Today the top trends forecaster in the world discusses how the death of the dollar is opening the door to currency war.
June 19 (King World News) – Gerald Celente: It’s official: Saudi Arabia will now accept currencies other than the U.S. dollar for payment of its oil.
The petrodollar era is on the way out.
And make no mistake, the coming ramp up of Currency War is related to chaotic politics and extreme events that have been playing out over the course of the 21st century thus far: Trade War, War on Terror, Carbon War, COVID War, World War.
The petrodollar agreement officially expired on 9 June.
The Saudis are signaling they may integrate with the BRICS currency block of nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, including adopting a CBDC standard designed around the China backed Embridge initiative.
Since 2021, China has been rolling out its digital yuan, a currency which allows it unprecedented granular financial surveillance and usage controls over currency held by citizens.
It is fast becoming a key element of China’s so-called “Social Credit System,” whereby the government exerts political control over its population by officially rewarding favored social and political activities and expression, while punishing others.
Citizens with low “social credit” scores can be deprived of freedoms including travel, employment opportunities, purchases, etc.
Does the ending of the petrodollar mean that CBDCs will gain as a technological and political tool internationally?
It certainly appears to be a possibility…
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In the U.S., whether to go down the road of creating a central bank “digital dollar” has become a staunch political dividing line.
Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and many other Republicans have vowed (or taken legislative action, in the case of DeSantis) to bar the creation of a digital dollar.
Instead, under a Trump administration, it’s more likely that crypto dollar-pegged stablecoins would be regulated to require sufficient backing by audited U.S. currency reserves.
Should Joe Biden be re-elected, it’s almost certain that the groundwork laid to research and experiment with CBDCs would proceed to the creation of what we have termed a Federal Reserve / U.S. government AICBDC (Artificial Intelligence powered Central Bank Digital Currency.)
Would it have the kind of dystopian technological surveillance and control features of China’s digital yuan?
In a word, yes, though the actual exercise of those controls would likely be cloaked in subterfuge, and meet with drawn-out legal resistance that might affect its final form and status.
Biden’s leading financial surrogates, including Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have long called for the creation of a U.S. CBDC.
Warren has also been one of the most vocal opponents of the cryptocurrency sector and bitcoin in particular.
She has smeared it alternatively as a useless scam and a conduit for illicit money laundering and international criminal activity.
Actual data shows only a tiny fraction of bitcoin use can plausibly be tied to illegal activities.
The dollar, by far, remains the currency of choice for both legal and illegal commerce.
But Warren and other Democrats do understand that growing acceptance of bitcoin means that governments may be more constrained in their ability to endlessly inflate their currencies to pay for expenditures, effectively devaluing money and leaving citizens with a backdoor inflation tax.
The Sunset of the Dollar and What it Means for People
The sunset of the petro-dollar, and more generally, the erosion of the dollar as a world reserve asset, will almost certainly have significant consequences that will play out over the next decade and longer.
As long as other countries remain in worse economic shape than the U.S., the dollar will retain relative strength against other fiat currencies.
But it appears more likely than ever that Western nations may move toward a basket of currencies including the dollar, to act as a stabilizing reserve.
Signed onto by the EU, U.S. and Canada, as well as westernized economies in Asia, a coming replacement for a single reserve currency may emerge.
But the growing BRICS block is shaping up to present a major alternative.
And unlike Cold War military and political alliances, crypto technology, led by bitcoin, may give financially unaligned countries in major developing regions, including South America, Africa, the middle and near east and Southeast Asia, an alternative to a bi-polar monetary allegiance.
El Salvador has stood as a national example where adopting a non-aligned cryptocurrency that can act for payments and a store of value, presents a viable third option, or at the very least, a hedge against financial manipulations of major powers.
TRENDPOST:
Trends Journal readers have been well ahead of the curve, when it comes to the latest news on the reserve status of the dollar.
Long before mainstream media was busy cheering on Ukraine in early 2022 as the Russia-Ukraine tensions broke into hot war, we forecast how weaponized financial system sanctions on Russia would mean trouble for the dollar as a reserve currency.
We have also long warned about the dystopian dangers of CBDCs, including how AI would make their use even more problematic.
Dating back to early 2023, we forecast that the 2024 U.S. elections would be a major crypto battleground, with implications not just for the crypto sector, but for the future of the United States.
Finally, we have long forecast how crypto technology, designed to flow to and reward regions and individuals that adopted its innovations, presented an alternative to legacy financial systems. All these factors are now manifesting themselves more openly.
They will continue to play out, and average people, via their political and financial choices, will no doubt impact how it all plays out.
Just Released!
Alasdair Macleod discusses collapsing Open Interest in the gold market as well as some other wild developments from around the world CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO LISTEN.
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