The State Department confirmed on Wednesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be visiting China, making him the highest-level Biden administration official to make the trip.
Shortly before Blinken’s visit was confirmed by China, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang had a phone call with Blinken at the latter’s request. During the phone call, Qin expounded on China’s firm stance on core concerns such as the Taiwan question.
At a press conference Sunday following the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, President Joe Biden called on Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to meet face to face to revive talks on a bipartisan plan to slash social spending in return for raising the nation’s debt ceiling and averting a default.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell made several bizarre, if not shocking, admissions during a prank call with two Russians posing as Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, where they discussed topics ranging from inflation, to the Russian central bank, to joking about having a ‘printing press’ in the basement and possibly setting up a federal reserve bank in Kiev.
Last week Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen gave a speech on the U.S.-China economic relationship. I called it a declaration of war.
Yesterday National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held a speech on ‘Renewing American Economic Leadership’ which touched on some of the same themes as Yellen’s speech.
This might have a decisive impact on the US currency as the drive to break with the petrodollar continues to grow and could produce something like a “perfect storm” impacting on the US economy. It threatens to drastically lower the standards of living of nearly all Americans within the next several years as the dollar loses value and purchasing power. As the US economy is heavily interconnected with many European economies, Europe is also likely to be a victim of the coming disaster.
The good news, of course, is that the United States will no longer be able to afford its endless wars and international interventions. Lacking its economic power, it will no longer be able to declare itself “exceptional” and the enforcer of a “rules based international order.” It would mean an ending of the funding of developments like the Ukraine proxy war and the troops will have to come home from places like Syria and Somalia. And it might even mark the ending of sending billions of dollars annually to a wealthy Israel.
Ending dollar supremacy would inevitably have an immediate impact on what passes for US foreign policy, making it more difficult for Washington to initiate and sustain Treasury Department sanctions on countries like Iran and North Korea. It could also create economic turmoil for many countries until the situation resolves itself by producing greater volatility in currency markets worldwide. The Federal Reserve Bank will no doubt respond to the unfolding crisis by acting as it always does by raising interest rates to astronomical levels, thereby hurting most the Americans who can least afford the shock therapy.
The US Federal Reserve printed $300 billion in a week to save collapsing banks and bail out Silicon Valley oligarchs. 93% of Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits were uninsured, over the FDIC limit of $250,000, but the government still paid them. 56% of SVB’s loans went to venture capitalist and private equity firms.
As regulators rush through emergency measures to prevent further chaos following the disastrous collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, there’s a point they’re very keen to emphasize: this is not a bailout.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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