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Monday, May 2, 2022

End of Global Cooperation?

In the last update here I made the comment pasted in just below dated 4-18-22. Nothing major that I am aware of has changed since. However, in regards to a key point that we may seeing the end of "global cooperation" going forward from here, I did see this article about the idea that Russia and other nations may be moving forward with some kind of plan to back the ruble with commodities (possibly to include gold). Obviously, if Russia and other nations make a move like this, it will be significant news potentially impacting the global monetary system. But I could not help but notice one part of this article discussing a recent interview by a high level Russian official (Nikolai Petrushev). It provides some insight into the very key point I had mentioned below about the weaponization of the monetary system creating trust issues around the world.


Here is the key paragraph with a quote from Russian official Nikolai Petrushev (added underline is mine)

"On the subject of the financial sanctions themselves, and the freezing of Russia’s FX reserves held abroad, Patrushev states that by imposing sanctions against Russia, the “the West is hitting not only Russia, but also itself”, and has damaged trust in the US dollar as the world’s de facto reserve currency:

The current global financial system is built solely on trust, including in the United States as the issuer of the world’s reserve currency. Half a century ago, the gold factor was present, but in 1971 the States untied its currency from its quotes, which made it possible to issue money virtually without control.”


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Previous Update as of 4-18-2022:


Nothing major in terms of an update to report as a change from anything below as the war in the Ukraine just continues to drag on for now with no clear end of the conflict in sight. So things are still pretty much the same in terms of economic impact on the monetary system. Jim Rickards did do another pretty in depth interview to update things from his point of view which you can find here. Jim is a good source because for the most part he tries to offer objective analysis based on the latest information and he adjusts things as new information comes in as best he can. But no one really knows where all is going for sure and what the full impact long term is going to be. The easiest observation to make is one that Jim goes into this most recent interview  --- It is most likely the the period of "globalization" we have had for some time is coming to an end and we probably are entering a new world where there are at least two and maybe more competing power blocs that now are more concerned about being able to be independent from the other bloc(s) (for survival) and far less motivated to move forward with "global cooperation". The weaponization of the monetary system has probably destroyed any trust left that people can count on not having their assets confiscated if they behave in a manner not acceptable to those in control of the monetary system. Once that kind of trust is lost, it can take a long time to ever restore.