Free Republic

Financial markets generally show no clear direction these days. Accordingly, relatively small movements cause market noise. A few examples happened in the currency market where non-U.S. dollar exchange rates depreciated. While Euro depreciation had its back story of extreme right-wing parties rising in election polls, Japanese Yen depreciation had its story of the central bank (Bank of Japan) not managing market expectations well, Chinese Yuan depreciation had its story of bad outlook, the ultimate result was a strong U.S. dollar, against all.Many views have listed so many reasons that the U.S. dollar should decline, if not collapse. However, the “cruel”...

The BRICS alliance kick-started the de-dollarization agenda to bring the US dollar down from the world’s reserve currency status. The bloc initiated multiple policies to hamper the USD’s growth and make local currencies the center of all transactions. The de-dollarization program was started in 2022 after the US placed sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine. The US dollar remains the world’s de facto currency for trade despite BRICS indulging in de-dollarization practices. Their policies did little to nothing to bring the US dollar down and the USD currency maintains its worldwide supremacy. A new study from the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics...

This month, rumors about the petrodollar have spread like wildfire all over the Internet. Some of what is being said is true, and some of what is being said is false. When other sources were reporting on “the death of the petrodollar”, I was asked why I was not writing about it. Well, the truth is that I was not writing about it because the petrodollar is not dead. It is certainly in trouble, but it is not dead. Today, most oil continues to be sold in U.S. dollars, and most global trade continues to be conducted in U.S. dollars....

The End Of The Petrodollar Is The End Of America’s Global DominanceEvery nation has had to convert its currency to the U.S. dollar, making it the de facto global currency. Thanks to Joe Biden, it’s all gone.The petrodollar agreement with Saudi Arabia began in 1974, two years into Joe Biden’s first term as a United States senator. It ended this week, a half-century later, during Biden’s first term as U.S. president. Among all the news stories that matter, few rank higher than this. It’s bigger than President Trump and Hunter Biden’s convictions, bigger than jobs reports and inflation numbers, and...

The financial world is bracing for a significant upheaval following Saudi Arabia's decision not to renew its 50-year petro-dollar deal with the United States, which expired on Sunday, 9 June, 2024. The lapsed security agreement - signed by the United States and Saudi Arabia on 8 June 1974 - establishes two joint commissions, one on economic co-operation and the other on Saudi Arabia's military needs, and was said to have heralded an era of increasingly close co-operation between the two countries. American officials at the time expressed optimism that the deal would motivate Saudi Arabia to ramp up its oil...

By the early 400s, the Roman Empire was coming apart at the seams and in desperate need of strong, competent leadership. In theory, Honorius should have been the right man for the job.Born into the royal household in Constantinople, Honorius had been groomed to rule, practically since birth, by the finest experts in the realm. So even as a young man, Honorius had already accumulated decades of experience.Yet Rome’s foreign adversaries rightfully believed Honorius to be weak, out of touch, divisive, and completely inept.He had entered into bonehead peace treaties that strengthened Rome’s enemies. He paid vast sums of money...

KEY TAKEAWAYS The European Commission wants to hand Ukraine $300 billion seized from Russia. Doing so likely would sound the death knell for the dollar and eventually the euro. The message from the EU and the Biden administration is crystal clear: Western financial markets are now a dangerous place to park your money. The talk of seizing foreigners’ assets is exposing these dollar-denominated loans as less than safe. Indeed, they’re more of a liability. Confidence in Western financial markets has already been shaken enough by the 20% devaluation of the dollar over the last few years. But now the European...

We are living in the USA where corruption, favoritism, open borders and an out-of-control Federal budget and debt are destroying this once great nation. Former Kansas City Fed President Thomas M. Hoenig was absolutely right when he said recently that The Federal Reserve panders to Wall Street, Congress and special interest groups, prioritizing immediate relief over financial stability. Bernanke’s zero-interest rate policies (ZIRP) and Quantitative Easing (QE) were short-term fixes that never went away. Indeed, since the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008-2009, US Dollar purchasing power is DOWN -32% and M2 Money is up a staggering 177%. While Yellen stuck...

Two crypto influencers on X have called on their followers to snap up Bitcoin BTC, gold and silver, citing the risk of rising national debt in the United States. In an X post on March 11, entrepreneur and angel investor Balaji Srinivasan argued that Bitcoin is the only realistic solution to escape the inevitability of unsustainable government spending and potential asset confiscation. “We’re in the looting-the-treasury phase of imperial collapse,” the former Coinbase chief technology officer told his 994,000 followers. Srinivasan argued that government debt and wasteful spending continue to grow rapidly at unsustainable levels. U.S. national debt is currently...

Police are searching for a group of suspects accused of targeting a man in a violent incident outside a gas station on February 22 in Kansas City, Missouri. Surveillance video shows a man exit the gas station, located on the 4500 block of Cleveland Ave., just before 11:00 p.m. when three suspects approach him, KMBC reported Friday. Law enforcement said the suspects asked the man for a dollar and the man gave it to them. However, as the man appeared to try and get back into his vehicle, the suspects closed in and one of them allegedly shot the man,...

KEY TAKEAWAYS Biden’s unprecedented freezing of U.S. dollars owned by a foreign central bank has fundamentally jeopardized the currency’s hard-won reserve status. Janet Yellen dropped a bombshell last year, casually admitting that not only is de-dollarization happening, but Americans should expect more. At a minimum, it’d be multiple years of double-digit inflation like we’re used to seeing in third world countries. At worst, it’d be a full-blown Weimar Republic. America’s political establishment has less respect for the U.S. dollar than our foreign adversaries. That was made clear when Tucker Carlson recently interviewed the Russian strongman President Vladimir Putin, who clearly...

Five of the six countries invited to join the BRICS bloc of developing nations from Jan. 1 have confirmed they are joining, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Iran and Egypt, South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor said on Wednesday.

De-dollarization is the process of reducing the US dollar's hegemony in global trade and financial operations by shifting to alternative exchange methods such as national currencies and domestic payment systems, as well as transferring currency reserves. A third of UN member states have already opted for de-dollarization and decided to rely on national currencies to conduct payments, Sputnik's analysis has found. The analysis, which looked into statements made by officials from 193 UN countries in international and Russian media, showed that representatives of at least 68 UN nations openly supported the process of de-dollarization or stated that they were taking...

Jackson Browne said it best. The US economy is “running on empty.” M2 Money growth is negative. And M2 Money growth has been negative for the last year. The third and largest round of fiscal stimulus was in March of 2021. That’s when Biden’s popularity peaked at 55.1 percent. Base image from 588 Biden Approval Ratings. Why Biden’s Approval Rating Is Miserable Income is rising and so are wages. Even real income is up. But real wages are another matter. Personal income data from the BEA, hourly wages from the BLS, real hourly earnings and chart by Mish. Rental income...

Multinational investment bank Morgan Stanley downgraded the outlook for the U.S. dollar from ‘Bullish’ to ‘Neutral’ on Friday. The global bank cited that the Federal Reserve initiating interest rate cuts led to the decline of U.S. Treasury yields. Morgan Stanley’s outlook for the U.S. dollar is now officially ‘Neutral’ and downgraded from its previous stance of ‘Bullish’. The downgrade comes at a time when the BRICS alliance is advancing to uproot the U.S. dollar’s global supremacy. ...The U.S. dollar index might dip to $100, and if it slips to double digits, local currencies could begin to strengthen. The development coincides...

Iraq will ban the US dollar from the start of next year as the global movement against the greenback gathers pace, one of the country's top financial policymakers told Reuters. People won't be able to withdraw cash in dollars or use the greenback in transactions from January 1, 2024, Iraqi central bank director-general of investment and remittances Mazen Ahmed said in an interview with the outlet.

The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark lending rate unchanged at a two-decade high, but suggested at least one more increase is likely between now and the end of the year as inflation remains elevated and the economy continues to perform. The Fed's Open Markets Committee held its key policy rate at between 5.25% and 5.5%, the highest in 22 years, in a move that was widely expected from markets following a quarter point rate hike in July. The Fed's new Summary of Economic projections, known as the dot plots, now calls for GDP stronger growth of 2.1% this year, more...

China is leading the way in a growing anti-Western economic alliance known as BRICS, a Wall Street term that has morphed into a diplomatic and trading power bloc that threatens U.S. interests abroad. Originally formed by Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2009, these countries invited South Africa to join the political group a year later, when an “S” was added to the BRIC acronym. At the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg last month, six more nations joined the confederation. Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were just admitted to the coalition at the annual...

Billions in Russian oil sale profits are stuck in Indian banks, marking a blow to President Vladimir Putin's attempts to stop using the U.S. dollar for trade. ... ...accumulation of up to $1 billion each month in rupee assets in Indian banks that cannot be accessed due to restrictions by the Reserve Bank of India, which prevent Russian companies from transferring rupees stored in bank accounts in India to Russia and converting them into rubles, Bloomberg reported. ... "India operates a partially convertible capital account, which entails that the [Indian rupee] can be swapped for foreign currencies and vice-versa for...

Dollar stores are one of the bright spots in America's ailing brick-and-mortar retail industry: These discount retailers will represent one-third of all new store openings in the U.S. this year. Their ubiquity, however, is prompting questions about their low-cost operations, impact on communities and worker safety. The stores, which sell items for $1 each or slightly higher, provide communities with much-needed discount products, ranging from household staples like groceries to Halloween decorations. But workers and labor advocates are increasingly warning that the cheap items come at a price for their communities. Some of these issues were raised after last month's...