Welcome to ECCIE - Sign up today!

bambino · 05-16-2022, 08:38 AM

The Storm has arrived;

Five signs the dollar's dominance is nearing an end

Russian President Putin said the US had failed to meet its commitments and that the dollar was no longer a reliable currency.

The incident has undermined confidence in the US dollar as a global reserve currency, prompting major countries to look to trade and reserve alternatives. China, India, Iran and Turkey, among others, have announced or are doing business with Russia in their local currencies instead of US dollars.

These countries represent a market of over three billion people who no longer depend on the US dollar to trade with each other. The US government has caused almost half of humanity to find alternatives to the dollar by trying to isolate Russia.

�� Sign #2: rubles, gold and bitcoin for gas, oil and other commodities
Russia is the world's largest exporter of natural gas, timber, wheat, fertilizer and palladium (a key ingredient in cars). It is the second largest exporter of oil and aluminum and the third largest exporter of nickel and coal. Russia is a major producer and processor of uranium for nuclear power plants. Enriched uranium from Russia and its allies provides electricity for 20% of US homes. Aside from China, Russia produces more gold than any other country, more than 10% of world production.

After the US government confiscated Russia's US dollar reserves, Moscow has little use for the US dollar. Moscow does not want to trade its scarce and valuable commodities for politicized money that its rivals can take at their whim. The head of the Russian parliament recently called the US dollar a "candy wrapper" but not the candy itself. In other words, while the dollar looks like money, it isn't real money.

That is why Russia no longer accepts US dollars (or euros) as a medium of exchange for its energy. They are worthless to Russia. Instead, Moscow demands payment in rubles. This is an urgent problem for Europe, which cannot survive without Russian raw materials. Europeans have no alternative to Russian energy and have no choice but to comply. European buyers now have to buy rubles with their euros and use them to pay for Russian gas, oil and other exports.

This is an important reason why the ruble regained all the value it had lost in the first days of the invasion of Ukraine and then continued to appreciate. Russia's top energy commissioner stated that in addition to the ruble, Moscow would also accept gold or bitcoin in exchange for its commodities. "If they want to buy, they should either pay in hard currency - and that's gold for us - to buy Russian commodities.

�� Sign #3: The petrodollar system is about to collapse
Oil is by far the largest and most strategic commodity market. For the past 50 years, it took virtually anyone who wanted to import oil to pay for it in US dollars. That's because in the early '70s, the US signed a deal to protect Saudi Arabia that, among other things, ensures that all OPEC producers only accept US dollars for their oil.

Every country needs oil. And when foreign countries need US dollars to buy oil, they have a compelling reason to hold large dollar reserves. This creates a huge artificial market for US dollars and forces foreigners to absorb many of the new currency units that the Fed is creating. This, of course, leads to a huge appreciation of the dollar.

#dollar #end #US #government #central banks #ruble #gold