The weaponized dollar and the coming cashless world

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday, the 25^th day of March in this the year of our Lord 2022. I will be talking about how the United States has demonstrated in the Ukraine/Russia war that it can wage very effective economic warfare against other non-complying nations and what this portends for the United States and the world.

Lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war: nuclear deterrence

There are lessons to be drawn from conflict and plans made for fighting the next war. It is a concept like a football coach studying film of his past games to learn his team’s strengths and weaknesses. Generals and Presidents learn from past wars and develop ways to prevent the same losses and to preserve the same victories. That at least partially explains why generals always seem to fight the last war. As the Russians seem to be doing now in Ukraine.

We can take more than one lesson from Ukraine right now such as the lesson that nuclear deterrence works as a powerful defense. I have little doubt that except for Russia’s nuclear arsenal, the U.S. and NATO would be actively involved in the air and on the ground in Ukraine. The realization that Russia’s nuclear missiles have prevented NATO’s active involvement has provoked Europe to re-arm. And the U.S. is currently conducting seminars about modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal. In other words, another nuclear arms race. The U.S. arsenal, especially in space, has apparently been allowed to degrade since the Reagan years. And suddenly U.S. planners now confront two powerful nuclear armed enemies.

A weaponized dollar

The U.S. has demonstrated, however, that perhaps the most powerful weapon in the world today is not nuclear weapons which cannot be used without risking worldwide destruction, but the weaponized U.S. dollar. Since the Bretton Woods agreement at the end of World War ll, the U.S. has enjoyed world reserve status for the dollar. That means that world trade must be in dollars either dollars in hand or as the benchmark. No country will currently sign an agreement for future projects denominated in anything but dollars. The Euro is a distant second and the Chinese Yuan an even more distant third.

During the Nixon/Ford years when the oil Sheiks in the Middle East discovered that oil could also be a powerful weapon Henry Kissinger, as Secretary of State, developed a system of trade known as the Petro Dollar system.¹ It worked like this; The United States will use its blood and treasure to protect and guard in power the Saud Royal family as rulers of Saudi Arabia. And in return they will only sell oil denominated in dollars at the prevailing market rates. Biden’s recent courting of Iran, ancient enemy of the Saud Family, along with his refusal to defend them from attacks by the Iranian armed Houthi rebels in Yemen, has convinced the Saudis to take proposals from China to sell them oil in Yuan.²

But will a petro-yuan really take hold?

Nevertheless, world trade requires U.S. dollars. And to get them one must have access to the place where they can be printed in unlimited amounts, the Federal Reserve. Other countries or banks that are awash in dollars are very concerned about violating U.S. banking regulations because they have witnessed the power of the dollar and the message is loud and clear. The lesson for virtually every nation and financial institution in the world is as powerful and clear as an armed strike but even more deadly. No access to dollars means no nation will take your local money to buy anything. You are effectively cut off, unable to conduct business anywhere in the world.

The United States is by far the largest economy in the world and the largest importer. For example, the weakness of the Russian economy has been laid bare for the world to see. The European Union’s economy, for example, is more than 10 times that of Russia. The U.S. then, can wreak havoc on any country that will not play its game. A good example would be Iran after Trump canceled the original agreement worked out by Obama. The Iranian economy was devastated, but President Biden is working diligently to restore its status. So, my guess is that Iran will have to agree to play along with the globalist goals of the new liberal order of the world as laid out by President Biden. That’s far more important than whether Iran has a functional nuclear weapon.

The weaponized dollar depends on foreign cooperation

The mechanism for weaponizing the dollar is the cooperation of other nations. Once the other great economic powers are onboard, its play our game or you will not play at all. The U.S. has been very successful at mobilizing NATO. But other far-flung nations such as Japan, distant from Ukraine, but very close to the dollar, and very dependent on U.S. military aid is also on board. The allies or what has come to be known as the liberal world order, do not want to engage in battle or kinetic warfare. And they really do not want the U.S. upset with them. There is, therefore, a coalition of the central banks of all the world’s cooperating nations to isolate and destroy the Russian economy.

That economy is dependent on the export of commodities primarily oil and gas, but many other commodities needed by industrialized nations. When Russian energy imports to the U.S. are banned, and the dollar is weaponized by a large alliance of industrialized nations, the result is that Russia is in deep trouble. Long story a little shorter, Russia could be in for a long slow unremitting misery or said another way, being wounded or killed on the battlefield is one thing but having your kids go hungry is quite another.

Will Russia lose?

Like strategic bombing in World War ll, the financial warfare is designed to leave the Russian economy in tatters so the people would rebel and demand their rulers make peace. It didn’t work in World War ll but time will tell if it works now. The Homefront suffers in war on both sides. In this case we suffer from rising oil prices which give Biden the incentive to call it Putin’s price increases, but the American people are coming to realize that is a convenient lie.

On the military front the American public is being told through the media that Russia is losing the war. The Russians may indeed lose this war and be forced back across the border but they may also endure a long grinding victory, and in war an ugly win is still a win. One thing we have learned for certain though, is that the weaponized use of the dollar is a frightening weapon. It carries with it the ability to starve populations. There is no need for military action, no need for a naval blockade, no need for submarine warfare against merchant shipping because Russia is already effectively blockaded and isolated without her greatest enemy firing a shot.

Is the weaponized dollar working?

The application of the weaponized dollar toward Iran and then Russia demonstrated that the scale of warfare could be adjusted. Russia, unlike Iran, is economically devastated by the enormous scale of the attack. Even individual Russians whom the West labels Oligarchs have had their yachts and their multimillion-dollar homes confiscated. I suppose the reason is to make it hard to be Russian thus making a coup more likely. The U.S. has told the world and especially China that if anyone tries to do business with Russia in gold, which Russia thought was a safe haven, then the same would happen to them.

The message sent around the world is also being received especially in China. Suddenly the Chinese are brushing off the hand of Putin which was around their shoulder a few weeks ago. Suddenly the Chinese are willing to talk strategy with the U.S. and that strategy does not carry a prerequisite regarding Taiwan. The Chinese undoubtedly will demand concessions. But they have seen that the once highly regarded power of Russia is no match for the economic power of the United States. Regarding invading Taiwan, the Chinese have been sent a valuable lesson. And that is never assume that a war will be a slam dunk.

The threat at home

Unfortunately, while we are focused on the war in Ukraine, and rising prices for food and fuel, our rulers are working quietly to take away our cash as well as the cash of the Russian people. They are out of the closet and in the open now on their intent to establish a global social credit system powered by a Federal Reserve controlled digital currency. Before you think that using a credit card for everything would not be so bad let me explain why it would be a nightmare. It would be a global gulag with digital walls around our brains. We have seen what economic warfare can do so we better learn from it.

Just a simple example, with digital currency social credit you must maintain social standing as the government defines it to control your own money. No cash, no privacy. The government knows and monitors everything you sell and buy. The government knows who you give to and how much and if it doesn’t think you are socially acceptable your livelihood is cut off. Remember what I said about Russian soldiers watching their children go hungry. No cash, no autonomy, and every purchase you make must be approved on high, and that approval will be contingent on your social credit score. Does that information sound as farfetched to you as it does to me, and yet it is real? The weaponized dollar has proven itself to be frightening, but the digital dollar when weaponized would be terrifying.

The President is all in

The President of the United States is all in on this idea of digital money, and as a result has directed the Federal Reserve to begin the development of a digital currency for the United States. Since the U.S. is the world’s reserve, that means for the whole world. Last Monday he gave a talk to a group of 16 CEOs known as the Business Roundtable. This is a quote from his remarks:

As one of the top military people said to me in a secure meeting the other day, 60 million people died between 1900 and 1946. Since then, we’ve established a liberal world order and that hadn’t happened in a long while. A lot of people died but nowhere near the chaos. And now’s the time when things are shifting, there’s going to be a new world order out there and we’ve got to lead it. And we’ve got to unite the rest of the free world in doing it.

Who is disintegrating our civilization?

Congress is aware as well because a bill labeled H.R. 6415 has been introduced in the House which would prevent the U.S. from adopting digital currency. It is presently in committee but to become law it would have to pass a Democrat controlled House, then a Democrat controlled Senate and then be signed by a Democrat president who is the very reason it was introduced. What are the chances? That’s right the chances of passage are zero. We can hope it escapes committee so there would be debate and at least bring awareness.

In conclusion, this information has caused me to think about who our real enemy is in this new liberal world order. Who is the enemy of everything you hold dear, your family, your progeny, your ancestors, your culture, and your civilization? Who is responsible for the disintegration of our civilization? You must decide.

Finally, folks, money has indeed been weaponized. We not only have to endure the worst inflation in many years, but we wonder what our money will be worth tomorrow. Now we must also wonder if we will be allowed to spend it. What good is money when it can be canceled at the whim of someone else?

At least that’s the way I see it.

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle.

From castlereport.us, appears here by permission.

Editor’s Notes

1 CNAV has written on this years ago. See Parts One and Two.

2 The correct pronunciation of this word is “wawn,” which rhymes with “fawn.”