US/NATO War on Russia

[Peter Presland]

March 30, 2014

Isn't Ashton a fine hypocrite? A month ago these people were driving the putsch and the U.S. and the EU lauded the violence they used as "peaceful" while condemning the rather passive police force. Now such violence is suddenly against the "rule of law". What a joke.

But even worse. Now the Right Sektor fascists are revealed to be Russian agents:

.......

If the U.S. wants to it can surely pressure Poroshenko to get its will implemented. Ignoring the Russian opinion on Ukraine will not solve any problem but would rather lead to new upheavals.

I try hard not to dwell on absurdities like that anymore - I'm on a small dose of Ramapril as it is!

The plain fact is that a policy has been decided upon, so any and ALL 'facts' will be either ignored or spun to fit the policy, no matter how contradictory or how many semantic somersaults are required. It seems the mass of the Western population can still be relied upon not to notice such things. Per Andre Vitchek:

....After working in some one hundred and fifty countries, in all the continents, I have finally come to the absolutely clear conclusion: there is no part of the world as brainwashed, so programmed, so indoctrinated, as are both Europe and North America.

As for Ashton, she is a C-grade, time-serving, appointed party hack. She reminds me a bit of that other 'devoid-of-charisma-and-ability former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett, though she at least had the merit of having been elected. Both are conspicuous for absolutely nothing other than parroting the 'talking-points' handed to them by you-know-who, no matter how absurd.

It reminds me a bit of an experience I had in 1967 in Shanghai. At the height of Mao's Cultural Revolution I was an engineer on a merchant ship and, on arrival alongside, the entire ships company were required to muster in the officers' lounge. We were given a lecture on the wonders of the revolution - in English - by a young, fresh-faced PLA officer. The problem was that he clearly didn't actually SPEAK English and had simply learned the 'speech' parrot fashion. It was one of the funniest performances I have ever heard - but I didn't laugh and neither did anyone else, because he was accompanied by 4 armed and clearly battle-hardened gorillas whose facial expressions and general demeanor was enough to keep everyone silent and VERY attentive indeed.

Ashton is that PLA officer and, with any luck, an increasing number of people find her likes just as funny. No 'armed gorillas' analogue - yet - but the way things are developing my guess is it's only a matter of time.

[Albert Doyle]

The US foments these problems with its CIA and then turns around and points good guy, rule of law fingers with its media once they provoke the reaction they anticipated. The US public forgets the US was running roughshod across borders a decade ago with a mantra of "they're irrelevant." The yellow journalism currently practiced in America is what is the throwback to the 1800's here.

[Paul Rigby]

Putin Flushes the US Dollar: Russia's Gold Ruble Payments System Delinked from Dollar

A New Financial System independent from Wall Street & city begins to take shape concretely in Russia?

By Umberto Pascali
Global Research, March 30, 2014

http://www.globalresearch.ca/putin-flush...ar/5375866

Russia "forced" by the sanctions to create a system independent from the Dollar.

Russia announces that it will sell (and buy) his products and commodities including oil in rubles; not anymore in dollars

Putin has been preparing this move the creation of a payment system in rubles completely independent and protected from the Dollar and the killer speculations of the big Western financial institutions for a long time.

After sanctioning several Russian banks to punish Russia for Crimea, the Washington politicians were told by the financial power-to-be to step back because obviously, the Wall Street vampires understand that putting Russian banks outside the reach of their blood sucking teeth is never a good idea.

For Wall Street and the city's financial services, countries like Russia should always have an open financial door through which their real economy can be periodically looted. So Washington announced that it was a mistake to enforce sanctions on all those Russian banks; only one, the Rossiya bank shall be hit by sanctions, just for propaganda reasons and to make an example out of it.

It is what Putin needed. Since at least 2007, he was trying to launch an independent Ruble System, a financial system that would be based on Russia's real economy and resources and guaranteed by its gold reserves. No tolerance for looting and financial speculation: A peaceful move, but at the same time a declaration of independence that Wall Street will consider as a "declaration of war".

According to the Judo strategy, the sanction attack created the ideal situation for a "defensive" move that would redirect the brute force of the adversary against him. And now it's happening. Bank Rossiya will be the first Russian bank to use exclusively the Russian ruble.

The move has not been done in secret. On the contrary. A huge golden ruble symbol will be set up in front of bank Rossiya headquarters in Perevedensky Pereulok in Moscow "to symbolize the rouble's stability and its backing by the country's gold reserves," the official agency Itar-Tass explains quoting the bank officials.

In fact, the officials are very clear on their intention to punish the western speculators that have been looting their country for a long time:

"Russia, at its present stage of development, should not be dependent on foreign currencies; its internal resources will make its own economy invulnerable to political wheeler dealers."

This is only the first step, declared Andrei Kostin, the president of VTB, another bank previously sanctioned:

"We have been moving towards wider use of the Russian rouble as the currency of settlement for a long time. The ruble became fully convertible quite a long time ago. Unfortunately, we have seen predominantly negative consequences of this step so far revealed in the outflow of capital from this country. The influx of foreign investments into Russia has been speculative and considerably destabilizing to our stock markets."

According to Itar-Tass, Kostin was very precise and concrete:

"Russia should sell domestic products from weapons to gas and oil abroad for roubles and buy foreign goods also for rubles….Only then are we going to use the advantages of the rouble being a foreign currency in full measure."

Putin himself lobbied for the new system in meetings with members of the Upper House of the Duma, the parliament, on March 28, overcoming the last doubts and indecisions: "

"Why do we not do this? This definitely should be done, we need to protect our interests, and we will do it. These systems work, and work very successfully in such countries as Japan and China. They originally started as exclusively national [systems] confined to their own market and territory and their own population, but have gradually become more and more popular…"

Alea Iacta Est!

see: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/putin-call...z2xQIi0AgY

see: http://en.itar-tass.com/economy/725832)

[Paul Rigby]

China's Renminbi Challenges US Dollar Hegemony? Chinese Currency Trade in Major Financial Centers

London, Frankfurt, Toronto, Vancouver and San Francisco Battle to Become Western Centers for Chinese Currency Trade

By Washington's Blog
Global Research, March 29, 2014

http://www.globalresearch.ca/chinas-renm...rs/5375795

Germany, England, Canada and the U.S. are all vying to become Western centers for the Yuan trade.

Germany

Bloomberg reports today:

Germany's Bundesbank and the People's Bank of China agreed to cooperate in the clearing and settling of payments in renminbi, paving the way for Frankfurt to corner a share of the offshore market.

***

The central banks signed a memorandum of understanding in Berlin today, when Chinese President Xi Jinping met German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Frankfurt-based Bundesbank said in an e-mailed statement.

Germany's financial capital prevailed over Paris and Luxembourg in a euro-area race to win trade in renminbi, which overtook the euro to become the second-most used currency in global trade finance in October, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.

***

Deutsche Boerse AG, which operates the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, also signed an agreement with Bank of China, expanding a partnership that will make it easier for Chinese issuers and Asian investors to access European capital markets, including stock listings.

***

German companies including Siemens AG, the country's biggest engineering company, and Volkswagen AG are embracing the renminbi internally as a third currency for cross-border trade settlements.

England

The BBC pointed out Wednesday:

The Bank of England has agreed a deal with the People's Bank of China to make London a hub for Chinese currency dealing.

The memorandum of understanding, to be signed on Monday, sets out settlement and clearing arrangements for the renminbi, or yuan, in London.

The signing is expected to be followed by the appointment of a London clearing bank for yuan.

62% of yuan payments outside of China already take place in London.

***

Last year the UK and Chinese central banks signed a three-year currency swap arrangement worth 200bn yuan which allows them to swap currencies and can be used by firms to settle trade in local currencies rather than in US dollars.

The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, this month issued a 1bn yuan bond in London, the first by an international financial institution.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said: "Connecting Britain to the fastest growing parts of the world is central to our economic plan.

Canada

The Globe and Mail noted last month:

Two Canadian cities are vying to become North America's primary centre for trading the Chinese yuan, an effort that has received federal backing amid a broader desire by Ottawa to strengthen ties with Beijing.

***

No city in North or South America has yet developed as a major [yuan] settlement centre.

***

Both Toronto and Vancouver see an advantage in being located in a common time zone with a large number of companies trading with China, be they American retailers or Chilean copper miners. Toronto has sought to seize on its status as Canada's major financial centre. Vancouver, meanwhile, argues its advantages stems from its existing volumes of trade finance, its substantial Chinese-speaking population and an incentive program that exempts foreign exchange trading from provincial taxes.

B.C. also took a lead in the RMB market in November when the provincial government launched a "dim sum" or RMB-denominated bond worth nearly $425-million. It was the first triple-A rated foreign government to do so.

U.S.

The U.S. isn't ready to cede the North American yuan trade to Canada.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco is also bidding to become a yuan trading center.

The times, they are a changing …

[Paul Rigby]

As for Ashton, she is a C-grade, time-serving, appointed party hack. She reminds me a bit of that other 'devoid-of-charisma-and-ability former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett, though she at least had the merit of having been elected. Both are conspicuous for absolutely nothing other than parroting the 'talking-points' handed to them by you-know-who, no matter how absurd.

It reminds me a bit of an experience I had in 1967 in Shanghai. At the height of Mao's Cultural Revolution I was an engineer on a merchant ship and, on arrival alongside, the entire ships company were required to muster in the officers' lounge. We were given a lecture on the wonders of the revolution - in English - by a young, fresh-faced PLA officer. The problem was that he clearly didn't actually SPEAK English and had simply learned the 'speech' parrot fashion. It was one of the funniest performances I have ever heard - but I didn't laugh and neither did anyone else, because he was accompanied by 4 armed and clearly battle-hardened gorillas whose facial expressions and general demeanor was enough to keep everyone silent and VERY attentive indeed.

Ashton is that PLA officer and, with any luck, an increasing number of people find her likes just as funny. No 'armed gorillas' analogue - yet - but the way things are developing my guess is it's only a matter of time.

That made me smile; and is, all things considered, just about spot-on!

[Paul Rigby]

The new silk road', a rail link from China's factories to heart of Europe

March 29, 2014

http://stratrisks.com/geostrat/18695

FRANKFURT: It is one of the world's longest railways an approximately 11,000-kilometre "modern-day silk road" that traverses Russia and Kazakhstan to link a megacity in the heart of China with a key commercial hub in western Germany.

On Saturday, as part of his landmark visit to Germany, Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit the last stop on the "Yuxinou" rail line, an industrial feat that promises to revolutionise transport between Europe and Asia.

Duisburg is a steel-making town of around half a million on the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers that boasts the world's biggest inland port and is one of Germany's most important transport and commercial hubs.

Despite the vast distances between them, it takes just 16 days for trains crammed with laptops and electronics to travel to Duisburg from Chongqing, a sprawling metropolitan symbol of rising China with a population of more than 30 million.

Xi is scheduled to welcome a freight train on Saturday afternoon as it completes a journey that has taken it through Central Asia, Russia, Belarus and Poland.

Set up in 2011 by a group of rail companies, the Yuxinou is just 2,000 km short of the world's longest rail line that links Germany to Shanghai. It has shaved more than 20 days off the sea route.

The route is particularly useful for Chongqing home to vast car-parts and IT factories since it lies 1,500 km from China's main seaports.

"The value of this rail link, known in China as the new silk road', is more than just symbolic," the spokesman of the port of Duisburg, Julian Boecker, told AFP.

"It has found itself a position in the market and now operates up to three weekly services," he said.

But one of the biggest challenges will be to boost traffic in both directions to make it more profitable.

It is not uncommon for the Yuxinou trains, which can transport as many as 50 containers, to be full when they arrive in Duisburg but empty when they return to China.

"At the moment, the amount of goods travelling from China to Europe is much larger than the other way round. That's a problem," said Maria Leenen, director of market research group SCI Verkehr.

It was sea transport which gradually supplanted the historic Silk Road trade route linking Asia with Europe centuries ago.

Sea transport still accounts for more than 95 per cent of goods trading between the two regions, said Burkhard Lemper of the logistics consultants ISL.

[Paul Rigby]

Dollar Hegemony Under Attack By Export-Superpowers Germany And China

SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2014 AT 11:07AM

http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2014...any-a.html

The word dollar didn't even come up. "The volume of transactions that can be carried out in the Chinese currency in international and German financial centers is not commensurate with China's importance in the global economy," the Bundesbank explained in its dry manner on Friday in Berlin, after signing a memorandum of understanding with the People's Bank of China. President Xi Jinping and Chancellor Angela Merkel were looking on. It was serious business. Everyone knew what this was about. No one had to say it.

The agreement spelled out how the two central banks would cooperate on the clearing and settlement of payments denominated in renminbi to get away from the dollar's hegemony as payments currency and as reserve currency.

This wasn't an agreement between China and a paper-shuffling financial center like Luxembourg or London, which are working on similar deals, but between two of the world's largest exporters with a bilateral trade of nearly $200 billion in 2013. German corporations have invested heavily in China over the last 15 years. And recently, Chinese corporations, many of them at least partially state-owned, have started plowing their new money into Germany.

This "renminbi clearing solution" the actual mechanism, clearing bank or clearing house, hasn't been decided yet will be an important step for China to internationalize the renminbi and ditch its reliance on the dollar. It will be located in Frankfurt; that the city is "home to two central banks," Bundesbank Executive Board Member Joachim Nagel pointed out, made it "a particularly suitable location."

As a world payments currency, the renminbi is still minuscule but growing in leaps and bounds: in February, customer initiated and institutional payments, inbound and outbound, denominated in RMB accounted for only 1.42% of all traffic, but it set a new record, according to SWIFT, the NSA-infiltrated, member-owned cooperative that connects over 10,000 banks, corporations, the NSA, and other intelligence agencies around the world.

Despite China's heft as the second largest economy, the yuan was only in eighth place as payments currency, behind the Swiss franc. The dollar and the euro have been duking it out over the top spot. In February, the dollar accounted for 38.9% and the euro for 33.0% of all payments traffic. January last year, for example, the euro was in first place with a share of 40.2%, while the dollar only came up with 33.5%. As China moves away from the dollar, its share as payments currency will continue to drop.

And Merkel, whose job it had been to keep the Eurozone together by tightening duct tape and bailing wire around the necks of other countries, hasn't forgotten: "We're very thankful that China made efforts during the euro crisis to consider the euro a stable currency," she said at the press conference. "China never questioned its trust in the euro, and I find that very important...."

Setting up Frankfurt as an offshore renminbi trading center has been in the works since 2012. A steering committee was set up in July 2013 that included the Economics Ministry of the state of Hesse, the Federal Finance Ministry, and the Bundesbank. In October 2013, the "RMB Initiative Group" which included the four Chinese banks with a presence in Frankfurt, German financial services giants, and the Bundesbank met for the first time. The working group that deals with the establishment of the RMB clearing solution is headed by the Bundesbank and counts SWIFT among its members. German corporations and trade associations all support the initiative.

It was "a major step forward in intensifying Germany's economic relations with China," said Bundesbank Executive Board Member Carl-Ludwig Thiele.

In its coverage of the event, state-owned Xinhua News Agency outlined China's "three-pronged" strategy for promoting the internationalization of the RMB: "facilitating international trade and investment denominated and settled in RMB, encouraging offshore RMB service centers to develop offshore RMB-denominated financial products, and encouraging central banks to hold RMB assets as part of their foreign exchange reserves."

A succinct definition of breaking the dollar's hegemony as payments currency, investment currency, and reserve currency China's strategy since 2009.

At the time, the financial crisis in the US sent cold shivers down the spine of China's government that until then had been sitting loosey-goosey on mountains of US paper that suddenly threatened to evaporate, such as Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's mortgage backed securities that China had somehow thought were worth something when in fact they were not at least not until China applied enough pressure on the Bush Administration to guarantee them and on the Fed to buy them to inflate their value.

China got bailed out by the US taxpayer and the Fed, but the episode taught the government a lesson: dump the dollar. And so it went about it, carefully, systematically, step by step, but relentlessly, as Xinhua said, in a "multi-pronged" strategy that included making broad-ranging bilateral currency deals with one country at a time.

Compared to China, Russia is small fry in terms of trade and financial relations with the US. But it too has had it. The first official warning shot was fired before its all-out assault on the dollar system begins. Not by a Putin advisor that can be brushed off, but by Russia's Minister of Economy and former Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank.

[David Guyatt]

....After working in some one hundred and fifty countries, in all the continents, I have finally come to the absolutely clear conclusion: there is no part of the world as brainwashed, so programmed, so indoctrinated, as are both Europe and North America.

This is undoubtedly true for the US and UK, but I wonder if it is accurate for the majority of Europe? France, in particular, have been very shy of the Anglo American camp for decades. I also wonder if Italy and Germany are quite so brain dead as we Anglo's are? For me, it's just a sense that they aren't - I have no evidence to back it

[David Guyatt]

Dollar Hegemony Under Attack By Export-Superpowers Germany And China

SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2014 AT 11:07AM

http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2014...any-a.html

The word dollar didn't even come up. "The volume of transactions that can be carried out in the Chinese currency in international and German financial centers is not commensurate with China's importance in the global economy," the Bundesbank explained in its dry manner on Friday in Berlin, after signing a memorandum of understanding with the People's Bank of China. President Xi Jinping and Chancellor Angela Merkel were looking on. It was serious business. Everyone knew what this was about. No one had to say it.

The agreement spelled out how the two central banks would cooperate on the clearing and settlement of payments denominated in renminbi to get away from the dollar's hegemony as payments currency and as reserve currency.

This wasn't an agreement between China and a paper-shuffling financial center like Luxembourg or London, which are working on similar deals, but between two of the world's largest exporters with a bilateral trade of nearly $200 billion in 2013. German corporations have invested heavily in China over the last 15 years. And recently, Chinese corporations, many of them at least partially state-owned, have started plowing their new money into Germany.

This "renminbi clearing solution" the actual mechanism, clearing bank or clearing house, hasn't been decided yet will be an important step for China to internationalize the renminbi and ditch its reliance on the dollar. It will be located in Frankfurt; that the city is "home to two central banks," Bundesbank Executive Board Member Joachim Nagel pointed out, made it "a particularly suitable location."

As a world payments currency, the renminbi is still minuscule but growing in leaps and bounds: in February, customer initiated and institutional payments, inbound and outbound, denominated in RMB accounted for only 1.42% of all traffic, but it set a new record, according to SWIFT, the NSA-infiltrated, member-owned cooperative that connects over 10,000 banks, corporations, the NSA, and other intelligence agencies around the world.

Despite China's heft as the second largest economy, the yuan was only in eighth place as payments currency, behind the Swiss franc. The dollar and the euro have been duking it out over the top spot. In February, the dollar accounted for 38.9% and the euro for 33.0% of all payments traffic. January last year, for example, the euro was in first place with a share of 40.2%, while the dollar only came up with 33.5%. As China moves away from the dollar, its share as payments currency will continue to drop.

And Merkel, whose job it had been to keep the Eurozone together by tightening duct tape and bailing wire around the necks of other countries, hasn't forgotten: "We're very thankful that China made efforts during the euro crisis to consider the euro a stable currency," she said at the press conference. "China never questioned its trust in the euro, and I find that very important...."

Setting up Frankfurt as an offshore renminbi trading center has been in the works since 2012. A steering committee was set up in July 2013 that included the Economics Ministry of the state of Hesse, the Federal Finance Ministry, and the Bundesbank. In October 2013, the "RMB Initiative Group" which included the four Chinese banks with a presence in Frankfurt, German financial services giants, and the Bundesbank met for the first time. The working group that deals with the establishment of the RMB clearing solution is headed by the Bundesbank and counts SWIFT among its members. German corporations and trade associations all support the initiative.

It was "a major step forward in intensifying Germany's economic relations with China," said Bundesbank Executive Board Member Carl-Ludwig Thiele.

In its coverage of the event, state-owned Xinhua News Agency outlined China's "three-pronged" strategy for promoting the internationalization of the RMB: "facilitating international trade and investment denominated and settled in RMB, encouraging offshore RMB service centers to develop offshore RMB-denominated financial products, and encouraging central banks to hold RMB assets as part of their foreign exchange reserves."

A succinct definition of breaking the dollar's hegemony as payments currency, investment currency, and reserve currency China's strategy since 2009.

At the time, the financial crisis in the US sent cold shivers down the spine of China's government that until then had been sitting loosey-goosey on mountains of US paper that suddenly threatened to evaporate, such as Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's mortgage backed securities that China had somehow thought were worth something when in fact they were not at least not until China applied enough pressure on the Bush Administration to guarantee them and on the Fed to buy them to inflate their value.

China got bailed out by the US taxpayer and the Fed, but the episode taught the government a lesson: dump the dollar. And so it went about it, carefully, systematically, step by step, but relentlessly, as Xinhua said, in a "multi-pronged" strategy that included making broad-ranging bilateral currency deals with one country at a time.

Compared to China, Russia is small fry in terms of trade and financial relations with the US. But it too has had it. The first official warning shot was fired before its all-out assault on the dollar system begins. Not by a Putin advisor that can be brushed off, but by Russia's Minister of Economy and former Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank.

"Hear that Mr. Anderson, that is the sound of inevitability".

Aye.

And real fun will be seen when, rather than if, Russia begins a similar dollar de-linking program - because there are lots of other nations ar sound the world anxious to move away from dollar hegemony / American control.

But Uncle won't go down without a fight.

[Peter Presland]

....After working in some one hundred and fifty countries, in all the continents, I have finally come to the absolutely clear conclusion: there is no part of the world as brainwashed, so programmed, so indoctrinated, as are both Europe and North America.

This is undoubtedly true for the US and UK, but I wonder if it is accurate for the majority of Europe? France, in particular, have been very shy of the Anglo American camp for decades. I also wonder if Italy and Germany are quite so brain dead as we Anglo's are? For me, it's just a sense that they aren't - I have no evidence to back it

I'd like to think you are right about France and Germany but, in the matter of the victor's history of WWII - from which pretty much everything else flows - I see little difference to the US and UK. Both France and Germany even have laws that very effectively dissuade open-minded research into WWII and the de-rigeur narrative of the NAZI's as the supreme example - the very epitome in fact - of moral evil in history. The UK and US manage to achieve similar results in the manner outlined by Guido Preparata in his afterword to Conjuring Hitler. Frankly it only takes a moments reflection on that proposition to recognise it as absurd; but no one with an academic, political, or pretty much any other career to nurture, dare say so openly.

Unless and until we can honestly recognise that both Churchill and Roosevelt - under the sway of their advisors - were morally no different from Hitler and that the leitmotiv of the entire post WWII period of Germany as the 'Tatervolk' is recognised as the outrageous lie that it most assuredly is, then I see little prospect of the populations in ANY western country seeing things as they really are.

All IMHO as always.