Spectacular growth in the developing world is synonymous with the emergence of BRICS+ and strategic trade alliances forged by China’s SCO Shanghai Cooperation Organization—a revival of the old Silk Road.
In the early 2000s, the developing world represented a mere 40% of GDP. However, over the past 25 years, a dramatic global shift has occurred regarding the “developed” vs. “developing” world.
The numbers reveal why this unprecedented shift is so alarming:
The developing world experienced a quantum leap in GDP from 40% to 60% between 2000 – 2024.
According to the World Bank, the tipping point happened in 2015, when the GDP representing the developing world jumped to 50%. A mere decade later, led mainly by China, it now accounts for 60% of GDP.
This trend is powered by multiple interrelated factors, including much lower per capita income in the developing world. The Global South controls the lion’s share of the world’s natural resources, which creates a pseudo virtuous circle.
Lower per capita income creates greater demand for abundant natural resources in the Global South/East. However, most of these countries are still in the “developing” phase, which means they lack the critical infrastructure to mine or refine natural resources. Thus, more significant development essentially equates to greater access to their resources, which reinforces development trends.
Do you see the virtuous circle?
While the trend in relative growth rates will not continue to accelerate indefinitely, relative growth in favor of the Global South will continue for the foreseeable future.
Sadly, most citizens of the U.S. and G7 countries do not understand the magnitude of what’s underway, nor are they aware that this dramatic shift in global GDP just created a new world order… a new club, if you will… and the U.S. isn’t in it!
A New World Order
It’s not just the size of the Global South that has changed. Untethering gold from the United States monetary system in 1971 was equivalent to throwing out something sacred, giving materiality complete control of our country’s ethos.
To maintain “king-of-the-hill” status, you need more than materiality – spirituality is necessary. President Eisenhower nailed it when, upon signing a bill unanimously passed by Congress in 1954 that added the phrase “under God” to the pledge of allegiance, he noted:
“Today…we…strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or war.”
Eisenhower saw early on the dangers of materiality and material wealth. When money defines your world, the only thing that matters is how much money you have. Worshiping money manifests two very evil attributes: greed and narcissism.
When a mass psychosis of materialism controls a population, and the only thing they hold sacred is their love of money, it will take down a nation like wildfire.
Here’s a loose definition of materiality:
An unwavering belief that money can solve all problems.
The desperate state of the U.S. economy is a prime example of how money isn’t solving America’s existential problems. Since Nixon removed the country from the gold standard in 1971, the printing presses have been running 24/7, and since that date, the United States has been on a slow fiscal and societal decline.
Unlimited faith in money has terrible side effects: It breeds complacentness and entitlement, perhaps the worst psychological plagues affecting today’s American population. The belief that “money can solve all problems” has made Americans dangerously lazy, undercutting the United States’ technological development, which China and many other countries have far usurped.
Hidden Agenda’s
The Ukraine war seemed like a no-brainer for the United States to jump on board. Still, many unsettling aspects of U.S. involvement in this war make no logical sense. However, it seems logic doesn’t play a part; instead, it’s the hidden agendas that are most telling. There’s a lot of evidence that the Russians were not looking for a military conflict. According to several well-respected analysts, NATO and the collective West argued the war was nothing more than a chance to remove Putin from office and, perhaps in the process, find a way of gaining control over Russia’s vast natural resources.
Well, that plan didn’t work.
By provoking or responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the West likely believed its weaponry was far superior to Russia’s, an assumption that proved to be incorrect, as demonstrated by the recent hypersonic missile test launched by Russia into Ukraine. The United States and many NATO countries are entirely defunct in their military technology and munitions. It’s almost laughable.
Another covert agenda of the United States foreign aid funding of the Ukraine War was to ensure the dollar maintained its status as the world reserve currency.
But wait… what?
The United States $200 billion+ dollars in foreign aid to Ukraine sadly has nothing to do with saving a country halfway around the world with which Americans share virtually nothing in common, not language or ethnic history.
The real agenda behind the U.S. backing of Ukraine was to ensure hegemonic control of SWIFT, an acronym for “Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.” SWIFT plays a critical role in settling trade transactions between countries.
The United States’ control of SWIFT practically ensures the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency.
Most importantly, control of SWIFT means the United States can punish countries by limiting and completely excluding their access to SWIFT, which can devastate an economy. These punishments are called financial sanctions. It’s similar to getting a spanking for misbehaving.
The U.S. financial sanctions aimed to weaken Russia’s economy by precluding its access to SWIFT; however, this plan against Russia backfired big time.
The West forgot that Russia supplies much of the world with vital resources. The need for these resources led Russia and other countries to create workarounds that eliminated the need for access to SWIFT. Alternative trade negotiations between countries took place based on the relative value of the countries’ currencies. Other trade agreements were old-fashioned barter, where Russian resources were traded for other commodities. These trade deals were wildly successful. Russia’s economy became one of the fastest-growing in the world.
Meanwhile, the United States also forgot their European NATO allies depended heavily on cheap Russian fuels… aka… The Nordstream pipeline. Additionally, Russia has made a mockery out of American-supplied munitions, which technologically were no match for Russian offensive and defensive weaponry such as hypersonic missiles and state-of-the-art air defense systems.
Russia’s access to the HRE heavy rare earth metals, essential to creating permanent magnets necessary to manufacture hypersonic and long-range precision-guided missiles, made a big difference. Also relevant is that Russia has unveiled America’s ultra-materialistic blindspot.
While Russia’s enormous natural resource base made the Russian Federation virtually immune to financial sanctions, they’re indeed an anomaly. Even China, over the short term, has been hurt by sanctions. China, known for taking a long-term view of the world, has developed irrefutable cutting-edge scientific and military technologies. Indeed, Chinese technologies may have been part of the peer-to-peer trading that has gone on with Russia, and thus, a significant reason Russia so easily dominated Ukraine, which relied on nearly archaic Western military technologies.
What does Ukraine and its consequences have to do with the dire state of the U.S. economy?
Nearly everything. There’s just one thing you need to understand about how U.S. monetary policy works before making your next investment decision…
My next article reveals how you can make money while the rest of the stock market enters a highly volatile and off-the-rail scenario. Stay Tuned!
