4.18.2014

The U.S. and Western Empire's Financial System is Collapsing, Its Last Shaky Pillar is the Petrodollar

My favorite picture from the Occupy movement era.

Every empire in every era has ruthlessly defended its privileged position, it's myopic sense exceptionalism, the U.S. and its western allies are no different. Throughout history empires have dominated only as long as they could continue to suck the resources and attendant wealth of the subjected regions they dominated into the center of power. Then as now, any means, no matter how unjust or violent were acceptable in defense of the empire's privileges. As Samuel P. Huntington said, "The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."

Historically food was the principle power of domination, in our era it's energy, power and wealth are are now determined by who buys and sells it on the market and it's about the currency used to buy sell that energy. The U.S. dollar [USD] is the de facto world currency because almost all oil sales throughout the world are denominated in U.S. dollars. The USD is known globally as the petrodollar because most countries rely on oil imports and they are forced to maintain large stockpiles of dollars in order to continue imports. This creates a consistent demand for USDs and ostensibly supports the USD's value, regardless of economic conditions in the United States. As a result, the U.S. government can run higher budget deficits than most other countries can and that the unrealistic USD value means that goods imported into the United States are relatively cheap.

Consequently the U.S. foreign policy has, since the Bretton Woods agreement following the end of WWII, been one of perpetual petrodollar warfare. The US's military as well as its 'security' establishment and those of its vassal states have one principle objective - preserving by whatever means necessary, including force, the status of the USD as the world's dominant reserve currency and as the currency in which oil is priced.

As the Guardian article today says, "From the overthrow of the elected Mossadegh government in Iran in the 1950s, when the CIA and MI6 paid anti-government demonstrators, the US and its allies have led the field: sponsoring "colour revolutions", funding client NGOs and training student activists, fuelling social media protest and denouncing – or ignoring – violent police crackdowns as it suits them." Be it Iraq or Libya or Iran or, more recently, Venezuela and Ukraine, the reason behind the west's actions is the preservation of the petrodollar.

The fact is that when the fiat U.S. petrodollar fails the western empire's domination will too. The U.S. is bankrupt, they borrow at least a trillion dollars every year that they can never pay back [much of it to cover the interest on debt they've accrued]. They sell worthless junk bonds that their banks buy with newly printed imaginary fiat dollars handed to them by the Federal Reserve. The Empire's financial system is collapsing, its last shaky pillar is the petrodollar.

BRICS leaders Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, India's Manmohan Singh, Russia's Vladimir Putin, China's Xi Jinping and South Africa's Jacob Zuma

It's well known by investors that the BRICS countries [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] are planning their escape route from the petrodollar's noose. Last month's 'Petrodollar Alert: Putin Prepares To Announce "Holy Grail" Gas Deal With China' said we should expect that the 'Holy Grail' deal will announce that Russia will be accepting another currency to deal with Russian gas and oil, be it the Euro or Yen or Yuan or Gold or ? This is why Russia is the new bĂȘte noire of the Empire. This why Ukraine's stability has been put into jeopardy.

The US dollar faces collapse as the World Reserve Currency. The more countries that opt out of the Economic sphere that is the EU, the IMF and the USA , the less countries there are that will need US dollars. For that very same reason the USA needs the world to be addicted to fossil fuels. Sunlight and wind can not be sold for US dollars, in fact the entire environmental catastrophe Gaia faces is driven by petrodollar politics through its tentacles of oil dependent consumer driven extractive capitalism and the subservient corporate owned and operated mainstream media who's drumbeat of propaganda in support of this bankrupt economic system now threatens the future of our descendant's.

Please watch the Jim Sinclair video below, he does a far better job than i can of explaining the repercussions of a petrodollar collapse on the economies of the U.S. and its vassal states.