by Victoria Nikiforova
[RIA] Against the backdrop of a powerful discussion, whether to supply American tanks to Kyiv, and if so, how much, the main question of our days was somehow lost - what did the United States forget in Ukraine in general? No seriously.
It is clear that the matter is not in those kaveenshchiks who pose as "young democracy." It's about resources. But what is this resource?
кавээнщик is directly translatable into the phrase military officer, also into cavalry officer. In the context of the sentence in which it appears, I think it is a Russian idiom and diminutive for the word elites.
Yes, American corporations have bought up most of Ukraine's agricultural land, and these are really good, fertile soils. Yes, there is interest in Ukrainian titanium, a strategic raw material for American industry.
A separate benefit for Washington is that now representatives of the same people are fighting each other on the primordially Russian lands. The geopolitical profit here is obvious.
Biden compared the growth rates of the US and Chinese economies in 2022
However, is Washington really ready to risk a world war for the sake of such small private profits, putting even its own population at risk? Not to mention that fueling the Ukrainian conflict is tearing the Western economy to shreds and driving a wedge between the White House and its vassals.
An interesting explanation of why the States have seized the Independent so much is given by the prominent American economist Paul Craig Roberts . "The power of Washington will weaken along with the dollar" is the title of his article . In it, he draws public attention to the recent decision of Saudi Arabia to accept not only US dollars, but also other currencies as payment for oil. It is interesting, by the way, that the American media for the most part ignored this news.
Roberts believes that this event is the end of the petrodollar in the form in which the US administration created it half a century ago. Then it all started with the fact that the brave General de Gaulle demanded that the Americans give France sixteen and a half thousand tons of gold in exchange for one and a half billion US dollars accumulated in the country's national bank - in full accordance with the official rate. It was, of course, a shock to the foundations. De Gaulle was avenged by giving him May of 1968, but he had to part with the little gold.
It immediately became clear that it was impossible to live like this. So all the countries of the world will line up for ingots. Already in 1971, President Nixon abolished the gold standard. As US Treasury Secretary John Connolly said to his French counterpart at the time, "From now on, the US dollar is our currency and your problem."
In exchange, Nixon agreed with the Saudis that they would only sell oil for US currency. The US dollar was backed by the most demanded hydrocarbon on planet Earth . This provided him with the status of the main world currency for years to come. Now that era is coming to an end. The dollar as a problem has already been recognized, it seems, in all countries of the world.
Previously, everyone needed dollars to buy oil and to keep their savings in them, saving them from inflation. Now the picture of the world is changing. China and Russia are converting payments for oil into rubles and yuan. India is thinking about buying oil from Russia for rupees. The Saudi demarche is on the same line.
As for savings in dollars - or in American securities - then many countries had doubts twenty years ago. After the mysterious terrorist act of September 11, which provoked US military aggression in the Middle East, the same Gulf monarchies began to actively invest windfall oil profits not only in dollars, but also in their native deserts. As if in the fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights," super-modern cities began to grow there, the tallest skyscrapers in the world were built, the most luxurious fountains beat and the most expensive world championships in history were held.
Actually, the Tales of 1,001 Nights is a tale of the daughter of a vizier who, after being offered as the last virgin in the kingdom, offers tales she tells to an king to delay him from killing her. See Scheherazade. See also the symphony by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
After the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the dollar system swung once more. China began to reduce the intensity of its investments in US debt. Despite the economic symbiosis with the United States, they also began to invest more and more money in the development of the country and the domestic market. Hence the gigantic scale of residential construction, thousands of kilometers of ultra-modern highways and railways, expensive Olympics. All this in order to reorient production to the domestic consumer and reduce the dependence of the economy on the unreliable dollar.
From whom else could money be vacuumed to maintain American trousers? From Europe , of course. But the well-being of Europe was shattered first by brutal coronavirus lockdowns, and then by anti-Russian sanctions. Maybe they would be happy to support the hegemon and lend a shoulder to the dollar, but there are stupidly no funds for this.
“The rise in energy prices and the slowdown in world activity “ate” the surplus and even the accumulated reserves of the most developed European countries, including Germany ,” states the French Atlantico not without malice . Thus, the Americans have lost a third important source of financing the balance of payments deficit.
Today, analysts cite the transfer of world trade to settlements in national currencies as the main threats to the dollar, as well as the creation of new reserve currencies that will squeeze out the "American".
The idea, leaked to the media, of creating a stablecoin by Russia and Iran , a gold-backed cryptocurrency, looks very promising. Interesting in this regard is the initiative of Brazil and Argentina - the two largest economies in South America - to create a single currency sur. Brazilian President Lula proposed to develop this idea and create a single currency for the BRICS member countries . Given that this bloc includes the largest economies in the world, this could create a real counterbalance to the US dollar.
In the meantime, in the United States themselves , the Chinese renminbi, which we used to call the yuan, is considered an "existential threat to the dollar" . Our strategic partners are especially concerned about the extremely convenient and fast digital payment services that are being successfully developed in China. They attract consumers all over the world.
Russia also has a huge advantage in this regard - domestic digital payment systems are much more convenient and faster than American ones. In this regard, it is curious how the implementation of the concept of the digital ruble will help the sovereignization of the domestic economy.
Paul Craig Roberts, who condemned the dollar to fall in his article, argues that a decline in its share in international settlements will lead to "austerity in the US." Well, that is, to poverty and decline, if you call a spade a spade.
Returning to the question of Ukraine. Today, the only way for Washington to prop up its currency (and with it, its economy and way of life) is through military aggression. The chaos in Europe, provoked with the help of Ukraine, for some time turns the dollar into a "safe haven" where capital flows.
Therefore, the States will torment the Independent to the last. They need it so as not to slide into "austerity." Unfortunate lads will die at the front so that the portraits of dead white presidents do not turn into a pile of cut paper.
The noble American hawk Robert Kagan, husband of Victoria Fuck the EU Nuland, wrote about this back in the summer : the US refusal from military aggression and intervention will immediately lead the country to decline and chaos.
Therefore, Washington will not be able to stop in Ukraine. His next military target will be China, an "existential threat" to the US dollar.