A BRICS Reserve Currency?

by Yaroslav Lissovolik via Valdai Club

The new BRICS reserve currency can act in concert with the stronger role performed by BRICS national currencies to take on a greater share of the total pie of currency transactions in the world economy, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik.
The issue of the creation of a BRICS reserve currency has taken on particular significance in recent months after President Putin declared that the creation of such a currency was in the process of discussion. This was followed by a series of statements coming from Russia’s legislative branch on the expediency of creating a new reserve currency — most recently from the Federation Assembly speaker Valentina Matvienko. While the debate on the possibility of creating such a reserve currency is only starting in Russia and more broadly across the global economy, the implications of such a move on the part of the BRICS could have transformational consequences for the global financial system. [category economics/statistics]
Initially, the proposal to create a new reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of BRICS countries was formulated by the Valdai Club back in 2018 — the idea was to create an SDR-type currency basket composed of BRICS countries’ national currencies as well as potentially some of the other currencies of BRICS+ circle economies. The choice of BRICS national currencies was due to the fact that these were the among the most liquid currencies across emerging markets. The name for the new reserve currency — R5 or R5+ — was based on the first letters of the BRICS currencies all of which begin with the letter R (real, ruble, rupee, renminbi, rand).
The recent debates concerning the prospects for the creation of a new reserve currency focused more on the risks, fragilities and outright impossibility of the R5 project. Less attention has been accorded to estimating the benefits (including in terms of hard figures) to BRICS economies and EM more generally. There has also been scant attention with respect to the actual modalities of launching the BRICS reserve currency.
What is clear at this stage is that the BRICS reserve currency will not be created to replace the national reserve currencies of the BRICS economies — rather it will complement these national currencies and will serve to improve the possibilities for more EM currencies to attain reserve status. Accordingly, the attainment of high trading shares among the BRICS economies is a desirable but not altogether an indispensable condition for launching the new reserve currency. In fact, the new BRICS currency does not have to service all trade transactions among BRICS economies in the very near term. Initially, the new BRICS currency could perform the role of an accounting unit to facilitate transactions in national currencies. In the longer run, the R5 BRICS currency could start to perform the role of settlements/payments as well as the store of value/reserves for the central banks of emerging market economies. 
Within the composition of the R5 currency basket the share of the Chinese renminbi may be initially set at a relatively high level in order to take advantage of the already advanced reserve status of the Chinese currency. This share may be reduced progressively in stages later on along with the inclusion of new EM national currencies. Outside of the BRICS economies some of the potential candidates that with time could be included into the R5+ currency basket may feature the Singaporean dollar or the UAE’s dirham.
One of the potential risks associated with the use of EM currencies in reserves is their high volatility. The basket mechanism of the BRICS reserve currency will allow for reducing some of this volatility via averaging out the exchange rate dynamics of currencies that follow different market trends — if the currencies of Russia, South Africa and Brazil follow the commodity cycle, the opposite is true with respect to commodity importers such as India and China.
Importantly, the scope for employing the new reserve currency in the world economy is sizeable given the tremendous potential for de-dollarization. The new BRICS reserve currency can act in concert with the stronger role performed by BRICS national currencies to take on a greater share of the total pie of currency transactions in the world economy. This greater role can be gradually extended from servicing foreign trade transactions to investment flows across the developing world. In line with the original R5 concept developed by Valdai Club in 2018 one of the possible venues for boosting the use of national currencies and the BRICS reserve currency could be the creation of a platform for regional development banks in which BRICS economies are members. Such a platform could develop a portfolio of common/integration projects that may be financed in national currencies.
In the end, the launching of a new reserve currency if successful will impart a transformational effect on the international financial system. The Central Banks in the global economy are experiencing a notable shortage of reserve currencies in managing their reserve holdings. In this respect, the emergence of additional reserve currencies from among the EM economies will serve to expand the possibilities for diversifying reserve holdings and reducing the vulnerabilities associated with the dependence on a narrow range of currencies. The R5 project can thus become one of the most important contributions of emerging markets to building a more secure international financial system. 

House Republicans Announce Criminal Probe Into the Biden Family

via Sputnik

GOP lawmakers spent months threatening to launch a formal congressional investigation into the president’s son, citing alleged ethical improprieties and information on possible criminal wrongdoing relating to “pay-to-play” business deals with foreign businessmen gleaned from a laptop which Hunter left in a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019.
House Republicans have announced a formal probe into the activities of the Biden family, citing suspected criminal activity, some of which they allege may pose a threat to national security.
“Today we’re going to provide you with something that you all aren’t used to with respect to congressional investigations, and that’s evidence,” Congressman James Comer said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday alongside Representative Jim Jordan and other lawmakers.
“Committee [on Oversight and Reform] Republicans have spoken with multiple whistleblowers on numerous schemes involving the Biden family, reviewed Hunter Biden’s laptop and received documents on previously unknown transactions. What we found were business plans aimed at targets around the world based on influence-peddling, including with people closely tied to foreign governments like China and Russia,” Comer, the committee’s ranking member, said.
“We also found plans based in the United States where the Biden family swindled investors of hundreds of thousands of dollars, all with Joe Biden’s participation and knowledge,” the lawmaker added. 
Accusing President Biden of “lying” on the campaign trail in 2020 when he said he was not involved in his son’s business activities, Comer cited whistleblower testimony and documents characterizing Biden as the “chairman of the board,” and evidence of his personal involvement in these business schemes.
“This evidence raises troubling questions about whether President Biden is a national security risk, and about whether he is compromised by foreign governments,” Comer suggested.
The lawmaker accompanied the presentation with photos of Biden meeting with Hunter’s business associates, as well as a map featuring over 50 countries where the Biden family has allegedly sought business, with this activity “often led by Hunter Biden,” according to Comer.
At one point in the presentation, Comer gestured toward a map of the world, which showed countries where the Bidens allegedly have a “footprint in international business dealings.” In addition to China and Russia, countries highlighted on the map include Canada, most of Latin America, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Australia, South Africa, Turkey, and most of Western Europe, including Britain.
“The Bidens flourished and became millionaires by simply offering access to the family. Among the dozens of shell companies the Bidens set up, there were millions of dollars of wire transfers, flights on Air Force 2 to conduct personal business and meetings with heads of state all while Joe Biden was aware of what was happening,” Comer alleged.
The lawmaker pointed to “red flags” raised by banks over many of these transactions, with financial institutions said to have filed nearly 150 “suspicious activity reports” (SARs) with the Treasury Department. Such documents are ordinarily filed in connection with suspected money laundering, fraud, or other types of criminal activity, Comer explained.
“One SAR generated by an American bank to the Treasury Department connects Hunter Biden and his business associates to international human trafficking, among other illegal activities…The money gained through influence peddling was funneled into a suspected criminal enterprise, again one linked to human trafficking. We have repeatedly called on the Biden Treasury Department to release additional financial documents to Committee Republicans but thus far the Treasury has refused,” Comer said.
Comer further alleged that Hunter Biden sought to “evade” SAR reporting with the help of an unnamed former Clinton administration official.
“We will continue to pursue all evidence, specifically the SAR and bank records in the new Congress,” Comer said.
Republicans formally secured the necessary 218 seats necessary to take control of the House on Wednesday, more than a week after the November 8 vote, after days of counting. The GOP’s narrow victory in the midterms was smaller than expected, and the party failed to win control of the Senate. Still, it’s enough for House Republicans to open their long-promised Biden investigation.
At Thursday’s presentation, Comer also said that the Republicans’ investigation had found links between the finances, credit cards, and bank accounts of Joe and Hunter Biden.
“One of Hunter’s closest associates, Eric Sherwin, was accessing Joe Biden’s money and writing checks to reimburse Hunter. Sherwin arranged the Bidens’ international deals around the world. At the same time, he was a frequent visitor to the White House and Joe Biden during the Obama Administration, visiting close to thirty times and sometimes with international business partners and Hunter, according to Hunter’s calendar. Sherwin was also the president of Hunter’s company and was appointed by President Obama to a position in the administration. After an apparent falling out with Sherwin, Hunter began coordinated businesses himself and increasingly the deals brought in Joe Biden as a direct equity holder,” the lawmaker said.
Comer pointed to a Chinese-language map gleaned from Hunter’s laptop related to the alleged sale of US natural gas to China, in which the elder Biden is alleged to have had a 10 percent stake.
The congressional probe also promises to touch upon the business activities of Jim Biden, President Joe Biden’s brother. Jim is accused of running a domestic pay-to-play scheme involving the sale of access to his powerful brother in exchange for “loans of hundreds of thousands of dollars that he never repaid” from companies.
“Committee Republicans have uncovered evidence of federal crimes committed by and to the benefit of members of the president’s family. These include: conspiracy or defrauding the United States, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, tax evasion, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering,” Comer said, summing up the suspected criminal activity that the probe will be looking at.
“I would just start with this question: what part of Mr. Comer’s presentation was ‘Russian disinformation,'” Representative Jordan asked gathered reporters, referring to FBI and media efforts to suppress the New York Post’s reporting on the Hunter laptop ahead of the 2020 presidential election. “What part of Mr. Comer’s presentation prompted the FBI to go to Facebook and say ‘hey, hey, hey you wanna be on the lookout for Russian misinformation this election season. What part of his presentation would prompt that?” Jordan asked.
Between October 2020 and spring 2022, the Biden administration and liberal media outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and CNN dismissed the laptop left behind by Hunter Biden at a Delaware repair shop as “Russian disinformation.” The computer contains hundreds of thousands of emails, photos, videos, text messages, and other files showing evidence of a broad range of improper and potentially illegal activities, including Hunter smoking crack cocaine, cavorting with prostitutes, and organizing suspected business deals between foreign businessmen and his politician father. The emails include dozens of references to a “big guy” and “pops,” suspected to be the elder Biden.
Hunter Biden is already under federal investigation over alleged tax crimes, but has expressed confidence that he would beat the charges. Last month, US media reported that the state had gathered enough evidence to charge Hunter with tax crimes and lying about his drug abuse to purchase a handgun.

New Online Tool Maps Out 867 US Military Bases Worldwide

The United States of America, unlike any other nation, maintains a massive network of foreign military installations around the world.

How was this created and how is it continued? Some of these physical installations are on land occupied as spoils of war. Most are maintained through collaborations with governments, many of them brutal and oppressive governments benefiting from the bases’ presence. In many cases, human beings were displaced to make room for these military installations, often depriving people of farmland, adding huge amounts of pollution to local water systems and the air, and existing as an unwelcome presence.
Across the political spectrum and even within the US military there is growing recognition that many overseas bases should have been closed decades ago, but bureaucratic inertia and misguided political interests have kept them open. Estimates of the yearly cost to the US of its foreign military bases range from $100 – 250 billion. Thanks to davidvine.net for the variety of information included in this tool.

View a video overview the new interactive tool:

To explore this database,  click on map markers or use the dashboard to make selections:

World Beyond Bases make your selection.

Scamdemic Indictments

The Proposed Indictments:

Count 1: 18 U.S.C. § 2331 §§ 802 – Acts of Domestic Terrorism resulting in death of American Citizens
Count 2: 18 USC § 2339– Conspiring to Commit Acts of Terrorism
Count 3. 15 U.S.C. §1-3 – Conspiring to criminal commercial activity
Count 4. 18 USC § 175 – Funding and Creating a Biological Weapon
Count 5. 15 U.S.C. §8 – Market manipulation and allocation
Count 6. 18 U.S.C. § 1001 – Lying to Congress
Count 7. 15 U.S.C. § 19 – Interlocking directorates
Count 8. 18 U.S. Code § 2384 – Seditious conspiracy

https://www.davidmartin.world/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/The-Criminal-Conspiracy-of-Coronavirus.pdf

Fauci’s Pandemic Leadership Needs To Be Investigated

Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times,

Former White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Scott Atlas sees multiple reasons for an investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci, the outgoing director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Such a probe has been discussed as Republicans inch closer to a House majority that would grant them subpoena powers. Some Republican lawmakers have accused Fauci of playing a role in misleading the public about the origins of COVID-19 and supporting pandemic mandates they describe as draconian.

While Atlas, a vocal critic of the NIAID head, is “very skeptical” that an investigation like this could get away from politics or the perception of it being political, he thinks it’s warranted. Fauci’s changing stance on certain COVID-19 policies needs to be put under the spotlight, Atlas recently said on EpochTV’s “Newsmakers.”

“The real, clear public airing of exactly what happened needs to be done,” said Atlas, a senior fellow in health care policy at the Hoover Institution and contributor to The Epoch Times.

“I personally am very skeptical that a political investigation, no matter who does it, is going to be done without politics, or if it’s going to be perceived as nonpolitical. I don’t trust people in government at all. They don’t deserve to be trusted, to be objective.

What was the motivation to flip flop multiple times with policy?

His question was referring to Fauci’s changing stance on pandemic school closures that drew criticism in late 2020.

Scott Atlas (L), a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany arrive ahead of President Donald Trump for a press conference at the White House in Washington on Aug. 12, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo, File)

He further questioned if there had been any “cover-up” of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Fauci’s division, citing the awards to the Wuhan Institute of Virology through the New York nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance as an example.

EcoHealth Alliance, which continues to receive millions of dollars in grants from the NIH, was subjected to scrutiny by multiple federal agencies over its partnership with the Wuhan lab. The Office of Investigations of the Department of Health and Human Services in late 2020 briefly opened a probe over alleged “major fraud against the United States.” The probe was closed in January 2021, according to internal documents, which had the reasons for the closure redacted. The allegation states that “the COVID-19 virus was generated in … China with the assistance of an NIH Grant.”

Beginning in 2014, EcoHealth was the recipient of a $3.7 million grant to study bat coronaviruses in China. That grant was renewed through 2019 but suspended in 2020 because of compliance concerns. In August, the NIH ended the funding from the grant for the Wuhan facility after the lab at least twice rejected NIH’s request for lab notebooks and original files from the research.

“We cannot have illegal research being funded outside the country by American science” avoiding or circumventing the rules, Atlas said.

“These leadership positions come with massive responsibility. It’s not a game to be in charge of things. You’re not supposed to use it to circumvent rules. You’re not supposed to set up power, friends in the media to cover for you. No, you need to at least answer the questions in front of the American people.”

By the same token, Atlas also called for the Chinese regime to answer for its coverup of the initial outbreak, as well as its role in possibly causing the pandemic.

Besides a delayed admission of the outbreak’s severity to the world during the pandemic’s early days—behavior that Atlas called “unacceptable”—Beijing had “blocked real investigations” and “destroyed evidence of what happened,” he said.

“Of course they need to be held accountable,” he said.

“It needs to be done, though, by a government and multiple governments that actually have the credibility and ethical focus to do that, and I think that that remains to be seen.”

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the ranking Republican member of the House Oversight Committee, has vowed to summon Fauci in a planned probe of the origins of COVID-19 should the Republicans win the House.

Why did Dr. Fauci lie for so long about American tax dollars through EcoHealth Alliance going to fund gain-of-function research? Why did he lie about gain-of-function research being done in the Wuhan lab? Why were we even in the Wuhan lab? There are so many questions that the Americans deserve answers to,” Comer recently told the “Capitol Report” program of NTD News, a sister media of The Epoch Times.

“The American people deserve answers and anyone that was involved in any type of cover-up should be held accountable.”

Representatives for NIAID didn’t respond to a query from The Epoch Times by press time.

Demonstration in Ulm (Baden Wuerttemberg)

Demonstration in Ulm (Baden Wuerttemberg) – with telling plakards (too many to translate – but good to decifer for those readers who learned a bit German); on Nov.11, 2022; is seems that the West German populus finally is waking up and begins to demonstrate in the thousands. Something that the German government is afraid of and has tried to make it illegal, or at least present it as a extreme right demagoegery.

Ukraine Crossing the Red Line

The head of the Lublin City Council has called for a review of Poland’s policy towards Ukraine after Ukraine struck:

“I don’t understand at all the actions of our President and government… This is a Ukrainian missile. This is a provocation on the part of the Ukrainian authorities… The missile could not have been mistakenly launched 100 km in the opposite direction. The purpose of the provocation is to speed up arms deliveries to Ukraine, to intimidate Europe with a scary Russia, so that civil society demands that European governments increase aid to Ukraine. Today our president should not reassure us with tales like “it was not so much the rocket explosion as the explosion of fuel that was there” and “it was an accident”, but make it clear to V. Zelenski that Poland will not tolerate such behavior of the Ukrainian authorities anymore! I urge you to reconsider Poland’s position on this war in case of another crossing of the red line!”

Democrat Attorney Who Halted Hochul’s Quarantine Camp Regulation

Authored by Jan Jekielek and Masooma Haq via The Epoch Times

Attorney Bobbie Anne Cox in New York on Nov. 5, 2022. (Justin Chiu/The Epoch Times)

In what she has called a David versus Goliath battle, New York real estate lawyer Bobbie Anne Cox sued Governor Kathleen Hochul for issuing directives mandating quarantine for people exposed to or infected with highly contagious diseases such as COVID-19. The directives, dubbed “quarantine camp regulations,” have been compared to laws that relocated Japanese during World War II without due process. Cox won the lawsuit on the grounds that Hochul’s regulation was unconstitutional.

In a recent interview on Epoch TV’s American Thought Leaders, Cox told host Jan Jekielek that it’s crucial Americans learn about the U.S. Constitution so that they can prevent similar acts by state and federal governments.

The constitution is not perfect, but it’s brilliant,” Cox said. Schools should require learning about the U.S. Constitution, “from the little kids all the way up through high school, into college. The constitution was written to keep the government in check. The constitution wasn’t written to keep the people in check.”

Our founding fathers came to this continent fleeing tyranny, Cox said. “They wrote the constitution in such a manner that if it’s followed, there wouldn’t be tyranny on these shores, ever. Yet, here we are, 250 years later, and we’re fighting tyranny.”

It is tyrannical for a government to take power to which it is not entitled, Cox explained. During the pandemic, state and federal governments gave themselves powers the constitution did not give them.

State governors are part of the executive branch of government. As such, she said, “they’re supposed to enforce laws, and their agencies beneath them are supposed to help them enforce laws. They’re not supposed to make laws.”

When a governor such as Hochul takes on powers that properly belong to the legislature, “that’s tyranny,” Cox reiterated.

The attitude is kind of like, ‘Well, we know we can’t do this, but we’re going to do it anyway.’ And then the theory is, ‘Catch me if you can.’”

Incumbent New York governor Kathy Hochul participates in a debate against Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin, at Pace University, in New York, on Oct. 25, 2022. (Mary Altaffer/Pool via AP)

Understanding Our Rights

Unconstitutional mandates and regulations have been thrust upon the public, Cox said, because American citizens don’t know their rights. “I think if people understood what their rights are, they would say, ‘Hold on a second, you can’t do that.”

In the history of mankind, no government has ever taken power from the people, and then just voluntarily given it back.

Nonetheless, “the people have to demand it back,” Cox said. “The people won’t demand it back unless they know that they have the right to that power. So I think there needs to be an education process in the United States so that people understand, ‘Oh, these are my rights.’”

The Executive Branch Cannot Legislate

At the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns, former Governor Andrew Cuomo was given emergency powers by the New York legislature to implement “directives.” Those emergency powers, according to Cox, essentially gave him legislative powers.

“The legislative branch can’t delegate their lawmaking power to another branch of government, but they did, and for a whole year, Cuomo had this power … He then passed it on to his commissioner of health,” said Cox.

After Cuomo stepped down in August 2021 and Hochul became interim governor, she continued the regulations despite criticism that she was sidestepping the legislature. When Cox learned about this, she was impelled to sue in order to stop the government overreach.

Andrew Cuomo, then New York Governor, speaks during a news conference in New York, on May 10, 2021. (Mary Altaffer-Pool/Getty Images)

Quarantine Regulation Based on Rejected Bill

Cox sees this type of control by the governor as tyrannical and “wholly unconstitutional” for many reasons, including the fact that the New York legislature rejected the quarantine rule in a bill years before.

“It’s the story of a tyrannical governor and her department of health, doing something that they want to do, but the people don’t want them to do it. And the people’s representatives in the New York state senate and the assembly don’t want them to do it.”

The quarantine camp regulation was based on a bill that was proposed in 2015 by New York state assemblyman Nick Perry (D-Brooklyn) during the Ebola outbreak. The regulation was rejected by the state legislature and withdrawn from consideration, said Cox.

After Cuomo resigned, through a simple vote, Hochul and her advisors issued the directive that ultimately gave the governor and the New York Department of Health the power to lock up anyone they deemed contagious.

“They could have locked you up in your home, or they could have removed you from your home and locked you into a facility of their choosing,” said Cox. There was no restriction on age, proof of sickness or exposure, or time limit to the quarantine.

“There was nothing in the regulation that would allow you to try to negotiate your way out of this,” added Cox, and the regulation does not follow either state or U.S. constitutions because it does not lay out the rights of the person forced into quarantine.

“In the judge’s decision, he actually said [that] this regulation gives lip service to due process,” said Cox. “‘You mention it, but you don’t actually have any due process built in there.’”

“Involuntary detention is a severe deprivation of individual liberty, far more egregious than other health safety measures, such as requiring mask wearing at certain venues,” the court’s opinion read. “Involuntary quarantine may have far-reaching consequences such as loss of income [or employment] and isolation from family.”

The governor’s regulation also conflicted with section 2120 of New York’s public health law, a longstanding regulation. “That tells you how you quarantine somebody if they’re a public health threat,” Cox said. However, the existing law contains multiple due process protections, beginning with a requirement to prove that the individual in question has the disease.

People walk in Brooklyn, with lower Manhattan looming in the background, on March 28, 2020. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

From Real Estate to Constitutional Law

Having worked with clients in property cases against local and state governments, Cox recognized that the government’s mandates were illegal. She said she knew that two weeks of lockdown would not end there.

“I also said to myself, this is completely unconstitutional. He can’t do this. He can’t force people to shut their businesses and stay home,” Cox said.

She immediately started speaking out about the illegitimacy of the lockdowns. She was bombarded by business owners and landlords asking her if the forced closures and rent moratorium were legal, and what they could do to fight back.

We were seeing small businesses, landlords, people who were just getting decimated by the government.

Cox started a YouTube channel explaining the rights that the Constitution ensures, but the platform removed her videos. She then moved the channel to Rumble.

Before moving forward with her lawsuit against Hochul, Cox wrestled with the decision to put her business and livelihood on hold. She took the case, convinced that the type of governmental overreach it hoped to stop would spread like “cancer” if not checked.

Getting Ahead of Hochul’s Regulation

Cox did not want to wait until the regulation went into effect and the public was injured by it, so she thought creatively about how to sue and prove the regulation was unconstitutional, she said.

Cox considers herself a Democrat but worked with Republican lawmakers because she believes government overreach is not a partisan issue.

“I’m actually a Democrat … In my mind, this is not a political thing. This is a human rights issue. This is a constitutional issue … This is about being an American, and something people have really forgotten. It’s not people’s fault. I think it’s because we just really don’t teach this in school anymore.”

She asked Senator George Borrello, Assemblyman Chris Tague, and Assemblyman Mike Lawler to join the suit. “They said, ‘Absolutely. We believe in this; we’re going to do it.’”

Ultimately, Cox proved the unconstitutionality of the quarantine camp regulation, but there were many challenges along the way.

Read more here…

It is All About the Dollar!

by Claudiu Secara

It is not about Ukraine, it is not about Taiwan, it is not about oil, it is not about energy or the environment. It is not about which side Germany is on, and it is not about Israel in its war against Iran. It is not even about robbing resource-rich Russia.

It is all about the Dollar!

When Saddam challenged the Dollar as the only currency for which Iraq could sell its oil, he was squashed like a bug. When Gaddafi aimed to create a Pan-African currency backed by gold, he was publicly sodomized and killed like a petty thief. When Iran refused to sell its oil for the mighty Dollar, it got contained and turned into a pariah nation.

It is Russia who finally raised the flag of liberation from enslavement to the Dollar and ever since, Russia is boxed in and squeezed into the corner as the enemy of mankind.

Why the Dollar? Because the Dollar by itself is a more potent source of wealth than any other basis of life, natural or manufactured. And the one who owns it owns the entire universe. It costs a lot of money to extract oil and transport it and distribute it. And when it runs out, so does it’s income stream. It costs a lot of money and effort to produce cars, computers, smartphones, or to put bread and meat on the table. But the wellspring of issuing endless Dollars costs nothing. These days it doesn’t even cost the paper it’s printed on, because now it’s becoming digital. It’s all available at the press of a button on your computer. Endless amounts of Dollars to buy everything that exists.

Someone finds a way to manufacture a better mousetrap? Press the button and finance their competitor, and keep both of the goods producers at each other’s throat. The Italians are making fancy shoes? Finance Brazil to outproduce Italy. Venezuela is getting rich because it has oil? Finance Mexico’s oil industry and bring Venezuela to bankruptcy.

As it is in the world of manufacturing, so it is in the world of politics. Are the Republicans getting arrogant, given their popular support at one time? Finance the Democrats and weaken the Republicans to the point of ridicule. Are the Democrats getting out of line? Bring back the hungry Republicans.

So now, after some 500 years of fighting off the assaults from the West, including the heroic 70 years of toughing it out through the Cold War and all the sacrifices that entailed, the Russians said “enough of this Dollar-centric world economy.” And that is a life-and-death challenge — but mostly death. Death if they succumb to the Dollar, death if they rise up against the Dollar.

Given its long history of defending itself from the collective Western enemy — from the Catholic Poles, the Prussians, the French, the Germans, the Bolshevik Jews (nowadays, the neocons), then the English and the Americans — and having studied its source of power and the mechanism by which the Western elites govern and rule from behind the scenes, those at the top of Russian intelligence are the only possible beast killers left to shield the rest of us. They have been preparing for this moment since the late 1970s. First, they came out of their isolation by ditching the Soviet system and reclaiming their place within the rest of the world. They worked assiduously to make friends with the other disheartened nations like China, India, Iran, even Brazil and South Africa. They worked in secret to arm themselves with the most advanced weapons, they slowly and surreptitiously removed their economy from entanglement with the Western economies — rather, they allowed the West to become dependent on their resources, whether oil, or gas, titanium or uranium, etc. They focused on space-based technology, where they became unrivaled. And most of all, they developed unheard of weapons based on newly discovered physical principles.

Some would argue that the provocations by the cookie-peddling West in Ukraine are the cause of the WWIII underway. Or some would argue that Russia’s SMO actions in Donbas explain why the world is on the edge of the precipice. But I submit that it is the refusal by Russia to trade in and for dollars that brings us to the situation of MAD. It is the cheer leadership that Russia assumes in attacking — not Ukraine — but in attacking the single currency role of the dollar. Russia is spearheading, is inciting, is organizing, and mobilizing the demolition of the Dollar. It is taking away the cookie jar from the Americans. That is the real casus belli in this war. The once-unipolar-superpower United States cannot tolerate the loss of its almost mythical all-powerful Dollar. That brings it to despair and motivates it to threaten the Samson scenario. Bring down the temple on the heads of all of us.

Who will win this deadly challenge, this zero-sum clash of the titans, this daring high stakes betting to take down the Dollar and with it the 500-year history of Western domination? Will the Russians win or will the West cap its full spectrum dominance for eternity? My take?

My money is on the Russians.