As I reflect back on the televised interviews with US Military officials as we creep closer to possible war between Russia and the Ukraine, I ponder the use of the US Dollar as a Diplomatic Tool.
Diplomatic and Military officials often refer to economic pressure as an alternative to bombs and bullets. And I think this is a very good use of the governments control over currency.
Remembering this definition from one of my previous posts:
Currency is something your government commands you to accept as money. But unlike money it doesn’t belong to you, and the government maintains control over who you can send this money to, where you can send this money to and how much you can send.
This control is almost absolute when your dollar is digital, and much less so when your dollar is cash.
A reserve currency is a foreign currency that is held in significant quantities by most of the worlds.. The reserve currency can be used in international transactions, international investments and all aspects of the global economy. The United States dollar has been the world's primary reserve currency for over 60 years. ..”
Add to this basic concept of government control of currency the fact that the US Dollar is the worlds reserve currency and now the US Government can control the citizens and governments of other countries by controlling the US currency.
This control over money is a very effective weapon, and can be used to crush the economies of prosperous nations like Cuba and Venezuela. Add to this flexing of economic might by the US corruption or governmental policies which kill industry and commerce, and the destruction of a countries economy is complete and a collapse of the economy occurs.
A great example in recent times being Venezuela. A once oil rich and prosperous country lost the diplomatic and economic war with the USA due to the USA using its weaponized dollar.
I think these two things; the US governments control over its currency the dollar, the economic pressure it allowed the US to exert on all of Venezuela’s economic trading partners and the second thing; the pre-existing weakness of Venezuelan economy created by political corruption, the siphoning off of the countries wealth and the concentration of economic power in the hands of the few. This resulted in economic weakness, which led to horrible hyperinflation, economic collapse, widespread business failures, hunger, homelessness and a huge human migration from Venezuela to Columbia in one of the biggest human tragedies of the 21st century without the use of bullets or bombs.
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If we see currency in this viewpoint, as an important tool to exert influence and control without bombs or bullets. We understand why stable coins like USDT or Facebook’s Diem are seen as very big threats to the status quo and it is part of the explanation for the governments response to Facebook’s Libra, later called Diem.
The US government uses its currency as money. It exerts control over it’s citizens. It uses this control to influence and control other countries citizens and governments. It uses this as a diplomatic tool or weapon. It allows it to exert control without bombs or bullets, the previous tools of choice for perceived US imperialism. And I believe it is through this control of the US Dollar the US government controls or influences the citizens beyond its borders and their governments. This is a kinder, gentler form of imperialism that doesn’t involve wars usually. But war is still the strongest weapon in the US governments tool box.
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I see this as a very sophisticated type of 3-D chest game, now played by the strong and rich nations of the world to control the weaker and less wealthy countries of the world. In addition, the central banks and the families which control them are active participants in this game. Anything which threatens this control and it’s players will be stifled and eventually die or come to a similar end.
@shortsegments.
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