Economics by Wes.....
Imagine you wanted to buy things online and websites only accepted paypal. You didn't mind at first but then paypal started taking 2% more of your money each year. If they found out you did something they didn't like, they would suspend your ability to conduct any transactions. But you have to use them because all the websites you order things from only take paypal. Paypal knows this too and locked in the merchants with a 50 year agreement. Then they start taking 20% of your transactions as fees every year instead of the old 2%.
This really sucks but they are the only game in town..... Imagine what would happen if all the merchants started accepting Visa and Mastercard. All the people who hated paypal's fees and arbitrary lockout rules would cash out their paypal balance and GTFO and run to MasterCard.
Friends this is what just happened in the world last night. In 1974 the US entered into an agreement with Saudi to sell oil only in dollars for 50 years. Along the way, the US has continued to print money and devalue the dollars held in other nation's vaults for international trade. The US has imposed sanctions on countries we didn't like by locking them out of the SWIFT payment system. The EU did the same to Russia two junes ago. Russia needed to make a payment of $40M to the EU but the EU had frozen their bank account.... the money was there, the bank would not process the transaction. These sorts of stunts have made other countries hate having to deal in US dollars (ie paypal). The first alternative that comes along will have everyone jumping to it.
Presently there are about 40 nations involved in BRICS. Their combined GDP is greater than the G7 nations. Those nations no longer have to use USD and you can bet they will be cashing out of dollars.
I'm telling you this because you need to buy the things you think you will need in the furture TODAY. You will look back on this month in the next year and see an inflexion point in the chart of inflation.
How many of you hesitated to buy 9mm when it was 18c a round? Boy you'd love 18c 9mm right now wouldn't you? Boy you'd love 25c 5.56 right now wouldn't you? Don't get a year down the road and wish you'd bought a tiller or solar, or a generator.... or a spare water pump. Trust me you will look back on today and wish you had bought something.
📝🇺🇸❌🇮🇷 - On the Brink: Showdown in the Middle East
Amid an escalating American buildup, it’s clear Witkoff’s list of demands is more of a request for surrender. Accepting the abolition of its nuclear program and limitations on its ballistic missile force would leave Iran powerless to defend itself in any future conflict, which is the entire point of asking for these “concessions”. This demarche is a poison pill meant to justify further action when Iran rightly refuses it or, should they be foolish enough to actually accept it, will make the job of Israel and the U.S. easier when they inevitably tear up any agreement to conduct strikes anyway. The goal here for Tel Aviv and Washington isn’t peace and anybody who thinks they actually care about protesters needs to get their head checked; they want a final showdown with Iran to remove it as an obstacle to themselves in the Middle East.
For those that don’t remember, in the lead up to the 12 Day War last year...
The Democrats got new talking points, but the question is why this sudden shift in direction that betrays a part of their lunatic base. Something really shifty is going on over there.
EDWARD DOWD
🇺🇸 White House: U.S. exits Hague tribunals and Venice Commission
The United States is withdrawing from two international criminal tribunals based in The Hague and from the Venice Commission, as part of a broader disengagement from 66 global organizations, according to a White House statement.
The U.S. will no longer participate in the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which prosecutes remaining cases from the former Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide. The move reflects a wider recalibration of American foreign policy under President Donald Trump, aimed at distancing the U.S. from bodies seen as undermining national sovereignty or offering limited return on investment.
This withdrawal underscores Washington’s shift away from multilateral judicial structures and toward a more unilateral, interest-driven approach in international affairs.
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