Russia, China sign deal to bypass U.S. dollar

In a symbolic blow to U.S. global financial hegemony, Russia and China took a small step toward undercutting the domination of the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency on Tuesday when Russia’s second biggest financial institution, VTB, signed a deal with the Bank of China to bypass the dollar and pay each other in domestic currencies.

The so-called Agreement on Cooperation — signed in the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is on a visit to Shanghai — was followed by the long-awaited announcement on Wednesday of a massive natural gas deal 10 years in the making.

“Our countries have done a huge job to reach a new historic landmark,” Putin said on Tuesday, making note of the $100 billion in annual trade that has been achieved between the two countries.

Demand for the dollar, which has long served as a safe and reliable reserve currency in international transactions, has allowed the U.S. to borrow almost unlimited cash and spend well beyond its means, which some economists say has afforded the United States an outsize influence on world affairs.

But the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, a bloc of the world’s five major emerging economies — have long sought to diminish their dependence on the dollar as a means of reshaping the world financial and geopolitical order. In the absence of a viable alternative, however, replacing it has proved difficult.

For its part, “China sees the dominance of the dollar in international trade transactions as a remnant of American global dominance, which they hope to overthrow in the years ahead,” said Michael Klare, a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College. “This is a small step in that direction, to reduce the primacy of the

As financially unsound as we are, seems like a really stupid idea to move from the dollar to the less valuable (and still falling) Ruble. It’s been falling for awhile now, and not because of Ukraine. There is only so far you can go with a Gangster-Russian version of capitalism, and the Chicoms, who are building entire ghost cities where no one even lives, are going to implode eventually soon. We might crash too, but there’s a difference between them and us. Neither have the longevity and the internal strength of the American people, who are not used to being slave-born, but are always up for surpassing ourselves.

“Neither have the longevity and the internal strength of the American people, who are not used to being slave-born, but are always up for surpassing ourselves.”

You are talking about the old U.S.A....
This is the New U.S.S.A., where the only thing that matters is gay sex.

Russia is now where we were at around 1955, concerning development and economic growth.

They are undertaking HUGE infrastructure projects to open up the vast, empty parts of the country, and this will have a huge, long-term effect on world economics, I believe.

Meanwhile, in America, it takes 30 years to build a third runway at O’Hare.

Russia is now where we were at around 1955, concerning development and economic growth.

I think that is far too optimistic. There is a reason why Russians of any means are fleeing the country in droves. This was not true of 1950s America. Politically, they are something like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the God Father, but with a "folkish," mystical nationalism based upon the Russian people as a race. Where there is no freedom, where the human spirit is put under the chains of the state, there will be no true growth. Until the Russian people are freed from the yoke of Russia's soviet structures, they will never be able to achieve what we can, even on a bad day.

"The Russians are leaving... Russia

Highly qualified middle-class professionals, feeling ignored by the country's economy and political system, are emigrating in search of greener pastures.

Andrei and Nadezhda are, by any measure, successful professionals and a happy family. They are the kind of people who are supposed to be the mainstay of new Russia and the driving force of its resurgence. Except that they are planning to leave this country for good.

They live in the ancient Russian city of Vladimir, about 200 km east of Moscow. Andrei, 40, and Nadezhda, 36, have decent jobs, a two-bedroom flat and a car, and are raising two daughters, aged 10 and 4. Four years ago they took a firm decision to emigrate. Why?

“We don't see a future for us here,” says Nadezhda. “Once a military and industrial giant, our country today is reduced to a raw material appendage to other economic powerhouses. Look at our shops: You won't find any goods made in Russia. Our well-being depends on the price of oil and on decisions taken by politicians and economists in other countries. We don't feel we are needed here.”

RESULTS OF A SURVEY

This harsh indictment of the situation in this country is shared by many Russians. A survey conducted last year by the respected Levada Centre found that 50 per cent of Russians do not think there is future for them in Russia, while 63 per cent said they would like their children to live elsewhere.

Andrei and Nadezhda are part of a new emigration wave from Russia. There are no reliable emigration statistics, partly because the departures are hard to document. According to the Federal Migration Service, almost 30,000 left Russia in the 11 months of last year. However, the figure includes only those who gave up their Russian passports, whereas most émigrés retain Russian citizenship. The Auditing Commission, last year, estimated on the basis of tax returns that almost 1.25 million Russians had left during the past decade. Other estimates put the number of émigrés at 2 million. The shocking fact is that the exodus from Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union is comparable to that in the wake of the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution. In those days Russians fled violence and hunger. Today their motives are different.

The first post-Soviet emigration wave, when an estimated 1.1 million left Russia in the 1990s, was largely attributed to the lifting of Communist-era travel restrictions and the country's painful transition to a market economy. It was baffling though when the outflow picked up again during Vladimir Putin's presidency in the 2000s."

Rest at link:http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-russians-are-leaving-russia/article2880044.ece

There is a very real issue regarding China.

China now produces more than America, according to some estimates.

Chinese production is going straight up.

We are being challenged right now, by a country with five times our population. Yet we continue to buy, and buy, and buy ever more imports.

Nobody seems to be doing a single thing, to support AMERICA.

Both of our parties appear to be completely sold out.

America became great, because America made things.

We need to make things. America needs to bring back manufacturing. We need to make our own stuff.

(rant off)

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