To put it simply, the fate of mankind revolves around humanity’s ability to cooperate with one another. Yet, we find ourselves embroiled in conflict and chaos instead of finding peaceful avenues of cooperation and sustainable solutions.
The most existential problem the world currently faces is the shortage of critical resources. All nations should be involved in finding viable ways to properly assess and distribute natural resources for the near and longer term. Additionally, there should be a global coalition dedicated to developing technologies in an effort to deal with inevitable commodity shortages… Instead we find ourselves in an upside-down world where chaos takes the center stage and peace is nowhere on the horizon.
Quite frankly, the long-term consequences of the lack of global cooperation on this planet include the extinction of our species. If you think that’s a far-fetched concept, it’s not.
The shorter-term consequences of humanity’s lack of cooperation could lead to runaway climate change, continuous wars over resources, or even a nuclear conflict.
Some of the other consequences of critical commodity shortages- of which we are already amidst– is a sharp decline in living standards due to inflation and rising mortality rates. The result of these two worsening conditions could lead to massive internal strife in a number of developed countries, including the U.S.
The Fiscal Impact of The Ukraine War
Shortly after the conflict in Ukraine began, I said that Ukraine War would be a point of inflection.
What did I mean by that?
I meant the Ukraine War would mark the end of business as usual for many countries and indeed for the world as a whole. Specifically, I felt the war would end up forcing the U.S. to choose either economic cooperation with the global South/East or find itself in a precarious geopolitical situation. This assessment was based on my early prediction, that Russia would prevail in the conflict. Unfortunately, both of these predictions turned out to be on the mark.
The Ukraine War has marked the end of U.S. hegemony and the beginning of a new world order. Under the current administration, the United States is poising itself to be left behind in the dust as BRICS forges ahead creating steadfast alliances with developing countries in emerging markets. To our own peril, if the United States refuses to cooperate, the consequences in economic terms are either runaway inflation or an economic cataclysm that will make the Great Depression look like balmy times.
It doesn’t take a financial wizard to see how times have already changed… The current U.S. economy is unlike any we have ever seen.
America’s Covert Interest In Ukraine
Then came Ukraine – which proved to be the proverbial ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ in American hegemony.
In other words, the Ukraine War became the final and indisputable sign that the West – America and Europe – will not preside over a unipolar world. It’s become glaringly obvious that the United States provoked the Ukraine War with the hope we could destroy Putin and his hold on Russia’s endowment of resources.
Beyond question, Russia’s endowment of natural resources is the broadest and deepest of any country in the world. Destroying Putin would also destroy the strong alliance that has formed between Russia and China. This dynamic duo combines massive resources with world-leading overall scientific achievement.
What would a conjoined border between Russia & China look like? It’s not so unrealistic to envision Mongolia and Kazakhstan being absolved in the mix...
As a kicker, combine these two geographical colossal giants and you have manufacturing prowess that easily tops that of the entire West. Noteworthy is that Russia is rarely considered a major manufacturer, assumed to be topped by many European countries from Poland to Germany to France. Yet, estimates show that Russian production of war materials topped that of the entire West by over 5:1, which was a major reason Ukraine was losing the war.
My strong conviction that America’s support for Ukraine was an attempt by proxy to destroy Russia.
Money Just Can’t Save The Day…
Although I have written repeatedly about the godless West, I still cringe whenever the thought comes forward. In just half a century, America, the greatest democracy the world has ever seen… A country with a seemingly unshakeable moral foundation… A country which was able to dominate the world in multiple facets of life, ranging from sports to technology to healthcare to education, has fallen to depths that can be compared morally to the most extreme right-wing government the world has ever witnessed.
America has become a country that believes any problem confronting the nation can be solved with money. And it’s perhaps fitting that the utter failure of money to have any effect on the outcome of the war in Ukraine was the final blow to the chimera of U.S. unlimited power.
To prove this point even further, the financial sanctions imposed on Russia were designed to deprive necessary funds to acquire critical imports for its economy and war efforts. These sanctions didn’t just fail miserably… They blew up and backfired in America’s face when Russia usurped SWIFT and began making international trade agreements in just about every currency aside from the USD.
And ditto for China, where sanctions were largely responsible for the country’s unprecedented advances in science and technology. Another survey by Nature of the fastest growing science and technology over the past five years showed 99 out of 100 were Chinese. If the Nature Journal wasn’t so highly regarded in the West, I simply would not have believed this statistic. Regardless, it’s probably the most vivid example of how money and one of its by-products- sanctions- have rendered useless.
The geopolitical consequences of America’s missteps should become clear in 2024 and 2025.
The Rise of The Eastern Bloc
BRICS – originally an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South America, has morphed into a rapidly growing bloc of nations consisting of the original five, plus other developing countries held together by shared economic goals. The word on the street is that BRICS intends to establish a new exclusive currency.
My speculation… The BRICS monetary system will likely contain a basket of digital currencies, backed by gold. You can read more details of this theory in my latest book, published in 2018, China’s Rise and the New Age of Gold, available on Amazon.
Six countries were added to BRICS at their 2023 summit. Four of the six, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, are all located in the Middle East. The current BRICS members, though barely topping double digits, has become the most important resource bloc of nations in the world.
Major announcements of BRICS usually come at their summits. The next BRICS summit will occur in Kazan, Russia in October 2024. Not only will new members be proclaimed – which could be any number of the 40 countries that have expressed an interest in joining– plus an announcement regarding the new BRICS currency. In the meantime, evidence of the geopolitical clout of the bloc is already evident.
My final thoughts on BRICS has me thinking – quite speculatively – that the beneficiaries of the Israeli conflict could buy the entire Middle East. Clearly one of the top intelligence agencies, Massad, was caught flat-footed by the Israeli invasion. China is one of the few, maybe the only country that could have created conditions that made Massad think there was no threat. My guess- at an admittedly hideous cost- Israel will prevail. Also likely… Netanyahu will lose power. My prediction is that Israel ends up joining BRICS, probably not in 2024 but in 2025.
This raises one question for which I do not have a cogent answer.
Will the U.S. see the writing on the wall and make peace rather than follow its path of etiolation?
My hope is that the United States recognizes what is inevitable and the world will become a cooperative. Quixotic? Hopefully not, for the benefit of the world and also for the U.S, which still has time to recapture a great deal of what they have lost… Before it’s too late.
SWIFT Sliding Down A Slippery Slope
Here is a chart, which could convince America that its most powerful lever for controlling worldwide trade is rapidly losing its clout. The U.S. controlled SWIFT system is used to facilitate trade among countries. The ability of a country to use SWIFT depends on how many of the 11,000 financial members are willing to accept the country’s currency as a form of international currency.
Whatever decision America makes, its catastrophically high dollar debt guarantees a lot of inflation. By not joining with BRICS, America could come to resemble the Weimar Republic in the wake of WWI. Hyperinflation would become a serious possibility. By joining, the piper would still be paid off but with much milder consequences. Albeit, there’s no way the United States magically averts record inflation.
Final Thoughts…
One piece of critical advice is to own gold. Gold, I believe, is destined for astronomical heights. First because it will need to be reevaluated in the wake of its role in the new BRICS currency. Second, because it’s the only hedge against runaway or very high inflation. In wake of the worst hyperinflation ever recorded, no asset better protected citizens of the Weimar Republic than gold.
And there’s a reason that gold is so special – it’s one of the most revered materials on the planet. Gold’s unmatched reverence has been recognized since the days of kings and queens. It’s unrivaled luster has long been pondered by philosophers, poets, and even scientists as inseparable from the divine. Long-lived civilizations arguably survived because they wisely recognized the specialness of gold as the most precious of all metals.
Gold is the only material that can bridge the gap between the spiritual- which defines each of us uniquely– verses the material world. Because of this inherent uniqueness… Gold has a timeless role as a store of value. This makes gold intrinsically essential in any monetary system, serving as the only adjunct that can tame the evil that comes from worshiping money.
