[Bach]

The US has no intention of ending its NATO-led proxy war in Ukraine any time soon. They are simply trying to 'buy time' in the meantime until the November elections. With the passage of this second bill by the US House of Representatives, the process of actually transferring the confiscated funds to Ukraine has now begun.

The US share of $5 billion in US banks is just a drop in the bucket of the $300 billion. Russia could probably care less because it is a mere 'rounding error' in its total revenue from sales of oil, gas and other raw materials. But Europe holds $260 of the $300 billion, according to European Central Bank Chairwoman Christine Lagarde. A hefty sum, for which Russia has threatened to retaliate against Europe, the EU should follow the example of the US and Biden and also start transferring its $260 billion to Ukraine.

The US bill makes it clear that the transfer of the $5 billion from the US is imminent. The bill calls for the Biden administration to establish a 'Ukraine Defense Fund' into which the $5 billion will be deposited. If parts of the $5 billion are not in the form of liquid assets, the bill also authorizes the US President to make those assets liquid and also pay the proceeds into the fund. The seizure and transfer of the $5 billion to Ukraine is a done deal. And if this happens, a legal precedent will be set that Europe can follow and transfer its $260 billion as well.

One can assume that the US will put a lot of pressure on Europe to do this. The bill also gives Biden the authority to 'negotiate' with Europe and other G7 partners to persuade them to do the same - that is, seize their share of the $300 billion, make it liquid and then put the cash into the US 'Ukraine Defense Fund' to be transferred. And so far, the US has managed to “convince” Europe to follow US policy without too much resistance through its control of NATO, its influence over the European economy and its political elites in the European Commission and European Parliament .

Europe has rapidly become an economic vassal and political dependency on the United States in recent decades and is now more than willing to bend in any political direction the United States desires.

Should Europe join the US in transferring its share of $260 billion in Russian assets to European banks (most of them in Belgium), it is almost certain that Russia will respond in kind and at least the same amount of European assets still in Russia will be confiscated. The Russian Parliament recently officially declared this.

Part of the previous G7/NATO sanctions was to force Western companies in Russia to disband and leave Russia. Some have already done this, but many have not. Russia then arranged for the assets of EU companies that had left Russia to be transferred to Russian companies. This actually boosted the Russian economy. It led to Russian government subsidies – and therefore government spending – to Russian companies that took over the assets, as well as additional investments by those companies after the acquisition of the assets of the departed EU companies.

? However, the desperate act by the USA and Europe to transfer Russia's $300 billion in deposits in Western banks to Ukraine has even greater consequences. Western bankers, economic policymakers and many economists alike have warned against the seizure and transfer of the $300 billion. The heads of U.S. and other central banks, the CEOs of major commercial banks, and even mainstream economists like Yale's Shiller have repeatedly publicly warned that the asset transfer would undermine confidence in the U.S. dollar system, which is the linchpin of the U.S. dollar system US global economic empire is being seriously undermined.

Which countries in the Global South will now want to deposit (or leave) their assets in Western banks, particularly in Europe, if they fear that the assets could be confiscated if they disagree with empire-sponsored policies? It is clear that the US has now begun to impose “secondary” sanctions on countries that do not comply with its primary sanctions against Russia. Will the US now confiscate these 'secondary' countries' deposits in Western banks if they do not comply with their refusal to trade with Russia? And what about China, against whom the USA now also wants to expand its sanctions – primary and secondary? Watch out for unprecedented financial sanctions against China that could be coming after Blinken's visit to China this week.

In short, the US global economic empire is entering its most unstable phase. And yet it is US policy to accelerate alternatives to this by confiscating funds and transferring them to Ukraine to continue the war! The impact of the seizure and transfer will be significant for both American and European interests.

The longer-term consequence of the $300 billion transfer and the departure of the Global South from the US empire can only be the decline in the use of the US dollar in global transactions and as a reserve currency. This sets in motion a series of events that, in turn, undermine the U.S. domestic economy: Reduced demand for the dollar causes the value of the dollar to decline. That means fewer dollars flowing back into the U.S., which will lead to fewer purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds by the Federal Reserve, which in turn will force the Fed to raise long-term interest rates for years to cover the U.S.'s rising budget deficits. All of this will lead to a worsening federal budget crisis that is already rapidly deteriorating.

???? In other words, a setback to the U.S. economy from declining U.S. global hegemony—exacerbated by sanctions in general and the seizure of assets from countries like Russia in particular—is all but certain in the longer term, as is the case for the European economy will be the case in an even shorter time.

But this is the economic shortsightedness of the US neocons and the incompetent political elite of both parties in the US in recent years. As that other American saying goes: “We have found the enemy and he is “us”!”

Jack RASMUS in Global Bridge website (April 29, 2024)

Jammer dat de Europese zich niet meer bewust is van het ruimere spel dat gespeeld wordt, en misschien problematischer er niets aan kan doen aangezien het met handen en voeten vastgekluisterd ligt in structuren die niet de europese belangen voorop stellen. Macron en Draghi lieten nog niet zo lang geleden blijken te beseffen dat de VS volgen fataal is. Maar ik zie zo direct geen ommekeer in het vooruitzicht. En dus zal het politieke en economische belang van Europa verder weg kwijnen ten opzichte van de VS, China en zelfs Rusland. Basisvoorwaarde is onafhankelijkheid....