We’ve met Brandon Smith on several occasions in these pages. He’s a libertarian analyst with a solid grounding in economic reality, rather than pious theory. His latest article warns of a “double whammy” that’s poised to strike home in not just the US, but also the global economy.
Years back it was hard to say exactly when we would see the breaking point. Today, it is obvious that the moment has arrived, and not surprisingly the mainstream media is barely reporting on it.
The BRICS nations including Russia, China and India have been creeping away from the U.S. dollar in response to western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine and the removal of Russia from the SWIFT system. This action is primarily focused on Russian oil and gas exports, as Russia now demands that anyone buying the vital commodities must do so in rubles instead of dollars (up to now, the de facto global petro-currency).
The mainstream media has completely ignored the implications of this tactic on the part of Russia; not only that, but they have buried any mention of the fact that the Russian central bank just backed the ruble with gold. This is why the ruble exploded back to life after currency markets reopened in the country. The western financial media assured themselves and the public that the Russian currency was stone dead, guaranteeing a cataclysmic depression in the world’s 11th largest economy. Instead, the recent spike in the ruble’s value has bewildered U.S. and E.U. economists, but it was easy to predict if you’ve been tracking Russian gold purchases for the past decade.
This means that the Russian economy is not about to fold anytime soon, and now the EU, which is reliant on Russian oil and gas exports for 40% of their energy needs, is about to face economic doom unless they submit to paying for energy in rubles (which they won’t) or find a replacement source for gas and oil (which is impossible). Furthermore, with Europe on the global market looking for alternative oil sources, a big chunk of the oil market will be rerouted.
What does this mean? Less oil and gas to fulfill the demand in other countries. In other words, prices are about to skyrocket higher yet again.
For now, Biden is trying to temper price spikes by releasing strategic petroleum reserves, but this is merely a stopgap. There’s nowhere near enough in U.S. reserves to offset the sheer volume of oil that Europe needs. Unless there is a dramatic change in the posture of Russia or the EU on oil for Rubles, I continue to predict that gas prices will rise to at least double what they are today across the U.S. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand.
Beyond the issue of higher oil prices, the Russian move to completely drop the dollar as the petrocurrency may be the initial domino in a chain that will lead to the end of the dollar’s global reserve status.
. . .
This does not mean the BRICS will not see some fiscal pain as a result of the economic war, but it’s important for the western public to understand this fact: WE are the real target of the conflict, NOT Russia. It is the U.S. and Europe that will be hurt most, with the dollar suffering the worst damage.
The public is being misled to think that there is no risk on our side of the global chess board when the exact opposite is true. Most of the risk is on our side.
The conflict with Russia and (for now, only potentially) China has completely overshadowed the second big story in economic news. That’s the Fed’s predictable move to raise interest rates, even though they’re doing so during a time of economic weakness.
. . .
Numbers for retail, home sales and manufacturing have been in decline along with GDP. At the same time, prices on necessities including food, energy and housing costs have continued to increase at a dizzying pace.
This is a textbook case of stagflationary collapse.
The timing of the Fed’s rate hikes could not be more perfect if they were trying to increase the damage of the crash ahead. We know for a fact the Fed is capable of such a cold-blooded act, because we’ve seen it before.
Anyone familiar with the Fed’s history can tell you this is exactly what they did in the early 1930s, which led to an even worse drop in U.S. markets and the prolonged and torturous deflationary event we now know as the Great Depression. Except this time, we will see elements of both inflation and deflation simultaneously.
. . .
I outline all of this not because I mean to frighten people with doom-and-gloom, but to inform you of reality. Time is very short for us to prepare.
In addition, I hope to shine a spotlight on the propaganda that is being spread within the mainstream media. These ongoing campaigns of lies and omissions of inconvenient truths are designed to mislead the public into thinking the coming crash is all about the East vs. West conflict. After all, that’s a much easier sell, isn’t it? The common refrain today is that “We have to suffer so we can overcome our barbaric foes overseas!”
But it’s a con. The truth is, this is a planned crisis that has been in the works for decades.
Make no mistake and mark my words, in a couple years you will be hearing all about a grand plan on the part of institutions like the IMF and the WEF to “save” the global economy using a new currency system that is nationally “neutral.” They will offer to peg all currencies to the SDR basket and likely a digital currency framework as long as each nation accepts that the globalists are in control of their economies by default.
There’s more at the link.
Food for thought . . . and impetus for action, if further impetus were needed. Prepare for hard times.
Peter
(About Brandon tapping the US' strategic reserves) There’s nowhere near enough in U.S. reserves to offset the sheer volume of oil that Europe needs.
There's nowhere near enough to offset the volume WE need. Not to mention that if we need to get actively involved in WWIII, that fuel is there for our military, so they'll be like Russian tanks running out of gas in Ukraine.
For at least a decade I've been puzzling over just how the insane spending levels would resolve: inflationary collapse or deflationary collapse. Right now, it looks like inflationary collapse. He's saying we'll see some of both, but the bottom line is collapse is collapse.
Where I live, house prices are through the roof. Rent is trough the roof. In fact, it's cheaper to BUY a house than to RENT one. People can't afford to buy, and they can't afford to rent. When the people can't afford SHELTER, you know the economy's augering in. Add to that the skyrocketing prices of food and fuel, and you're talking the perfect shitstorm. Friends, the parts are flying off the machine as we speak… Stand by for heavy rolls as the ship comes about…
Brandon Fools Around, but we get to Find Out…
Film at 11.
CornPop would be so proud.
Economic collapse is not a bug but a feature. How else does a country so vastly overextended fiscally resolve unpayable debts.
Loss of the Petrodollar status is going to be the ignition of the Greater Depression in the US and those countries that hitched their economies to the USA.
Not to beat the dead horse but FOOD and Safe Water is FAR more important to me than loss of the value of my retirement accounts and bank accounts.
I cannot stop them destroying the value of my US Dollars BUT I can spend them like the Germans in the hyperinflationary Weimar Republic on REAL Hold in your hands Goods for my family.
History records well off German folks saving up for a cottage by the lake in a year or so spending that WHOLE SUM for a pair of good boots.
Got food? Got Garden and seeds? Got skills useful in a Greater Depression like maybe Shoe Repair? Tempus Fugit.
The current estimate of oil available offshore (Continental shelf east/west coats and Gulf of Mexico) is 86 billion barrels. Current 'available' oil in the US is around 40 billion barrels. Both of those figures are dependent on actually being able to drill.
Russia can say the ruble is backed by gold, but unless you can exchange rubles for gold it's all BS.
The only two things the Russians will take for trade from "unfriendly nations are Roubles or gold and they have fixed the value of the Rouble to the value of gold.
Thus it is gold backed.
They are or have made arrangements with the BRICS to take their currencies and fixed an exchange rate between these countries.
Whoever has the gold (and the commodities) makes the rules. In this case the Russians are making the rules. The Russians are the leading, or in the top 3, in producing ALL the major commodities the world needs.
Europe has always been a commodity poor continent and their idiotic leftard "green" policies have handcuffed them in basic food and fuel production and use. The US is rapidly catching up to this level of lunacy.
Have you seen what's going on in Europe over the past two months? That's coming to a country near you.
Elections have consequences and we are being destroyed by the consequences. The Biden regime is Russia and China's wet dream.
@Contrarian View: And that's exactly what you can do now, including even Russian private citizens, who can buy gold with their rubles.
https://bullionexchanges.com/blog/russia-pegs-ruble-to-gold-what-does-that-mean-to-the-world-order/
The ruble is not "backed by gold" unless you can exchange A for B.
That is not the case now, and never will be.
So that economic "explanation" is a bag full of what my mom used to spread on the rose bushes, and the bag had a picture of a large male cow on it.
QED
It's not "gold-backed" if you won't trade them interchangeably.
QED
Furthermore, Vlad has pegged the ruble to gold exchange rate by giving the equivalent of US$1500 per ounce of gold, which is 25% below market price for gold. IOW, he's willing to trade ground beef for sirloin strip, 1:1.
If anyone is stupid enough to take $1500 in rubles and give $2000 in gold, they deserve whatever they get.
And if actual physical gold were being exchanged, the market in brilliant counterfeit Russian currency would be off the charts, and in short order, there wouldn't be any gold to back the ruble with.
This was why Nixon stopped that sort of nonsense in 1971.
Russian gold reserves aren't even enough to back their government payments, and more than 30% of just this year's budget is total unbacked airballs, and that's only this year's Russian government budget, which is barely 20% of the Russian economy overall, let alone every other year from 1991-present, all unbacked by anything but the credibility of Vlad.
There isn't enough physical gold on the planet to back even the ruble, and Russia is the 24th largest economy, in the same league as countries like Spain or Taiwan.
"Gold-backed rubles" is thus in the same lexicological category as "military intelligence", "government help" and "jumbo shrimp": it is an oxymoron.