Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.
Marko Kloos, Why the gun is civilization, 2007
At the national level, it is negotiation (diplomacy) or warfare. Warfare is the method of getting an adversary to take a course of action involuntarily. Using or threatening another nation with warfare isn’t the only way to wage war. It can be done with economic force as well. Countries engaging in economic warfare seek to weaken an adversary’s economy by denying the adversary access to necessary resources or by otherwise inhibiting its ability to benefit from trade, financial, and technological exchanges with other countries.
The US and its politicians have for years wielded economic force (sanctions and the like) for decades without realizing just how much resentment it causes. For some reason, our leaders seem to think that everything that happens in the world is something that the US needs to be involved in.
So they use sanctions like a club. They twist the arms of some nations to support them in boycotts, UN decisions, and the like. Each time the US flexes its muscle, dislike and resentment builds. Why? Because these nations are being held at economic gunpoint and are being forced to take an action that is against what they perceive is their best interests. In other words, they are being attacked by the US in economic warfare. This was caused by the US using its economic might as a club to keep other nations in line, rather than using it as a surgical instrument.
Make no mistake, the US has been engaged in economic warfare for most of the post-WW2 period. Who started it? I will leave that to historians, but make no mistake, the US is using the economic advantage its had by being the only nation whose economic base wasn’t wrecked in WW2, backed by pure military might to enforce its will upon the nations of the world. We have been engaged in economic warfare with one nation or another for decades.
This works until the economically and militarily strong nation begins to weaken. COVID, along with the government’s response to it, the fact that our nation’s President is a dotard, and the runaway inflation being caused by profligate spending did exactly that.
So China and the BRICS nations are responding in kind. China is seeing to it that the economic empire that the US has been engaged in maintaining is coming to an end. As the President of the US, Biden’s responsibility is to see to it that the US and its citizens are taken care of. He is too busy lining his pockets and following the instructions of his Chinese masters.
China is a master at long term planning. They have thoroughly infiltrated the US government. From congressmen sleeping with Chinese intelligence agencies to plain old fashioned bribery, the nation’s key government officials have been completely compromised.
So China is following up on its biological warfare attack by counter attacking the US by destroying the dollar. It’s brilliant- they cause a pandemic that the US helped fund the creation of, help fund the gaming of the US election that followed, using that to put one of its assets in charge, then attack the currency while their asset distracts us with a proxy war that China is assisting in.
China isn’t stupid- they know what the US can and can’t do. They are playing the long game while the US spends its time and resources worrying about an inconsequential war between Ukraine and Russia. The US has sent more than $70 billion to Ukraine in the past 16 months, and just budgeted an additional $45 billion in the latest debt ceiling deal.
Meanwhile, the US dollar is being deliberately and systematically attacked. Where does this go? Do the math and tell me what you think in comments…
13 Comments
Elrod · May 30, 2023 at 7:28 am
Give it a few years and whomever the survivors wind up being will be reduced to picking through the rubble of America.
And learning Mandarin…..
Noway2 · May 30, 2023 at 8:24 am
Now I understand your other blog / comment about the move to BRICS being economic warfare. Yes, it is a part of a whole bigger scenario, which you spelled out here. As you also correctly pointed out, the US wielding economic power like a club to force other countries to act against their best interests causes resentment. BRICS is one result of this.
Where is all of this going to lead? Look to history. One link I just found says that over the last 300 years there were three major empires: Dutch, British and now American. Each held reserve currency status and lost it. Those other two countries are still around, but no longer hold global hegemony, which is where the US is headed.
However, I think the situation is more sinister, as you allude to, though I think there is more to it than Chinese influence, though I can’t fully explain it. The behavior of our congressional “leaders” to balloon the national credit card like they are, and the illegitimate banking cabal called the Federal Reserve. To a normal person, it looks insane, but I am certain it is part of the plan, which also makes it treason. Consequently, I think the end looks more like Venezuela or Zimbabwe than the Dutch or English.
Watch for other countries to not buy this latest $4T in debt that Uncle wants to issue. Instead, the Fed will become the creditor of last resort. Either way, the result will be the same: the money printing press will go burrrr….. and we will descend further down the debt – printing – collapse cycle. (Look up Dalio and “the end of the long-term debt cycle”). We’re somewhere around the debt-bust portion of the curve.
Rick · May 30, 2023 at 8:35 am
“The instruments by which governments must act are either the authority of the laws or force. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government, there is an end to liberty.”
Alexander Hamilton
The ‘authority of laws’ is also referred to as the Rule of Law. Absent that, the tyranny of rule by men is put in place. It is tyrannical because the condition then becomes one forcing another to bow to subjective whims.
Gone is the social contract implied by the authority of law. Nonetheless, response is warranted, just as under the authority of the law. Except in this case, overwhelming force becomes the response. Tyrants, like evil, must be utterly destroyed.
It is dangerous and must be avoided to a high cost if need be, to allow great powers to reside in a few men.
Ditching the dollar has often been the answer when wicked minded men are in power. This allows a decentralizing of means and destabilizing the base of power.
For a long time, my choice has been metals which hold their value. A benefit is the value is recognizable by most people and the commodity is easy to trade.
Rick · May 30, 2023 at 8:44 am
RE: BRICS
My perspective is that association is a respinse similar to when an animal is backed into a corner with few options. BRICS is in response to a slew of certain bad actors in U.S govt who have each purposed to enrich themselves over all else.
Surely, other countries would prefer to remain with the U S. But they can no longer trust or abide the U.S. govt. Consider it a global divorce.
neomunitor · May 30, 2023 at 9:01 am
Let’s put this in perspective. The numbers you provided, 70B and 45B, are very small compared to the projected annual deficit of 1570B. Lost in the roundoff, to be honest. The US gets to float these kind of deficits because it is the world’s reserve currency, used for trade settlements. This also allows the US to run a large trade deficit as foreign countries give us goods for USD and hold on to those USD. There are 7400B in US treasuries held by foreign countries – excess USD held to be converted as needed to settle trades and stabilize their own banking systems.
When those countries begin to sell off those US treasuries to shift their balance sheets so that the mix of what they hold better reflects the currencies they need to settle their transactions, such as Yuan, then the shit will hit the fan. It has already begun. Nobody wants to be holding USD when the US gets in a snit and decides to seize your USD assets or freeze your USD accounts to pressure you into committing economic suicide, like cutting off cheap Russian oil and gas.
At some time a tipping point will be hit and the USD will not slide, but collapse as countries rush to dump their holdings before they lose too much value. The US has two main exports: sophisticated weapons, and hydrocarbons. Everything else is relatively small. The “services” the US exports are primarily financial in nature, and once the USD skids, that will dry up. The entire US real economy is assembly and construction of parts made elsewhere, and services that can’t be outsourced to another country. The single largest capital investment industry in the US is the oil and gas industry, and the current administration is trying to kill that. Interesting times.
Glenfilthie · May 30, 2023 at 10:31 am
China is a dead man walking, DM.
-15 of the world’s dirtiest cities are in China
– because Chinese families value boys above girls, female infanticide from China’s population controls has produced a generation of men that will never have wives.
-85% of the water that comes out of the tap is unpottable
– like America, China’s economy is built on a house of cards. If the US folded today, they would fold tomorrow.
– India is beginning to industrialize. That means more competitive cheap labour.
Biden is the product of Washington. He’s never had a real job, even in his prime he was a moron and a pervert that could be controlled by his donors. Most of them are corrupted morons too.
If we are to point fingers at economic bogeymen…my favourite guys for that role wear small hats and say “Oy!” a lot.
dmlmd · May 30, 2023 at 1:34 pm
Glen, Glen, Glen… boogeymen arent real and your “favorite guys” argument is about real as boogeymen. Not that there arent Jews who are bad actors in this, along with just about every other creed (and etc). But if there’s a Jewish card for world domination, I’m still busting my @ss while I wait for my invite. Inflation is killing me just like everyone else. Perhaps your brush is both too broad and too unfocused. So as we face potential Weimar Republic levels of economic collapse, I opted for splitting my resources between freeze-dried food and the most important precious metal: lead. Its all about kith and kin if I can culturally appropriate. Heh, my neighbor is Irish and is no fan of Biden … I don’t blame him for Biden.
EN2 SS · May 30, 2023 at 10:46 am
Where does this go? The total, irrevocable end of Western Civilization.
Next.
JL · May 30, 2023 at 12:30 pm
My take, for what it’s worth?
At the end of the day, it was our own laziness, greed, ignorance, and narcissism as a ‘culture’ and as a society that guaranteed, no matter how much planning China may or may not have done, our side would be ill equipped, politically, militarily, economically, and even spiritually to put up a decent fight to stop them.
No, China didn’t defeat us. We defeated ourselves. All they did was stand by and watch us kick our own asses.
wojtek · May 30, 2023 at 12:36 pm
Now this is much less controversial and much easier to agree with than the previous claim about an act of war. Although I am not sure it is worth trying to improve upon Clausewitz and his explanation of the relationship between politics and war. Simply put there are periods when you do not use potentially deadly force and there are periods when you use it. But calling the former one “reason” is a slight abuse of terminology, as often that “reason” is just a threat of using force.
Now the only thing that remains to solve is that “small” question of how to maintain USD’s status as global currency without using deadly force. Personally I do not think that looking at BRICS is the right thing. Reserve currency status is complicated and trade is just one aspect of it. So do not forget about Euro.
Paulb · May 30, 2023 at 4:18 pm
In my interactions with Brazilians, I get questioned as the expert on America. Poor bastards. There is enormous anti-American sentiment. Some of it is the very negative impact of our export of soft power (pop culture) on social stability, and there’s ideological issues, as well. Brazil’s massive natural resources, almost on par with the US’s where they don’t exceed ours, are for sale and always have been. America is viewed as unfairly exploitive of Brazilian resources. As such, increased exploitation by Chinese and Russian business interests is more palatable. As my wife’s communist cousin has it, Chinese and Russian interests are better aligned with Brazil’s in general, and where Brazil is being unfairly exploited in their eyes by China and Russia, it’s no different than in the US, but lacks the smug sense of superiority that they label Americans as carrying.
‘The devil you know’ doesn’t seem to work in Brazil. They prefer new devils and will take their chances.
My wife’s family are mostly Indio and descendents of slaves who intermarried with the indios. Uneducated, tribal, and low class by Brazilian standards, yet quite numerous. My wife is something of an outlier, being half Italian and half indio without the mixed ancestry. As such, she’s not entirely integrated into her own extended family, and worse, she is an American Republican to provincial people whose only knowledge of America is Michael Jackson, Elvis and Obama.
And that’s the other issue with BRICS. The bulk of the population in those nations make our Cletii of the Trailer Parks look like MENSA.
Aesop · May 30, 2023 at 7:48 pm
There are three inexorable aphorisms in play here:
1) Nature abhors a vacuum.
International relations are always a zero-sum game. If somebody retreats, others will advance to fill the space. Always.
2) What cannot continue, will not.
Fiatbux are infinite. Fiatbux retaining any value is not. Gravity works.
3) “If you shoot at the king, DON’T MISS.
China and India’s support for Russia against…everybody else over Ukraine is paper-thin, and about as solid as the Russo-German Non-Aggression Pact, because they know there may be severe consequences in the long run; some will be circumstantial, others will be maliciously intended and applied. As Argentina found out when they convinced themselves that the UK wasn’t all that interested in islands 8000 miles from London.
America still has a lot of arrows left in its quiver, and a lot more clubs it can wield if crossed. Not so much by Emperor Poopypants, certainly, but he’s a temporary condition in any equation.
Danny · May 31, 2023 at 9:37 am
One day soon we may all say “it was nice while it lasted.”
I’m currently reading The Godfather. It’s safe to say almost everyone is familiar with the story via the blockbuster movies based on the books. All these years I never read the book but it’s one I’m sure I’ll read many more times. As a work of fiction, it’s like taking a course in business and human relations in my opinion.
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