baymule
Sustainability Master
I read a lot. I study a lot. I don't believe the crap on TV, singing "Everything is Awesome!!" Politicians are liars. Period. If they ever told the truth about what they really do, we all would rise up against them. For the last 4 or 5 years, I have watched world events moving away from the USA dominion of the world. The US dollar is the main world reserve currency, meaning that if Country A wants to buy something from Country B, Country A must first buy US dollars to make their purchase with. Needless to say, this creates great demand for the US dollar. We Americans have enjoyed the benefits of a strong dollar for as long as most of us have been alive.
So what happens if other countries get sick and tired of the onerous USA laws and bullying tactics and just want to trade with each other without the US dollar in the middle of it? The BRICS countries have already opened their own world bank, the New Development Bank. (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Many other countries have signed on with the BRICS countries. The Chinese renmimbi (money) has been accepted as a World Reserve Currency and will go into operation in October of this year. Indeed, China has opened their own Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and they are working on the Silk Road Program. This will put less of a demand on the US dollar. There are trillions of US dollars floating around the world. If they all came back home, it would trigger a crash like the world has never seen. The good news is, if we suffered such a crash, we would take many other economies down with us, and other countries know this and in their own self interest, don't want the USA to hit rock bottom. For now.
The IRS now requires ALL banks to report all American bank accounts, in order to catch tax cheats. This has angered many countries, as it puts onerous extra work, costing a great deal of money, on the banks. Singapore told the IRS to mind their own business, and they refuse to participate in the IRS reporting. The USA/IRS finally broke the Swiss banks and forced them to report American accounts. Swiss banks, the bastion of secrecy, rolled over on their depositors.
What does this have to do with me you ask? "I don't have money in banks over seas." My senator/congress man/woman is taking good care of our state. All this "world stuff" is over my head, I just don't care, I have enough problems worrying about things here at home, much less half way around the world.
Donald Trump is campaigning "Make America Great Again" promising to bring jobs back to this country. He knows what is coming. The dollar will devalue 30% to 50% and imports will become so high in price, that we will be forced to start making our own products again, thus hiring people to work in the factories again. Hillary is promising more free stuff, which ever candidate wins, we are on a fast track for some extremely hard times. The storm is brewing. Now would be a good time to stock up on not just food stuffs, but on things you consume or use that are imported. Think on it.
August 24, 2016
Santiago, Chile
That was fast.
Yesterday I told you how a consortium of 15 Japanese banks had just signed up to implement new financial technology to clear and settle international financial transactions.
This is a huge step.
Right now, most international financial transactions must pass through the US banking system’s network of correspondent accounts.
This gives the US government an incredible amount of power... power they haven’t been shy about using over the last several years.
2014 was one of the first major watershed moments when the Obama administration fined French bank BNP Paribas $9 billion for doing business with countries that the US doesn’t like-- namely Cuba and Iran.
It didn’t matter that this French bank wasn’t violating any French laws.
Nor did it matter that only months later the President of the United States inked a sweetheart nuclear deal with Iran and flew down to Cuba to attend a baseball game with his new BFFs.
BNP had to pay up. A French bank paid $9 billion because they violated US law.
And if they didn’t pay, the US government threatened to kick them out of the US banking system.
$9 billion hurt. But being kicked out of the US banking system would have been totally crippling.
Big international banks in particular cannot function if they don’t have access to the US banking system.
As long as the US dollar remains the world’s dominant reserve currency, major banks must able to clear and settle US dollar transactions if they expect to remain in business.
This means having access to the US banking system… the gatekeeper of the US dollar.
But having watched BNP Paribas get blackmailed into paying an absurd $9 billion fine to the US government, the rest of the world’s mega-banks knew instantly that their heads could be next ones on the chopping block.
So they started working on contingency plans.
Blockchain technology provided an elegant solution.
Instead of passing funds through the US banking system’s costly and inefficient network of correspondent accounts, blockchain technology provides an easy way for banks to send payments directly to one another.
I cannot understate how important this technology is.
Blockchain may very well be what neutralizes the US government’s domination of the global financial system.
And while there’s been a lot of momentum in this direction (hence yesterday’s letter to you), even I’m surprised at how fast it’s moving.
Today, four of the world’s largest banks announced a brand new joint venture to create a new financial settlement protocol built on blockchain technology.
Deutsche Bank from Germany, UBS from Switzerland, Santander from Spain, and Bank of New York Mellon have joined together to launch what they’re naming the very un-sexy “utility settlement coin”
Like Ripple, Setl, Monetas, and several other competing technologies, Utility Settlement Coin has the potential to end the reliance on the US banking system for cross-border payments and financial transactions.
Banks will be able to send payments to one another directly without having to transit through the Wall Street financial toll plaza.
(Global consulting firm Oliver Wyman estimates that the cost of clearing and settling international financial transactions at up to $80 billion annually.)
This has enormous implications, especially for US banks.
The Federal Reserve, for example, has already warned that financial technology could pose stability risks to the US financial system.
And they’re right.
If foreign banks are able to transact directly with one another without having to go through the US banking system, then why would they need to park trillions of dollars in the United States?
They wouldn’t.
Adoption of this technology could cause a gigantic vacuum of deposits out of the US banking system.
US banks would take a big hit. And the US government would have far fewer foreign buyers to sell its ever-expanding piles of debt.
Make no mistake, the adoption of this technology is a game-changing development with far-reaching implications. And it’s happening very quickly.
If these mega-banks can hit their milestones, they’ll launch commercially in eighteen months.
Mark it on your calendar-- that may be the end of peak US financial dominance.
Until tomorrow,
Simon Black
Founder, SovereignMan.com
So what happens if other countries get sick and tired of the onerous USA laws and bullying tactics and just want to trade with each other without the US dollar in the middle of it? The BRICS countries have already opened their own world bank, the New Development Bank. (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Many other countries have signed on with the BRICS countries. The Chinese renmimbi (money) has been accepted as a World Reserve Currency and will go into operation in October of this year. Indeed, China has opened their own Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and they are working on the Silk Road Program. This will put less of a demand on the US dollar. There are trillions of US dollars floating around the world. If they all came back home, it would trigger a crash like the world has never seen. The good news is, if we suffered such a crash, we would take many other economies down with us, and other countries know this and in their own self interest, don't want the USA to hit rock bottom. For now.
The IRS now requires ALL banks to report all American bank accounts, in order to catch tax cheats. This has angered many countries, as it puts onerous extra work, costing a great deal of money, on the banks. Singapore told the IRS to mind their own business, and they refuse to participate in the IRS reporting. The USA/IRS finally broke the Swiss banks and forced them to report American accounts. Swiss banks, the bastion of secrecy, rolled over on their depositors.
What does this have to do with me you ask? "I don't have money in banks over seas." My senator/congress man/woman is taking good care of our state. All this "world stuff" is over my head, I just don't care, I have enough problems worrying about things here at home, much less half way around the world.
Donald Trump is campaigning "Make America Great Again" promising to bring jobs back to this country. He knows what is coming. The dollar will devalue 30% to 50% and imports will become so high in price, that we will be forced to start making our own products again, thus hiring people to work in the factories again. Hillary is promising more free stuff, which ever candidate wins, we are on a fast track for some extremely hard times. The storm is brewing. Now would be a good time to stock up on not just food stuffs, but on things you consume or use that are imported. Think on it.
August 24, 2016
Santiago, Chile
That was fast.
Yesterday I told you how a consortium of 15 Japanese banks had just signed up to implement new financial technology to clear and settle international financial transactions.
This is a huge step.
Right now, most international financial transactions must pass through the US banking system’s network of correspondent accounts.
This gives the US government an incredible amount of power... power they haven’t been shy about using over the last several years.
2014 was one of the first major watershed moments when the Obama administration fined French bank BNP Paribas $9 billion for doing business with countries that the US doesn’t like-- namely Cuba and Iran.
It didn’t matter that this French bank wasn’t violating any French laws.
Nor did it matter that only months later the President of the United States inked a sweetheart nuclear deal with Iran and flew down to Cuba to attend a baseball game with his new BFFs.
BNP had to pay up. A French bank paid $9 billion because they violated US law.
And if they didn’t pay, the US government threatened to kick them out of the US banking system.
$9 billion hurt. But being kicked out of the US banking system would have been totally crippling.
Big international banks in particular cannot function if they don’t have access to the US banking system.
As long as the US dollar remains the world’s dominant reserve currency, major banks must able to clear and settle US dollar transactions if they expect to remain in business.
This means having access to the US banking system… the gatekeeper of the US dollar.
But having watched BNP Paribas get blackmailed into paying an absurd $9 billion fine to the US government, the rest of the world’s mega-banks knew instantly that their heads could be next ones on the chopping block.
So they started working on contingency plans.
Blockchain technology provided an elegant solution.
Instead of passing funds through the US banking system’s costly and inefficient network of correspondent accounts, blockchain technology provides an easy way for banks to send payments directly to one another.
I cannot understate how important this technology is.
Blockchain may very well be what neutralizes the US government’s domination of the global financial system.
And while there’s been a lot of momentum in this direction (hence yesterday’s letter to you), even I’m surprised at how fast it’s moving.
Today, four of the world’s largest banks announced a brand new joint venture to create a new financial settlement protocol built on blockchain technology.
Deutsche Bank from Germany, UBS from Switzerland, Santander from Spain, and Bank of New York Mellon have joined together to launch what they’re naming the very un-sexy “utility settlement coin”
Like Ripple, Setl, Monetas, and several other competing technologies, Utility Settlement Coin has the potential to end the reliance on the US banking system for cross-border payments and financial transactions.
Banks will be able to send payments to one another directly without having to transit through the Wall Street financial toll plaza.
(Global consulting firm Oliver Wyman estimates that the cost of clearing and settling international financial transactions at up to $80 billion annually.)
This has enormous implications, especially for US banks.
The Federal Reserve, for example, has already warned that financial technology could pose stability risks to the US financial system.
And they’re right.
If foreign banks are able to transact directly with one another without having to go through the US banking system, then why would they need to park trillions of dollars in the United States?
They wouldn’t.
Adoption of this technology could cause a gigantic vacuum of deposits out of the US banking system.
US banks would take a big hit. And the US government would have far fewer foreign buyers to sell its ever-expanding piles of debt.
Make no mistake, the adoption of this technology is a game-changing development with far-reaching implications. And it’s happening very quickly.
If these mega-banks can hit their milestones, they’ll launch commercially in eighteen months.
Mark it on your calendar-- that may be the end of peak US financial dominance.
Until tomorrow,
Simon Black
Founder, SovereignMan.com