Contributors to this blog Phil T Looker (pronounced Filthy Loucre), our finance expert and editor - in -0 chief Ian Thorpe who covers business and politics, have been warning for years that Russia and China have been engeged in a currency war to undermine the status of the US$ as global reserve currency and replace it with a synthetic currency controlled by .......................................... wait for it .............................................Russia and China.
So on reading a post from a financial alalyst who blogs as Quoth The Raven for Fringe Finance today our boys do not know whether to be offended or please with themselves that the world of high finance is finally catching up:
Russia And China Might Collectively Challenge The Dollar's Reserve Status
Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance
The war being waged by Russia in Ukraine shows no signs of coming to any type of peaceful end.
Meanwhile, it appears to me that a separate war on the U.S. dollar could be “officially” waged at any moment, by Russia and China collectively, as the situation in Ukraine grows more dire, as Russia’s options wane and its ties with China grow closer.
While the hope is still to avoid a World War III type scenario, escalating sanctions from the West are forcing an increasingly unhinged Vladimir Putin to consider his options for pushback.
For example, on Sunday, Putin put nuclear deterrence forces on high alert as a response to increasing pressure from NATO, in a move that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said “escalates the conflict unacceptably.”
In the same breath that Putin made this announcement, he continued to push back on economic sanctions being levied against Russia:
"As you can see, not only do Western countries take unfriendly measures against our country in the economic dimension - I mean the illegal sanctions that everyone knows about very well.”
This may be because the bigger story over the weekend was the beginning of removing Russia from the SWIFT intra-bank messaging system, along with sanctions targeting Russia’s Central Bank.
SWIFT helps provide services related to the execution of financial transactions and payments between banks worldwide. Central Bank sanctions from the EU and the Fed instantly make Russia - and its currency, the ruble - pariahs elsewhere in the world.
READ MORE on CURRENCY WARS from the Boggart Bloggers