Change in US Gross Federal Debt by Presidency (1790-2026) | Chris Martz

Something happened in 1971.

55 years of bankruptcy fraud.

The Collapse of America's Constitutional Order | Jeffrey Sachs

A president stood at the UN and claimed the right to annihilate a civilization. Congress said nothing. That is the constitutional order collapsing in public. I shuddered then, and I shudder now that a president of the United States can stand at the podium of the UN General Assembly, speaking to world leaders in a language of annihilation of other countries and of sending them to hell. It was ghastly, unprecedented, totally disgusting, disgraceful for the United States. But it is also a measure of how broken the constitutional order of the United States is.

 » Like the worst tyrant or gangster imaginable. «

Annihilation as Presidential Language

Trump basically said, like a madman—which I think, arguably, he is—that he and he alone will decide the survival of Iran. He said that he has a big, big choice to make. Maybe Iran will be a great country. Maybe Iran will be annihilated. Maybe Trump will send it to hell. And not only was the language vulgar in a way that I certainly could never, in my lifetime, have imagined coming from a president of the United States or anybody standing at the UN podium—because what Trump said was odious and completely in violation of every religious, moral, ethical, and legal standard that we have in this world—it was also a measure of the brazen collapse of our Constitution.

Who Has the Power to Declare War?

Is there a political system where one man decides the fate of another civilization? Is that how the American system works? Of course, the answer is no. The Founding Fathers, who rebelled against a mad King George III, were very explicit in the Declaration of Independence, celebrated this year, 250 years after its issuance. We're in the 250th anniversary, one that Trump says is about our freedom. It was explicit that King George took on the authority to put the military above civil rule.

And when the Founding Fathers wrote the US Constitution, they specifically assigned the power to declare war not to the commander in chief, but solely and exclusively to the United States Congress—not by choice, not if they care about it or want to, not if they want to delegate it or not, but solely to Congress. Trump said yesterday he doesn't care what the public thinks. He doesn't care what the vote is. He says, 'It doesn't even cross my mind.' And earlier this year, when he was asked, 'Well, are there any limits on your power?' he thought about it and said, 'Yes, my morality, but it's my will. It's what I want to do. Otherwise, no, there are no other limits.'

When Congress Fails to Act

What did our Congress do? The majority party in both houses simply remained silent. Trump said he was going to have the difficult choice of whether to annihilate one of the most ancient civilizations in the world, 5,000 years old, twenty times older than the United States of America.

What did our Speaker of the House say? Nothing. What did our Senate majority leader say? Nothing. What did the members of the president's party in Congress say? Nothing. That is the institutional failure. Congress has the constitutional authority over war and the power of the purse. Yet when the president claims the unilateral authority to determine whether another country lives or dies, the institutions constitutionally empowered to check that authority remain silent.

The tens or hundreds of billions of dollars that Trump has wasted of American income in this flagrant war of whim—where is Congress to say, 'You have no authority whatsoever to spend that because only we can decide on the spending and only we can declare war'? This is worse than the Roman Empire. There was a Senate that actually still said something. Our Senate says nothing.

Beyond Partisanship

I am not partisan. And a Democratic president who dared to be as absolutely mad and deranged as this president would probably find subservience in that party too. So I'm not even making a partisan point. I'm making a point about the collapse of our constitutional order.

We are so broken that not only do we have a madman in power, but there is no respect for the constitutional limits on presidential power. The president can make statements, as he made yesterday, unprecedented in the chamber of the General Assembly in front of world leaders, speaking like the worst tyrant or gangster imaginable, and not a murmur from the Republican Party, which dominates the House and the Senate.

The Absence of Institutional Restraint

Have we come to a point where one man, who I happen to think is utterly incompetent, utterly sociopathic, actually—when people are killed under his order, not a moment of reflection or remorse when 150 schoolgirls are murdered, and he knows the truth. He says, ‘Yeah, the Iranians probably did it. We'll find out.' No, not any control at all in our system of government.

So, how I feel? I shudder at the last 24 hours, both at what the president said. It made my skin crawl. I was sitting there in the chamber listening to this madness. I mean, it really was psychopathic madness, speaking in this way, with a vulgarity that is unimaginable. But then I've shuddered since at the lack of response by the leaders—the majority leader of the US Senate, the Speaker of the House, Supreme Court justices, anybody—to say no. In our system of government, it's not one person who decides on the fate of another civilization.

The Grim Constitutional Question

We are a country, we say, first of all, of representation, and the American people are aghast at this. They oppose it overwhelmingly. They do not support this war of Netanyahu and Trump, which is a two-person war of murder and destruction and assassination of leaders of another country. They do not support it.

So this is the grim fact. It wasn't just the awful statements. That was my first reaction. But then I thought, what have we come to when one person can make a statement like this and then remain essentially unchallenged in the United States system of government? Annihilation is not diplomacy. Congressional silence is not restraint. A constitutional republic cannot survive if one man claims the power to decide whether another civilization lives or dies.

 

Quoted from:

Jeffrey Sachs (September 23, 2026) - Reaction to Trump's UN Speech, and what Lies Netanyahu Will Tell the UN.

Jeffrey D. Sachs (b. 1954) is an American economist, professor, and author specializing in sustainable development, global economics, and international policy. He is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, has advised governments and international organizations, and served as a special advisor to UN Secretaries-General. A 2011 Economist survey named Sachs, Bernanke, and Minsky among the decade's most influential economists.

Yemen Rocks the Gate of Tears | Pepe Escobar

No less than 25 years after 9/11, the Angel of History once again delivers a powerful kick. Five years ago, we had the astonishing imperial humiliation in Afghanistan, accomplished in a matter of days. Now, we have the astonishing humiliation of Epstein Syndicate vassal Saudi Arabia in Yemen, also accomplished in a matter of days.

» Bab al-Mandab is an international corridor, but it is part of Yemen's territory. « 
Yemeni PM Mohammed Ahmed Miftah, September 10, 2026. Yemen now has the luxury

of installing a toll gate, arguably multi-layered, in the Bab al-Mandab, if they want it. 

Serial humiliations now follow the Empire's path like a plague—and we're not even talking about the impending, stratospheric, twin strategic defeats in West Asia and the black soil of Novorossiya. Emperors' heads used to roll in Ancient "Divide and Rule" Rome for much less.

 

Saudi F-15 engaged Yemeni air defenses,

was hit, and crashed over Marib. 

September 10: Three Saudi brigades and allies, along with their light and heavy weapons, have surrendered to Houthi forces across the Hays, Al-Mokha, Al-Khokha, Taiz, and Al-Jawf fronts. Ansar Allah called it the largest mass-capture operation in modern warfare.

The overall collapse of the Saudi mercenary gangs in Yemen is so swift that even Epstein Syndicate mainstream media has been forced to acknowledge it. The Ansarallah Rolling Thunder is seizing cities; islands; capturing thousands of thugs; liberating all prisoners—and greeting them amnesty; taking control of an untold number of US tanks and weapons—Afghanistan reloaded; and being greeted as liberators of Yemeni land across the whole tribal spectrum.

Barefoot, but with the heart of a lion.

 

And of course Ansarallah from now on, officially, has taken full control of the mega-strategic Bab al-Mandab, or "Gate of Tears". As iconic images go, Mohammed al-Houthi, cousin of Supreme Leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, was spotted in liberated Al-Jarrahi driving one of countless armored vehicles abandoned by mercenary UAE-controlled gangs. 

Footage from the seized Bab el-Mandab coast shows a Houthi fighter at Hisn Murad declaring, "We don't need missiles. We don't need drones." He says artillery along the Murad coast and on Perim island will stop non-compliant vessels and "cut any and all shipping now."

The intel behind the Ansarallah Rolling Thunder—described as the largest mass-capture operation in modern warfare—was carefully coordinated with the IRGC. The Axis of Resistance was fully aware that after devastating Iranian attacks on the Jordan bases, the US was strangled in its capacity to help the Saudis prevent a Yemeni onslaught.

September 11: Saudi Arabia says Iraqi-launched drones struck its East-West 

Abqaiq-to-Yanbu Pipeline. Yanbu storage lasts 5–7 days. The war is going so well!

And onslaught it was, along the entire Yemeni western coast: from Hays to Al-Khokha and Al-Mokha via Al-Wazi'iyah, including the military camps of Khaled and Jabal al-Nar, plus Red Sea islands. Hizam al-Assad, member of the Political Bureau of Ansarallah, interviewed by Al-Mayadeen (English translation here), reaffirmed the "strategic importance" of the whole western coast, "and the region of Al-Khokha, the region of Hays, as well as the region of Al-Mafqa up to Dhabab and Miyyun, as well as the Yemeni islands in the Red Sea."

Col. Muammar Gaddafi in Sana'a on May 22, 1990, the day Yemen reunified North and South, addressing Yemeni officers and praising Yemen as the cradle of Arab civilization and its people's historic role in spreading Arabism—emphasizing their strength and independence beyond oil wealth, American bases, or foreign dependence.

Hizam al-Assad also detailed the attempt by the Saudis "to create a form of social dissociation in these regions, whether through their 'Daeshization,' or through the exacerbation of many regional, sectarian and confessional particularisms." Context is key. In 2015, Riyadh assembled an Arab-style "coalition of the willing" to basically expel Ansarallah/the Houthis from the capital Sana'a. Major fail—even by installing a blockade of Yemeni ports, and bombing indiscriminately (I was shown several targets, some rebuilt, from Sana'a to Sa'ada). Starting in 2022, a sort of unofficial ceasefire was in place, via a memorandum of understanding. The Saudis broke it in July, attacking the runway of Sana'a airport.

"How We Won the Western Coast"

Hizam al-Assad confirmed that "we had estimates that the occupier would fall in these regions from within (…) We estimated that the community would rise up and expel it (…) The withdrawal was in fact rapid and disorderly for the enemy (…) The enemy has no cause in Yemen, especially the local instruments, who carry out Saudi agendas for money."

 

» The curse of Allah is upon the wrongdoers. « Quran (11:18).

 

Western characterizations of Yemeni "aggression" once again don‘t even qualify as pathetic. Hizam al-Assad clarifies that "we have a trajectory within the framework of operations imposing the equation of ‘blockade for blockade’ and 'escalation for escalation,' and this is our primary orientation. And had the Saudi enemy not sought to disrupt this trajectory and break this equation (…) our trajectory is clear: to wrest away the legitimate Yemeni rights, and to break the blockade imposed on our country by the Saudi enemy."

The US Navy was previously de facto expelled from the Red Sea by advanced Yemeni military capabilities—including hypersonic missiles, 100% locally manufactured. Seems like Riyadh did not understand the lesson. The Yemeni Armed Forces confirmed that the Saudis launched dozens of air raids, "across the governorates of Taiz, Hodeidah, Marib, and Al-Jawf", carried out by F-15s and Typhoons taking off from King Fahd base in Taif and King Khalid base in Khamis Mushait. Unflapabble spokesman of Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier Yahya Saree—who I had the honor to meet last year in Yemen—confirmed that Made in Yemen surface-to-air missiles forced Saudis and mercenaries to abandon the base in Taiz, one of those specifically designed to harass Yemen.

 

» O you who have believed, if you support Allah, He will

support you and strengthen your footing. « Quran (47:7).

Taiz is key: one of Yemen's largest cities. Ansarallah is now in full control—a massive strategic asset. As strategic assets go, few compare to Mayun island—also known as Perim, smack in the middle of the Bab al-Mandab. There’s a military airfield and a military base built by the UAE with Israeli cooperation, crammed with high-tech weapons. All that is now Ansarallah property. Now that Ansarallah controls virtually the whole western coast, what’s left to conquer is essentially Marib—for the oil and gas fields—and the port of Aden, which congregates the bulk of the mercenary forces regimented against Sana'a.

Saudi Arabia's Lose-Lose Predicament

The Ansarallah Rolling Thunder complicates the chessboard in West Asia—and beyond—to a mesmerizing degree. The price of oil is out of control. The IRGC is warning about launching a new weapon that "will give imperialists a heart attack"—as in shattering the wobbly American naval blockade.

The much-spun Mecca Defense Alliance is facing its first serious birth pangs. Turkjiye is somewhat already embedded in the Saudi war on Yemen—as Turkish drones have been falling like flies inside Yemen for weeks now. Pakistan has meekly warned that the defense pact could become operational—only to backtrack and state that it does not apply to a pre-existent situation (as in the Saudi war started in 2015). MBS should organize a pilgrimage to the Gate to shed his strategic Tears. Anything Saudi, even seagulls, won't cross the Bab al-Mandab under supervision of the Yemeni Armed Forces.

They have no fifth-generation fighter jets, no Patriot batteries, and no billion-dollar defense contracts. What they do have is something no money can buy: warrior hearts that refuse to surrender, refuse to kneel.

The Yemeni army's largest mass-extermination operation of the week, unleashing Soviet Strela-2/3, Russian Igla-S, Iranian Misagh-1/2, and Chinese QW-1 MANPADS against Saudi armored forces and M1 Abrams tanks deployed to invade and occupy Yemen.

Now couple it with the Big Bang: the coordinated multiple strike on the Abqaiq-to-Yanbu pipeline, the last remaining route for Saudi oil exports after the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a massive 100 km black smoke column rising to the desert sky captured on Sentinel-3 satellite imagery.
 

A large smoke plume over the desert southeast of Medina, along

the East-West pipeline (Petroline) toward Mahd adh-Dhahab.

Is Yemen getting ready to topple the House of Saud? Saudi Arabia has an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 princes—but they don't fight. They rely on foreign mercenaries and Pakistani pilots. Their wealth can buy weapons, but can it buy loyalty? Where is the army willing to die for these degenerates?

Consequences

Expect production costs for nitrogen fertilizer plants from Europe to Asia to go totally out of control. Wheat, rice and maize yields are certified to fall, drastically, in tandem with skyrocketing diesel prices. Irrigation and harvesting will become a privilege for the wealthy. Ansarallah now has the luxury of installing a toll gate, arguably multi-layered, in the Bab al-Mandab, if they want it. Yet no exceptions for Riyadh; the dumb desert bedouins will only get a list of harsh demands.

In a televised address on July 30, 2026, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of Yemen's Ansar Allah, quoted Trump's own words before the entire Arab world: "Trump himself said Saudi Arabia is a cow; they milk it until not a drop remains, then slaughter it for meat."

Saudi Arabia’s prospects are dire, as it’s entering the worst possible lose-lose configuration: onshore oil infrastructure in tatters, maritime export routes blockaded. The verdict is not pronounced, yet. But it walks and talks, ominously, like Saudi Arabia being set up to fall, reduced to a desert wasteland, to the benefit of the usual suspects.

 

Reference:

Pepe Escobar (September 11, 2026) -  Yemen Rocks the Gate of Tears.

» The Italian intelligence agency knows very well that the catastrophic attack was planned and carried out by the CIA and Mossad, with the help of the Zionist world, to accuse Arab countries and persuade Western powers to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. « — Francesco Cossiga, former President of Italy, Corriere della Sera, 2007.  

25 years ago, on September 11, 2001: The United States Government, working in tandem with Israel and Saudi Arabia, MASSACRED close to 3,000 innocent American citizens IN COLD BLOOD. They used expert-controlled demolition (thermite, fuses, blasting caps) to bring down these massive buildings, which, according to one of the chief architects of the towers, were made to take MULTIPLE impacts from jet planes, then BOLDLY LIED to your face, telling you it was "pancake theory." 

 

See also:

Pepe Escobar (July 30, 2026) - Iran's Methodical Gutting of US Power in West Asia. 

Foad Izadi (July 29, 2026) - "Iran Will Make Sure the US Economy Is Destroyed." 

 TPR (July 21, 2026) - Al-Aqsa Triangle: Hormuz, Bab al-Mandab, and Suez Chokepoints. 

Gerry Nolan (2025) - Yemen Is Where Empires Go to Die. 

Captain Dan Hanley (2025) - The Truth Behind 9/11. 

 

Refilling America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve

 

 Chupóptero.

 

» THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY! «

Bombing. Killing. Hijacking. Looting. Intimidation.

Triumphs of the Orange Ape.

September 4, 2026: The Orange Ape dismisses his six-month war

against Iran as "small potatoes," saying, "It’s not a big thing:

We got Venezuela."

» Trump's dementia is growing, fueled by his excessive narcissism and megalomania. He won't listen to anyone anymore. And the two people who are running the United States government right now are the deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, and the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought. That's about as dangerous a situation as you can imagine. The budget director doesn't believe in the Constitution, and the other fellow—it's hard for me to come up with the words adequately to describe his understanding of government. The people who ran Germany in the 1930s come to mind. « — Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, September 4, 2026.

 Quem Deus vult perdere dementat.

  

See also:
Ron Aledo (January 4, 2026) - US Decapitation Operation "Absolute Resolve" in Venezuela.

Jeffrey Currie (July 29, 2026) - Lose Hormuz, Lose the Dollar, Lose Hegemony: Game Over.

SCMP (August 29, 2026) - Trump says US has deal with Venezuela

for control of 65 billion barrels of oil reserves.

Captain Obvious of the Euro-Titanic | Laura Ru

On August 27, at a business forum in Paris, Führerin Ursula von der Leyen stated the obvious: the former advantages of the European economy have all disappeared. The European economic model, she explained, had rested on several pillars: cheap imported energy from Russia, open global trade, growing access to the Chinese market, US strategic protection, and Western technological leadership.

Clearly batting for a team demanding Europe throw itself off the cliff.

 

What von der Leyen chose not to mention was that these advantages did not disappear by accident. They were systematically destroyed by the very institution she leads, through sanctions that severed energy and economic ties with Russia, a trade war against China, and regulatory overreach that suffocated European industry.

Russian officials have watched Europe's self-inflicted wounds with a mixture of bewilderment and dark amusement. Maria Zakharova, the official spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry, responded to von der Leyen's confession with a single, devastating epithet: "Captain Obvious of the Euro-Titanic." From Beijing, the critique is no less damning. Chinese analysts have watched Europe's protectionist turn with growing frustration, arguing that the EU is destroying the very thing it claims to protect: its own industrial competitiveness.

The EU's share of global GDP has plummeted from 30% in 2008 to just 17% in 2025—a decline three times faster than that of China's Qing Dynasty during its collapse. And as one Chinese commentator put it, while the Qing fell to foreign invasion, Europe's decline is "self-inflicted, purely something Europe has brought upon itself."

It is, in the words of one Chinese analyst, "locking protectionism directly into its economic and trade policy system." European decision-makers, Chinese commentators argue, have lost touch with basic economic reality. They are absolutely right. This is a systemic crisis that permeates Europe's decision-making circles. Both Moscow and Beijing see the same tragic irony. Europe has spent years lecturing the world about rules and order, about strategic autonomy and economic resilience. Yet in its rush to punish Russia and contain China, it has torn down the very foundations of its own prosperity.

In Paris, the Führerin zeroed in on Europe's €10 trillion in household bank deposits, branding them "lazy" (paresseuse) capital that must be forced "to the service of European companies" through her Savings and Investment Union. Explicit plan: securitize them, supervise them. Coming for your savings, Europe.

Europe's energy prices are now two to three times higher than in the US and China. Its industrial base, once the envy of the world, is bleeding jobs and capacity. Its share of global markets continues to shrink. And its leaders, having created the crisis with their own hands, can only stand by and admit that the old model is gone. They are clearly batting for another team, one that demands Europe throw itself off the cliff.

 

Reference:
Laura Ru (August 30, 2026) - Europe's Self-Inflicted Collapse.  

Laura Ru (pen name of Laura Ruggeri) is a Milan-born Italian independent researcher, writer, and geopolitical analyst based in Hong Kong since 1997. A former academic in media and cultural studies, she focuses on multipolarity, international relations, US foreign policy, China–EU relations, and European political economy. She publishes long-form essays and commentary on  Substack, Medium, and Telegram.

See also:
Lawrence Wilkerson (August 28, 2026) - CIA, MI6, and Mossad Own Europe's Political Class.

US Treasury Secretary Bessent: "Sanctions Could Disrupt Global Finance!"

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined "Operation Economic Outcast," a phased sanctions campaign targeting Iran’s cryptocurrency, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping sectors, while warning third countries to cut ties with Tehran or risk losing access to the US dollar. 

  

 Currency Collapse Indicator Model: US 2026 worse than Venezuela 2017. Ready for shock therapy?

» Scott Bessent looks to be intentionally crashing the $. I studied currency collapses and found that there were  7 indicators that preceded every major currency collapse in modern history. I then measured the US dollar against those 7. And as of right now, based on what Scott Bessent did last week, we have hit all 7 indicators. No country in modern history has met all 7 and avoided a currency collapse. None. And this doesn't look to be happening to us, it looks to be being done to us, by the people who swore an oath to prevent it. And they are getting rich while they do it. «

Scott Bessent—The Fox in the Henhouse.

He warned that "sanctions could disrupt global finance," arguing that a gradual approach gives nations time to end their dealings with Tehran and avoid broader financial disruption. His remarks drew mixed reactions, ranging from claims that they amounted to an "empire-level economic terrorist" admission to interpretations that they were simply a rhetorical push for compliance, fueling memes and debate over the global impact of sanctions.

» Why would I want to blow up the global financial system? «

Bessent's recent doubling of bond buybacks and sanctions have been cited as potential warning signs, alongside indicators such as high debt-to-GDP, declining reserves, and political interference, with charts comparing the US to historical cases. 

 

 "Let them eat white bread!"

The Reign of the Orange Ape—certainly one for the history books.

 

The US Dollar System.

 

Reactions split between alarm over a potential dollar squeeze—fueled by China's reduced Treasury holdings and increased gold purchases—and pushback emphasizing the dollar’s unique reserve-currency status and the subjectivity of such models. Markets have reflected the debate, with a weaker dollar coinciding with gains in gold and Bitcoin as concerns persist over the official $40 trillion national debt.

 

You don't grow your way out of debt when 

debt is outrunning growth every single year. 

 

Jerome Powell in February 2024, in a 60 Minutes interview

—and still not arrested... 'cause it's the land of the free.

 

Warsh will inflate the US debt away. It was clear

in February 2026... and it should be clearer now.  

 

Well, that official US national-debt number—$40 trillion—is a straight-up lie. The US government uses accounting rules that would get every CEO and entrepreneur arrested. Unfunded Social Security and Medicare promises over the next 75 years: more than $400 trillion. None of it is on the government's headline balance sheet. A public company would be required to recognize future obligations. Washington simply doesn't. And when promises can't be paid honestly, there's always another way to settle the bill: Create the money. Inflate the currency. Make everyone else pay. The $40 trillion isn't the whole bill. It's the number this giga-corrupt criminal regime in Washington chooses to put on the books—and Americans and the rest of the world are expected to pretend the other $400+ trillion of this Ponzi scheme doesn't exist. Inflation is a tax. Seigniorage is fraud. Americans, make these criminals economic outcasts. 

 

See also:

Karl W. Miller (August 26, 2026) - Global Diesel Breakdown: Energy shock will move through fertilizer into food supply.
Michael Hudson (August 20, 2026) - Why Time Is on Iran, Russia and China's Side.

Alex Krainer (August 18, 2026) - Japan's Yen Collapse Threatens to Drag the US Down With It.

Pepe Escobar (July 30, 2026) - Iran's Methodical Gutting of US Power in West Asia. 

Foad Izadi (July 29, 2026) - "Iran Will Make Sure the US Economy Is Destroyed."

Why Time Is on Iran, Russia and China's Side | Michael Hudson

Time is on the side of Iran, Russia, and China and increasingly works against the US and its allies. The longer the confrontation persists, the greater the pressure on highly indebted Western economies. As in Russia's past wars against Napoleon and Germany, the decisive advantage need not come from military strength alone, but from an external force that steadily erodes the enemy's capacity to sustain the conflict. Today, that force is the global financial and economic system.

"General Winter"—Russia's eternal ally against her enemies.

The US has contained the oil price shock by releasing oil from its strategic petroleum reserves and encouraging other countries to do the same, despite the major disruption to Persian Gulf exports. But this buys time, and only by depleting reserves and leaving less room for further intervention. The stakes are high because higher energy prices quickly feed into diesel, aviation fuel, fertilizer, transportation, and food costs. With the US midterm elections approaching, Washington is therefore racing the clock to contain prices as its economic buffers diminish.

Weaponizing Survival: Energy, Food, and Sovereign Debt Pressure

Iran's strategic advantage is to avoid escalation while letting economic pressure accumulate. A similar dynamic is developing around Russia and Ukraine, where disruptions to grain exports risk compounding the energy shock. About 27% of global grain trade moves through the Black Sea; Ukraine's harvest is coming in while warehouses are full, and Russian attacks on shipping and ports threaten both incoming supplies and outgoing grain. Much of Ukraine's grain normally goes to Europe, leaving Europe vulnerable to simultaneous fertilizer, food, and energy-price shocks.

 

Asymmetric warfare against Western full-spectrum aggression:

wrecking the enemy through food, energy, and debt.

The crisis need not involve major military escalation because the US and Europe are already too financially stretched to absorb a sustained increase in energy costs without wider economic damage. Higher fuel prices raise transportation, food distribution, and production costs; industries operating on thin margins can become unprofitable; and higher inflation puts upward pressure on interest rates. The resulting pressure spreads to agriculture, trucking, and the movement of crops, with particularly severe effects in the West, among US allies, and across developing economies in Asia and the Global South.

Base, Apex, and Anchor of Primakov's RIC Triangle 2.0.

 

Higher inflation and interest rates also raise the cost of servicing already-heavy debt burdens. Rising bond yields compound the problem in the US, Japan, and other highly indebted economies, while vulnerabilities associated with Japan's currency and carry trade expose the limits of available policy responses. The fundamental vulnerability is therefore debt: governments must increasingly choose between supporting households and industry and servicing accumulated debt.

Sanctions Threaten America's Financial Power 

This pressure also threatens the financial system that has enabled the US to exercise global power for decades. Washington has relied not only on military force, but also on its control of the dollar, international payments, global banking, and the oil trade. By weaponizing sanctions against Iran and threatening Chinese, Asian, and other banks involved in Iranian oil transactions, the US is encouraging those same countries and institutions to reduce their dependence on the dollar. Financial coercion could therefore undermine one of America's principal instruments of power.

 

» We lie, we cheat, we steal. «

murder, slaughter, genocide: children, women, heads of state; weapon, drug, organ, child

trafficking; well poisoning; pedophilia; hijacking; torturing; counterfeiting; looting; piracy; bribery...

 

The oil trade is particularly important because Persian Gulf and OPEC oil have long been key channels of US financial influence. Oil revenues recycled through US banks, dollar assets, and the American financial system have reinforced the dollar's central position. Driving oil producers, buyers, and financial institutions away from that system therefore risks undermining the very mechanism Washington has used as a global economic choke point.  

 

Trump offered billions to Iran's military. 
Iran: "Leave before it's too late!"

Iran's strategy exploits this contradiction. If its own oil exports are blocked by sanctions and trade restrictions, the implicit threat is that broader oil exports may also be disrupted, forcing other countries to choose between accepting higher energy costs and resisting the sanctions regime. Iran cannot defeat the US militarily, even though it can attack US bases in the Middle East; its leverage instead lies in imposing costs on the wider system and forcing other countries to decide how they will respond.

China and the Emerging Alternative

China is relatively well-positioned to withstand such pressure because of its large oil reserves, coal resources, and extensive investment in solar power and other energy alternatives. The broader question is how China, Russia, Iran, Asia, and the Global South will respond if continued US sanctions keep driving up energy and commodity prices. Their incentive will be to develop mechanisms that insulate their trade from unilateral US financial coercion. 

Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China, presenting his
landmark 2009 proposal, "Reform the International Monetary System," 
to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Gold provides one possible reserve asset outside the dollar system. Countries have increasingly added to their gold reserves while maintaining relatively stable dollar holdings; the European Union now holds more reserves in gold than in dollars. China and Russia have also developed alternatives to Western payment infrastructure. China's and Russia's independent clearing systems reduce their reliance on SWIFT, while Iran has experimented with cryptocurrency payments despite the US seizure of Iranian cryptocurrency assets.  

 

The issue therefore goes beyond creating a BRICS currency. What is required is an alternative international architecture for payments, reserves, and lending, capable of financing trade without depending on the dollar, SWIFT, the IMF, or other Western institutions. China, because of its enormous financial reserves, is uniquely positioned to provide the financial capacity that such a system would require. Russia and Iran could contribute oil, with Russia also contributing grain.

The Cost of Dedollarization

Such a system could fundamentally reshape the post-1945 financial order. Countries facing rising energy, food, fertilizer, and chemical costs would increasingly face a choice between supporting domestic industry and households and servicing dollar-denominated debt. As balance-of-payments pressures intensify, governments would have to decide whether scarce resources should go toward subsidizing industry, protecting families from higher heating and food costs, or continuing to pay foreign creditors. The incentive to prioritize domestic stability would accelerate dedollarization and weaken the financial mechanisms through which Washington has historically exercised global influence.

More sanctions, guns, butter, servicing debt, or collapse?

 

China, Russia, and Iran could therefore form the foundation of an alternative monetary system: Iran contributing oil, Russia oil and grain, and China financial reserves. Such a system could remove or weaken several of the instruments of influence established after World War II to structure global trade and finance in America's interest, including control over the dollar, oil, food, and seaborne trade. 

Keynes's Alternative to the Dollar System

The alternative need not be another dominant national currency at all. The argument instead returns to John Maynard Keynes's 1944 proposal for an international clearing institution based on a supranational unit of account called the bancor. Keynes proposed a system designed to manage persistent international surpluses and deficits rather than forcing debtor countries into destructive austerity. The institution would manage intergovernmental debts, allowing countries with temporary imbalances to obtain temporary liquidity while preserving their capacity to become economically self-sufficient.

 

Keynes maybe wasn't all wrong.

The critical difference is that surplus countries would also share responsibility for global imbalances. Keynes argued that the persistent accumulation of surpluses and claims by creditor countries necessarily creates corresponding deficits elsewhere. If debts become so large that repayment requires destroying a debtor’s economy, those debts should be written down—and the corresponding creditor claims written down as well. The US rejected this approach in 1944 because it was then the dominant creditor and had little incentive to accept a system that could reduce its accumulated claims.

 

Keynes's proposal was shaped by the German reparations and transfer debates of the 1920s. His central argument was that a debtor cannot repay indefinitely by suppressing wages, transferring resources abroad, and selling its assets without destroying its own productive economy. A loan made without regard to the borrower’s ability to repay ultimately becomes a bad loan. The same logic, he argued, applies internationally: forcing debtors into permanent austerity can produce depression rather than repayment.

 

The proposed international institution would create an accounting unit based on a combination of gold and member currencies rather than a conventional national currency. It would manage international surpluses and deficits and provide liquidity for temporary imbalances. When accumulated claims became impossible to service without undermining a country’s productive capacity, the system would permit debt reduction rather than compel economic destruction.

China's Potential Role

China could potentially build such an international payments system around productive investment rather than creditor extraction. Its investments in ports, railways, infrastructure, and the Belt and Road Initiative could increase borrowers' productive capacity and ability to earn foreign exchange, enabling them to repay principal and interest rather than forcing them into austerity and privatization. The argument is that, unlike Western financial systems, China has the capacity to structure such financing primarily on geopolitical and developmental grounds rather than purely for financial returns or capital gains.

 

The central question is whether China itself could avoid becoming another creditor power with the capacity to weaponize its currency. The historical lesson, however, is that other countries did not necessarily expect the US to weaponize the dollar in the 1950s and 1960s, yet it eventually did. The same concern could apply to the yuan. The proposed solution, however, is not simply to substitute one national currency for another, but to create an international clearing mechanism that limits any single country's ability to accumulate unlimited financial power.

The End of the Post-1945 Order

The broader conclusion is that the post-1945 financial order may be approaching a structural break. The present conflict is no longer simply a military conflict; it is increasingly a contest between competing economic systems: a creditor-driven and highly financialized model and an industrial, state-directed model represented by China and parts of Asia. The existing system may not contain mechanisms capable of managing this transition. Instead, the world could fracture into parallel financial and economic systems, with the struggle over the future economic order ultimately displacing the narrower conception of a military or civilizational conflict.

Reference:

Michael Hudson (August 20, 2026) - Why Time Is on Iran, Russia and China's Side.