There are outright traitors in Russia, and they should end in the basement of the Lubyanka. But the majority of the 5th column and Atlanticists, those people who put Russia’s reserves at the mercy of the Anglo Empire, are just delusional and full of false romantic hope. Difficult, because it leads so deep into the question of the Russian soul.
At about 27″24
“there are the reserves abroad, and those fund the deficit payments”
So what if
sensei Putin plannes writing off the deficit by letting them “eat” the stolen money. They took what, the equivalent of all the rolling debt for some years.
The west took only what was already claimed theirs under the guise of a rolling deficit, some 12 % of gdp back then. Them shareholders and statefund-specified templetonidae symbiomti can eat their fiat money.
You say, what about the gold? Mr Putin made shure some change is dropped on the floor too. Wish we could see how those Tabaquis will cut each others throats in the banking arena when they realize, they wont ever get anything from Mother Russia, name it, what they took so without a care for years, if not centuries.
He writes it off. It s considered paid before due.
The everyday cash flow can easily be handled with the inflation rate, with fixed price market segments anchoring it through the Chinese way of priceing.
https://youtu.be/8mq5Sqc3GQ8
So correct me, please.
Can be maybe im flipping.
Its friday night and this is the best party, at the vineyard! Cheers
via rt
18 Mar, 2022 16:22
HomeBusiness News
Russia sets new foreign currency rules
Certain transactions are banned without being greenlit by the Central Bank
Russia sets new foreign currency rules
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a decree introducing additional and temporary economic measures regulating financial operations with foreign creditors. The measures aim to ensure the country’s financial stability amid Western sanctions.
The document boosts the powers of the central bank with regard to operations with foreign financial institutions. The Bank of Russia can now determine the highest amount of any transaction for the transfer of funds to foreign companies and individuals.
The president has also banned, until the end of this year, the carrying out of certain transactions without prior approval from the central bank. This covers operations to pay dividends to foreign investors.
Sanctions will impact Russian GDP and boost inflation – central bank
The decree allows Russian banks subject to sanctions to pay off foreign currency debt in rubles at the official exchange rate until September 1.
The document also states that Russian exporters will not have to sell part of their foreign exchange earnings if they need to repay loans to Russian banks. Earlier this month, the central bank ordered all exporters to sell 80% of their foreign currency earnings and convert them into rubles to prevent capital outflows.
The decree provides additional measures to those already adopted over the past month. In particular, according to a decree signed on February 28, Russian residents are prohibited from providing foreign loans in foreign currency and from depositing foreign currency to bank accounts outside the country.
© Autonomous Nonprofit Organisation
It looks like whatever new rules the Russian government sets, it would need to it gradually and carefully. Elvira Nabiullina’s case could be just the tip of the iceberg. The 5-6th columns have big presence and surely nobody wants another velvet revolution amidst the ongoing mission in Ukraine.
No disrespect to Pepe, but if Michael Hudson would weigh in, that would be helpful wouldn’t it?
As the Russians say, “War will write it all off”. What is meant is that against the background of a great tragedy, small mistakes and losses do not matter. So these billions are meaningless in a nuclear armageddon.
” It boggles the mind that the Russian Central Bank does not answer to the Russian constitution as well as to the judicial system, but in fact is subordinated to the IMF. ”
“GIVE me control of a nation’s money supply, and I care not who makes its laws.”
– Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1255251.shtml
This is a real missile hitting DC!!
“China-Russia relations the most important strategic asset that cannot be damaged by US provocation”
“If China really pressures Russia in a way that is inconsistent with the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, it will only undermine the China-Russia relationship and sabotage mutual trust, which will be a huge strategic loss to both sides. This is what the US is eager and happy to see.”
“It also should be noted that no matter how the Ukraine crisis evolves and how heavily Russia is targeted by the US now, Washington still views China as its biggest strategic competitor. China should bear this in mind all the time. It must not give the US any chance to drive a wedge in the China-Russia relationship.”
[China] It will never dance to the tune of the US or sacrifice relations with Russia to satisfy US demands.
Do we know without doubt, that the “gold” transferred is 100% authentic? What if….
We are not “slighting” you, Pepe, but we think it’s time to call in Dr. Michael Hudson. He should know the consequences of what the Russian Central Bank has done and explain how that fits in relation to whether Russia has “a mixed economy.”
There’s plenty of Western economies who, unwittingly, had their gold swallowed up and put in Fort Knox.
A few short years ago, Germany wanted to have their gold back which was in Fort Knox. We’re pretty sure, the US refused that request.
Ditto for Italy. Italy had a lot of gold, but some idiot in the government sold it to London, and much of the rest is still sitting in Fort Knox.
During the De Gaulle years, the French president sent a large cargo ship *to* the US demanding it relinquish it’s gold from Fort Knox. We think, DeGaulle did receive back some/much of that gold, but that was before US “neo-liberalism kicked in, in the US.
If they do not want to return the riches to the Russian people.
How about a destructive attack on Switzerland?
Artificial country created by the black nobility with wealth-stealing Templars.
(Vatican)
Where they keep all the dirty gold of the mafia and the world.
Perón (Logia P2) had accounts in Switzerland, all the corrupt Latin American presidents have accounts in Switzerland and not in bills.
UBS
Credit Suisse
Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
Most of the world’s gold passes through Switzerland. A business worth between 70 billion and 90 billion Swiss francs per year. (The gold that arrives in Switzerland is unrefined and leaving the country already shows all its dazzling purity.)
The ingots are there, and away from the visit of missiles and wars.
I wonder. All that Russian gold, how much of wolphrame does it have inside? :p
The Empire of Lies is about to collapse and the rulers there dont realize they will be going down with it.
They won’t be survivors.
A very complex RCB chess game going on here it seems but you can better chess master Putin has set the other side up for loss in all this.
It is likely foreign owned assets in Russia are worth far more than the gold reserves overseas.
And could it be some of these Russian “gold” reserves sent as collateral overseas are really tungsten bars with a 1cm outer layer of gold like the Clinton FED were making to hide the stolen quantities at Fort Knox that the EU bankers ripped off since FDR had it put there in 1934 ?
The West picked Yeltsin,
Yeltsin picked Putin,
Putin picked Elvira Nabiullina,
Elvira Nabiullina picked….
Russia’s pockets.
I did not fully understood this paper but the link to “the fake summit in Kiev was an awakening. Adding the fact that Ze was able to go to New-York then to Berlin is a confirmation that ZE has left Kiew as it was suggested almost a month ago. Ze is a liar fitting its masters in the empire of lie.
Putin waited to make his move until sufficient S500 and S550 systems were in place to adequately protect Moscow and other critical population centers and infrastructure from a nuclear missile strike.
I don’t understand what Pepe is saying, other than perhaps Russia is swapping its foreign reserves for foreign assets held in Russia. Not sure I see the point. With sanctions those foreign companies would leave anyway leaving fixed assets behind at fire sale prices. And if the Russians wanted to get rid of foreign securities they could have done that anyway before the special operation.
And, as Pepe seems to be saying, if money doesn’t matter natural resources do, how do countries trade and fix exchange rates?
Seems like either something too clever for me to understand or else a screwup.
Brilliant Piece. Some things dont add up.
1. Russia central bank stop buying gold in April 2020 as pandemic started (Means that global financial markets were uncertain and gold was best investment- any way it can be explained by assertion that central bank is a IMF lackey).
2. It was alright if gold proceeds were brought back to Russia but Putin allowed in June 2021 to retain the proceeds of gold sales abroad. (Why did Mr. Putin allow that? Just to make a point when west confiscates it? Does not make sense.)
3. Why Elvira Nabiullina is retained as the head of central bank? (You say that Putin is undermining the IMF control of central bank by retaining Elvira Nabiullina? How?)
4. By Russian Constitution Chairman of Board of central bank is appointed by President himself. And she is going through her 3rd term. Besides she has been in important adviser position related to economy, trade, finance since 1999.
Fort Know has not been audited and may be nearly empty of real gold. It could have lots of fake bars (gold-plated tungsten, which has exactly the same density and which therefore cannot be detected by size/weight alone), but the entire confidence trick the Fed has run for decades is crumbling and will collapse without evidence of what’s truly held.
Bye bye ‘petrodollar’, the casino is closing, no need for Goldfinger’s bomb, there’s nothing to see here (literally).
Fort Knox empty, that would exactly fir the Empire of Lies. Just like the World Fake Center that was demolished on 9/11. Just like the fake Moon Landings. Just like certain fake weapons.
Gold is real money.
But there is not an infinite supply of gold (or metal, or oil or gas) in the ground.
So why is there the illusion that there can be infinite economic growth? If there isnt infinite capital, how can there be infinite growth?
But infinite growth is the Western mantra, and so the primacy of fiat money had to be established, and a culture of credit (debt) had to be fostered. If you cant source your capital in the earth, you can source it in a bank mortgage.
Rather than “growth” the mantra of a rational state would be “sustainable development,” but unfortunately there is a kind of “arms race” of growth that must be maintained just to survive in a world of apex vultures.
The point is, NO state–much less a civilization—can “grow” infinitely. But they should be able to pay for their defense and for the well-being of their people. This can be done with limited indebtedness, but it requires a certain national character to stomach. However, the moment you accept foreign credit, you’ve destabilized your future.
So I was right that the gold is in Russia. As for dematerialised values, it is impossible to have them protected as they necessary are on western accounts. Part of it was in Swiss banks. Switserland broke its neutrality and blocked these values. Question is if Russia can still use these values to pay foreign debts. Would like to have an answer on that.
And Switzerland still trying to pretend they’re neutral, LOL! The updated version of their *neutrality* is called *solidarious neutrality*. You can’t make that up.
https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/neutralitaet-fand-in-der-schweiz-gerade-eine-zeitenwende-statt-ld.1672706
Today, 3/19/21, Pepe Escobar tweeted that this Russian gold that went to London is turning out to be a complicated operation. He has found some excellent sources that are aware of this transaction will be in his next article in the following days.
Let’s see if Paul Craig Roberts was correct in his latest conversation with Mike Whitney – Unz Review.
Mr PCR is a very good “American” economist and in general has a fair grasp of geopolitics, but from an American point of view, which demands instant satisfaction. He does however ignore the military angle in his analyses, not taking what happened to Ghadaffi and Sadam Hoessein as well as a couple of others into account. I think this is why Russia waited until they had military superiority in case the Yankees had dreams of invading his country. He is a typical child of his time imo and not relevant in the present debate.
Now with this pepe article I feel more relaxed. One day at 247 explains this whole to you ignorant. Thanks
When Venezuelan gold was stolen I expected other countries to act. This was really unnecessary.