In reality, the United States has backed itself into a hole by implementing a series of terrible policies in quick succession.
The U.S. of A., like many other first-world countries, was focused on privileged concerns such as cultural wars, gender identity, and ecology (people that are short on food and being hacked apart by rival villages don’t place much emphasis on these concerns, strangely enough)
So much so that it forgot about the rest of the world, who couldn’t give a flip about these either, to be frank.
Western leaders are trying to run their high production countries on literal sunshine. And the apparent theory is, if they take fossil fuels, natural resources will be depleted.
These countries’ irony is that they eventually make less pleasant countries the bad guys:
No one in Germany would ever frack. It is, however, perfectly acceptable for Russia to do so and export to Germany.
The United States will no longer drill-but it’s perfectly acceptable to extend our hands to Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iran and request that they drill for oil and sell it to the United States.
Everyone pushes for electric cars “for the environment“-but the lithium mining ecological destruction, as well as the additional strain that it puts on the fuel consumption of the power companies is somewhat staggering.
We all love the idea of wind power-but the general consensus is that a wind generator can NOT generate enough power to ever pay for the power required to create it. In addition, it is reported that the blades are NOT recyclable, so they are clotting landfills in record tonnage.
But hey, at least we get to wear the “Green Energy” T-shirts (produced in China by children, most likely) and pat ourselves on the back for being so pious as we head home to our 84″ TV for a relaxing evening of writing scary articles for political websites (not that hard to make what’s going sound terrifying, strangely enough)
It isn’t even a clever ruse. It’s akin to hiring a hit man to do the nasty work for you.
What’s more complicated is how the dollar has retained its status as the world’s reserve currency.
Around 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt removed the United States from the gold standard. President Richard Nixon hammered the final nail in the coffin in 1971.
Because of the strong demand for oil, all kinds of irresponsible fiscal policy became possible, including, but not limited to, unrestrained spending and monetizing debt to “pay” for it.
So much has happened in the last 48 years! The United States’ position as the world’s most important reserve currency has generally been unquestioned. And the United States has become accustomed to it.
The United States of America now owes more than $30 trillion. Its residents are the main debtors.
China is in second place, but it is a long way behind the United States.
And the economic sanctions we’ve imposed on Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine will very certainly signal the start of a period in which China and Russia will split the global monetary system, putting the US dollar’s reserve status in jeopardy.
Saudi Arabia has now entered the game, threatening to upset the global monetary balance that has kept the US currency afloat for decades.
Given the current economic scenario with Russia (even amidst our excesses of printing the dollar over the last several decades), I find it perplexing that prophecies of a “new economy” and “new monetary system” only exist on fringe sites and haven’t gone mainstream.
Our standard of living is totally dependent on our unique capacity to import the things and services that we use and require on a daily basis while simultaneously exporting US dollars. Because of the comforts granted to us by the dollar’s worldwide reserve position, we’ve been able to print trillions of dollars in the last couple of years — monetary policy that is everything but sound, regardless of whether or not your currency has global reserve status.
But, if the dollar is ever seriously challenged, this reserve status, together with the $30 trillion in debt we have accumulated and convinced ourselves we will never have to pay, suddenly transitions from long-term liabilities we can theoretically ignore to present liabilities we must confront.
Challenges to the dollar’s reserve status would be a visible and immediate spark, upending all we thought we knew about our country’s economics. Our monetary policy blind spots, which we’ve ignored for decades, would instantly become leverage for the rest of the world.
Anyone remember the weakness that we showed with the Afghanistan pullout? Did anything-from a military standpoint-that might indicate that we weren’t considered “the toughest kid on the block” happen?
Let’s not all see the same hands.
The stage appears to remain set for this to happen in our monetary systems as well-and no on in the Gum’Ment seems to be spotting this.. Globally, if you are an enemy of the United States, the situation hasn’t looked better to challenge the U.S. dollar, maybe ever, than it does now:
In a very short period of time, we have accumulated a mountain of debt and vastly enlarged our money supply. We are the most reliant on other countries for commodities and services that we have ever been.
We have a president/Congress that:
(1) does not understand basic economics and
(2) is reducing our country’s ability to manufacture commodities, which serve as the bedrock of a country’s inherent riches.
We are poised to face a period of economic contraction. Before even addressing a potential dollar problem, inflation is breaking records and has already bankrupted our country’s middle and lower classes.
And our “buddies” are eying a new “petrol reserve” currency:
According to persons familiar with the situation, Saudi Arabia is in active talks with Beijing to price part of its oil shipments in yuan, a move that would erode the dollar’s dominance of the global petroleum market and represent yet another turn by the world’s top crude producer toward Asia.
The talks with China regarding yuan-priced oil contracts have been on and off for six years, but have picked up steam this year as the Saudis become increasingly dissatisfied with decades-old US security obligations to defend the kingdom, according to the sources.
The mere fact that the Saudis are holding these talks causes the US currency to fall. The notion of a Saudi-China-Russia alliance, on the other hand, is Something the United States must grasp as quickly as possible.
The dark cynic in me believes it was done on purpose. About ten days ago, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (who is third in line for the presidency if something happens to both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris) said:
“When we’re having this discussion, it’s important to dispel some of those who say, well it’s the government spending. No, it isn’t. The government spending is doing the exact reverse, reducing the national debt. It is not inflationary.”
Holy Cow: If this were the case, why does the debt climb rather than decrease with each increase in spending? I have NEVER run up a spending spree and had it reduce my debt. You?
Statements like these lead me to believe that this is all by design, not by chance or ignorance.
According to a recent article, if we reach a period of stagflation (poor productivity and excessive inflation), we may see the implementation of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) and/or rationing.
Desperation would make people prone, if not receptive, to giving up their freedoms in exchange for food. During the pandemic, the messaging was clear: if you want your normal life back, if you want your liberties back, wear a mask, get vaccinated, and follow the government’s conditions and terms.
And many people not only enthusiastically followed orders, but also ridiculed others who didn’t, accusing them of holding normal people hostage. All these despots needed to know was that people would cripple the economy for two years over a cold. It wasn’t even very difficult to get people to go along.
Read that again: your government KNOWs that you will go along with it-even in the face of lies-if you just keep issuing promises. (Mark Twain said once that it was far easier to fool a man than it was to convince him that he had been fooled…)
If individuals can be intimidated into economic despair by a cold, there’s no reason they couldn’t be forced into a Universal Basic Income program if they’re in enough financial trouble.
A universal basic income would be a no-brainer for individuals who are suffering from the effects of a paralyzed economy. Rationing would be required to pay for it and make it work.
The UBI would result in uncontrollable inflation. Only price regulations would be able to compensate for this. Price regulations cause shortages, which in turn cause rationing.
That is the point at which the United States is on the verge of becoming Venezuela.
