Vince Dhimos answered a question at Quora.
 
https://www.quora.com/How-did-the-one-road-one-belt-policy-fail-by-irritating-all-the-nearby-nations-including-Russia/answer/Vince-Dhimos
 

 
HOW DID THE ONE ROAD ONE BELT POLICY FAIL BE IRRITATING ALL THE NEARBY NATIONS INCLUDING RUSSIA?
 
Vince Dhimos, Editor-in-Chief at New Silk Strategies (2016-present)
 
In a world where the US president has recently brazenly announced that he intends to steal oil belonging to the downtrodden and war-ravaged Syrian people, where US bombs have killed thousands of unarmed civilians from Afghanistan to Libya to Iraq, where the US openly supports violent demonstrations in Hong Kong where people are being attacked by demonstrators using lethal weapons, it is absolutely amazing that a Westerner would focus on supposed “irritation” caused by the OBOR project, which, unlike grand projects of the US and NATO, is peaceful and non-military and has killed no one. But perhaps the source of the irritation in the West is that no genocide has occurred as a result of the OBOR?
 
I did a search using the search terms
 
one-belt one-road irritates russia
 
and found no hints that the project has irritated a single Russian. The only irritant to India is that the route runs through Kashmir, but if India can find a way to oust the occupier, Pakistan, it can have that section of the route for itself.  Indonesia was initially irritated because of China’s growing clout, but lately the country’s leadership has been pleased to have the project revitalize its dilapidated infrastructure. Beyond the sound and fury, what country could stay mad at a project that eases trade and promises to boost the income of all who are affected by the project? As the Lord said to Saul on the road to Damascus, it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. For comparison, has NATO launched any projects that actually promote the economies of its member nations?
 
Perhaps you are confused with the fact that Russia was initially not much involved in the project, for lack of funds. Well, that has changed. Russia and China are now cooperating in the Arctic leg of the OBOR and have created an Arctic route that cuts thousands of miles off the old Asia-Europe shipping route via the Suez Canal. Of course, this savings in fuel and contribution to reduced green house gases is, as we could expect, sneered at by cantankerous residents of the Western world, where numerous countries, with the usual grovelling obedience to the professional Washington Russophobes and Sinophobes, refuse to use the new route, preferring to pollute and overpay as before.
 
As for the so-called “failure,” the project continues unabated, and in fact, several nations have shown a pecuniary interest in building or expanding ports to accommodate the freight arriving from Asia or headed there via the new Arctic route. These include many states that have complained of the popular Western fiction of “Russian aggression.”
 
Funny how the prospect of mammon can change hearts and minds.
 
 

Vince Dhimos answered a question on Quora.

Q: WOULD PEGGING THE US DOLLAR TO THE PRICE OF GOLD LIMIT HOW MUCH CURRENCY THE FEDERAL RESERVE COULD PLACE IN CIRCULATION?

https://www.quora.com/Would-pegging-the-US-dollar-to-the-price-of-gold-limit-how-much-currency-the-federal-reserve-could-place-in-circulation/answer/Vince-Dhimos

Vince Dhimos, Editor-in-Chief at New Silk Strategies (2016-present)


It doesn’t matter what policy is adopted, but forget gold. The US is ideologically wedded to paper, or rather to electronic dollars. The bottom line is that the government or Fed should stop adding to a now-unpayable and irresponsible debt and must stop simply printing money, ie, using a financial solution to solve an economic problem. But that will not happn in the biggest Western “democracy,” where politics — not common sense — drives all policies.

The real US economy is anchored in real production and there is not enough production to merit the wild reckless spending in Washington. (Trump focused on shale oil but that is systemically unprofitable).

In October, according to CNN:

“The Fed announced on Friday it will launch a new program next week that will gobble up $60 billion of Treasury bills per month. The purchases will further boost the size of its already-massive $4 trillion balance sheet.”

This means more money printing to solve a problem that was created by the US trade wars coupled with overspending.

The US is not minded to use economic measures to solve economic problems, and financial “solutions” are not real solutions, just can kicking. The president who promised in his campaign to cut back spending, actually raised the debt tremendously. No politicians has the will to cut spending and reduce the debt. This is a systemic characteristic of Western “democracy.”

Washington has fallen prey to a money-printing mentality akin to a drug addiction. There is no solution now. The downward spiral will continue until the economy flat-lines.
​
If you think that is an exaggeration, name a viable presidential candidate who would dare to suggest spending less on arms, closing military bases, stopping foreign aid to homicidal countries, making billionaires pay taxes and cutting spending programs starting in 2020.

The following is our translation of an article from RIA Novosti.
 

 
MOSCOW, Feb 4 - RIA Novosti, Marat Seleznev. The problems of poverty in developing countries and third world countries are obvious. But the most prosperous states also suffer from social ills. Forty million Americans live below the poverty line, several million barely make ends meet, and most of the benefits of civilization are becoming less accessible to them. Economists are coming to a paradoxical conclusion: it turns out that being a beggar is much worse in a rich country than in a poor one. Calls to think seriously about revising social policy are getting louder. How the American dream turns into an American illusion is discussed at RIA Novosti.
 
Every eighth
 
“During these two weeks I saw and heard a lot,” - this is how the voluminous report on the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty Philip Alston to the United States begins.
 
During an American tour, he looked into downtown Los Angeles and was surprised that hundreds of people in the Skid Row area were on the verge of survival. He witnessed a policeman in San Francisco trying to drive a group of homeless people off the street. The law enforcement officer froze and fell silent after the question: "Where can we go?" Alston saw completely toothless people - insurance did not cover dental services. Now they have no opportunity to get a normal job. He was shocked by storm drains filled with sewage in those states where the authorities do not deal with such communal problems.
 
"The United States is one of the richest, strongest and most technologically advanced countries. But neither wealth, nor strength, nor technology is used to solve the problem of poverty. Forty million Americans live in poverty," says Alston. Forty million people are one in eight United States citizens. Almost 13 percent of the country's population.
 
The poverty line for one adult in the United States, according to January 13, is $ 12,140 per year. $16,460 for two people, $20,780for three. The average annual salary in the country is 29 thousand dollars for a cashier, and 62 thousand fora policeman. Forty million Americans receive less than the official "living wage." Moreover, 18.5 million of them have incomes half that threshold, the UN said.
 
The vice of poverty
 
In the USA, it is customary to think (and the authorities are trying to support this idea) that the rich are definitely hardworking patriots, the main driving force of the economy. Poor people, by contrast, are considered losers and dependents, people who do not want to work hard. “Reality, however, is at odds with these views,” Alston points out.
 
In fact, the richest Americans are trying to pay less taxes, withdraw funds to offshore accounts and profit not from hard work, but from speculation. The poor either were born poor or were marginalized under the pressure of circumstances - illness, old age, discrimination in the labour market, family breakdown or the like.
 
"In the current economy, only a small percentage of the population is protected from impoverishment caused by a combination of adverse circumstances. The American dream is quickly turning into an American illusion: the mobility of the population in the United States is the lowest among wealthy countries," writes Philip Alston.
 
The UN spokesman also urges not to replicate racist stereotypes, according to which the majority of the poor in the United States are black or Hispanic. In reality, the army of white poor people is eight million more.
 
A separate problem is child poverty. In 2016, 18 percent of children in the United States — about 13 million — lived in poverty. Thirty-two and a half percent of the American poor are children, 21 percent of the homeless are children. However, not everything is so terrible. Yes, 95 percent of young Americans now have health insurance thanks to the expansion of Medicaid and the launch of the Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997. However, according to the Stanford Centre for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, the United States ranks first among wealthy countries in terms of child poverty.
 
At the bottom
 
“The misery and poverty of millions of Americans is the same as in Africa or Asia. Maybe even worse than theirs,” Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate in Economics, sounds the alarm. For many years he has been studying the problems of welfare in different countries. In an article for The New York Times, "The United States Can No longer Ignore the Problem of Deep Poverty," he tries to answer the question of whether the United States has the same kind of beggars as, for example, Ethiopia and Nepal.
 
Deaton's answer is not very optimistic. Americans, despite the country's economic power, suffer extreme poverty. And there are more poor people who have sunk to the very bottom than is commonly thought.
 
According to the World Bank, in 2013 there were 769 million beggars on the planet. In this report, the term “world’s very poorest” is used - meaning deep poverty, the worst level of welfare. Such people survive on $1.9 a day. Of the extremely poor 3.3 million are Americans.
 
But one important circumstance is missing in these calculations. The needs of the poor in different countries are very different. A peasant in the tropics does not need a lot of money for clothing or transport services. A villager in India is not burdened with house rents and does not waste money on utility bills. Even within one country, beggars have different needs: in Los Angeles they are warm and the homeless sleep on the streets, while in New York they have to look for an overnight shelter with a roof.
 
American economist Robert Allen proposes to improve the poverty assessment system. According to him, the cut-off line of $1.9, which defers to the World Bank, is suitable for poor countries. For prosperous states, you need to use the four dollar mark.
 
As a result, Deaton writes, 5.3 million Americans can be called absolutely poor, that is, 66 percent more than is commonly believed. For comparison: 3.2 million beggars in Sierra Leone, 2.5 million in Nepal and the same 5.3 million in Senegal.
 
White despair
 
Of course, people live longer in rich countries. With rare exceptions, everyone has access to clean water, normal food, and at least some medical services. But Deaton notes that the benefits of civilization are increasingly bypassing the poorest Americans. And life expectancy in the country (80 years, 43rd place on the CIA list is worse than Greece, Puerto Rico and Spain) is lower than it could be given the total wealth of the United States. In some regions, such as the Mississippi Delta or the Appalachian Mountains, life expectancy is even lower than in Bangladesh or Vietnam.
 
Many Americans face poor health. A joint study by Angus Deaton and economics professor at Princeton University, Anna Keyes, said that this problem most often affects white Americans with secondary education. Among them, the so-called mortality from despair - suicides, alcohol and drugs - is increasing.
 
The authors of the study suggest that the increase in the number of "deaths from despair" is associated with a deterioration in the economic and social situation of citizens - mainly representatives of the white working class. It is noteworthy that according to the results of 2015, mortality in this category was 30 percent higher than that of African Americans. In 1999, the opposite picture was observed. This is another confirmation of the fallacy of racial stereotypes: the level of well-being depends on many factors, but certainly not on skin colour.
 
“Fighting inequality requires significant changes in taxation nationally and globally. Many countries will have to rethink education and wage policies, as well as corporate governance,” according to the 2018 World Inequality Report.
 
Among the authors of the document are economists specializing in the problem of stratification of society and poverty: Tom Picketti and Emmanuel Saez. They believe that developed countries should radically change their social structure.
 
Poverty alleviation is proposed in three areas. The first is the application of progressive taxation. This discourages the rich from accumulating money and raising their own wealth. The second is the compilation of a global registry of financial assets. This will help identify capital owners and strike a blow at tax evasion and money laundering. Thirdly, ensuring equal access to education and work.
 
Finally, the authors’ general wish is that governments should invest in education, health, and the environment. And the main problem here is that the richest countries are actually impoverished. States have little free money, even the most prosperous of them being burdened with high sovereign debts; they can’t expand social programs indefinitely.
 
Angus Deaton does not call for a radical change in the tax system and the sharing of the wealth of billionaires. He asks the world governments and, in particular, the US authorities to pay a little more attention to internal problems. “Stop thinking that only non-Americans are truly poor,” the Nobel laureate addresses the American elite.
 
Shocked by a trip to the United States, Philip Alston wrote his report not only in dark tones. He saw a lot of good and spoke about examples of true mercy and mutual assistance. One of the Catholic churches in San Francisco, among services, provides the homeless with a roof over their heads. Volunteer doctors in Charleston (West Virginia) provide free services to thousands of patients, including dental services. Many municipalities are in favour of expanding social support for 20 percent of the poorest and most disadvantaged people. But all this is an initiative from below.
 
From above, according to Alston, inefficient social and tax policies are imposed on the American community. And the situation is only getting worse.
 
The World Inequality Report says that in 1980 in Europe and the United States, one percent of the adult population owned 10 percent of national wealth. By 2016, the situation in the United States had changed a lot. If one percent of the wealthiest Europeans accounted for 12 percent of the national wealth, then the American elite have “gobbled up” 20 percent.
 
According to a UN spokesman, the United States is at risk of becoming a world leader in extreme inequality. Tax reform is to blame. Among other things, a serious reduction in corporate income tax is expected, from 35 to 21 percent. "When calculating tax benefits, the Treasury directly says that one of the sources of income may be social security reform," he said. This means that social programs will go under the knife, because money for their implementation will become less due to a smaller influx of taxes from corporations.
 
“The consequences can be fatal for both the overloaded and inadequate American social protection system, and for those who rely on it,” warns Alston.

​http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/global-collapse-incoming-the-total-breakdown-of-relations-with-china-could-throw-our-planet-into-utter-turmoil
 
Global Collapse Incoming? The Total Breakdown Of Relations With China Could Throw Our Planet Into Utter Turmoil
November 20, 2019 by Michael Snyder
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We just witnessed one of the most monumental events of the entire decade, and yet most Americans still don’t understand what has happened.  In recent months, the global economy and stock markets around the world have been buoyed by the hope that the U.S. and China would soon sign a new trade agreement.  Unfortunately, there is no way that is going to happen now.  On Tuesday, the Senate unanimously passed the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019”, and the House of Representatives passed the same bill by a 417 to 1 vote on Wednesday.  Needless to say, the Chinese are beyond angry that Congress has done this.  In part one of this article, I showed that China is warning the U.S. to “rein in the horse at the edge of the precipice” and that there will be “revenge” if this bill is allowed to become law.  And it looks like this bill will actually become law, because Bloomberg is reporting that President Trump is fully expected to sign it…
President Donald Trump is expected to sign legislation passed by Congress supporting Hong Kong protesters, setting up a confrontation with China that could imperil a long-awaited trade deal between the world’s two largest economies.
Before I go any further, there is something that I want to address.  Earlier today, one of my readers emailed me and accused me of siding with China because I am warning about what will happen if trade negotiations fail.  Of course that is not true at all.  I have been writing about the horrific human rights abuses in China for many years, and they are one of the most tyrannical regimes on the entire planet today.  But our two economies have become deeply intertwined over the past two decades, and there are going to be very serious consequences now that we are rapidly becoming bitter enemies.  Anyone that doesn’t see this is simply not being rational.
As I have detailed repeatedly in recent months, the global economy has already entered a very serious slowdown.  One of the only things that could reverse our economic momentum in the short-term would be a comprehensive trade agreement between the United States and China.  But now that our relationship with China has been destroyed, there isn’t going to be a deal.
Some mainstream news sources are reporting that all of this rancor about Hong Kong could delay a trade deal, but that is just more wishful thinking.
Over in China, they are being much more realistic.  In fact, the editor of the Global Times, Hu Xijin, just said that the Chinese are “prepared for the worst-case scenario“…
Few Chinese believe that China and the US can reach a deal soon. Given current poor China policy of the US, people tend to believe the significance of a trade deal, if reached, will be limited. China wants a deal but is prepared for the worst-case scenario, a prolonged trade war.
And he followed that up with another tweet that openly taunted U.S. farmers…
So a friendly reminder to American farmers: Don’t rush to buy more land or get bigger tractors. Wait until a China-US trade deal is truly signed and still valid six months after. It’s safer by then.
As the two largest economies on the entire planet decouple from one another, it is going to cause global economic activity as a whole to dramatically slow down.  Corporate revenues will fall, credit markets will start to tighten, and fear will increasingly creep into global financial markets.
I have repeatedly warned that conditions are ideal for our first major crisis since 2008, and this conflict with China could be more than enough to push us over the edge.
And already we are getting more bad economic news day after day.  For example, we just learned that U.S. rail traffic this month is way down compared to last year…
Nowhere is the slowdown in the U.S. economy more obvious than in places like Class 8 Heavy Duty Truck orders and rail traffic. We already wrote about how Class 8 orders continued to fall in October and new data the American Association of Railroads (AAR) now shows that last week’s rail traffic and intermodal container usage both plunged.
The AAR reported total carloads for the week ended Nov. 9 came in at 248,905, down 5.1% compared with the same week in 2018. U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 266,364 containers and trailers, down 6.7% compared to 2018, according to Railway Age.
Unless a miracle happens with China, the economic numbers are going to continue to get worse.
Sadly, a miracle seems exceedingly unlikely now.  As I pointed out in part one, the only way that our relationship with China can be fixed is if Congress repeals the bill that it just passed, and there is no way that is going to happen.
And we better hope that our trade war with China doesn’t escalate into a real war at some point.
According to a report that was released earlier this year, we are very ill-prepared to fight any sort of a conventional war with China in the Western Pacific…
The University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre’s new report Averting Crisis, said: ‘China’s growing arsenal of accurate long-range missiles poses a major threat to almost all American, allied and partner bases, airstrips, ports and military installations in the Western Pacific.
‘As these facilities could be rendered useless by precision strikes in the opening hours of a conflict, the PLA missile threat challenges America’s ability to freely operate its forces from forward locations throughout the region.’
In addition, U.S. military officials are deeply concerned by how rapidly China has been upgrading their strategic nuclear arsenal.  For example, they now possess a “submarine-launched missile capable of obliterating San Francisco”…
China has tested a new submarine-launched missile capable of obliterating San Francisco, an insider has revealed, in a massive boost to the country’s ‘deterrent’.
The Chinese navy tested its state-of-the-art JL-3 missile in Bohai Bay in the Yellow Sea last month, sources said.
The nuclear-capable missile has a 5,600 mile range, significantly longer than its predecessor the JL-2, which could strike targets 4,350 miles away.
We certainly aren’t at that point yet, but without a doubt the Chinese now consider us to be their primary global enemy.
For the moment, it is just a “cold war” that we are facing, and the Chinese are quite adept at playing global chess.  They have lots of ways that they can hurt us, and most Americans don’t realize this.
But in the end nobody is going to “win” this conflict, and the entire planet is going to suffer.
Collectively, the economies of the United States and China account for approximately 40 percent of the GDP of the entire world.
As we cause chaos for one another, everyone else is going to experience tremendous pain as well.
The stage is set for a global nightmare, and at this point it doesn’t appear that there is a way that we will be able to escape it.
About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/brace-for-impact-the-u-s-economy-is-going-down-and-it-is-going-down-hard
 
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/u-s-relations-with-china-were-just-destroyed-and-nothing-will-ever-be-the-same-again

 
Vince answered a question at Quora.
 
https://www.quora.com/Do-Americans-see-and-accept-the-connection-between-wars-abroad-and-prosperity-at-home/answer/Vince-Dhimos
 
Do Americans see and accept the connection between wars abroad and prosperity at home?
 
Vince Dhimos, Editor-in-Chief at New Silk Strategies (2016-present)
 
Answered 2m ago
 
Generally speaking, Americans haven’t the slightest inkling as to the connection between military spending and the rapid decline of the US economy.
 
I have a friend who once ran an investment fund. He escaped communist Hungary and was greatly assisted by a US Jewish group. As a result, he became wealthy.
 
This investor once told me that war brings prosperity. When I asked him how this happens — ie, by what mechanism — he said he didn’t know but that all his friends assured him it was true.
 
The fact is, war only costs blood and treasure and does not help the economy one iota.
 
So why do Americans think the economy is just fine and dandy? Because they don’t understand what the US debt is doing behind the scenes. Cancer can be growing in the body for months to years before its symptoms start to show up, and by then it can be too late. The US debt is a cancer and slowly but surely, it is destroying the economy.
 
The most ominous sign is that US Treasury notes are no longer selling. Major countries that once bought the bonds are selling them off. After all, the interest rates are paltry. As a result, the Treasury must print money — it’s called quantitative easing — and buy its own bonds. History teaches what happens when countries just print money with no backing. Remember the Weimar Republic? Zimbabwe? If the answer is no, then you are a big part of the problem. The US is a so-called democracy (really not though: https://www.quora.com/Is-China-a...) and when the people are unaware of history and economics, then these problems are never resolved. The ignorance is systemic and is encouraged by the Establishment. I have been listening to the televised campaign debates for years and have never once heard the moderator ask a candidate what he or she would do about the US debt. The question is off limits. Nor are the candidates asked about the “defence” spending and wars that worsen the debt. Thus the cover-up is complete and the unknowing populace can be herded like cattle.
 
Here is just one of many analyses of why the US is in grave danger from the debt:
 
CHART: How the U.S. Economy Could Be Destroyed by Trillions of Dollars in Debt
 
1 view
 
Relevant:
 
TRUMP COSTS AMERICANS A TRILLION A YEAR
http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/economics-and-finance/trump-costs-americans-a-trillion-dollars-a-year
 
 
THE US IS HEADED FOR “FINANCIAL ARMAGEDDON”
http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/economics-and-finance/the-us-is-headed-for-financial-armageddon
 
 
 
 

Below is our translation of an article from RIA Novosti with comments and notes in brackets by Vince Dhimos.
 
https://ria.ru/20191108/1560680119.html
 
Trump costs Americans a trillion dollars a year
 
October 8, 2019
 
MOSCOW, Nov 8 - RIA Novosti, Alexander Lesnykh. The US national debt broke the mark of 23 trillion dollars. Under Donald Trump, borrowing is growing at a record pace — more than a trillion a year. Why this happens and what it will lead to is reported by RIA Novosti.
 
Payday loans
 
During the presidential race, Donald Trump repeatedly accused the Democrats and Barack Obama personally of building up public debt. However, once in the White House, he only made the situation worse.
 
For about three years, the US Treasury issued bonds for $3.2 trillion, and the public debt per citizen, including the elderly and infants, increased by nine thousand dollars, to $69.7 thousand.
 
One of the main reasons for this is seen by economists as a sharp increase in social spending, partly thanks to the retirement of baby boomers (the so-called birth spike in the middle of the last century). This is, by the way, the generation to which Bill Clinton, George W. Bush the younger and Donald Trump himself belong.
 
[The author does not mention the elephant in the room: overspending on arms acquisitions. Of course, it does not pay Russia to discourage this because they have no interest in keeping the US from further bankrupting itself. Nor does it pay to focus on the errors of Trump because, for all his flaws, the Democrats are more Russophobic]
 
Spending borrowed money on social payments, the American government painted itself into a corner: budget spending on servicing the public debt reached $600 billion. This is more than allocated to education, transport, housing and agriculture combined. At the end of October, US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin announced that the budget deficit had almost reached a trillion dollars, an increase of 20% compared with fiscal year 2018.
 
Priority Failure
 
To understand how destructive the 23 trillion state debt is for the American economy, we need to recall history.
 
The idea of ​​borrowing to spend on the country owes to the first US Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton. Three centuries ago, he proposed directing the funds raised through the issuance of government bonds to the development of the country's production and infrastructure. Together with the economic growth program he wrote, this served as the basis for the emergence of entire industries and allowed the United States to become a world leader, leaving the Old World far behind.
 
Using borrowed funds for virtually the opposite purpose, Obama and Trump achieved the opposite economic effect. In the past 12 years, every dollar in GDP growth has cost Washington $1.85 in public debt. And if now the debt burden is approaching 80% of GDP, then, according to Congress, by 2029 it will grow to 92%, and by the middle of the century it will be one and a half times the cost of everything produced in a year in the country.
 
Just print it
 
It is often said that Washington can at any moment reduce its public debt to zero by simply printing enough dollars. Trump himself thinks so - it is known that a year ago he discussed this option with the director of the National Economic Council, investment banker Gary Cohn.
 
"Cohn was shocked that Trump failed to understand even the simplest things," writes journalist Bob Woodward, a witness to that conversation.
 
Indeed, the Federal Reserve can turn on the printing press and release an additional 23 trillion dollars into free circulation, distributing them to securities holders. But at that point, hyperinflation is inevitable, which will destroy all the savings of citizens, and the importation of goods will become simply unprofitable. However, the American authorities seem to have no other options, since the demand for treasury notes is rapidly falling.
Indeed, the Federal Reserve can turn on the printing press and release an additional 23 trillion dollars into free circulation, distributing them to securities holders. But then hyperinflation is inevitable, which will destroy all the savings of citizens, and the import of goods will become simply unprofitable. However, the American authorities seem to have no other options, since the demand for treasury is rapidly falling.
 
Most of the credit for this belongs to the central banks of China, India, Russia, Turkey and several European countries, getting rid of US bonds and shifting funds into a more liquid asset. In September, Germany joined this group. The Bundesbank, the world's third largest gold reserves, resumed purchasing precious metals for the first time in 20 years and acquired 95 thousand ounces.
 
The sale of treasuries caused a so-called inversion whereby the yield on short-term securities became higher than on long-term ones, as occurred during the global crisis of 2008. Most economists consider this a sure sign of an impending recession, from which everyone who did not manage to exchange US debt securities for rapidly rising gold will suffer.
 
In order to prevent a debt collapse, the Fed is forced to re-launch the program of "quantitative easing" [money printing]: in early October, the head of this department, Jerome Powell, said that at least until the end of the second quarter of next year, the state would buy short-term treasury bonds on the market. In total, 510 billion dollars will be spent on this "technical" operation.

 
Our translation of an article from RIA Novosti appears below with commentary by Vince Dhimos.
 
To summarize, the US sent an as-yet unknown official to the South Asia summit, where Trump himself was to appear. The unknown official immediately started harping on the peripheral issue of China’s incursions into disputed parts of the Pacific instead of talking about bread and butter trade issues. Another US official at the summit tried to sell the group on the idea of a new organization that would include both Asia Pacific and parts of South Asia that hardly fit in with that region. Both officials were trying to lead their audience to accept a US-led agenda that would tend to separate them from China, even though China is their main trading partner In other words, politics as usual from the US delegation, with trade taking a back seat.
 
The author makes it clear that the group members were no on board with making the US their main partner to the exclusion of China. The see this as just more US bullying.
 
BEGIN TRANSLATION
 
Here’s what the next US failure in Asia look like
 
November 6, 2019
 
A classic example of a diplomatic failure is when the head of the American delegation at an international meeting expects to see ten heads of foreign states and governments in front of him, but they don’t show up.
 
The thing is, three responded to the call, including the country's prime minister, the polite host of the meeting (Thailand), and the leaders of Vietnam and Laos, while seven - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines - sent ministers instead.
 
It’s not just American protocol arrogance to think that if you represent the United States, presidents and prime ministers should come running to you, even if you yourself are just the unknown national security adviser to the President, Robert O’Brien. Although this story speaks of the general decline of American diplomacy, it is not the only one.
 
However, the absence of the majority of the audience is explained by the fact that the attendees probably knew what the American would be talking about (usually diplomats agree on the main parameters of serious meetings in advance). And they knew, among other things, that O’Brien would invite all ten of the leaders of Southeast Asian countries to a “special summit” with President Donald Trump to Washington next year.
 
 And this is again a rude breach of protocol. The fact is, Trump himself was supposed to come to Thailand (where the action took place), to an event called the East Asian Summit. Either that or send in his place the second person in the administration, vice president Michael Pence. Other guests did this - Russia, China, South Korea, and so on (the summit's hosts are the very ten countries of Southeast Asia that are members of the ASEAN group). Instead, a person arrives with an as-yet unclear influence in the US administration, to say, translated from the diplomatic, the following: we don’t want to deal with you here; come to us instead, if at all.
 
But protocol is, after all, only a form of politeness. What about the content and meaning of US policy in the region? And this content was very clearly stated by O’Brien himself for his snubbed audience. In fact, his speech came down to attacks on China over territorial disputes with neighbours in the South China Sea, but these accusations had annoyed participants in ASEAN meetings under the previous administration.
 
But behind the silly story under the heading "superpower gets a whack on the nose" there is a general picture of the failure of all American policies in Asia as a whole. The fact is, in Thailand itself, even at its summit consisting of ten ASEAN countries (on the eve of the East Asian summit), the leaders only talked about what to do in the unacceptable situation of the growing confrontation between the United States and China. The ideal situation for ASEAN is trade with both partners, rather than trying to deal with one so as not to anger the other. And many leaders of “The Ten” at their summit pointed out that it was not China that started this fight. In general, to demand of ASEAN that it break with China and join exclusively with the United States is a very bad policy, but it is precisely what the United States is pursuing.
 
In addition, the United States is also torpedoing the idea for which the ASEAN leaders actually gathered in Thailand — ie, ​​a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This is a trade block of long standing that includes China but does not include the USA. SEA countries need it, among other things, to show: here are our valuable partners, and America will not undermine relations with them.
 
Here’s how American diplomacy is trying to undermine the idea of ​​RCEP: by blurring (on paper) the very concept of the Pacific region with its cooperation and proposing instead a certain "Indo-Pacific region." That is, by including India and the rest of South Asia where this South Asia hardly fits.
 
Another member of the American delegation, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, also spoke in Thailand and showered the audience with spectacular statistics showing how important America is to the newly-minted “dual” region. US trade with it has grown to two trillion dollars last year, more than with Europe; investments are up to 1.6 trillion dollars, and all this is "more than with China."
 
In a similar situation, British scientist and writer Andrew Lang said of one of the enemies: "he uses statistics like a drunk uses a street lamp - for support, and not as a source of light."
 
And the light in this case is shed on a simple situation: India and others find it difficult to fit into the Pacific region. And now the main upshot of the series of summits in Thailand is that India still cannot enter the RCEP, although the other 15 participants are leaving the door open for it. Nonetheless, they will sign an agreement on RCEP with each other next year in any case.
 
At the same time, everyone in Asia knows that India is not acting so as to please the United States while harming an agreement that involves China. It’s just that its economy cannot withstand too-rapid integration with another region; it requires a long period of protection.
 
Thus, this same awkward American diplomacy is also committing falsification, assigning credit to itself that it does not deserve. And all the rest of Asia sees it.
 
Further, those gathered in Bangkok actively discussed the details of the "intermediate" economic agreement between the US and China, which were supposed to be signed in Chile at the summit of another, albeit similar, APEC organization, but the summit was cancelled. But it turns out that the agreement means at best a truce in trade and all other confrontations, but in general, the fight that is odious to the Pacific region and undermines its economy will continue. And at that point, will there be much use for the “special summit” of the USA and ASEAN next year?
END TRANSLATION

The following is our translation of an analysis by Ivan Danilov from RIA Novosti with commentary by Vince Dhimos.
 
Some readers may wonder what Danilov means by this:
 
“...fortunately, this time Russia is much less vulnerable to external shocks.”
 
He no doubt is referring to the fact that Russia is much less exposed to the dollar, having sold off most of its Treasuries and bought up tons of gold. The dollar has been losing its value at breakneck speed while gold prices keep rising. China has also been buying huge amounts of gold (although, due to its exports to the West, it has not been prudent for it to ditch its dollar reserves to the extent that Russia has).
 
US headed for "financial Armageddon"
 
October 24, 2019
 
Ivan Danilov
 
Over the past few months, London has become not only the capital of a fun-filled political carnival called Brexit and street clashes between environmental radicals and the working class, whom the radicals denied access to commuter trains in the name of combating global warming.
 
Quite unexpectedly, London has become the capital of a negative attitude toward the future of the global financial system – and the proposition of ​​its urgent reform. Even more unexpected is that the ideological epicentre of this nascent “movement to save the global financial system” was the Bank of England - one of the oldest central banks on the planet and the pillar of the current financial system, which representatives of this respectable organization now propose either reforming or dismantling.
 
The former head of the Bank of England, Baron Mervyn King, speaking at the IMF symposium, announced that the United States will face a “financial Armageddon” if the Federal Reserve does not have enough capacity to cope with a situation similar to the “toxic mortgage debt crisis” of 2008-2009.
 
Moreover, Her Majesty’s ex-banker described in the harshest terms the prospects of Western democracies if the financial system cannot cope with another global crisis. The British Guardian quotes the most striking passages from the "apocalypse from King": "Another economic and financial crisis could destroy the legitimacy of the democratic market system," he said. "By adhering to the new officially approved theory of monetary policy and pretending that we made the banking system safe, we are sleepwalking into this crisis."
 
It is significant that the current head of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, is not far behind his predecessor and is also trying to prove to his financial establishment colleagues that their actions will lead to disastrous consequences.
 
It seems that upon taking office, the head of the main financial structure of the United Kingdom either is suddenly gaining access to some information that’s turning him into a consistent pessimist and terrifying him, or, conversely, the position itself gives him the right and tribune to start telling the unpleasant truth.
 
Just two months ago, Carney was included in all the reports of Western news agencies for his statements about the risks of war and the global crisis caused by the global policy of low interest rates, as well as the need to dismantle the dollar financial system in order to save the world economy.
 
Reuters then wrote: “Carney warned that very low equilibrium interest rates have in the past coincided with wars, financial crises and dramatic changes in the banking system. As a first step in rebuilding the global financial system, IMF members could triple the Fund’s resources to three trillion dollars. The United States is the best alternative for countries that protect themselves (from economic difficulties. – author’s note) by accumulating huge amounts of debt. "Although such concerted efforts can improve the functioning of the current system’s threads, eventually a multipolar global economy will require a new IMS (international monetary system) to realize their full potential,” said Carney."
 
The statements of the leading British bankers can be attributed to the specific psychological atmosphere of London, which is really toxically affected by the massive political insanity associated with Brexit and the street fighting against global warming. However, voices that warn of the risks of the global economy are being heard not only from London. Well-known American consulting company McKinsey & Co previously “sent to the cemetery” 35% of the world's banks, saying that they will not be able to survive the next global recession.
 
At the same time, the chief economist of the analytical service of the Moody's rating agency just points out that the risks of the global crisis are now very high: "According to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, in the near future there is an extremely high probability that a recession could hit the global economy and politicians probably won’t be able to change this scenario."
 
However, a global recession may seem too abstract a risk. Meanwhile, the IMF and Bloomberg business news agency journalists found a specific risk that painfully resembles the “toxic bomb” that exploded under the global financial system in 2008-2009. The situation is so serious that the right-wing, politically correct and progressive columnist of the American agency Bloomberg wondered: “What's worse: climate change or securities secured by corporate loans (CLOs)?” The answer is disappointing: "With all due respect to Greta Thunberg, the corporate debt time bomb looks like a more inevitable threat. ... Of particular concern is the lending market for high-debt companies, which has already exceeded $ 1.2 trillion, and there are signs that that investors are becoming anxious."
 
To put it as crudely and simplistically as possible, it turns out that the last time loans were issued to American unemployed, beggars and speculators who had little chance of repaying them, the banks earned money by bundling these toxic loans into derivative financial instruments with increased profitability and selling them to investors around the world. The inevitable upshot of this story led to holes in the balance sheet of many banks (which did not manage to sell everything), as well as a chain reaction of defaults and bankruptcies and a reduction in economic activity, which, in turn, caused a global recession that affected China, Russia and other exporting countries.
 
Now history is repeating itself in much the same way. Only loans are no longer issued to hopeless individuals, but to the same hopeless corporate borrowers. If this financial bomb detonates, the effect will be either the same as in 2008, or worse, since the world economy has not fully recovered from the previous crisis. Mervyn King is right: the Western world is sleep walking toward a recurrence of the crisis.
 
Unfortunately, there is practically no chance that British bankers will be heeded in the high offices of Washington and Brussels, but, fortunately, this time Russia is much less vulnerable to external shocks. However, whether the American economy can withstand such a shock is a big question.

The following article by investment guru Bill Bonner may not be in line with the opinion of New Silk Strategies. However, it probably is. Foreword by Vince Dhimos.
 
Bill underscores what I keep saying: neither party has even the slightest desire to grow the US economy, or even less, to make America great again. But you can’t blame any president for the mess the world is in. Presidents don’t make the important decisions, the Establishment does, and there is no such thing as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. I have posted a list here of the goon squad that runs the US.
 
What I like about Bill Bonner is that he is honest and not beholden to any political party or ideology. That may make it tough for him to get his own show on CNN or Fox News but it will endear him to the 1% who think for themselves and see the imminent derailment of America. To the Establishment, seeing it is not the sin, saying you see it is unpardonable. Just ask Julian Assange.
 
QUOTE:
 
Ms. Warren pretends to be smart, well-informed, and sophisticated. She believes she is on top of the issues, at home in university coffee shops, and at ease with the cognoscenti, literati, and transgenderati.
 
https://bonnerandpartners.com/in-the-next-crisis-both-warren-and-trump-will-push-towards-more-inflation/
 
In the Next Crisis, Both Warren and Trump Will Push Towards More Inflation
 
By Bill Bonner October 7, 2019
 
YOUGHAL, IRELAND – We saw last week that we are doomed. So, we continue our jolly inspection of what doom will look like.
 
In short, we are in an Inflate-or-Die trap. No one wants to face the music and admit that the economy has been phonied up with fake money, unpayable debt, and falsified prices. Nobody wants to go through the pain and humiliation of rehab.
 
So what’s the alternative? Inflation – more debt, more phony prices, and more fake money.
 
Debt Effect
 
For the last 30 years, the Federal Reserve added money via underpriced short-term loans. Speculators, banks, and insiders took the money and used it to run up stock and bond prices.
 
The rich got much richer; the poor stayed poor. Almost no one complained, because they were told that the “wealth effect” was making us all better off.
 
Donald Trump even believes that the stock market is the measure of his success.
 
What is really at work, though, is the old fashioned “debt effect.” Businesses, consumers, and the government go further and further into debt, borrowing at ultra-low rates from the future in order to live high on the hog in the present.
 
But there are limits. Time, for example. You can’t stretch it. You can’t fake it. You can’t counterfeit it.
 
During the first 80 years of the last century, total debt averaged about 1.5 times GDP. That’s another way of saying we learned that we could afford to borrow a day and a half’s future output for every day of output in the present. And not more.
 
But then, after 1980, total debt increased to over $73 trillion – or 3.5 times GDP.
 
That extra debt – more than $40 trillion above and beyond the traditional 1.5/1 relationship, representing $1.7 billion hours of future work at today’s average wage – is a debt that can’t be collected…
 
And no one has any intention of paying it off.
 
Real Numbskull
 
Now, we are approaching a new stage.
 
With Biden tainted by Ukraine… and Bernie by age and infirmity… Elizabeth Warren is the likely Democrat nominee.
 
History always seems to bring forth the leaders it needs. Another way to put this is our old dictum: People always seem to think what they need to think when they need to think it.
 
When a nation is young and growing, people want little government. They are busy with their own lives… building their own businesses… and creating their own prosperity. Leaders generally stay out of the way, believing that a government governs best when it governs least.
 
But then, when the nation is big enough to throw its weight around, it turns to Roosevelts, Wilsons, and Johnsons, who are willing to stretch… enter wars of no importance… and undertake guns-and-butter spending programs that undermine the real economy.
 
Later, on the rocky downslope of empire, people just want to hold on to what they’ve got. And the nation needs a leader worthy of a Fin de Bubble catastrophe.
 
It needs a real numbskull – like Dubya, Trump, or Warren – who, with no sense of history or humility, will drive the nation into bankruptcy and despair.
 
Stairway to Hell
 
Ms. Warren pretends to be smart, well-informed, and sophisticated. She believes she is on top of the issues, at home in university coffee shops, and at ease with the cognoscenti, literati, and transgenderati.
 
Mr. Trump, on the other hand, is a pro-wrestling fan… a tough, street-smart hustler who doesn’t pay his bills, doesn’t read books, and doesn’t think he needs to study issues in depth. He trusts TV and his instincts, knows how to work a crowd, and thinks you win by making someone else lose.
 
But when push comes to shove in the next crisis, both Warren and Trump will push in the same direction: towards more inflation.
 
Mr. Trump has already taken the lead in what we believe will be the next step down on the dank, dark stairway to Hell. He increased federal spending by $185 billion per year. That’s four times more than the Clintons and twice as much as Obama.
 
The money went right into the Swamp – particularly the Northern Virginia, military-industrial lowlands.
 
Meanwhile, the combination of spending increases and tax cuts caused an explosion in U.S. debt. In the third quarter of this year, for example, the feds added debt at a rate of more than $2 trillion per year.
 
Keynesian Meddling
​
This is happening at the tail end of a boom – that is, just when it’s not supposed to happen.
 
Here at the Diary, we have no truck with Keynesian meddling. But if you’re trying to offset the business cycle, you have to at least try to do it right, increasing spending in a slump… and decreasing spending in a boom.
 
The Trump team did it backwards. It cut taxes and increased spending while the going was still good. Which raises the question: What will it do when the going is not good?
 
That is what we’re going to find out. And here, Dear Reader, this is one tiny part of the future where we think we can see what is coming down the pike.
 
Imagine that the next crisis arrives… with stocks cut in half and unemployment headed towards 10%.
 
Imagine trillions of dollars’ worth of corporate bond defaults and a big rush to sign up for food stamps and unemployment comp.
 
Imagine all the lonely eyes turning to the White House: “Help us… Heal us…”
 
And then, imagine what Team Trump or Team Warren will do. Will they follow in the footsteps of Team Harding, which in the 1920-21 crisis raised interest rates and cut spending? (The downturn was over in 18 months.)
 
Modern Illusions
 
Oh… stop it… Dear Reader… the thought is so bizarre, so out of sync with modern illusions… so staggeringly obvious, correct, and true… it’s triggering our circuit breakers… The lights are flickering…
 
No candidate – neither Republican nor Democrat – is proposing to return to honest money, market-set price signals, and balanced budgets. Those artifacts of an earlier nation (when America really was great) have long been discarded.
 
Now, we have a president who thinks he knows better than the market where interest rates should be…
 
…and a leading lady on the Democrat side who thinks the whole economy can be marshalled to correct the world’s injustices… as she sees them.
 
Forgive student debt, tax the rich, raise Social Security benefits, enact Medicare for All, enter a $2 trillion Green Manufacturing deal… etc. etc. – and that is just the beginning. She has 48 plans, including:
 
Ultra-Millionaire Tax, Leveling the Playing Field for America’s Family Farmers, A New Farm Economy, Our Military Can Help Lead the Fight in Combating Climate Change, Affordable Higher Education for All, A New Approach to Trade, Empowering Workers Through Accountable Capitalism, Tackling the Climate Crisis Head-On, Comprehensive Debt Relief to Puerto Rico, 100% Clean Energy for America, Fighting for an Accessible & Inclusive America, Expanding Social Security, Accelerating the Transition to Clean Energy, Leading in Green Manufacturing, Health Care Is a Basic Human Right, Defend & Create American Jobs, Safe and Affordable Housing, Universal Child Care, among others…
 
Whew!
 
Some say Ms. Warren is “unelectable.” But they said that about Mr. Trump too. Too bad they weren’t right about both.

Below is our translation of an article from RIA Novosti with commentary by Vince Dhimos.
 
Before noting who the author was, I knew this article had to be by Ivan Danilov, the most insightful writer on the RIA staff.
 
As you read the article you might have the uneasy feeling that the Chinese economy is doomed by the draconian measures threatened by the Trump administration. However, if you are following closely the moves of the administration and the counter-moves of the Chinese, you will note that China always has an answer. One of the first was to slap heavy tariffs on soybean imports from the US. Then the Chinese broke their promise to Trump and stopped buying US LNG.
 
But a look at the massive Chinese projects that are unfolding before our Western eyes, shows that dedollarization was the goal all along. The Belt and Road initiative laid the groundwork by facilitating trade between China and the rest of the world. Yuan clearing centres set up by China all over Europe and Asia facilitated the exchange. The AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) made it attractive for trading partners to use the yuan in their trade. The Shanghai gold exchange enabled traders around the world to acquire physical gold in yuan (in contrast to Western paper gold exchanges, whose customers never see the metal. Is it even there?). The Shanghai crude futures market is setting a new oil benchmark and again, is trading in yuan. The futures are convertible into gold, an option only Shanghai’s traders, including global ones, have available. All of these offerings could have been initiated in the West, but Western pols and central bankers prefer the printing press to real economics. This is why they are losing ground. You’d think the US would wake up and realize that China now holds some potentially winning cards and that if they were smart, they’d join them instead of fighting them.
 
Trump and friends can huff and puff and invent new sanctions and declare all the trade wars they want. But East is East and West is West and, so far the impression is that Kipling was right: never the twain shall meet.
 
QUOTE:
 
“... China’s obvious reciprocal move will be a massive listing on European exchanges, as well as issuing bonds in euros, francs or yuan, which, in turn, will only accelerate the process of de-dollarizing the global financial system and creating a global financial infrastructure that is not dependent on Washington’s whims.”
 
...
 
“It’s even better: our Chinese partners saw the seriousness of the intentions of American opponents and realized that the latter could make good this threat at any time, which means it’s time to work more actively on the dedollarization of world finances, which will certainly be a positive development from the standpoint of Russian economic interests.”
 
Finally, I would remind the reader that the anti-China shenanigans are not about Trump. The US Establishment is solidly behind him, including Democratic pols like Sen. Chuck Schumer, who said of the trade wars: “Trump hit the nail on the head.”
 
But none of the pols cheering on the trade wars are economists. Real economists have been warning that trade wars have no winners.
 
America is preparing a terrible punishment for China
 
Sept 30, 2019
 
Ivan Danilov
 
The Donald Trump administration is preparing a nightmarish financial execution for Beijing, one rumour of which led to a drop in stock prices of leading Chinese companies and a decrease in their total capitalization by billions of dollars. But after the panic calmed down a bit, experts all over the world are wondering if the United States will suffer more than China if Washington really takes an extraordinary measure and cuts off access of Chinese companies and borrowers to their stock markets.
 
The Reuters news agency explains the essence of the White House’s plans: “three sources familiar with the situation said Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration is considering delisting Chinese companies from US stock exchanges, which would lead to a radical escalation of trade tension between the US and China. According to two sources, the move would be part of a broader effort to curb US investment in Chinese companies.”
 
The result of the information feed was not long in coming: the shares of Chinese companies that are traded in the United States began to fall. For example, the shares of e-commerce giant Alibaba (the owner of the well-known AliExpress service) fell by more than five percent, erasing over $20 billion of market capitalization in one day.
 
Similar drops were recorded in the shares of other well-known companies: JD.com securities fell almost six percent, Baidu - 3.67%. But the point here is not so much in the tens of billions of dollars of lost market capitalization, but in the fact that if the aggressive plans, are realized, as reported by the sources of the American agencies Reuters and Bloomberg, the United States is actually going to do the same with the Chinese economy as they tried to do with the Russian one after 2014. Moreover, without the introduction of any analogue of the "Crimean sanctions," but just like that. Although, perhaps, some restrictions "for suppressing democratic protests in Hong Kong" will be used as a political cover.
 
It must be emphasized that the media are writing about involves a double blow to Chinese business and the economy as a whole. We are talking about the intention to deprive the company of the opportunity to borrow money (through the issuance of bonds) from American investors and raise equity (through IPO or listing) on ​ state stock exchanges. This really resembles the anti-Russian measures of past years. The difference is that there was an attempt to strangle Russian corporations via difficulties in accessing foreign bank loans and offering bonds, but they are attacking the Chinese using bonds and shares on exchanges in the USA, because this is one of their main methods of attracting foreign currency funds.
 
In addition to forced delisting, plans are reported for limiting regulatory investment in American companies, funds (especially pension funds), and other investors in Chinese firms. This is necessary so that, for example, an investment fund, deprived of the opportunity to buy shares of fast-growing and attractive companies on the New York Stock Exchange, will not open a stock account in Hong Kong or Frankfurt and will not buy forbidden shares there.
 
This drastic measure is probably connected with a serious scandal (which went unnoticed in the mainstream media) that erupted after it turned out that the American state pension fund responsible for paying military and veteran pensions, it turns out, is investing money in Chinese companies. Moreover, at least three of these companies are under official US sanctions.
 
Many investments of this kind are related to the specifics of modern financial markets. The most popular class of investment funds is so-called passive funds, which do not select instruments for investment themselves, but invest solely in accordance with the composition of special indices - such “baskets” of stocks or bonds that meet certain criteria.
 
There are several reputable companies in the world – compilers of indexes (index providers), which are guided by funds that manage a trillion dollars in total. As soon as one of them (MSCI, S&P Dow Jones Indices, FTSE and so on) includes some securities in its indices, investment funds immediately buy them, because they are obliged to do this on the basis of their own statutory documents.
 
As a result, as soon as Chinese stocks or bonds of specific companies become quite attractive and liquid, they are included in indices, and overseas (and international) investment funds are obliged to buy them, which cannot but make the Donald Trump administration angry. It is to block this mechanism that official Washington (according to media reports) is developing regulatory restrictions on US portfolio investment in Chinese securities. They are likely to apply to investment funds and to companies that compile investment indices.
 
The most common estimate of the total capitalization of 156 Chinese companies trading on US exchanges is $ 1.2 trillion. And according to the former head of the macroeconomic analysis department at Societe General Bank Lawrence MacDonald, the total “lost demand” in the even the the relevant securities are excluded from the Bloomberg Barclays Credit Index and MSCI will be $ 1.6 trillion over four years.
 
It may seem that the Trump team has found another vulnerable point in the Chinese economy, which will be extremely painful if struck, without any special risks for the United States. However, this is not entirely true, for the damage will be far from one-sided.
 
American (and European) investors choose Chinese financial instruments not out of love for Beijing or because they have to. In the context of negative interest rates in the European Union and ultra-low rates in the USA (Trump is also demanding the introduction of negative dollar rates), you can find high-yield investments, especially for pension funds, in the most risky corners of Western financial markets (hence the popularity of so-called junk bonds among investors from companies with low credit ratings and dubious prospects for yields), or in markets such as China or Russia. It was not for nothing that shares of Chinese companies were in the portfolio of the pension fund of the US military, and Russian bonds were found in the portfolio of the pension fund of civil servants in California
 
This means that forced patriotism by the Trump administration is unlikely to meet investor understanding. They will seek (and find) options to circumvent the relevant restrictions. Among the simplest ways are simply to buy stocks or investment units of specially created European or Asian (but not Chinese) buffer companies or buffer funds that actually harbour Chinese securities within them, like in a Russian matryoshka doll.
 
Moreover, China’s obvious reciprocal move will be a massive listing on European exchanges, as well as issuing bonds in euros, francs or yuan, which, in turn, will only accelerate the process of de-dollarizing the global financial system and creating a global financial infrastructure that is not dependent on Washington’s whims.
 
Probably precisely because of the US Treasury’s awareness of the gravity of the above consequences, it decided to officially declare that such radical measures are not planned “so far.”
 
What’s even better, our Chinese partners saw the seriousness of the American opponents’ intentions and realized that the latter could make good this threat at any time, which means it’s time to work more actively on the dedollarization of world finances, which will certainly be a positive development from the standpoint of Russian economic interests.