. . .
K “Sounds like a preppy. Exorbitantly privileged. His middle name is surely ‘Heathcliff’ or some such.”
J “Soon to be wearing ‘BWH III’ cum serifs on his sleeve. Very well bred.”
. . .
K “Bretton Woods I was born on July 22, 1944 and died on August 15, 1971. BW I was a modified Au [gold] standard that suspired for 27 years. On a hot lazy Sunday in August in D.C. when the Ruling Class and the PMC were returning from the Shore, Nixon terminated convertibility of the U.S. dollar for gold with as much hype and fanfare as an announcement of the construction of a new water treatment plant.”
J “I do not remember the event, yet I sense that the action was more of a unilateral breach without consulting other nations rather than a polite and proper termination of a long-term relationship and a statement that it is temporary.”
K “Right. Not to fear, BW II was hatched. In the next few years, Nixon and others agreed to provide protection to Saudi Arabia in exchange for the Saudis pricing oil in the newly concocted ‘PetroDollar’ protection money. The scheme allows the U.S. to conjure figment money at will and demand and take resources, services and products from every other country on the planet without providing anything in return other than . . . the figment money.”
J “The U.S. spent three cents to print a 100 dollar bill and then demanded 100 dollars of things from other countries. And latter saved the printing costs by just shuffling electrons. It is a perpetual motion money machine, until it is not.”
K “Resistance was futile. The BW II system replaced an ‘Au system’ with a ‘Fe and Pb system’ that commits the iron and lead of the U.S. military to impose and enforce its will on others. Over fifty years of international economic terrorism followed. So few get it.”
J “I hear you. I get it. I got it. Years ago. We as a society are going to get it. In short order. In the shorts. My friends the good old Chinese are encouraging members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the BRICS nations to bypass the SWIFT financial system and settle cross-border international payments in digital yuan using the CIPS or possibly SPFS. That changes everything.”
K “The ‘PetroDollar’ has had as much influence on civilization as the implementation of the wheel, the creation of the printing press and the discovery of electricity. Yet, the ‘PetroDollar’ and BW II are dying a slow but accelerating death. In a stupendous irony, U.S. stupidly killed BW II which had served it so well and has now spawned an uncertain BW III.”
J “The U.S. actions are indeed killing the golden goose that did not require any gold to lay golden eggs.”
. . .
K “The emerging BW III appears to be a mix of gold and commodities rather than printed figments. The new economic system for the multipolar political world is founded on gold and commodities and headquartered and centered outside America and Western Europe.”
J “We are substituting one empire that has done much evil for another far, far, far more evil empire without even a clue or a question about what is happening. By the way, I have a few more Mandarin language tapes for you.”
. . .
K “There are books on Cod and Salt and Paper and the like. If he does not write the book on the PetroDollar, I may get it done.”
J “And don’t forget the piece on fly fishing.”
. . .
[See “Is the Dollar in Danger? China and Russia may be working to take away America’s ‘exorbitant privilege.’” dated March 13, 2022 by Andy Kessler in the “Wall Street Journal”. That is two citations to the “WSJ” in a row.]
[See the e-commentary at The China-Russia Affair: Advancing The Petro-Yuan; Dictating The Future (March 26, 2018), World’s Reserve Currency War I = Cold War 2.0 = WW III (?) (September 8, 2014), AIIB: China: 1; U.S.A. 0? (April 6, 2015), The Mandibles, FRNs, SDRs, IMF, G20, WTD! (September 5, 2016), USA + FRN/PD — > IMF + SDR — > NDB + UMU? The “Universal Monetary Unit” . . . Coming To a Planet Near You (January 2, 2017) and One World Currency? (January 8, 2018).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Post-World War Two Standards: From Au . . . to Fe & Pb . . . to Au & Commodities
Dragon < Eagle > Bruin; Dragon + Bruin > Eagle
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