'Every year India spends $12 billion on purchasing oil from Iran, but now it is using gold instead of dollars. India might not be alone; China has suggested it would jump on board with India. New Delhi and Beijing account for 40 percent of the Iranian oil exports.' -- Competition is a sin!

Ingo Bischoff at 03:14 PM -- 'The USD, as exclusive "world reserve currency", is like writing checks which are never cashed. If a competing currency can cut into or replace the USD for paying oil bills, the "USD checks" would be presented for payment. That is the reason the U.S. military makes sure that nothing happens to the Saudis, and nothing happens to the free flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf. It's all about securing the value of the USD. As to Russia and China, they have the democraphic and natural resources to compete with the U.S. as an industrial economy. What they don't have, is a currency which can match the USD in value. Having gold to "back" a currency means nothing, unless the currency is redeemable. Would Russia or China create a "redeemable" currency? There is doubt whether China or Russia would accept Anglo-American monetary superiority voluntarily. A hot war to resolve the problem, is unlikely. Therefore, the fight is on the political level, primarily by turning the U.S. into a complete and openly controlled and managed economy ala Russia and China. In the meantime, the U.S. has been involved in Afghanistan to prevent the construction of an Iranian pipeline into China, and a Russian pipeline into the Indian Ocean. The Obama administration is a friend of the FED central banking crowd which determines the quantity of USDs. However, they are an ardent foe of the American oil majors which decide the "value" of the USD in connection with the Saudis and their fix of the oil price. The present presidential election must be understood in this context. NATO has evolved into a enforcement arm to assist the U.S. in securing the value of the USD. The trouble with the EURO must be seen in context of Europe having to support the value of the USD.'

'It is true, as we have maintained in the past, that the dollar will be hard to dislodge as the world's reserve currency so long as the Middle East continues to demand dollars for oil – and as the US is the world's leading military power, with a predominant strategic base in the Middle East, it is hard to see how that state of affairs will be upended. And yet ... as we have asked recently, what if the Anglosphere itself wants to dislodge the dollar? What if it does have strong relationships with China (and Russia) – and much of the apparent tension is so much shadow play? We asked these questions after the failure of the US to impose its will on the G20 regarding the dollar-yuan relationship. ...we will even make the argument (in support of this article's hypothesis) that the various yuan swaps are designed not only to destabilize the dollar (thus creating a demand for a new currency like the IMF's hypothetical bancor) but are providing building blocks as well.'

'Does the Western power elite actually intend to aggravate the current crisis? Is it ready for the troubles that will certainly arise from such a development? Does it have agreements in place with China for a deepening New World Order? ...we will end this article by concluding as we have before that we see significant cracks in the elite's ability to operate efficiently. We think it perfectly feasible that the Internet's truth-telling has caused Western elites to speed up whatever plans were laid in advance, but that this has not necessarily guaranteed success. On every front, we see trouble for Western elites, anyway. Scarcity memes are not believed anymore, financial systems are failing, central banks are held in increasing disrepute and even NATO's serial wars are misfiring. It could be, therefore, that the hegemony of King Dollar is maintained for a longer rather than shorter time as reality forces Western elites to take a step back even though their preference is to move forward.'

'We are left with a (tentative) conclusion that we have already enunciated – that the Western elites in their pride, greed and arrogance may have started a conflagration that they cannot control. Perhaps if the Internet had not come on the scene to reveal their machinations, it would have been possible to manipulate the world's economies more effectively and to intimidate, in secret, those who needed to be brought along. But it's very hard to run a monetary and military conspiracy under the white-hot glare of a technological and electronic spotlight. Allies shy away and potential enemies are emboldened. -- ...the dollar's strength is that it purchases oil and Saudi Arabia in particular would have to be "flipped," which American military power may preclude. ...the Anglo-American axis had to level the known world with its murderous military might to impose the hierarchy of the dollar and other Western economic mechanisms (the IMF, etc.). It is not so easy to end this kind of "reserve."'

'Dominant Social Theme: This is great! Everybody said they'd agree to agree about agreeing. We agree too. The crisis is ovah. -- The simplest explanation of all this activity is that the US is worried about a trade war for which it will be blamed. In order to make sure that doesn't happen, it has to strong-arm the rest of the world into accepting its devaluations. The second explanation is that the US is raising the issue in order to blame China for the continued unraveling of the world's financial situation. The third explanation is that the Anglo-American axis does indeed intend to ruin the dollar and is laying the groundwork for an IMF currency of some sort. ...China's resolve to maintain its own yuan policy despite US hectoring is proof positive that the Anglo-American axis does not have the clout to shove the Chinese around behind the scenes. (And China is in fact shoving back with its suspension of militarily important "rare earth" supplies.) Times have changed.'

'The elite seems to be betting on the IMF being able to introduce some of sort of worldwide SDR/bancor paper gold currency system that would effectively reconfigure the IMF as a global central bank. In order for this work, however, the Anglo-American elite needs to keep control of the IMF and there are many nations in the world whose leaders remain either angry or uncomfortable with the IMF's previous arrogance... The IMF's noxious approach to necessary "austerity" for client countries includes tax hikes, cuts in social programs and "privatization" of national assets that are often purchased by Anglo-American corporations at very low prices. The IMF recipe is usually a middle-class killer. The population at large ends up suffering for the greed of the elite, which often flees with the billions that the country's citizens are then compelled to pay back to international banks. We are not at all sure that the IMF has sufficient authority to create a new international financial system.'

'I think it's likely that the U.S. government will default on its debt, starting with obligations to foreigners, and the government will end up having to make some humiliating concessions. For example, the Chinese might demand that the U.S. withdraw from Asia. China might insist that's going to take over Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Right now, the Chinese are rapidly building up their military capability. I don't know why they're doing it, but there has been speculation that they want East Asia to be their sphere influence, just as the Americas are our sphere of influence. Are we going to go to war if/when China makes Taiwan a protectorate, maybe paying tribute to the mainland government? Are we going to go war if/when China makes Japan their protectorate? I doubt it. Maybe, years from now, the United States ends up paying tribute to China, but I wouldn't expect that Chinese officials will establish offices in the U.S. to tell us what to do.'

'The Western mainstream press does not often delve into the Sunni/Shia split because such details would tend to undermine the larger dominant social theme which is that "Islam is the enemy." A monolithic Islam is a benefit to the West's power elite, which seeks to consolidate wealth and authority in Europe, Britain and America by cultivating an outside threat. -- It is certainly counter-intuitive to argue that the Iraq war ends up being waged to provide Iran with more influence in the region, and certainly we do believe in its arrogance that the elite intended to win the Iraq and Afghanistan wars outright (and has not yet fully given up on either objective). But perhaps the elite may have to settle for a fallback, which includes military occupation of certain bases, proxy politics and increased geopolitical tensions. Sounds strange? As dedicated power-elite meme watchers, we consider almost anything within the realm of possibility these days.'

'What then could constitute a "dramatic shift in appetite for international cooperation" presaging the proposed new international currency which the IMF is apparently calling the "bancor?" Certainly chaos in the Middle East combined with a China crash (and the euro-zone's ongoing weakness) could create conditions that might be more sympathetic to such an international currency, which would apparently be an elaboration on the current use of IMF SDRs. Do we believe that a series of crises are being engineered to create formal demand for a new international currency? Actually, we take no position other than to point out the possibilities. If the goal of all the current manmade chaos is to smooth the way for an advent of an acceptable and accepted international currency, then ramifications would be obvious, if not radical. As usual, careful scrutiny of the power-elite's dominant social themes may hold a key to unlocking what these immensely powerful families have in mind.'

'There are riddles within riddles and secrets within secrets, when it comes to Afghanistan and who is fighting whom, and for what. It is a Crusade war, a cultural war, a war of utmost importance. Empires have dashed themselves on these inhospitable stones before. The reporting to be done for this wretched war will likely increasingly reflect the realities of a region that does not want Westernization and in fact sees Western-style regulatory democracy as undesirable. ...when the elite cannot create a believable narrative (a dominant social theme), then there are inevitable, negative ramifications. The ramifications begin with the end of the Afghan war but extend far beyond it and have economic and financial resonance as well. In fact, the war in Afghanistan may come to represent the modern high water mark for the West's peculiar amalgam of central banking and regulatory democracy. It is a most important war, and the lack of a credible dominant social theme is most important as well.'

'Dominant Social Theme: Israel needs backing from the West more than ever. Once more we see the Jewish state and its existence linked to larger geopolitical issues. Do elements of the Western power elite want to provoke more violence in the Middle East, or even a war with Iran? Well ... now, somehow, the Gaza-flotilla and its suppression has provided yet another flash-point and apparent justification. Israel, as we have discussed in recent articles and feedbacks, again serves as a proxy for larger elite socio-political intrigues. Netanyahu has dragged the larger issue of Iran – and its supposed nuclear weapons – right back to center stage. From our point of view there is no doubt that the powers-that-be are casting about for ways to ameliorate the building frustration in both Europe and America that has undermined power elite memes and jeopardized what seems to us an aggressive push for a closer union of Western nation-states.'

'Completion Date: 2014. Strategic Impact: ESPO has the impact of tying China into its strategic partnership with Russia as it draws more from its neighbor's energy reserves. If Japan remains out of the equation, it may serve to bolster the China-Russia partnership, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization they both lead, and continue to ostracize US allied Japan.'

"The entire U.S. strategic position is beginning to crumble, worldwide."

'The Anglo-American elites in our opinion have taken a qualified risk by blowing up the economies of the West through the incredibly destructive machinations of central banking. While it has been satisfying to watch them backtrack for fear of a real social rebellion, the destabilization continues apace. There is no way to generate these massive regional blocks except by DESTABILIZING the nations that are to support them - and thus it will continue to occur even as every rhetorical and media device is employed to promote the idea that those participating in the destabilizing are actually engaged in ameliorating it. They are not. And the game has ceased to be entertaining for many. Millions in Europe and America, and in China too, are increasingly aware of the manipulations that inevitably accompany mercantilist central banking. ...a variety of faux-conflicts will be carefully presented but the real enemies of 21st century internationalist-minded nation-states remain their own citizens.'

'This film goes in detail through the untold history of The Project for the New American Century with tons of archival footage and connects it right into the present. This film exposes how every major war in US history was based on a complete fraud with video of insiders themselves admitting it. It film shows the white papers of the oil company Unocal which called for the creation of a pipeline through Afghanistan and how their exact needs were fulfilled through the US invasion of Afghanistan.'

Stacy: "America has gone bonkers."

'Michael Ruppert gives a lecture of Zbigniew Brzezingski's 1997 book: The Grand Chessboard. -- "The most immediate task is to make certain that no state of combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its global arbitration role." (p.198) -- "In the long run, global politics are bound to become increasingly uncongenial to the concentration of hegemonic power in the hands of a single state. Hence, America is not only the first, as well as the only, truly global superpower, but it is also likely to be the last." (p.209)'

'Michael Ruppert gives a lecture of Zbigniew Brzezingski's 1997 book: The Grand Chessboard. "Abuot 75% of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most the the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil." (p.32) -- "...the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependance among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep barbarians from coming together." (p.40)'

'#Russia's slick oil pipeline will change world economy: Over the next few days, on Russia's Far Eastern coast, something will happen that will profoundly impact global politics, diplomacy and the future shape of the world economy. -- ...a major new pipeline, connecting Russia's Eastern Siberian oil fields with fast-growing Asian markets, not least China. -- Russia is now the leading crude producer on the planet. Factor in gas exports and the Bear is the world's biggest energy supplier by far... Russia's existing energy export pipelines point West – and are focused on supplying Europe. But that's about to change. ESPO is what political strategists might call a "game-changer". It means Russia will be able to send its oil either east or west – so can drive a harder bargain when selling crude to Europe. -- I'm still amazed that what's happening in Russia's Far East – not least ESPO and the Russia-China energy link-up – isn't headline news in the West.'

'...a consortium bail-out will likely be arranged. But what this amounts to is that the few "healthy" EU countries will be basically printing money and lending it to the Greeks who refuse to change their profligate ways. Think Germany, in fact, and you will likely have reached the proper conclusion. But here is the real question: How long will Germany continue to pull the EU train without commensurate political compensation - which basically means turning the EU over to Germany? ... Which we cannot envision the Anglo-American axis allowing.'

50min documentary: 'World War I exposed Western greed and political intrigue laying the foundation for wars, coups, revolts, oppressive dictators and military interventions in today's Middle East.' -- "The American people truly believe that the use of military force can only be for a higher purpose."

50min documentary: 'World War I exposed Western greed and political intrigue laying the foundation for wars, coups, revolts, oppressive dictators and military interventions in today's Middle East.' -- "Oil disappeared from the discourse and increasingly elaborate reasons were given for going to war."

Proxy war: exporting the Afghan ethnic civil war to Pakistan to prevent a non-dollar resource corridor between Iran and India/China.

'The most provocative questions in US politics are tackled head-on.' -- "We're beyond capitalism; we're in casino gulag speculatism."

'...Mr. Medvedev called for China, Russia and India to “build an increasingly multipolar world order.” What this means in plain English is: We have reached our limit in subsidizing the United States’ military encirclement of Eurasia while also allowing the US to appropriate our exports, companies, stocks and real estate in exchange for paper money of questionable worth. As matters stand, they see the United States as a lawless nation, financially as well as militarily. How else to characterize a nation that holds out a set of laws for others – on war, debt repayment and treatment of prisoners – but ignores them itself? America has become a deadbeat – and indeed, a militarily aggressive one as it seeks to hold onto the unique power it once earned by economic means. The problem is how to constrain its behavior. -- US officials wanted to attend the Yekaterinburg meeting as observers. They were told No. It is a word that Americans will hear much more in the future.'

'#1. Permanence is the illusion of every age. #2. Revolutions come unexpectedly. #3. Regimes fall when they lose their sense of legitimacy. #4. It’s about power, not ideology. After 1968, none of the apparatchiks believed in Marxism-Leninism. But they understood that their place in society depended on the status quo. #5. The Left has carried on unabashed. For decades, some in the West were Moscow’s useful idiots. A few took money from the Kremlin, yet have never been held to account. Others collaborated intellectually (that prize ass Jean-Paul Sartre foremost among them). They still haven’t apologised, and it’s still considered acceptable to wear a Che Guevara tee-shirt – something which, in my book, is in the same category as wearing the image of Osama bin Laden or Adolf Hitler.' -- Hehe

'...the major dictatorship parties all mouth the libertarian policies of small government, low taxes and free enterprise. All the time, their actions increasingly are manifest in big government, high taxes, massive debt and economic decay. The question is, with the increasingly invasive and draconian powers of big government under the Patriot Act and its equivalent in the UK, will any peaceful grass roots voting revolution or even change be possible? Indeed, the European Union has already suggested making our growing British free-market party, the UKIP, illegal by proscribing it as "extremist" and against the "European ideal." -- Clearly, the Internet is giving knowledge and therefore increasingly effective power to voters. The main dictatorship parties see this and are making covert attempts to monitor and control the Internet under the camouflage of anti-terror, national security and the protection of moral standards. In these circumstances, the word hypocrisy is not strong enough.'

Here it is. 'Fall Of The Republic documents how an offshore corporate cartel is bankrupting the US economy by design. Leaders are now declaring that world government has arrived and that the dollar will be replaced by a new global currency.' ### "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong." — Voltaire ### “No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” — François de la Rochefoucauld ### "A time will come when the whole world will go mad. And to anyone who is not mad they will say: 'You are mad, for you are not like us.'" — St. Anthony the Great

Comment: J.Hansford: "The Socialist Global bureaucracy can sniff victory. It’s so close they can taste it. Once they have the framework signed and the money. There is a surreal quality in it. To have finally arrive in a political era in which they have designed the power to tax the very air we breath. It was once the stuff of science fiction novels. We stop this folly quickly. Or we will perish under the tyranny of such perverse people." -- Comment: Peter: "What it amounts to is the poor people in rich countries giving money to the rich people in poor countries." -- SLAVE THE PLANET.

'"They are about to impose a communist world government on the world." -- Skimming through the treaty, I came across verification of Monckton’s assessment of the new entity’s purpose: [page 18] 38. The scheme for the new institutional arrangement under the Convention will be based on three basic pillars: government; facilitative mechanism; and financial mechanism...: #World Government (heading added): (a) The government will be [...] responsible for the management of the new funds and the related facilitative processes and bodies. #To Redistribute Wealth (heading added): b) The Convention’s financial mechanism will include a multilateral climate change fund... #With Enforcement Authority (heading added): (e) an international registry for the monitoring, reporting and verification of compliance of emission reduction commitments, and the transfer of technical and financial resources from developed countries to developing countries.' -- If you tolerate this, your children will be next.

'The deal to support the shutdown of the Petro-Dollar contract between the US and Saudis represents the latest big piece to the Comprehensive Chinese Plan. Note the Yuan Swap facility to aid global trade (check Brazil). Note the transition to the Yuan in the Chinese banking deposits. Note the ASEAN emergency fund in Yuan accounts. Note the announced dishonor of OTC derivative contracts with a declared Stop Loss. Note the accumulation of gold by the Chinese central bank and permission for citizens to save in gold also. The Chinese have embarked on a comprehensive plan that escapes Western financial media analysts. This latest development is a climax step that changes gears of the transition. -- The urgent message is clear. The first nations to discard the USDollar and embrace even an IMF global currency basket, will emerge as the next leaders. The basket is a Straw Man transition device toward global gold-backed currencies, of which there will be at least three eventually.'

'Expect thunderous denials.'

'In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning—along with China, Russia, Japan and France—to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar. Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars. -- The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. -- The current deadline for the currency transition is 2018.' -- !!!

'In the German view, economics is not a matter of right or wrong, or cheating or playing fair. It is merely a matter of strong or weak. The gods of trade will help those who help themselves. No code of honor will defend the weak, as today's Latin Americans and Africans can attest. If a nation decides to help itself—by protecting its own industries, by discriminating against foreign products—then that is a decision, not a sin. -- ...from Germany to Thailand to Korea to Japan all certainly believe in competition. But it would be very hard to find a businessman or an official in these countries who would say, with a straight face, that these industries grew "automatically" or in a "natural" way. -- Two years ago another Wall Street Journal item, this one a review of a book on trade, said, "[The author] puts it well: 'The benefits of unilaterally adopting free trade now are greater than the benefits of multilateral adoption of free trade ten or fifteen years from now.'"'

'...the Chinese are not preventing the export of products containing rare earth elements; they are simply moving to ban the export of the raw materials. In effect, what the Chinese are saying is that they are no longer willing to accept the Third World’s designated role as a source of raw materials and cheap labor to be exploited for the benefit of somebody else; if the future is going to run on technologies based on rare earth elements, those technologies are going to come out of Chinese factories, and the wealth produced by them is going to be concentrated in Chinese hands. ...to some extent the rise of “resource nationalism” is simply one of the consequences of the decline of America’s global empire. All other things being equal, we might reasonably expect a troubled transition lasting several decades and punctuated by a series of spectacular wars, not unlike the 1914-1945 transition period that saw Britain’s global empire replaced by America’s.' -- Got minerals?

"Robert Newman gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years - but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, the places oil centre stage as the cause of all commotion."

"Written in 1954 by one of the coup's chief planners, the history details how United States and British officials plotted the military coup that returned the shah of Iran to power and toppled Iran's elected prime minister, an ardent nationalist. The document shows that: #Britain, fearful of Iran's plans to nationalize its oil industry, came up with the idea for the coup in 1952 and pressed the United States to mount a joint operation to remove the prime minister. #The C.I.A. and S.I.S., the British intelligence service, handpicked Gen. Fazlollah Zahedi to succeed Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and covertly funneled $5 million to General Zahedi's regime two days after the coup prevailed. #Iranians working for the C.I.A. and posing as Communists harassed religious leaders and staged the bombing of one cleric's home in a campaign to turn the country's Islamic religious community against Mossadegh's government."

"If Ahmadinejad was in fact the winner, then there is an attempted coup going on in Tehran right now, and it is being led by Mousavi and his western-backed supporters. But for the demonstrators facing repression in Tehran, the conviction that they have been cheated has created its own momentum in what is now a highly polarised society. That is given more force by the fact that the protests are underpinned by a split in the theocratic regime, of which Mousavi and his allies are a powerful component. -- Last Friday, even before the polls had closed in Iran, the US president ­commented that people were ­"looking at new possibilities" in Iran, just as they had in Lebanon's elections the previous weekend. ...the implications of his remarks were not lost in Iran, where the US is still spending hundreds of millions of dollars in covert destabilisation programmes." -- So will the Russia-China-Iran mutual protection pact stay in place? Got oil?

'Qashqavi said the West should let Iranian courts resolve the controversy over alleged ballot fraud. He cited the disputed U.S. presidential election in 2000 when the Supreme Court stepped into rule the winner of the close race between Al Gore and George W. Bush. “No one in that race encouraged American people to stage a riot. It went to the courts,” he said. “If there was a protest in their own country, police would not issue a permit. Why don’t they treat us the same way? This is a racial mentality—that Iranians belong to the third world. This is a dual standard.”'

'“Free markets” US-style hook countries into a system that forces them to accept dollars without limit. Now they want out. -- In addition to avoiding financing the US buyout of their own industry and the US military encirclement of the globe, China, Russia and other countries no doubt would like to get the same kind of free ride that America has been getting. As matters stand, they see the United States as a lawless nation, financially as well as militarily. How else to characterize a nation that holds out a set of laws for others – on war, debt repayment and treatment of prisoners – but ignores them itself? The United States is now the world’s largest debtor yet has avoided the pain of “structural adjustments” imposed on other debtor economies. US interest-rate and tax reductions in the face of exploding trade and budget deficits are seen as the height of hypocrisy in view of the austerity programs that Washington forces on other countries via the IMF and other Washington vehicles.'

"The outlook for America is for hyper-stagflation, or continued economic recession accompanied by rapidly rising prices. This calls into question the continued role of the US dollar as the world's reserve. Surplus nations, particularly China, are voicing their growing concern. They are exploring other, less volatile arrangements. They may be considering a return to the bulwark of monetary stability: gold. Now the world's largest gold producer, China would benefit tremendously from a shift away from the US dollar and toward gold. She is clearly interested in world leadership, but would never dream of challenging the US militarily. However, in the 21st century, the weight of economics renders martial might largely irrelevant. ...the Chinese call for a new, gold-linked reserve currency [? they haven't called for it yet], combined with the near doubling of their own gold reserves, points to a major strategic trend that can be expected to spread to other surplus nations."

"Germany and Italy are the only two big European central banks which did not follow the UK, mostly because of domestic disputes about what to do with the proceeds, the report said. The US, the world’s biggest holder of gold ([because they stole it all using their ponzi dollars]), decided not to follow Europe’s move, while central banks outside Europe have become net buyers of gold." -- Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia

'The prospect of a substantially weaker dollar is unwelcome to policy makers in the euro zone, Japan or other countries worried about their own exports. The main thrust of China's message is that it wants to diversify holdings of foreign exchange reserves in a way that more closely mimics the make-up of SDRs, said Simon Derrick, currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon. That means going from reserve holdings that stand at more than 60% dollars to around 44%. For the euro, holdings would rise to around 34% from 31%. With export powerhouse Germany and the rest of the euro-zone laid low by a collapse in global demand, a rise in the euro would be unwelcome. Jitters over such changes may explain European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet's reiteration last weekend of his support for the U.S. government's "strong dollar policy," Derrick said.' -- Good luck with that.

'An alliance of Latin American and Caribbean governments led by Venezuela will create a regional electronic currency that is expected to circulate by 2010, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday. The leftist Chavez, who has called the global financial crisis the end of capitalism, has frequently urged allies to stop storing currency reserves in dollars and recently proposed creating an international currency backed by oil reserves. He did not offer more details on how the currency would work. In the past, Chavez has said the Sucre could one day become a physical currency. The OPEC nation's finance ministry on Thursday said it hopes countries outside the ALBA trade bloc, including other nations in South and Central America and the Caribbean, will later join in using the currency.' -- Backed by oil

'My prediction of the (not yet arrived?) demise of the $US is that the underlying weakness of the $US is resultant from the abuse of the reserve status to build up a debt mountain, and the use of the reserve status to finance that debt. It can only service that debt through new currency issuance. There is no reason to see why China might follow such a course as a major creditor nation, and this is why it is so well positioned as a reserve currency. They only need to expand the money supply such that they provide sufficient units for exchange, not to finance debt. This is the inherent strength in the RMB, and why it might replace the $US. The big question in my mind is when belief will end, and when will reality reassert itself?'

An "overview of global economic history from the beginning of the First World War through 2002. Along with a six-hour video narrative divided into short chapters, it includes extensive interviews, essays, charts, reports, an interactive atlas of history, and economic data related to the topics of globalization, economic development, and international trade." -- Featuring: Keynes, Hayek, Mises.

'The crowning blow against the USDollar supremacy will come when Persian Gulf nations install a new hard asset currency. At that time, one quarter of the world will pay for crude oil in a hard asset currency with a gold component. That is a spike in the heart for the USDollar founded in a unipolar world. The G20 Meeting intends to make the statement that the unipolar world is dead on the financial stage. That is their agenda. The US agenda is to preserve the system through reform. If the USGovt does not cooperate with alternative global reserve currency usage, then it will be bypassed, with associated cost. That cost will be lost respect, lost creditor cooperation, and certain economic consequences within the USEconomy. If not careful and cooperative, the US will find itself increasingly isolated, which is precisely my forecast. This direction is consistent with a shove down the staircase into the Third World, where credit shortages and supply shortages and poverty persist.'

'...instead of facing our problems we extol the resilience of the U.S. economy, praise the most productive workers in the world, and go on and on about America's inherent ability to extricate itself from any crisis. And we ignore our proclivity as a nation to spend, year in year out, more than we produce, to put off dealing with long-term problems, and to engage in grandiose long-term programs that as a nation we can ill afford. A singular characteristic of an emerging market heading for deep trouble is a seemingly suicidal tendency to become overly indebted to foreign creditors. Yet we too seem to have little difficulty becoming increasingly indebted to the tune of a few hundred billion dollars a year. To make matters worse, we do so to countries like China, Russia and an assortment of Middle Eastern oil producers -- none of which is particularly well disposed to us.'

'In a bold plan, the Chinese Govt has announced the yuan currency will soon replace the USDollar as the new Asian regional reserve currency. Due to USDollar instability and unreliability, Beijing is introducing a serious currency experiment, in order to aid in the stability of the Asian economy. The Chinese intention seems clearly to decouple both China and Asia from the USDollar and to introduce the yuan as the regional reserve currency. The yuan will be infused throughout their banking system. Other Asian governments will surely follow suit and discharge reserve USTBonds in favor of the yuan currency. The full impact will be felt when Asian nations who participate in this new reserve currency begin to purchase raw materials and commodities like grains, energy, and metals in Asia, using yuan currency in hand. The giant blow taken by the Untied States will result in further isolation. That will severely weaken US$ demand in an important continent.'

'Who would control a super-IMF?

'[Max Keiser] the Huffington Post blogger pointed to the invasion of Iraq and America’s strong warning to Iran over its nuclear activity. “Look what happen to Saddam Hussein when he tried to start to trade oil in Euros,” Keiser said. “He was bombed and then assassinated by the U.S. Look what happened in Iran when they started talking about trading oil and gas in Euros. Suddenly America is saber-rattling in Iran.” So in Keiser’s view, the Chinese won’t jump onboard the global currency bandwagon out of fear of the U.S. military. “So any country looks at those examples and they say, ‘You know if we get out of the U.S. dollar, does this mean that U.S. Marines are going to show up in our backdoor and start to cause mischief?’” Keiser said. “That’s a legitimate concern these countries have.”'

'The Japan Times detailed a report by the Institute for International Policy Studies, a semigovernmental think tank, which asserted that "in order for the entire Asian region to keep growing, [Japan] must create the third-polar regime in Asia by introducing the Asian common currency, which stands on par with the U.S. dollar and the euro." ...the Gulf Cooperation Council today announced that it was postponing a 2010 deadline for the launch of a common currency for the region, which includes Arab states whose domestic units of account have long been linked to the dollar, the group indicated that it remained committed to a strategy that would eventually loosen those ties.' -- Oh dear.

'US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner shocked global markets by revealing that Washington is "quite open" to Chinese proposals for the gradual development of a global reserve currency run by the International Monetary Fund.' -- !!! -- 'The dollar plunged instantly against the euro, yen, and sterling as the comments flashed across trading screens. David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC, said the apparent policy shift amounts to an earthquake in geo-finance. Mr Geithner later qualified his remarks, insisting that the dollar would remain the "world's dominant reserve currency ... for a long period of time" but the seeds of doubt have been sown.' -- Since there's nothing left to steal... -- '"I don't believe that there is a need for a global currency. The reason the dollar is strong right now is because investors consider the United States the strongest economy in the world with the most stable political system in the world," Obama said.' -- Does anyone care what you 'believe'? Anyone?? Dweeb

'As Western economies flounder, China sees a chance to assert itself—carefully. A recent article in Economic Reference, a journal published by a government think-tank, said the crisis would severely weaken the economic, political, military and diplomatic power of developed countries. This would create an “historic opportunity” for China to strengthen its position. China should export capital to South-East Asian countries to strengthen their economies. By so doing, it would help prevent political turmoil and win strategic influence in the region. In America, the article suggested, China should buy up businesses in order to acquire sophisticated know-how. If the American government balks at this, “the Chinese government absolutely can use its American dollar savings as a bargaining chip to force the American government to agree to China’s acquisitions."'

'If we take the activity in aggregate, it looks very much like a plan for China to extract the maximum out of their new found economic power. They will play the US as far as they can, extract as many concessions as possible - use the power to show that they are now the country with the real influence. As soon as the US is finally in a corner and comes out to confront China, they will simply floor the $US. ... as I discussed in my speculative post, they will go on a shopping trip, and pick up all the technologies, all the companies that they need to take their place at the front of the world economy, and as the new economic power in the world.'

'China and other emerging nations back Russia's call for a discussion on how to replace the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency, a senior Russian government source said on Thursday. Russia has proposed the creation of a new reserve currency, to be issued by international financial institutions, among other measures in the text of its proposals to the April G20 summit published last Monday. Russia met representatives of China, India and Brazil ahead of the G20 finance ministers meeting last week, as the big emerging powers seek to up their influence on decisionmaking globally. The source said the Chinese paper envisaged the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) being first assigned a role of a clearing currency on some transactions and then gradually becoming the main global reserve currency. "They said that the role of reserve currency should be given to SDR," the source said.' -- (Badly written title)

Docu-drama: "Suppose one day the dollar falls. What would happen?" by Roel van Broekhoven, Backlight 2005

Analysts said the new Kremlin proposal would elicit little excitement among the G20 members. "This is all in the realm of fantasy," said Sergei Perminov, chief strategist at Rye, Man and Gore. "There was a situation that resembled what they are talking about. It was called the gold standard, and it ended very badly.' -- How could it not end badly??! -- '"Alternatives to the dollar are still hard to find," he said. The Kremlin's call for a common currency is not the first in recent days. Speaking at an economic conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, last week, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed a global currency called the "acmetal" -- a conflation of the words "acme" and "capital."' -- Erm...

"Essentially, China has expressed awareness of the delicacy of the position of the $US, but has still suggested a commitment to $US assets. The US government is clearly nervous of the situation, as can be seen in Hilary Clinton's begging bowl mission to China, which took place with unseemly urgency. Whilst China is making reassuring noises, this does not necessarily indicate China's actual intentions. ...it would be likely that, even if selling treasuries, China would still make reassuring noises to prop up the value whilst they were undertaking the sales. ...the current US policy might be summarised as an expansionary spending binge, with no clear plan on how to pay back the borrowing. This will hardly conform with Chinese expectations of protecting their investments, and the Chinese government will surely not be taken in by Obama's rhetoric." -- "The flaw is that, if China were to follow such a course, it would also risk self-destruction."

'Policy makers and forecasters who see a recovery next year are probably lying to boost public confidence, he said. And the crisis will eventually provoke political conflict, albeit not on the scale of a world war, but violent all the same. There will be blood, in the sense that a crisis of this magnitude is bound to increase political as well as economic [conflict]. It is bound to destabilize some countries. It will cause civil wars to break out, that have been dormant. It will topple governments that were moderate and bring in governments that are extreme. These things are pretty predictable. The question is whether the general destabilization, the return of, if you like, political risk, ultimately leads to something really big in the realm of geopolitics. That seems a less certain outcome. We've already talked about why China and the United States are in an embrace they don't dare end. The Chinese don't seem to want to get divorced from their American spouse.'

A transcript of Vladimir Putin's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: "In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state's role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated. Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state. -- Excessive dependence on a single reserve currency is dangerous for the global economy. Consequently, it would be sensible to encourage the objective process of creating several strong reserve currencies in the future. It is high time we launched a detailed discussion of methods to facilitate a smooth and irreversible switchover to the new model."

"... the global system failure has pitted two groups of powerful billionaires against each other. Putin represents a force that pursues greater equitability in commerce, trade, and banking with multi-polar power centers. His opposite force pursues greater concentrated power, more fascist towers, and a beneficial reduction in world population." -- "Putin warned of blind faith in the omnipotent power of states, and the distorted concentration of assets in the hands of the states. That might be a slap at the central bankers, who are serving as quasi-bank systems unto themselves in a desperate action. Putin warned that unbridled growth of budget deficits and public debts is destructive. In essence, Putin urged a return to free enterprise principles. The Western leaders are moving toward socialism and fascism. What irony that former KGB leader from the Soviet Union was lecturing the West on the benefits of embrace for capitalism and free enterprise!!!" -- Crazy days.

"It was the year when people finally gave up trying to predict the year ahead. It was the year when every forecast had to be revised – usually downwards – at least three times. It was the year when the paradox of globalisation was laid bare for all to see, if their eyes weren’t tightly shut." ...

'In the past month, Nigerian rebels threatened renewed warfare against foreign oil producers, Russia sent riot police from Moscow to quell an anti-tax protest in Siberia and China’s communist leadership warned of social agitation as the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre looms. On a global scale, the spiral of economic distress and political radicalism has been at work throughout history, from the bread riots that stoked the French Revolution to the mass unemployment that brought the Nazis to power in Germany. Some dictators, like Hitler and Stalin, turned on their neighbors after disposing of internal enemies. Others, like Mao, walled off their societies, condemning millions to misery. The increasingly lopsided world economy “provides fertile ground for extremism and violence,” Nicolas Sarkozy said at a conference last week in Paris. With globalization, he said, “we expected competition and abundance, and in the end we got scarcity, debt, speculation and dumping.”'

"It’s tempting to dismiss this as a purely Greek affair that carries little significance to the outside world. But the global economic crisis will take different forms in different places in the way that it ignites political unrest. Yes, youth alienation in Greece is influenced by a particular local history that I’ve very briefly outlined here. But it is also influenced by sweeping international trends of uneven development, in which the uncontrolled surges and declines of capitalism have left haves and bitter have-nots, who, in Europe, often tend to be young people. And these young people now have the ability to instantaneously organize themselves through text messages and other new media, without waiting passively to be informed by traditional newspapers and television. Technology has empowered the crowd—or the mob if you will."

'Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control. California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.' -- *sigh* There are no countries, only currencies.

"The US trade deficit with China is the largest ever recorded with a single country and has recently been setting new monthly highs. Days earlier, Henry Paulson, the US treasury secretary, attended high-level talks in Beijing aimed at pressuring China to allow its currency to appreciate more quickly, but failed to achieve much. Last week Paulson said he hoped the incoming US administration will continue discussions with China over the currency issue." -- Pffffft!

Nicolas Sarkozy: "I am leaving for Washington to explain that the dollar, which after the Second World War was the only currency in the world, can no longer claim to be the only currency in the world. What was true in 1945 cannot be true today."

Oh dear. If history has taught us anything it's don't fuck with Russia. Bye-bye US Dollar.

Do you see?

"A special inside Story show from Kuala Lumpur where we examine how the financial turmoil on Wall Street has affected Asian markets and economies."

Comment 42: William: "That, and our economy runs on paper money that the world doesn't accept as currency due to no gold standard. See the financial reasons for war in Iraq and Iran being next due to both economies no longer accepting US Dollars as main trade currency, instead switching to the Euro for its more stable fluctuation in value. When the US buys, the US prints, thus inflating their own economy, essentially taking it out on US citizens, and devaluing the money the foreign sellers recieve. They get tired of taking $9.50 worth of bills at which time of agreement was worth $10; in which time we declare them an international threat and takeover their government to re-establish the dollar as currency to maintain the image in the world. One large economic nation such as China or India stopping trade in US Dollars and our economy is finished." -- Basically

"... careful planning may have been the unprecedented propping up of the dollar and bombing of gold and oil the week before the curtain opened on the scene. Gold and oil had to be pushed down hard to give them room to rise before anyone shouted “hyperinflation!” As we watch the curtain rise on war in Eurasia, it is well to remember that things are not always as they seem. Markets are manipulated and wars are staged by Grand Chessmen behind the scenes."

"Art to digitized information science to engineering problem." -- "Combinational era focuses on empiricism and simulation." -- "Synthetically developed energy solutions could have a substantial impact on natural resource demand."

Amazing portfolio of visualisations of global conflict and environmental crisis. Very eco/camo/swampy. What Hardy Blechman should have done with the marahrishi label http://www.emaharishi.com (Possble collab?)

"The diagram below shows a regional map of the Middle East. The coloured lines represent: Build (green), Under construction (Orange) and Proposed (red) Oil and Gas pipeline since the start of Operation Shock and Ore (March 2003)." Yup. A right carve up.

"Investing $750,000 in Al's pontificat[ion] on behalf of his carbon trading business could pay Norway and OPEC handsomely... Al's crusade should translate into far higher prices for the [Norwegian's] lower carbon North Sea oil and gas."

"Google's reported interest in laying a new trans-Pacific underwater fiber optic cable is the most prominent sign that, after a six-year hiatus, companies are starting to build massive conduits for internet data."

Canadian foreign minister Peter MacKay said yesterday: 'This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say, “We're claiming this territory”. (So funny)