We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Trump’s Brilliant Strategy to Dismember U.S. Dollar Hegemony

Click here to access article by Michael Hudson posted on Naked Capitalism.

Hudson has developed a lucrative career out of his attacks on US control of international finance which has created economic burdens on many countries. His explanations about the details of this process helps shed much light on our understanding of how the directors of the US Empire since WWII have imposed their dominance over other countries with their control of nearly all important international financial and political institutions. Such details include the US insistence on maintaining veto power over any important international institution that gives loans, transfers payments, and money exchanges in various currencies. Added to this control is the physical possession of other countries' gold in the vaults of the USA and Britain. 

Having just returned from Europe, he see definite signs that this dominance is breaking down due to the hyper-aggressive use of sanctions implemented by Sec. of State Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton against countries who do business with countries that offend the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. He sees that European capitalists are increasingly seeking other methods to free themselves from the Empire's control over who they do business with.