IT’S THE OILCONOMY, STUPID Part 2C: WEALTH, ECONOMICS, FINANCE, MONEY, DEBT and CURRENCY

Eric A. Blair (EAB)

A woman surrounded by US banknotes of various denominations, 1979. (Photo by Alfred Gescheidt/Getty Images)

MONEY AS A WEAPON (as practiced by the USA and its henchmen):

1. Manipulation of exchange rates.

2. Primary and secondary sanctions.

3. Seizure of sovereign wealth funds.

4. Monitoring and control of populations.

1. Manipulation of exchange rates

I have obtained this definition of Sovereign Currency from the web. It is a good enough working definition:

Sovereign currency refers to the legal tender issued by a state authority, which is recognised as the official medium of exchange within a country. It is typically managed by a central bank and includes both physical forms, like coins and banknotes, and digital forms, such as central bank reserves.

How are exchange rates set between different national sovereign currencies and who does it?

Here is the (duckduckgo) A.I. search answer I obtained:

Who Sets Exchange Rates?

Central Banks: In countries with fixed exchange rates, central banks play a significant role in setting and maintaining the exchange rate. They may use tools like reserve management and interest rate adjustments to influence currency value.

Market Participants: In floating exchange rate systems, the rates are set by the collective actions of traders, investors, and institutions in the foreign exchange market. This includes banks, corporations, and individual traders who buy and sell currencies based on their expectations of future economic conditions.

The US ruling elites have built a stunningly evil system grounded in devious perfidy.

Key Influencing Factors

Several factors influence exchange rates, including:

• Interest Rates: Higher interest rates can attract foreign capital, increasing demand for a currency.

• Inflation Rates: Low inflation typically strengthens a currency, while high inflation can weaken it.

• Economic Stability: Countries with stable economies tend to have stronger currencies.

• Trade Balance: A country that exports more than it imports generally has a stronger currency due to higher demand for its goods and services.

Note that A.I. answers are dependent on large language model input, and if that input is predominantly from neoliberal economic ideological sources, the answer will reflect neoliberal economic ideology.

What is not identified or admitted is that exchange rates are prone to MANIPULATION by big actors such as the World Bank, WTO and IMF, which are all controlled by the USA (and to a lesser extent the EuroZio financial establishments), which have at various times forced different countries to either devalue or overvalue their currencies to benefit the AngloEuroZio financial predators.

For example, whenever “Global South” countries faced economic distress and were burdened by unpayable debt denominated in USD or Euros, one or more of the unholy trinity would swoop in with a package of “reforms” which invariably included austerity (cutting public funding of health care, education, pensions, social security etc), privatisation (ie fire sales of their key national assets to Western corporations for pennies on the dollar) and the devaluation of the sovereign currency of the debtor nation (so Western corporations could buy their natural resources for pennies on the dollar).

Here is another example at the other end of the spectrum:

By the early 1980s it was clear the Japanese industrial behemoth was hugely outcompeting US industries (especially regarding electronic goods and cars/trucks) in terms of quality and price. The US “solution” to this problem was not to improve the quality or competitive prices of its own industrial products, it was to economically SABOTAGE the Japanese. This was done via the Plaza Accords in 1985, which ostensibly involved five countries, but was primarily aimed at Japan, which was forced to overvalue its currency vis-à-vis the USD (raising the prices of all Japanese imports into the USA), as well as limit the absolute number of Japanese vehicles that were allowed into the US market. This led to the more than decade-long economic stagnation of Japan that has had adverse repercussions even till today. Why in Yamamoto's name would the Japanese agree to such economic sabotage? Firstly, because all Japanese leaders since WW2 have been compliant stooges of the USA (starting with the fascist war criminals the US originally installed), who worked in the interests of their true master, the USA, rather than their own people. Secondly because the USA was in control of the World Financial System, with exorbitant privileges and powers of having the USD as International Reserve Currency, backed up solidly by the Petrodollar at that time, and being in full control of the SWIFT system, with which the USA could impose primary and secondary sanctions on other countries.

Such US powers are now rapidly waning, which is why the US wet dream of sabotaging China's burgeoning productivity with a Plaza-like “Mar-a-Lago accord” cannot succeed, quite apart from the fact that Chinese leaders are not Quisling stooges of the USA who will betray their own people, unlike the Japanese so-called leaders who were installed by US manipulated Kabuki theatre pretending to be a democratic process.

The special case of George Soros.

Here is a frinstance regarding currency exchange rates: let us accept the proposition that X number of actors faced with Y particular factors will cause a certain currency value to go up, whereas those same actors faced with Z particular factors will cause that currency value to go down, and that the final exchange rate du jour is set by an algorithm that is determined by XYZ inputs. Obviously, there will be people who know how that algorithm works because it was designed by human beings. As such, will it then be possible to game the system to personal advantage?

Events have proven it IS possible for a single individual with deep pockets and shallow morals to crash the sovereign currency of a nation and George Soros has a history of doing so to several countries, most famously in 1992 when he made a short sell bet, then using certain manipulations, he caused the pound sterling to crash. He made off with over £1 billion profit for basically creating mayhem. Such a specimen can be accurately described as a top-tier parasite. Notably (AND QUITE UNSURPRISINGLY), his henchman Scott Bessent now holds high office in the Trump Kleptocracy.

2. Primary and secondary sanctions and the (not so) SWIFT system

Until recent years, the vast majority of international trade was performed using the US dollar as intermediary currency and an interbank electronic messaging system called SWIFT, nominally headquartered in Belgium but de facto completely controlled by the USA. Transactions would take perhaps three days to complete, and currency conversion fees and service charges were imposed on both transactional parties, benefiting the USA, even if neither party was American and neither currency involved was the USD. In other words, the USA established a global system of skimming that has for many decades enabled it to operate as an international FINANCIAL PARASITE.

SWIFT was a grift, it was a cunning scheme to pull swift ones on the grifted ones.

For a long time, SWIFT was the only game in town, which enabled the USA to wield their exorbitant privilege in the most despicable manner imaginable, using their ability to instantly CUT OFF others from international trade using whatever false pretence they chose, and hence seriously damage target country economies without firing a single shot or imposing any physical blockade.

Primary sanctions are restrictions of international financial transactions imposed by the US on targeted countries, entities, or individuals.

Secondary sanctions are restrictions of international financial transactions imposed by the US on other (non-primary target) countries that may persistently choose (by other means, eg commodity exchange) to trade with the primary targeted country.

The USA has so far imposed sanctions on 60% of the poorest countries in the world using bogus, fabricated excuses. The real reason is to force other nations to comply with any and all demands made by the USA, ie the enforcement of unipolar global US hegemony. The idea was to impoverish and immiserate the population of the targeted country, which “should” incentivise them to rise up and depose the existing “uncooperative regime” and replace it with a regime that is utterly compliant with all US dictates.

The combination of primary and secondary sanctions would result in a de facto blockade of essential imports into the targeted country, be they food, fertiliser, fuel, medications, medical equipment, farm and industrial equipment, water purification or desalination equipment etc. This has led to widespread starvation, disease and death in many cases.

We previously mentioned the historical sanctions on Iraq, leading to the death of more than half a million Iraqi children by 1996, and the sanctions against Venezuela from 2005, causing economic collapse and the deaths of tens of thousands of Venezuelans by 2018 (and massive refugee outflows). The more than six-decade-long blockades and sanctions on Cuba have hobbled its economy and its ability to develop and advance, which the USA then blamed on socialism or communism, as the USA did for most of the other countries the USA has sanctioned. The main reason for the stagnation of Cuba's economy was of course NOT socialism, but the economic war waged by the USA. US primary and secondary sanctions imposed on the DPRK in 1992 (supposedly to deter them from developing nuclear weapons) led to the starvation deaths of as many as 3.5 million North Koreans in subsequent years. Obviously, North Korea (with the help of Russia and China) has since worked around those sanctions, which did not stop the DPRK from developing nuclear-tipped ICBMs that today can easily hit the continental USA.

Until the fall of Syria in 2024, sanctions had NEVER worked to cause ANY regime change. Some argue that the longstanding US sanctions imposed on Syria were the reason for the collapse of the Assad government, which is partially true. More accurately, persistent sanctions were the straw that broke the camel's back. Syria had been burdened by a multitude of problems, including longstanding US/Turkish/Gulf state sponsored terrorism, followed by a massive earthquake in 2023, after which the USA continued to enforce a hard blockade of humanitarian aid into Syria, resulting in excessive unnecessary suffering and death.

The USA, giddy with its power to maim and kill “uncooperative” foreigners with sanctions, thought it could impose crippling regime-change sanctions on Russia in 2022, using the excuse that Russia was an aggressive invader of Ukraine (in fact the US provoked Russia to intervene to protect Donbass residents from US sponsored UkroNazi shelling, which had killed more than 10,000 civilians since 2014). To date, at least 25,000 sanctions by the USA and US satrapies have been imposed on Russia in 19 different waves. Result? Russia was incentivised to become more self-sufficient and to shift its trade towards BRICS countries, bypassing the USD, and the Russian economy grew by 4.1% in 2024 (in contrast to the now collapsing Western economies).

Lesson: US sanctions imposed on autarkies are particularly ineffective and can in fact backfire.

Note: Today, the Chinese CIPS system offers instantaneous completion of international transactions, totally bypassing the USD, with fees and charges only 2% of the not-so-SWIFT system. Many other transnational electronic systems bypassing the USD are being developed.

3. Seizure of sovereign wealth funds

In 2018, the US and UK decided to recognise the never-elected, deeply unpopular (indeed largely unknown) Juan Guaido as President of Venezuela (in contrast to the legitimately elected, hugely popular Nicolas Maduro). This provided the excuse for the Bank of England to freeze the USD equivalent $2 billion worth of Venezuelan gold in its vaults, which the Venezuelans will never see again.

Since 1979, the USA has frozen around USD equivalent $2 billion of Iranian sovereign assets held overseas in the USA and its satrapies, which the Iranians will never see again.

In 2022, the USA/EU froze the USD equivalent of $300 billion (mostly denominated in Euros in Euroclear) of currency and gold held in European or UK or US financial institutions which the Russians will never see again.

The U.S. froze approximately $7 billion in Afghan central bank assets, including gold reserves (held in New York during the US occupation of Afghanistan*), following the Taliban's takeover in August 2021, money which the Afghans will never see again.

The ongoing economic crisis in Afghanistan, exacerbated by the asset freeze, has led to widespread hunger and unemployment, with half the population facing extreme food insecurity.

*Also be aware that during the US occupation of Afghanistan, opium production was massively increased by the USA, with drug-running operations into the USA and the rest of the world being conducted by the CIA and US special forces.

https://scheerpost.com/2025/10/15/drug-trafficking-and-murder-in-the-special-forces-w-seth-harp-the-chris-hedges-report/

Such opium cultivation and export were strongly suppressed by the Taliban before and after US occupation.

Ever since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iraqi oil revenues, supposedly managed by the "central bank of Iraq" , were in fact (just like the "central bank of Afghanistan" ) actually held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This is money the Iraqi people will never see.

The above are just a few examples of what is best described as outright theft or grand larceny or daylight robbery.

4. Monitoring and control of populations

Within the existing system, it is easy for governments to block/freeze/confiscate the private bank accounts of individuals who say or write or post or do anything the government disapproves of, even if absolutely true and constitutionally legal. This makes life for such an individual completely untenable, forcing them to either comply or to cut their losses and emigrate. It is an incredibly blunt instrument. Here is a chilling example, the story of German journalist Alina Lipp, one of what is undoubtedly thousands of other cases:

https://newkontinent.org/germany-labels-journalist-criminal-and-seizes-her-bank-accounts-for-reporting-from-ukraine/

What does the future hold? Most likely the move to crypto-based CBDCs that are surveillable (details of every one of your transactions are known and monitored by the government) and are programmable (your money may only be used to buy goods and services within a limited range approved by the government. They may perhaps selectively block your ability to buy insulin needed for your diabetes, effectively holding you to ransom.

Much of this future dystopian scenario is speculative, albeit probable. It is beyond the scope of these essays. The meticulous investigative journalist Whitney Webb has researched this topic exhaustively.

Next essay we will examine how material wealth is created in the modern world, which is based on science, engineering and coordinated big-picture long term planning, and CANNOT be created by big-mouth scientifically illiterate lawyers, political lobbyists nor financial prestidigitators endlessly bloviating hot air about their latest financial “innovations” (= fraud, such as the NINJA loans, CDOs and CDSs that led to the GFC of 2008/9).

BEFORE you leave, PLEASE pay attention to this alert.
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