The biggest news last week and for the year so far, pertains to the SWIFT clearing system and what they just did. The U.S. has been pushing to kick Russia out which would certainly hamper their ability to do business internationally. The idea was to isolate Russia and box their trade in. This action has been at the top of the list for the U.S. in their move to press more and more financial and trade sanctions on Russia. It just backfired and may even boomerang. Not only did SWIFT not isolate and kick Russia out, they are giving Russia one of their 25 board seats! You may or already probably know this news, I believe the world has now made and about face and we may now have a glimmer of hope for the world at large. I will call this “a vote for peace, a vote for truth”, let me explain.
First and most importantly, the vote is not just a “no vote” to isolating Russia, I view it more as a “no vote” and against the United States dollar hegemony. The U.S. has during our entire lifetimes “run and ruled the world”. Whatever the U.S. says, goes. This mentality has obviously been even more forceful in recent years as the U.S. has sent military all over the world to enforce their desires. Many of these operations have been seen by foreigners as unjust and discovered later (Iraq for example) to have been forwarded by false intelligence or even outright lies. Not much was said because who really had the power to dissent? China and Russia 15 years ago didn’t have the military or financial might to object. Our allies like Britain and Germany did not want to cross Uncle Sam, so they just “went along to get along”.
This is now changed. China is the largest creditor to the U.S., Russia has built her military and we have double crossed and in general alienated many of our long time allies. Think Israeli relations, German eavesdropping, pressure on Swiss banks etc.. Even the “special friendship” between the U.S. and Britain has been fractured badly as they just applied to become a charter member of the AIIB, http://shanghaiist.com/2015/03/13/britain-applies-join-china-backed-asia-bank-us-furious.php which aims to be a direct competitor with the U.S. led World Bank. This could never have even been dreamed of only five years ago. I don’t believe this decision was made by the Brits because of something or “some things” we have done. In my opinion, Great Britain has simply looked around and decided to “go with the winner”. We are talking more about U.S. weakness here, and even our strongest ally is moving away from us!
So how exactly does SWIFT giving a board seat to Russia translate into a vote for peace and a vote for truth? This is an action by the rest of the world saying a very loud “NO” to the United States. They have seen us stir up unrest and strive at every turn to start a war. Mr. Putin and Russia stepped in late 2013 to diffuse our attack on Syria. They have not reacted to sanctions and have not so far reacted to the U.S. led political coup in Ukraine. They have refused to be drawn in to what will become WWIII. I believe the world recognizes this and is rewarding Russia for her restraint. The “world” does not want a war, the U.S. does.
The U.S. “needs” a war, just as it did back in 2001 when the economy was deteriorating. War is obviously a bad thing but make no mistake, it is good for the real economy as long as the fighting is not done on your own soil. The U.S. also needs a war to retain “control” over various parts of the world where control is being lost, think the Middle East and energy regions. As you know, I also believe the U.S. needs “something to point at” as a reason or to blame for collapsing markets. I believe collapse is a 100% given but how would it “look” if it just happened out of the blue? A war would be perfect “cover” to explain why things went bad in our markets. The rest of the world knows this and in my opinion wants to take this away.
The rest of the world also knows that dollar hegemony is not in their favor in any way, shape, or form. They realize the U.S. has been importing real goods and paying for them with freely printed pieces of paper and electronic digits. The world desires “truth”. It desires real and true settlement of trade, as in “something real for something real”. The U.S. wants to continue with something for nothing in what is an obvious “never pay” model.
As mentioned above, Britain already sees the writing on the wall. There will be an alternative clearing system up and running by the Chinese by September. China will participate in the London gold fix and begin their own “pricing mechanism” beginning this Friday. China is also lobbying the IMF to include the yuan as a reserve currency http://thebricspost.com/china-imf-talks-underway-to-endorse-yuan-as-global-reserve-currency/#.VQXsTI0tHIU . Make no mistake, it is not just Britain who sees the writing on the wall, it is the entire world with the exception of a brain dead American population!
Before wrapping up there are a couple of other pieces to look at. Will Greece “pay” or arrange to borrow more so they can pay? I seriously doubt it and believe they will turn Eastward and accept some sort of offer by Russia and China which will be financial and include a gas pipeline through their country. The other one to look at is Germany. Will they continue to go along with U.S. wishes? I don’t think so. They can see as well as anyone else and they are (and have been) natural trading partners with Russia. They also get 30%+ of their natural gas from Russia, when push comes to shove, the people will want to stay warm and the industrialist will want their factories to continue to operate. Do not be surprised if Germany somehow forms cozier relations with both Russia and China while U.S. relations wane.
To me, what just happened is obvious. SWIFT (the world) has slapped the U.S. in the face and said we do not want war and we do want true and fair business dealings. Call me crazy but if the U.S. isn’t careful, we may end up as being isolated and kicked out of SWIFT and in the exact position we wanted to put Russia in. I am not saying this is something that could happen tomorrow but it is a possibility and could be used as punishment for our bad actions. Obviously this is way more important than a schoolyard pecking order but it can be compared. Just as the school bully alienates more and more schoolmates and even beats a few of them up, he loses favor and friends over time. Most people would prefer to coexist peacefully and to do business fairly, this I believe is what the SWIFT vote was all about! It’s at least a glimmer of hope and sanity in an insane world. Regards, Bill Holter
Honest and fair should never be so complicated… The clowns in DC are really stinking up the planet, seems like there might be hope and change coming from abroad.
who would have guessed growing up in the 1960’s where the change would come from?
Very encouraging development.
Hopefully cool heads will prevail.
We are the sum total of the relationships we build.
Maybe this is a lesson in bullying……
Not everything has to be about us and them.
Sometimes it can be about trying to get along.
Question is….Have we already gone too far down the road of US and THEM.
yes Mike, you have to ask what OUR response is going to be?
“yes Mike, you have to ask what OUR response is going to be?”
What do you think the response is going to be from these warmongers???
But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to exterminate, and utterly to destroy many. Daniel 11:44
Beautiful summary!
thank you Paul.
Thank you for all your contributions Bill. Just not sure on the SWIFT voting system. My understanding, and I know very little about this, is that the Board seats are allocated administratively based only on a country’s volume of trade on SWIFT
http://www.swift.com/about_swift/shownews?param_dcr=news.data/en/swift_com/2015/PR_share_reallocations.xml
mark in Victoria
all the while the U.S. has been urging Russia gets kicked out?
Bill,
When you shit on your friends and every one else long enough, they will at some point have enough and fight back. I believe that is where we are at. The bankers (aka criminals) and the US govt have now distanced every one and we can now hang out our Bananna Republic sign.
Remember the rise and fall of the Roman Empire? Well now it is USA’s turn. Our rise is over and whats left – the fall of course.
I hope Mr. Putin knows that Americans DO NOT want war, it is the bansters that want war.
I pray for peace for the whole world. I’m tired of the killing and murder and of all the govt lies and bull shit.
The 1% need to spread the wealth.
yes.
Bill: re the Greek/German dog and pony fiasco:
Define the bigger fool:
A who borrows from B, knowing he can never repay; or
B who lends to A, knowing that he will never receive payment?
…and keeps on giving money so earlier monies can be repaid?
I seriously doubt a war is good for the real economy, even if fought on others lands. Perhaps when winning nations had the balls to gather up the booty this helped them like pirates. Before The senseless war in Iraq we heard that the Iraqui oil would pay us back: LOL. Making bombs using borrowed or counterfeited dollars may appear to create profits and jobs, however, I believe it to be a false sense of economic recovery. Spending good money ( or our money) on things that blow up and disappear is really the same as just burning the money.
As clearly stated in the Iliad 3000 years ago, war is a sink hole taking down the winner and the loser.
If you make nothing of value you go broke.
in the long run you are correct.
A most excellent, truthful article Bill.
It is posted over at Global Research and on Jim Sinclair’s site too. Hopefully it will gain a wider audience among the American populace, where it needs to be understood on Main street.
The ‘clowns’ whom we elect to high office, are exactly that – clowns! Who belong in some flea bitten freak side show, no where near the ‘Big Top’!
To be a “public servant” is to serve the public. NOT yourself.
Again, Ludwig von Mises said it best for us years ago;
“Capitalism means free enterprise, sovereignty of the consumers in economic matters, and sovereignty of the voters in political matters. Socialism means full government control of every sphere of the individuals life and unrestricted supremacy of the government in it’s capacity as central board of production management”.
– Ludwig von Mises
thanks Out, Von Mises was a brilliant man.
Yes, TPTB’s “manipulation of everything” is unraveling before our eyes. However, it may still take a while longer as explained in this article: http://www.munknee.com/noonan-when-will-gold-silver-rally-not-in-2015-heres-why/
“Those believing the fiat “dollar” is on its currency deathbed and about to implode to its true intrinsic worth, zero, are not paying enough attention to realize that the elite’s are still in control while in the process of merely switching horses: to China from the U.S…Call them any number of names but the elites are not stupid, and they are not about to change horses mid-stream, as it were. There are a few developments in the works that need to come to fruition before any significant “reset” in Precious Metals valuation upwards may occur…”
But, as you write, this thing may possibly blow up at any time. Better to be safe by holding physical metals now!
it’s not worth the gamble that it won’t be tomorrow or any other morning in my opinion.
Bill – I was disappointed to learn that you think there was a “U.S. led political coup in Ukraine” and that the US wants war. This is not a case of the ‘tail wagging the dog’ to cloak fiscal missteps. You are overreaching here. My wife is from Ukraine and I have known Ukrainians for nearly 15 years. You have ignored the history of the 20th century. Tyrannical Russian leaders have always patterned themselves after the brutal oppressors before them. If you only knew how Ukrainians really suffered under Stalin’s Russia and the bitterness they feel about it, you would not have written what you wrote. Putin has for years now been moving in parallel to Stalin’s history against Ukraine beginning with Putin’s puppet, Viktor Yanukovych. Ukrainians rejected him after he revealed to his nation his true allegiance (to Russia). The US has always had a history of being the shining light before world for those seeking freedom notwithstanding its own missteps. What has Russia’s history been? It has been one of oppression, and Putin is now staging war games all around the world. He is no peace maker. He does not need to be a warmonger to remove United States dollar hegemony. The US has done it for Russia. Rather, Putin is a warmonger because he wants to be like the Russian despots before him.
the U.S. is the :shining light” for the world? In the past yes, and currently? Really?
I don’t know Bill…
Didn’t Russia just set up their own SWIFT system (albeit internally so far)? Couldn’t this just be the SWIFT crew rearranging the chairs before the Russian alternative starts to rival their own (China’s involvement)?
directly against the wishes of the U.S..
Just a question Bill….
In order for a swift system to work internationally or globally wouldn’t Russia and China require a network of global relay satellites and undersea optic cables?
My question is: if they do have these already in place then fine and well, we might see a real competitor to SWIFT if not then this infrastructure is going to take some time to put into place is it not? So moving from a domestic SWIFT system to a truly global system is not going to be quite so simple, and something tells me we are going to see undersea cables being mysteriously cut and satellites suddenly becoming inoprable as the bully in the playground kicks the board over.
the U.S. will try very hard to kick the table over.
“In my opinion, Great Britain has simply looked around and decided to “go with the winner”.”
That sounds a lot like the Neville Chamberlain approach to governing. We know how well that worked out in the 1940s.
“The “world” does not want a war, the U.S. does.”
SOME in the US do. The everyday citizens do not.
“War is obviously a bad thing but make no mistake, it is good for the real economy as long as the fighting is not done on your own soil.”
War is terrible in every way possible, slavery to foreign tyrants being the only thing worse. Yes, SOME profit from wars, usually by funding BOTH sides and requiring the winner to make good on the loser’s war debts.
“They realize the U.S. has been importing real goods and paying for them with freely printed pieces of paper and electronic digits.”
Indeed. But those same “freely printed pieces of paper and electronic digits” can then be used to buy just about anything one can imagine… including gold and silver!
“China is also lobbying the IMF to include the yuan as a reserve currency.”
It will take more than the IMFs blessing to make the yuan a reserve currency. First, it would have to be de-pegged from the US dollar, which would cause its value to soar. China has resisted this for some time now so as to be able to export more goods and collect more reserves… a considerable portion of which they are converting into gold and other physical assets. Next, it would have to be convertible into any other currency out there and be tradable on some sort of international FOREX type trading platform.
I am sure that there would be some other requirements as well but these will do for openers.
“Do not be surprised if Germany somehow forms cozier relations with both Russia and China while U.S. relations wane.”
Indeed. We will know that the Germans are serious about this when they follow in the footsteps of France and the Philippines by asking the US to remove its military forces from Germany. If Germany does this, then other EU states might well do the same.
It sounds so good that it invites my inherent paranoia (built up over time) to kick in.
Is this whole thing a dog and pony show that still ends in one world government as well
as the forfeiture of more freedoms here at home? I pray you are right. There is still
a glimmer of optimism every now and then. Banksters have trillions but no one rules
if no one obeys.