BRICS, Mexico, one don imperialism and the US dollar crisis
A NEW global currency may soon formally challenge the American dollar hegemony if the BRICS countries have their way. This is part of an ever-expanding trend in which many countries are now dropping the American dollar and trading in their own national currencies.
Come August 2023, the BRICS group of countries will hold the much-anticipated 15th Summit in Durban, South Africa. Prior to the August summit, an expansion meet will be held in June.
Some 19 countries are seeking membership of BRICS. This include long-standing American allies and friendly nations Egypt, I ndonesia, Malaysia, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Argentina, and possibly Turkiye, Bahrain, among other countries.
Of interest to many is if, given the “international war crimes arrest warrant”, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will attend this event and if he does, will South Africa arrest him?
That aside, the creation of a common currency tops the BRICS agenda. The New Development Bank (NDB), owned by BRICS, may be the driver of this potential new digital, common currency.
A BRICS national currency, especially if it is a central bank type digital currency, may well accelerate the ‘dump-the-dollar-rush’.
BRICS consists of global powerhouses Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Many of these countries, if not already started trading in their own national currencies, have announced plans to do so.
WARS, SANCTIONS, PLUNDER
With the US national debt well over US$32 trillion, rising anxiety exists i n the financial world about a possible American debt default. All this has added to the global uncertainties affecting international money markets, and may well be helping to hasten the shift away from the American dollar by many nations.
Fur thermore, rising oil prices, food bills, healthcare, transportation costs, and other inflationary pressures add to the global anxieties.
We see this in the political unrests taking place in many countries.
The outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine, NATO-proxy war was followed by harsh sanctions imposed on Russia. Over US$350 billion state assets held in foreign banks were seized.
This aggressive policy of sanctions and seizures of countries’ financial assets is a typical behaviour of America and her allies.
My friends, it is the same pattern everywhere. Sanctions, financial blackmail, political coercion and then the confiscation – sheer outright pilfering – of nations’ assets.
Let us do an historical recap.
In Afghanistan, US$7 billion was seized by America after they hastily fled the country in August 2021.
Venezuela is in the same predicament in which roughly US$9 billion was grabbed by America. The Bank of England also seized US$1 billion in Venezuelan gold.
Despite a spate of diplomatic foray by America to get Venezuelan oil, these funds have not been returned by President Joe ‘Working Man’ Biden.
Iraq has also been a victim of plunder. According to CNN, over US$150 billion of Iraq’s assets were plundered and stolen after the 2003 invasion.
Libya, too, lost as much as US$53 billion that President Muammar Gaddafi invested in American financial institutions. Most of that money simply disappeared with his death.
But it is not just money that is being plundered from nations. The American military has established bases in the oil-rich provinces of Syria and has been shipping out oil.
The US now controls over 90 per cent of Syrian oil since the illegal occupation, and estimated loss of revenue to that country has been put at US$92 billion.
THE US DOLLAR CRISIS
The seizure of Russian assets was perhaps, in my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes made, since this, among other things, has helped to create a backlash against the dollar hegemony.
Since the sanctions were imposed on Russia and her foreign assets seized, the American share of global reserve currencies have fallen from 73 per cent in 2000 to 47 per cent in 2022, the financial blog, Stormgain, reports.
This rapid decline in the dollar’s share in reserves currencies is “10 times faster” than any other such event “over the previous 20 years”, Stormgain concludes.
My dear friends, let us recall that it was Saudi Arabia who helped America during the 1971 dollar-financial crisis.
Saudi Arabia, instigated by Henry Kissinger, created a dollar rinsing hustle, the ‘Petro Dollar’, in which America earned money on the margin by the US dollar becoming the international benchmark in which oil prices were quoted and traded.
O, how times have changed! Word! China’s ‘ Petro Yuan’ is now being used by Saudi Arabia to replace ‘the Petro Dollar’ as the price benchmark in which their oil prices will be quoted and sold on the world market.
Saudi Arabia is a major global political economic player. Therefore, insofar as the US dollar hegemony is concerned, this is truly a cataclysmic event!
Ben Norton of geopoliticaleconomy.com writes that this “global de-dollarization campaign is gaining momentum, as countries around the world seek alternatives to the hegemony of the US dollar”.
AMERICAN ‘ONE DON’ INTERVENTIONISM
Mexico, in the meantime, who is seeking membership in BRICS, has strongly criticised America against the background of some US senators call for “an American military intervention in Mexico”.
“Mexico is an independent and free country, not a colony or US protectorate,” Mexican President Lopez ‘AMLO’ Obrador said.
‘AMLO’ also wrote a very strong letter to President Joe ‘Working Man’ Biden, in which he accused the US government, in particular the Agency for I nternational Development, of “funding groups openly opposed to the legal and legitimate government that I represent”.
“This was no doubt an act of interventionism violating international law and the respect that there should be between two free and sovereign states,” President Lopez Obrador said.
So we see, my friends, that America and the West talk about a “rules-based order” but judging from Mexico’s complaints, it is one i n which ‘ military might determines who is right’.
We all need to join together and support the national and international fight to achieve a better quality of life for poor people and the middle class; to create a new world order in which peace, justice, and equality for all thrive.
That is just ‘the bitta truth!’