Finally, more and more people (excluding the obvious denial by the MSM) are beginning to see this coming reality - a reality which involves the planned collapse of the U.S. dollar. Russia appears to be leading the charge, with China not far behind. When (not 'if') this happens, it will be a game-changer - not only for the U.S. but for the world's push for a single currency.
Of the array of articles being written on this topic, The Economic Collapse puts things in clear terms:
Is the petrodollar monopoly about to be shattered? When U.S. politicians started slapping economic sanctions on Russia, they probably never even imagined that there might be serious consequences for the United States. But now the Russian media is reporting that the Russian Ministry of Finance is getting ready to pull the trigger on a "de-dollarization" plan. For decades, virtually all oil and natural gas around the world has been bought and sold for U.S. dollars. As I will explain below, this has been a massive advantage for the U.S. economy. In recent years, there have been rumblings by nations such as Russia and China about the need to change to a new system, but nobody has really had a big reason to upset the status quo. However, that has now changed. The struggle over Ukraine has caused Russia to completely reevaluate the financial relationship that it has with the United States. If it starts trading a lot of oil and natural gas for currencies other than the U.S. dollar, that will be a massive blow for the petrodollar, and it could end up dramatically changing the global economic landscape.
The fact that the Russian government has held a meeting to discuss "getting rid of the US dollar in Russian export operations" should be front page news on every mainstream news website in the United States. That is how big this is. But instead, we have heard nothing from the big mainstream news networks about this so far. Instead, we have only heard about this from Russian news sources such as the Voice of Russia...
So will Russia go through with this?
After all, this wouldn't just be a slap in the face. This would essentially be like slamming an economic fist into our nose.
You see, Russia is not just a small player when it comes to trading oil and natural gas. The truth is that Russia is the largest exporter of natural gas and the second largest exporter of oil in the world.
If Russia starts asking for payment in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, that will essentially end the monopoly of the petrodollar.
And the reality of the matter is that China has seemed ready to move away from the U.S. dollar for quite some time. In a previous article, I included a quote from a French news source that discussed how China's official news agency has even called for a "new international reserve currency... to replace the dominant US dollar"...
For decades the US has benefited to the tune of trillions of dollars-worth of free credit from the greenback's role as the default global reserve unit.
But as the global economy trembled before the prospect of a US default last month, only averted when Washington reached a deal to raise its debt ceiling, China's official Xinhua news agency called for a "de-Americanised" world.
It also urged the creation of a "new international reserve currency... to replace the dominant US dollar".
For much more on what China is thinking, please see my previous article entitled "9 Signs That China Is Making A Move Against The U.S. Dollar".
So why is the petrodollar so important?
Well, it creates a tremendous amount of demand for the U.S. dollar all over the globe. Since everyone has needed it to trade with one another, that has created an endless global appetite for the currency. That has kept the value of the dollar artificially high, and it has enabled us to import trillions of dollars of super cheap products from other countries. If other nations stopped using the dollar to trade with one another, the value of the dollar would plummet dramatically and we would have to pay much, much more for the trinkets that we buy at the dollar store and Wal-Mart.
In addition, since the U.S. dollar is essentially the de facto global currency, this has also increased demand for our debt. Major exporting nations such as China and Saudi Arabia end up with giant piles of our dollars. Instead of just letting them sit there and do nothing, those nations often reinvest their dollars into securities that can rapidly be changed back into dollars if needed. One of the most popular ways to do this has been to invest those dollars in U.S. Treasuries. This has driven down interest rates on U.S. debt over the years and has enabled the U.S. government to borrow trillions upon trillions of dollars for next to nothing.
But if the rest of the world starts moving away from the U.S. dollar, all of this could change.
In order for our current standard of living to continue, it is absolutely imperative that everyone else around the globe continues to use our currency.
So if Russia really does pull the trigger on a "de-dollarization" strategy, that would be huge - especially if the rest of the planet started following their lead.
Just about the last thing that we need right now is for our petrodollar monopoly to be threatened.
It would be nice if things would calm down in Ukraine and the relationship between the United States and Russia could go back to normal.
Sadly, that does not appear likely any time soon.
In fact, the Ukrainian government has already admitted that "we are essentially at war", and on Tuesday six Ukrainian soldiers were killed and eight were wounded in a convoy attack in eastern Ukraine.
The regions in eastern Ukraine that have just declared independence have given the government in Kiev until Wednesday to pull their forces out of eastern Ukraine or else face war.
If a full blown civil war does erupt in Ukraine, it is going to take this crisis to a completely new level.
Unfortunately, most Americans are incredibly apathetic at this point and know very little about what is going on.
But in the end, this could have dramatic implications for all of us.
The UN has voiced concerns over the apparent use of UN-marked helicopters by Kiev troops in their military operation against Donetsk regional militia. A video of a white-painted Mil Mi-24 strike helicopter with UN logo has emerged.
When inquired about the United Nations’ stance on the use of peacekeeper-marked military hardware in non-peacekeeper operations, the office for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson said such use would violate UN rules.
“It is the responsibility of Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) that provide Contingent Owned Equipment to peacekeeping missions to remove all logos and signage bearing the UN's name once such equipment has been repatriated to the home country or is no longer being used for official UN purposes,” the office told RT.
It added that UN-marked aircraft can be used for missions tasked by the UN and that UN’s Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support is in contact with the Ukrainian authorities to clarify the issue.
A video of a UN-marked Mil Mi-24 strike helicopter was published on Tuesday by LifeNews television. It said its correspondents covering Kiev’s military operation in the Donetsk Region took the video near Kramatorsk. LifeNews said at least three combat Mi-24 and one transport Mi-8 helicopters carrying UN colors were spotted in the area.
An expert committee was expected to advise the World Health Organization director general early this morning on whether to declare the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome an international public health emergency.The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee for MERS was last night meeting in Geneva to decide whether to raise the risk of MERS in its fifth meeting since being convened in 2012.
The committee is chaired by Australia's chief medical officer of the Department of Health and Ageing, Chris Baggoley.
The meeting began in Geneva late last night and a press briefing was expected to follow.
The committee will provide technical advice to WHO Director General Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun on whether MERS constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.
The meeting comes as a second case of the dangerous virus has been found in the United States.
The committee is chaired by Australia's chief medical officer of the Department of Health and Ageing, Chris Baggoley.
The meeting began in Geneva late last night and a press briefing was expected to follow.
The committee will provide technical advice to WHO Director General Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun on whether MERS constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.
The meeting comes as a second case of the dangerous virus has been found in the United States.
A spokesman for Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man said: "We attach the greatest importance to the development and will keep a close watch on the outcome of the [expert] meeting."
In a nuclear tit for tat, U.S. Strategic Command, which is in charge of waging nuclear war, will hold large-scale bomber exercises this week. This follows on the heels of Russia conducting “massive” war games simulating a U.S. and NATO nuclear attack a few days ago. Both sides are denying this has anything to do with war — that the drills were coincidentally scheduled late last year. Are you kidding me? Wow… the lies just get more and more brazen and deadly. It is looking more and more as if the Russkies want a piece of the U.S. The Ukraine is pretext.
On the Russian side, the test launch of a SS-25 Topol intercontinental missile and two SS-N-23 submarine-launched ballistic missiles was conducted. Additional missile firings included six Russian air-launched nuclear-capable cruise missiles. Putin had a front row seat with popcorn for the event. Which, by the way, was held on the anniversary celebrations marking their victory in WWII. Get it? The jokes on the world. Gimme, gimme, gimme war. Former Pentagon official Mark Schneider said the exercises are unusual and appear aimed at the West. Ya think? I suppose when the nukes rain down, you’ll call for partly cloudy radiation as well. Suicidally clueless:
“This type of exercise is normally held in the fall not the spring. Holding it now suggests to me that the intent was nuclear intimidation against NATO over the Ukraine,” he said.
The latest nuclear saber-rattling by Moscow followed the April 14 test launch of a new ICBM, the SS-27 with multiple simulated warheads that potentially violated the 2010 New START arms treaty.
The war games also followed the Obama administration’s recent rejection of a Russian proposal aimed at resolving U.S. and Russian differences over missile defenses. Moscow wanted an agreement with legal restrictions on European-based defenses and the administration rejected the plan and cut off further talks because of the Crimea annexation.
For Thursday’s drills, an SS-25 road-mobile intercontinental missile, and two multiple-warhead SS-N-23 submarine-launched ballistic missiles were flight-tested.
State-controlled Russian news outlets described the drills as a “massive launch-on-warning missile strike and countering a nuclear attack by the means of the Moscow missile defense system.”
A Russian Tu-95 strategic nuclear bomber conducted a salvo firing of six air-launched cruise missiles as part of the drills. And the Russians also carried out a test of missile defense interceptor against an incoming target. Short-range Iskander missiles and multiple-rocket launcher systems also took part.
The exercise involved what is called “launch-on-warning,” the firing of missiles in response to radar indications of an incoming strategic missile attack.
Ground troops and air forces also took part in the exercises timed to a summit meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States, former Soviet republics that are the target of Putin’s effort to reestablish a Soviet-like federation dominated by Moscow.
Presidents from Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan monitored the exercises from the Russian National Defense Command Center.
Make no mistake, this was Putin showing how he would counter a nuclear strike by the U.S. Or more to the point, counter a retaliatory strike:
Enter the Chinese, who are Russia’s number one friend these days. They are set to conduct joint military exercises in the region in the near future. Guess who they will be simulating attacks against? Still think there is no threat? The threat is imminent and very, very real.
As the U.S., Russia and China engage in another round of Nuclear RISK, they keep denying the obvious… that the world is in the opening salvo of WWIII.
Iran is sharing nuclear technology with North Korea, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published Wednesday, as Tehran and world powers hold talks aimed at ending a decade-old standoff.
Netanyahu, who is in Japan this week for talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials, said Iran “would share whatever technology it acquired with North Korea,” the Mainichi Shimbun reported in a front-page piece.
Asked if Pyongyang is receiving technologies linked to nuclear and missile development from Iran, Netanyahu said: “Yes, that’s exactly the case.”
In a separate interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK aired Tuesday, Netanyahu said Iran would use a nuclear deal with world powers as a diversionary tactic to shift world attention before attacking Israel.
Despite international isolation and extensive sanctions, North Korea appears to be readying to carry out a fourth nuclear test, observers have said, and regularly makes noises about the weaponization of its technology.
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