[Shawnski]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Ehhh, reaching on a few of these. I might give you the Iraq one, but not the Libya.

Not Libya? Really? I don't think it is a reach at all.

It remains unclear exactly why or how the Gadhafi regime went from “a model” and an “important ally” to the next target for regime change in a period of just a few years. But after claims of “genocide” as the justification for NATO intervention were disputed by experts, several other theories have been floated.
Oil, of course, has been mentioned frequently — Libya is Africa‘s largest oil producer. But one possible reason in particular for Gadhafi’s fall from grace has gained significant traction among analysts and segments of the non-Western media: central banking and the global monetary system.

According to more than a few observers, Gadhafi’s plan to quit selling Libyan oil in U.S. dollars — demanding payment instead in gold-backed “dinars” (a single African currency made from gold) — was the real cause. The regime, sitting on massive amounts of gold, estimated at close to 150 tons, was also pushing other African and Middle Eastern governments to follow suit.

From within that article:



Still think it is a stretch? How about that the Libyan rebels set up a Central Bank within weeks. Libya had a central bank, yet it was one of the only fully state owned ones in the world. No "Banksters" involved. No interest bearing fiat currency where you had to borrow a nations money into existence. Gadhafi wanted to take it a step further, and the US wouldn't stand for that.

Originally Posted by Daradon

However the biggest common sense argument is that a crippled US economy will not benefit the Russians. I'm on board that the US is in trouble, and it's slowy becoming a house of cards, though much slower than conspiracy theorists argue.

However, it's not a zero sum game. A US economic collapse will trigger a world collapse including Russia. China and India cannot support the world or even make Russia profitable without the US.

I would argue that the current Keynesian based experiment is likely coming to its expected and ugly end. The West will be in dire trouble, but the East will actually have an opportunity to shift focus and start being a consumer of the goods it is now producing and exporting to the West. Those empty cities in China were built for a reason, and that reason was to prepare for a shift in prosperity.

And it is already happening... China isn't expanding their US Treasury holdings, in fact they appear to have plateaued with them.





And just to clarify, I don't think that India, China and Russia have to "support the world" at all. In fact, this could be a redemption for them for living in a substandard fashion in comparison to the West for the last century.

China has taken over the manufacturing sector to a very large extent. Congrats world! You have handed them the keys to producing wealth.

They don't need the West. They have been selling us goods in return for I.O.U.s that are increasingly looking like they are worthless. What the heck do you expect them to do? Give us more stuff for more worthless promises?