The Lines of Economic Warfare Are Being Drawn & The U.S. Is Not Going to Win
By preparing economic sanctions against Russia the U.S. government is essentially putting a gun to its own head and telling the world that it intends to pull the trigger.Starting an economic war with Russia would be a bad idea in and of itself, but failing to calculate on the response of Russia's allies to such a move is downright asinine. Of course when Obama signed the order last week authorizing sanctions targeting Russia he might have been bluffing. He might have hoped that Russia would beg for mercy and start marching to Washington's tune. It's hard to imagine that the white house with their army of advisors and political scientists could really be that stupid, but maybe I'm giving them too much credit. Maybe they just didn't think this thing through.
One way or the other, the result is the same. The U.S. government has gotten itself into a geopolitical game of chicken and if someone doesn't back down there will be a collision. Trouble is, though they initially picked a fight with Russia, the world's 8th largest economy (by GDP), the outcome of this gambit depends almost entirely on which direction the rest of the world decides to swing. The lines of economic warfare have been drawn, and as sides are being picked it's already clear that Washington is in over its head.
Of course the most important variable in this equation is China, the second largest economy in the world. Though China has refrained from making inflammatory remarks in either direction throughout this crisis, and though Obama is actively attempting to push Beijing to side with the West, it would be naive to think that there was ever any real question as to which way they will swing when push comes to shove. China is in Russia's corner, period. It is however, somewhat surprising to see India signaling their support for Moscow. Standing up to the U.S. geopolitically is out of character for India, but times are changing. The balance of economic power has been shifting gradually away from the West for many years, and now the political weight is shifting as well.
With India, Russia and China quietly drawing closer you have the R, I, and C of the BRICS economic block and a third of the world's population. In nominal terms their combined GDP is a little over 12 trillion, which is smaller than that of the United States, which weighs in at 16 trillion, but if you look at these numbers in the context of national debt a very different picture emerges. Russia's, India's and China's national debts combined ring in a just over 4 trillion dollars, while the U.S. is sitting on a gargantuan 17 trillion dollars of debt. It also just so happens that China owns 1.3 trillion of that debt (8%). The U.S. economy may be bigger in raw numbers, but it's also far more vulnerable.
We saw this same stupidity when the US dropped Iran from the SWIFT system, only to see Iran sell their oil for gold. Now they're going to try the same thing on Russia? While the Saudis are pissed off at them?
If they think Putin isn't going to impose counter sanctions, they're crazy, ...or maybe Nuland wasn't being figurative when she said F**k Europe?
Everyday it's beginning to look like the biggest suicide bombers aren't in the middle east, ...they're in Washington. Whoever is running that show has strapped a suicide vest on America laced with a few trillion tons of C4.
PUTIN may be a lot of things, but he's no fool....he knows that the U.S. is hopelessly in debt from military overspending and National debt (interest) to the FEDERAL RESERVE BANK, CHINA, etc. ...He probably has more gold bullion in his bedroom closet than the U.S. doesn't have in FORT KNOX!
If the U.S. "PETRODOLLAR" is replaced by the "GOLD DOLLAR" by OIL EXPORTING COUNTRIES, U.S. currency will be competing with the PESO for value on world markets...
