Day: January 19, 2023

Let’s start with three interconnected multipolar-driven facts.

First: One of the key take aways from the World Economic Forum annual shindig in Davos, Switzerland is when Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan, on a panel on “Saudi Arabia’s Transformation,” made it clear that Riyadh “will consider trading in currencies other than the US dollar.”

So is the petroyuan finally at hand? Possibly, but Al-Jadaan wisely opted for careful hedging: “We enjoy a very strategic relationship with China and we enjoy that same strategic relationship with other nations including the US and we want to develop that with Europe and other countries.”

Second: The Central Banks of Iran and Russia are studying the adoption of a “stable coin” for foreign trade settlements, replacing the US dollar, the ruble and the rial. The crypto crowd is already up in arms, mulling the pros and cons of a gold-backed central bank digital currency (CBDC) for trade that will be in fact impervious to the weaponized US dollar.

A gold-backed digital currency

The really attractive issue here is that this gold-backed digital currency would be particularly effective in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Astrakhan, in the Caspian Sea.

Astrakhan is the key Russian port participating in the International North South Transportation Corridor (INTSC), with Russia processing cargo travelling across Iran in merchant ships all the way to West Asia, Africa, the Indian Ocean and South Asia.

The success of the INSTC – progressively tied to a gold-backed CBDC – will largely hinge on whether scores of Asian, West Asian and African nations refuse to apply US-dictated sanctions on both Russia and Iran.

As it stands, exports are mostly energy and agricultural products; Iranian companies are the third largest importer of Russian grain. Next will be turbines, polymers, medical equipment, and car parts. Only the Russia-Iran section of the INSTC represents a $25 billion business.

And then there’s the crucial energy angle of INSTC – whose main players are the Russia-Iran-India triad.

India’s purchases of Russian crude have increased year-by-year by a whopping factor of 33. India is the world’s third largest importer of oil; in December, it received 1.2 million barrels from Russia, which for several months now is positioned ahead of Iraq and Saudi Arabia as Delhi’s top supplier.

‘A fairer payment system’

Third: South Africa holds this year’s rotating BRICS presidency. And this year will mark the start of BRICS+ expansion, with candidates ranging from Algeria, Iran and Argentina to Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor has just confirmed that the BRICS do want to find a way to bypass the US dollar and thus create “a fairer payment system not skewed toward wealthier countries.”

For years now, Yaroslav Lissovolik, head of the analytical department of Russian Sberbank’s corporate and investment business has been a proponent of closer BRICS integration and the adoption of a BRICS reserve currency.

Lissovolik reminds us that the first proposal “to create a new reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of BRICS countries was formulated by the Valdai Club back in 2018.”

Are you ready for the R5?

The original idea revolved around a currency basket similar to the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) model, composed of the national currencies of BRICS members – and then, further on down the road, other currencies of the expanded BRICS+ circle.

Lissovolik explains that choosing BRICS national currencies made sense because “these were among the most liquid currencies across emerging markets. The name for the new reserve currency — R5 or R5+ — was based on the first letters of the BRICS currencies all of which begin with the letter R (real, ruble, rupee, renminbi, rand).”

So BRICS already have a platform for their in-depth deliberations in 2023. As Lissovolik notes, “in the longer run, the R5 BRICS currency could start to perform the role of settlements/payments as well as the store of value/reserves for the central banks of emerging market economies.”

It is virtually certain that the Chinese yuan will be prominent right from the start, taking advantage of its “already advanced reserve status.”

Potential candidates that could become part of the R5+ currency basket include the Singapore dollar and the UAE’s dirham.

Quite diplomatically, Lissovolik maintains that, “the R5 project can thus become one of the most important contributions of emerging markets to building a more secure international financial system.”

The R5, or R5+ project does intersect with what is being designed at the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), led by the Macro-Economics Minister of the Eurasia Economic Commission, Sergey Glazyev.

A new gold standard

In Golden Ruble 3.0 , his most recent paper, Glazyev makes a direct reference to two by now notorious reports by Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Pozsar, formerly of the IMF, US Department of Treasury, and New York Federal Reserve: War and Commodity Encumbrance (December 27) and War and Currency Statecraft (December 29).

Pozsar is a staunch supporter of a Bretton Woods III – an idea that has been getting enormous traction among the Fed-skeptical crowd.

What’s quite intriguing is that the American Pozsar now directly quotes Russia’s Glazyev, and vice-versa, implying a fascinating convergence of their ideas.

Let’s start with Glazyev’s emphasis on the importance of gold. He notes the current accumulation of multibillion-dollar cash balances on the accounts of Russian exporters in “soft” currencies in the banks of Russia’s main foreign economic partners: EAEU nations, China, India, Iran, Turkey, and the UAE.

He then proceeds to explain how gold can be a unique tool to fight western sanctions if prices of oil and gas, food and fertilizers, metals and solid minerals are recalculated:

“Fixing the price of oil in gold at the level of 2 barrels per 1g will give a second increase in the price of gold in dollars, calculated Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Pozsar. This would be an adequate response to the ‘price ceilings’ introduced by the west – a kind of ‘floor,’ a solid foundation. And India and China can take the place of global commodity traders instead of Glencore or Trafigura.”

So here we see Glazyev and Pozsar converging. Quite a few major players in New York will be amazed.

Glazyev then lays down the road toward Gold Ruble 3.0. The first gold standard was lobbied by the Rothschilds in the 19^th century, which “gave them the opportunity to subordinate continental Europe to the British financial system through gold loans.” Golden Ruble 1.0, writes Glazyev, “provided the process of capitalist accumulation.”

Golden Ruble 2.0, after Bretton Woods, “ensured a rapid economic recovery after the war.” But then the “reformer Khrushchev canceled the peg of the ruble to gold, carrying out monetary reform in 1961 with the actual devaluation of the ruble by 2.5 times, forming conditions for the subsequent transformation of the country [Russia] into a “raw material appendage of the Western financial system.”

What Glazyev proposes now is for Russia to boost gold mining to as much as 3 percent of GDP: the basis for fast growth of the entire commodity sector (30 percent of Russian GDP). With the country becoming a world leader in gold production, it gets “a strong ruble, a strong budget and a strong economy.”

All Global South eggs in one basket

Meanwhile, at the heart of the EAEU discussions, Glazyev seems to be designing a new currency not only based on gold, but partly based on the oil and natural gas reserves of participating countries.

Pozsar seems to consider this potentially inflationary: it could be if it results in some excesses, considering the new currency would be linked to such a large base.

Off the record, New York banking sources admit the US dollar would be “wiped out, since it is a valueless fiat currency, should Sergey Glazyev link the new currency to gold. The reason is that the Bretton Woods system no longer has a gold base and has no intrinsic value, like the FTX crypto currency. Sergey’s plan also linking the currency to oil and natural gas seems to be a winner.”

So in fact Glazyev may be creating the whole currency structure for what Pozsar called, half in jest, the “G7 of the East”: the current 5 BRICS plus the next 2 which will be the first new members of BRICS+.

Both Glazyev and Pozsar know better than anyone that when Bretton Woods was created the US possessed most of Central Bank gold and controlled half the world’s GDP. This was the basis for the US to take over the whole global financial system.

Now vast swathes of the non-western world are paying close attention to Glazyev and the drive towards a new non-US dollar currency, complete with a new gold standard which would in time totally replace the US dollar.

Pozsar completely understood how Glazyev is pursuing a formula featuring a basket of currencies (as Lissovolik suggested). As much as he understood the groundbreaking drive towards the petroyuan. He describes the industrial ramifications thus:

“Since as we have just said Russia, Iran, and Venezuela account for about 40 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, and each of them are currently selling oil to China for renminbi at a steep discount, we find BASF’s decision to permanently downsize its operations at its main plant in Ludwigshafen and instead shift its chemical operations to China was motivated by the fact that China is securing energy at discounts, not markups like Europe.”

The race to replace the dollar

One key takeaway is that energy-intensive major industries are going to be moving to China. Beijing has become a big exporter of Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) to Europe, while India has become a big exporter of Russian oil and refined products such as diesel – also to Europe. Both China and India – BRICS members – buy below market price from fellow BRICS member Russia and resell to Europe with a hefty profit. Sanctions? What sanctions?

Meanwhile, the race to constitute the new currency basket for a new monetary unit is on. This long-distance dialogue between Glazyev and Pozsar will become even more fascinating, as Glazyev will be trying to find a solution to what Pozsar has stated: tapping of natural resources for the creation of the new currency could be inflationary if money supply is increased too quickly.

All that is happening as Ukraine – a huge chasm at a critical junction of the New Silk Road blocking off Europe from Russia/China – slowly but surely disappears into a black void. The Empire may have gobbled up Europe for now, but what really matters geoeconomically, is how the absolute majority of the Global South is deciding to commit to the Russia/China-led block.

Economic dominance of BRICS+ may be no more than 7 years away – whatever toxicities may be concocted by that large, dysfunctional nuclear rogue state on the other side of the Atlantic. But first, let’s get that new currency going.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.

The post Global South: Gold-Backed Currencies to Replace the US Dollar appeared first on LewRockwell.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) rings in the New Year with its annual meeting, held in Davos, Switzerland, each January. The meeting “will convene leaders from government, business and civil society to address the state of the world and discuss priorities for the year ahead,” according to WEF.¹

In 2023, the theme is “cooperation in a fragmented world,” with WEF noting, “The world today is at a critical inflection point. The sheer number of ongoing crises calls for bold collective action.”² What will this bold collective action entail? A key theme being discussed at one of its sessions is countering “misinformation,”³ also known as silencing and censoring any and all opposition.

WEF Plots to Censor ‘Misinformation’

WEF is an unelected global organization with self-appointed leaders. How it intends to define the misinformation it’s targeting as one of its key 2023 initiatives is unknown, but it’s dubbed the “cumulative ‘threats’ black swan events.” In a description for its Countering Threats in the Age of Black Swans session, it’s noted:⁴

“As black swan events proliferate, threats that were once considered outliers are becoming commonplace. This is compounded by a wide range of actors with access to sophisticated technology and weaponry, as well as an ever-increasing capacity to spread misinformation. How can we begin to predict the unpredictable in mitigating and countering security threats from black swan events?”

In December 2022, WEF already started damage control for its Davos meeting, stating in a separate post that it has “weathered criticism as a gathering of elites and in recent years the Forum has been targeted by disinformation campaigns.”⁵ As Reclaim the Net noted, this suggests the “group deems criticism of the WEF and challenging mainstream Covid-19 narratives to be misinformation.”⁶

It’s well-known fact that the world’s elite hop into their private jets and descend upon Davos, Switzerland, the highest town in the country,⁷ known for its luxury ski resorts, in order to attend WEF’s annual meeting, also known simply as the Davos Forum or just Davos.

To even attend the WEF annual meeting, you must be privately invited or a member of WEF, which costs $65,000 to $650,000.⁸ The attendance badge for the meeting is extra and cost another $27,000 — in 2020 — just to get entrance to the conference.⁹ So who’s in attendance? As comedian JP Sears put it in 2022:¹⁰

“You’ll be excited to hear that the lineup of World Economic Forum’s speakers at their annual gathering of elites in Davos included such benevolent humanitarians like Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, who’s currently committing genocide, and Tony Fauci, who’s arguably involved in crimes against humanity, and Bill Gates, who’s arguably involved in crimes against humanity, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who’s arguably currently involved in crimes against humanity. What a great line up!”

WEF Wants to Keep Their Dirty Dealings a Secret

The irony of the world’s elite flying in on their private jets to discuss sustainability is an open target for criticism. In 2018, for instance, more than 1,000 private jets and helicopters similarly made their way to Davos, and in 2017, an estimated 200 private flights landed in the city each day during the event.¹¹

By 2050, it’s estimated that aviation will contribute 22% of global carbon emissions. Still, in 2019, more than 600 private planes arrived at the Davos Forum, and that doesn’t include the military planes that transported an additional 60 presidents and prime ministers.¹² In 2020, a “steady stream” of private planes again chauffeured the elite to Davos.¹³

But we needn’t worry about this indulgence of the upper classes at the expense of the environment, according to WEF. “Offering little self-awareness, leaders of the WEF claim that the jet-set class promises to purchase carbon credits to offset the emissions from their planes,” Forbes noted.¹⁴

This is yet another strategy of the technocratic elite to set up a new wave of colonization in the name of sustainability and “net zero” carbon emissions — but, if WEF has anything to say about it, they’ll label this as misinformation and wipe it clean off the net.

Klaus Schwab, owner and chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), is the personification of the Great Reset — the ultimate goal of which is to do away with the democratic process and give all ownership and control to the deep state — and the technocratic elite who control it. Sears dubbed him among the most dangerous people in the world.¹⁵

WEF operates via fearmongering — about disease and environmental catastrophes, for starters. When the population is controlled by fear, it welcomes authoritarian “protections” like increased censorship, surveillance and digital identity systems, introduced under the guise of safety, but which ultimately remove personal autonomy and freedom.

In fact, Schwab wrote, “One of the greatest lessons of the past five centuries in Europe and America is this: Acute crisis contributes to boosting the power of the state. It’s always been the case, and there is no reason why it should be different with the COVID-19 pandemic.”¹⁶ Remember, nobody elected Schwab to any government position, but he’s behind the scenes pulling strings nonetheless.

WEF Does Damage Control on ‘Own Nothing and Be Happy’

WEF is one of the key players behind the Great Reset, with their “new normal” dictum that, by 2030, you will own nothing and be happy.¹⁷ In such a scheme, the world’s resources will be owned and controlled by the technocratic elite. All items and resources are to be used by the collective, while actual ownership is restricted to an upper stratum of social class.

This isn’t a conspiracy theory; it’s part of WEF’s 2030 agenda.¹⁸ Ida Auken is a member of parliament in Denmark. She’s also a graduate of WEF’s “Young Global Leaders” program,¹⁹ which is essentially a five-year indoctrination into their principles, with a goal of creating world leaders who don’t answer to their people but to their bosses at WEF.

In 2016, Auken wrote a propaganda piece about how great life would be in 2030, when the elite take over everyone’s possessions and autonomy:²⁰

“Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city – or should I say, “our city.” I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes. It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city.

Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.

… My biggest concern is all the people who do not live in our city. Those we lost on the way. Those who decided that it became too much, all this technology. Those who felt obsolete and useless when robots and AI took over big parts of our jobs. Those who got upset with the political system and turned against it. They live different kind of lives outside of the city.”

People were understandably alarmed when reading about WEF’s Orwellian plans, and now WEF is seeking to censor what it’s dubbed as misinformation surrounding its chilling “own nothing and be happy” rhetoric. As noted by Reclaim the Net:^21,22

“WEF complains that it has been targeted by ‘disinformation campaigns’ and links to another post²³ where its managing director, Adrian Monck, suggests that criticism of the WEF’s controversial ‘You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy’ slogan is tied to a ‘misinformation campaign.’

In addition to branding criticism of this slogan misinformation, Monck also laments ‘misinformation concerning COVID-19 and vaccines.’ Not only does Monck brand these topics misinformation but he also claims that ‘misinformation derails free speech’ and calls for ‘action to prevent lies being accepted as truth.’”

Partnering With Big Tech to Control the Narrative

In 2022, WEF held Sustainable Development Impact Meetings that also featured panels on “tackling disinformation.” Among the participants were the United Nation’s Under-Secretary-General for global communications, Melissa Fleming, who noted that the UN had partnered with Big Tech giants like Google and TikTok to censor the narrative on environmental issues and COVID-19.²⁴ According to Fleming, the UN conducted a project called “Team Halo:”²⁵

“[W]e trained scientists around the world and some doctors on TikTok, and we had TikTok working with us. Another really key strategy we had was to deploy influencers … influencers who were really keen, who have huge followings, but really keen to help carry messages that were going to serve their communities, and they were much more trusted than the United Nations telling them something from New York City headquarters.”

WEF’s “Freedom of the Press Panel,” held in May 2022, also stressed the need for social media companies to be held accountable for algorithms that promote false information.²⁶ In August 2022, it also called for the use of AI to censor misinformation and ensure whatever it deems fits this definition never reaches the public. According to WEF:²⁷

“By uniquely combining the power of innovative technology, off-platform intelligence collection and the prowess of subject-matter experts who understand how threat actors operate, scaled detection of online abuse can reach near-perfect precision.

… By bringing human-curated, multi-language, off-platform intelligence into learning sets, AI will then be able to detect nuanced, novel abuses at scale, before they reach mainstream platforms.

Supplementing this smarter automated detection with human expertise to review edge cases and identify false positives and negatives and then feeding those findings back into training sets will allow us to create AI with human intelligence baked in … trust and safety teams can stop threats rising online before they reach users.”

How to Ascertain the Truth

The first step to breaking free from the “misinformation” dictatorship is recognizing that the manipulation is occurring. The next involves consciously opting out of it as much as possible. It’s especially important that children are protected, as they are among the most vulnerable to the onslaught of manipulation, which will have serious consequences to future generations.

It’s urgent that we all take steps to remain free, sovereign individuals, which can be as straightforward as being guided by your own critical thinking and what your heart and soul know is right, and choosing bravery over obedience.²⁸ Stay grounded in your local community and, when weeding through information in your own life, it’s important to dig deep enough to unveil what’s real, and what’s real misinformation.

Sources and References

• ^1, 2 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023
• ^3, 6, 21 Reclaim the Net January 2, 2023
• ⁴ World Economic Forum, Countering Threats in the Age of Black Swans January 18, 2023
• ^5, 7 World Economic Forum December 22, 2022
• ⁸ World Economic Forum January 16, 2017
• ^9, 13, 14 Forbes January 21, 2020
• ¹⁰ YouTube, Awaken With JP March 5, 2022, 3:00
• ¹¹ The Times January 20, 2018
• ¹² Business Insider January 20, 2020
• ¹⁵ YouTube, Awaken With JP March 5, 2022
• ¹⁶ YouTube, Awaken With JP March 5, 2022, 2:33
• ^17, 18, 20 Forbes November 10, 2016
• ¹⁹ WEF, Young Global Leaders
• ^22, 23 The Globe and Mail August 5, 2022
• ^24, 25 Reclaim the Net October 2, 2022
• ²⁶ Reclaim the Net May 27, 2022
• ²⁷ Reclaim the Net August 11, 2022
• ²⁸ YouTube, Awaken With JP March 5, 2022, 12:30

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