The West failed to shut Russia out of the oil market.

This means the petrodollar is doomed.

RT:

Russia’s flagship Urals crude breached the $60 price cap set by the EU and G7 countries this week for the first time since the mechanism was implemented in an attempt to curtail Moscow’s oil exports.

The Urals spot price reached $60.18 on July 12, while Primorsk and Novorossiysk-loaded cargoes hit $60.78 per barrel, according to Argus Media.

A price cap on Russian oil imposed by the EU, G7, and allied countries last December prohibits Western shipping, insurance, and re-insurance companies from handling Russian cargoes unless they are sold at or below the set price. A similar restriction was introduced in February for exports of Russian petroleum products.

Russia has responded to the restrictions by outlawing the sale of oil and refined products to buyers that comply with the cap.

“The latest data represents a victory of sorts for Moscow, which has assembled a shadow fleet of ships big enough to transport its crude to buyers with less need for services from companies in G7 countries,” Bloomberg wrote on Wednesday.

Urals’ price rise above the cap is a “setback to Europe and the US, which designed the policy to keep enough oil flowing to the global economy to prevent an inflation shock — while trying to crimp profits for Russia,” the outlet explained.

The US shouldn’t have set this all up to be knocked down.

But that’s what they did.

The bad part is, this is now a really good argument for World War III.

Craziest 2 minutes of TV news ever, with opposing guests on the Ukraine war hosted by Indian TV. the ending is a MUST watch.🤦 pic.twitter.com/1USI8bjHif

— Sk Boz, PhD 💙 (@skbozphd) March 3, 2022

Does the US have any understanding of what is going on?

I think these people are stupid. They are sitting around saying, “hahaha, we are Great Resetting them good now!” without comprehending the implications.

RT:

A system allowing direct rupee-ruble payments in trade between Russia and India could be launched this week, the president of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), A Sakthivel, told CNBC on Wednesday. The arrangement would allow India and Russia to carry out financial operations bypassing the US dollar. Russia is effectively blocked from using US currency due to Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine.

According to the official, the Indian government is working on a proposal to allow up to five nationalized Indian banks to be engaged in the rupee-ruble trade mechanism, and discussions between the central bank governor, the finance minister, and the banks on the matter have already been held. The arrangement would let Indian exporters continue doing business with Russia despite sanctions banning, among other things, international payment mechanisms in the country, such as SWIFT. It would also let India continue buying Russian energy exports and other goods.

According to Sakthivel, the Indian economy could profit from sanctions Russia is facing, as they give Indian exporters an opportunity to expand on the Russian market.

“Export to Russia is not much, only in agriculture and pharmacy products. Now that the whole of the West is banning Russia, there will be a lot of opportunities for Indian firms to enter Russia,” he stated.

India’s finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India have not yet commented on the new trade arrangement.

Unlike the US and the EU, India has not criticized Russia over its military operation in Ukraine, and has abstained from condemning Moscow during the recent UN voting rounds. When asked whether India’s continued commerce with Russia would draw Western ire, Sakthivel said his country had taken a “neutral stand” on the situation in Ukraine.

In other words, “idk lol roflmao who cares?”

What is the West going to do?

Just sanction every country that doesn’t go along with the program of saving the Democracy-Jewish neo-Nazis shooting off the kneecaps of POWs in the Ukraine?

Any of these countries, if pressed, can just show these videos and be like “actually, no, we don’t feel an obligation to sacrifice for your satanic torture program. You people are sick and weird, and we are not on-board with it, frankly.”

This whole “right side of history” gibberish the West is pushing only works of moronic white people who believe everything they’re told by the TV and Twitter posts. Anyone else is going to be like “yeah okay, can you go ahead and show me the videos of Russians torturing POWs or menacing their human shields with the Terminator theme song? Thanks.”

The West still thinks they can push the whole world around. I don’t know how it hasn’t registered yet that they can’t do this anymore. It is fascinating to watch.

The thing is: if they’re really going to go to war with China, India, etc., they have to do it quickly, because the actions these countries are taking are going to implode the dollar, which is going to mean that the US war machine is just going to break down.

The connection between the war machine and the dollar as reserve currency is very important. They back each other up. The US established the dollar as reserve currency (and the IMF, World Bank, WTO, etc.) through the threat of violence against the whole world, then they funded the war machine with the profits from exporting debt.

But even with that system set up, they were too weird to have any real military readiness.

Russia called the bluff.

Now, the respect for the military has collapsed, the dollar will follow, and there will then be no ability to fix either thing.

The US is already dealing with massive internal problems, and if they don’t prioritize those problems, then the whole thing will spin out of control.

Maybe they are looking to the old model of the USSR, thinking they can just have everyone poor and keep spending all their money on the military, even after dollar supremacy collapses?

But whatever you want to say about the structure of the USSR, they were actually producing things, actually feeding people, and they didn’t have massive social divisions. People were definitely poor, but there was a coziness to it, where people worked in factories and lived in strong racially homogeneous communities, without massive black crime or homeless encampments everywhere or any of these other new American problems.

It is so very strange to watch this all happening in real time. It is difficult to really put into words, and I don’t think anyone could grasp it even if I could put it into words. The US has been living in this comfort for as long as anyone alive has been alive, so it’s impossible for anyone to truly comprehend the idea of the whole thing coming down.

It hasn’t even begun to begin.

RT:

The share of the US dollar in global financial settlements dropped in February, according to the SWIFT interbank transaction system.

The use of the greenback fell 1.07%, down to 38.85% of all global transactions conducted via SWIFT. However, on a yearly basis, the dollar’s share was still up by 0.42%.

The share of settlements in euro, on the other hand, rose in February by 1.23%, to 37.79%. The euro has increased the most among the top 5 global currencies year on year.

There is going to be a lag on this, as everyone is figuring out how to deal with the fact that the United States is now the mad brute and has weaponized the dollar system against its enemies.

If it was just a drop of 1% a month, that would effectively mean a drop of 1% of the value of the dollar every month, on top of the inflation we already have. But it’s going to be bigger than that.

(NB4 economic lecture about how “it doesn’t work that way” – I know it’s not literally 1-1, but the dollar’s value is literally based on trade.)

Don’t hold dollars, folks.

Currently the US dollar is the most valuable currency in the world in terms of global trade, mostly due to its ties to the oil exporters in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia specifically).

Because of America’s increasing oil independence that would very easily change, and moves being made by China could see their currency replace the US dollar in the global economy.

China doing that would be a good excuse for the US to go full nationalist-protectionist-autokracy.

Which is the best option atm.

Short of full invasion and conquest of the entire globe, with Russia as tag-teammate.

Randy Savage would be Russia is this metaphor. Obviously.