Posted on 12/22/2025 7:13:38 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT
When the U.S. dollar loses its monopoly on pricing the world’s critical resources, Americans’ purchasing power weakens
The dollar losing monopoly power is a slow leak, not a blowout. But slow leaks still leave you flat.
If the 21st century runs on anything besides oil, it runs on African rocks.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
What you put in quotes are NOT mine.
And do not use profanity when posting to me.
Mostly agree.
But it works for them, and Russia is keeping them afloat, with below-cost energy and the massive purchase of overpriced goods.
The Americans have fancy watches; the Chinese have the time.
—”However, that requires the US to be just as patient.”
The Americans have fancy watches; the Chinese have the time.
—” our manufacturing has been offshore for too long.”
Rocks from Africa, and that is not changing any time soon.
Most people are aware that the US had minuscule magnesium production before World War II. Then pulled a rabbit out of a hat!
Those days are long gone...
Gm sold its pioneering rare-earth magnet division, Magnequench, to a Chinese-linked consortium in the 1990’s...
Time only flows in one direction.
Autarky kind of/sort of works for North Korea; still, they starve.
—”Fed.gov $37 Trillion in debt”
Now 38 Trillion, it has grown since your post...
—”As if our own corrupt government hasn’t destroyed the dollar fast enough”
To the moon, Alice, to the moon!
“house....700sf”
It would be fairly easy to build 700 s.f. houses using automated machinery.
—”A lot of Chinese money gets spent on propaganda.”
True, and good propaganda is mostly true.
Effective propaganda uses truth.
The federal debt is ~$400,000/American citizen full-time worker.
What do you think is ‘affordable’ when it comes to a house, Mr. & Mrs. Young?
$300,000, tops!
The $300,000 isn’t enough to secure Mr. & Mrs. Young’s $800,000 share of the federal debt.
—”And do not use profanity when posting to me.”
A fair request.
Perhaps we have differing definitions of the word. North Korea is not an autarky, as best I see it, i.e. a "...policy of national self-sufficiency and nonreliance on imports or economic aid...."
Most of North Korea's imports are from China, estimated at about 2.5 billion denominated in USD. For a tiny economy as estimated by CIA Fact Book and others, they are no autark but rather reliant on others. Food aid is a part of this.
WIKI
Alnico magnets are widely used in industrial and consumer applications where strong permanent magnets are needed. Examples are electric motors, electric guitar pickups, microphones, sensors, loudspeakers, magnetron tubes, and cow magnets. In many applications they are being superseded by rare-earth magnets, whose stronger fields (Br) and larger energy products (B·Hmax) allow smaller-size magnets to be used for a given application.
Al+Ni+Co+Cu and often Ti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnico
WIKI
Neodymium permanent magnets were discovered in 1984. These strong permanent magnets are fairly cheap due to the lower cost of Fe versus Co, the abundance of Nd versus Sm[samarium], and the relatively little amount of Nd in the composition. The alloy of neodymium, iron, and boron (Nd2Fe14B) results in a strong uniaxial anisotropy tetragonal structure and a Curie temperature above room temperature. According to Lucas et al, “Examination of the Nd2Fe14B structure indicates that the solid can be described as a layer structure with alternate stacking sequences of a Nd-rich layer and a sheet formed only by Fe atoms. The boron atoms which are diamagnetic and nonmetallic do not participate in the magnetism but like C atoms in steel contribute to reinforce the cohesion of the material by strong covalent bonding.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_magnet
1995. Clinton time, yet again. Remember Uranium One? Rather like that same "government" decision making. Clinton-Obama-Biden time in a rather consistent willingness to sell out the USA, each time they can.
See: The Saga of Magnequench Counterpunch, 7 April 2006.
You can’t beat something with nothing. Do the BRIC nations individually or collectively have currency that will replace the US Dollar? I don’t know. But what will they base it on? The US Dollar basically comes down to energy & banking.
,,, China is unable to replace it's population. If there's a war, any Chinese soldier killed assures the end of a family. China's previous long standing one child policy's result.
,,, an agreed range of commodities.
Heck, Even my first house in, what is now, a resort town, was only $44,000 and that was half an acre on a river. The city took it from me via eminent domain for a park starting my absolute hate of all things government.
Now, in that same area, a river property that size would be in the millions. And just when I get things going for my business 20 years later, the government locks out my industry destroying my business. YAY government.
—”China is unable to replace it’s population.”
“Rates have fallen to historic lows (e.g., 1.6 in 2023), with recent data showing White (non-Hispanic) women at ~1.57”
Replacement level ~2.1
China 1.9
WE are headed down the same road, and China is ahead...
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/08/15/5-facts-about-global-fertility-trends/
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