The beginning of the new decade ushered in an era of uncertainty, where investors are navigating through an unstable world.
A few years ago, inflation was around 2%, Europe was stable and prosperous, energy was affordable, US borders were relatively secure, and supply chains were solid.
Fast forward to today, and it is a complete contrast with the world becoming unstable.
Cost-push inflation is nearing the double digits, the war in Europe continues unabated, and food and energy hyperinflation inflation has already forced rationing across the eurozone.
Gas in Germany, flour in Greece, and sunflower oil in Spain are all rationed.
“Gas in Germany, flour in Greece, and sunflower oil in Spain are all rationed”
WIN INVESTING
The Russia Ukrainian war is already impacting food supplies in Europe and food security elsewhere, which triggers political unrest, adding to an unstable world.
The west’s ebbs and flow relationship with Russia makes the world less stable.
Since the appointment of Putin by Yeltsin as Prime Minister in 1999, the west was eager to do business with the new Russia. If you go back in time, the archives are full of western leaders shaking hands with officials in the Kremlin over multi-billion-dollar energy deals.
“Putin said: ‘When are you going to invite us to join Nato?’ back in 2000.
It seemed like a logical move since why would resource-rich Russia and its human capital-rich productive European neighbors to the west want to fight each other.
If EU policy was tailored towards trading with Russia, Europe could have enjoyed decades of unprecedented prosperity and peace.
Perhaps the continent would have gravitated towards the Silk Road Economic Belt and explored untapped markets in young, emerging Asian markets.
But it was not meant to be because it would have resulted in a pivot from the transatlantic western sphere of dominance, and that would threaten dollar hegemony.
“When are you going to invite us to join Nato?”
PUTIN
The western family clans who sit at the apex of the food chain, the secret shareholders of the most powerful institution on the planet, The Federal Reserve, will not allow their colony, the EU, to trade with Russia and pivot East.
The EU is a colony or a satellite of the US.
Ninety Percent of foreign bases are American, which is the hallmark of an Empire, its military occupation of foreign lands. Since WW2, American bases have occupied most of Europe, with at least forty based in Germany alone.
Put simply, the EU has no independent national defense policy as it remains under US occupation. So the EU’s defense policy and energy policy are aligned. Think about it. There is no point making billions of dollars of CAPEX constructing pipelines across borders if those borders don’t share a defense security policy.
“The three pillars keeping the USD on the throne are the petrodollar, US treasuries, and the military-industrial complex” – Win Investing
Ukraine is a strategic land, as it is not only the breadbasket of Europe. Its proximity to western Europe and Russia makes it a strategic hub for routing Russian gas pipelines through to Europe.
To take this full circle, the trophy of the Empire is world reserve currency status, which is what gives its people exorbitant privilege. Americans on food stamps to the billionaire fueling his private jet, all benefit from the USD reserve currency privilege. The US can borrow cheaply, whether it be households, or the government to finance expenditure because the world is willing to store its wealth, its savings, in USD and treasuries.
The pillars keeping the USD on the hegemonic throne are beginning to wobble as the old order western sphere of influence is being challenged, which is leading to an unstable world
The three pillars keeping the USD on the throne are the petrodollar, US treasuries, and the military-industrial complex.
Now you can understand why an energy-dependent EU relying on Russian gas outside the US-centric world would be akin to kicking the leg of a three-legged stool.
Moreover, with cost-push inflation driving treasury yields into negative territory storing wealth in US treasuries, which are perceived as a safe-haven asset no longer protects wealth against currency debasement. So the USD debt-based currency system is withering on the vine. The Fed can’t tackle inflation without triggering a global debt tsunami and jeopardizing its fiat debt system.
To put it bluntly, to keep the USD reserve currency status unchallenged, the pillaging, plundering, and looting of foreign lands, an event such as the Iraq war, blood for oil could be the unwritten silent policy to keep the USD on its rickety throne.
Saudi Arabia is in discussions with Beijing to price oil Yuan. But the petro yuan is a challenge to the petrodollar. Russia is demanding payment for gas in rubles. So an energy market outside the petrodollar is emerging.
The US and its stooges have run out of low-hanging fruits. But you can’t bully a nuclear power.
“A multi-centric world is emerging, and the Diversification of assets within the western and eastern spheres of influence could be a good hedge” – Win Investing
Putin is fanatic about defending Russia’s place in the world and surrounded by like minds, which is the crux of this unstable world where a nuclear confrontation is now realistic
“Why Do We Need a World if Russia Is Not In It?”: State TV
A terrorist doesn’t pop out of a mother’s womb wearing a suicide vest. So what has radicalized Putin from being trustworthy, and straightforward to the new terror threat in Europe?
In the twenty years since Russia was refused NATO membership, at least half a dozen new NATO countries have joined near Russia’s borders. There have also been two wars in natural resource-rich countries, Libya and Iraq. Moreover, geopolitical analysts knew inviting Ukraine into NATO, after it promised to give up its nukes, would be deemed an existential threat to Russia, and trigger a war.
War is a playground for evil, and the atrocities committed are probably not fake. Europe is witnessing terror and barbarity on its continent again.
But western policies could be radicalizing Putin and pushing the world to a nuclear confrontation.
The longer the Russia Ukraine war continues the more likely weapons of mass destruction will be used for the first time on the continent. The terror acts committed by Putin’s forces in Ukraine are a warning to the west: Russia does not have the manpower or the economic strength for a long protracted war and will resort to using WMD.
A multi-centric world is emerging, and the Diversification of assets within the western and eastern spheres of influence could be a good hedge.
