Brandon Smith has chronicled the developing economic tension between East and West for over a decade now. With global dedollarization accelerating in the background, the current trade war makes the BRICS agenda even more urgent. Here’s his take on the Rio Reset…
For many years now I have been talking about the inherent dangers of the growing global economic divide between East and West. This volatile opposition between the BRICS nations and the U.S. has been decades in the making with a myriad of complex working parts, and this is just what most people see on the surface. Behind the scenes there are malicious influences at play. Special interests within the Davos community have been working diligently to undermine the U.S. economy and the dollar.
But what is the ultimate aim of this agenda?
In 2018 I published an article titled World War III Will Be an Economic War. In it I outlined the basic mechanics of the East vs. West paradigm and how banking institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Bank of International Settlements (BIS) were positioning to take advantage of the chaos.
At the time, the “trade war” witnessed a kind of false start, but all the pieces were there for what we are seeing today. Trump’s incredible return to the White House sets the stage for the end of globalism, but I want to make it clear that the pitfalls are numerous, and the establishment could try to use the end of the old world order to bring in a new world order.
In 2018 I noted:
The bottom line is this: Russia and China are in full support of globalist-controlled institutions like the Bank for International Settlements (the central bank of central banks) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The governments of both nations have called for the IMF to assert their Special Drawing Rights basket currency framework as a foundation for a new world reserve currency system. Again, both Russia and China want the IMF, a globalist-controlled entity, to become the de facto ruler of a new global monetary structure…
With the rise of simple to generate cryptocurrencies and the easily tracked blockchain exchange mechanism, globalists now have the perfect liquidity tool for replacing the dollar as world reserve. All they need now is a crisis event to provide cover for the transition…
…It would appear that a crisis event is now being triggered in the form of an international trade war. This trade war, in my view, is designed to become so widespread that it will one day be considered a “world war.”
Make no mistake, a trade war, even though it isn’t kinetic, is still a war.
So why is the U.S. even in this position?
The weakest link in American economic dominance
As I’ve mentioned many times, the dollar’s world reserve status, instituted with the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, has long been America’s Achilles heel.
We technically enjoy an enviable trade advantage as well as a monetary stimulus advantage because the dollar is used in the majority of international transactions, which means the Federal Reserve can print dollars with wild abandon and most of them will be absorbed overseas by foreign banks, governments and corporations. In this way, the dollar is already a kind of proto-one world currency.
However, the Bretton Woods Agreement came with a series of caveats, some of them unspoken. For the “privilege” of controlling the reserve currency, the U.S. is essentially required to financially backstop allies as well as provide the vast majority of military support for NATO. The revelations behind the DOGE audits alone show an endless flood of dollars from American taxpayer funds into a vast array of subsidies for foreign governments. Americans pay for everyone and everything.
The situation is even worse when we consider how many trillions of dollars were created from thin air by the central bank and transferred overseas after the crash of 2008 and the pandemic starting in 2020.
In the meantime, the relentless money creation is finally catching up to us in the form of a stagflation crisis. The dollar system, as we know it, is precariously unstable and more stimulus is not going to save it.
The old system is failing
The old world agreements are ending, and in many ways this is a good thing. European leaders are going full authoritarian; they now throw people in prison daily for online speech and they are also throwing their right-leaning political opponents in prison to prevent them from participating in elections. Europe is no longer our ally and the U.S. public is starting to realize it.
Outsourced production in Asia, the foundation of the current global supply chain, is in need of reform. Because of our reserve status America has become the world’s cash cow. We are relegated to the position of dutiful consumer nation, spending our increasingly devalued dollars in a spiraling cycle of inflationary decline while we produce very little on our own soil.
President Donald Trump’s tariff actions, which I suspect will be cumulative over the next few years, are an expression of America’s desire to end the globalist status quo and bring back balance. That said, the rhetoric from the rest of the world and the media is that these tariffs constitute an “act of war.”
As I predicted years ago, the U.S. is not allowed to stray from the Bretton Woods system without being painted as an “aggressor” nation bent on destroying our neighbors. Keep in mind, most of the countries affected by Trump’s tariffs have had their own tariffs on American goods for decades. When they do it, it’s normal. When we do it, it’s a declaration of war.
Enter the BRICS; this international trade body is currently being headed by Brazil and includes China, Russia, India, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates among others. The running theory for many alternative economists is that the BRICS will eventually move to fully decouple from the U.S. dollar and introduce their own shared currency system.
I have posited a similar theory, though I argue that the situation is not as simple as some analysts think. This is not just an East vs West division leading to a break in the global financial system’s dollar foundation; there is a lot more going on.
The Rio Reset and the war on the dollar
Ten years ago the BRICS were in a much better position economically and that would have been the time to introduce a competing monetary framework. Today, Russia is in the midst of a proxy war with NATO in Ukraine, China is on the edge of deflationary collapse and South Africa is on the edge of social collapse. There’s not a single BRICS member beyond oil producers like Saudi Arabia that is not facing extreme fiscal turmoil. In other words, the BRICS do not currently have the ability to counter the dollar.
That said, I don’t think this was ever the plan. Rather, globalist institutions like the IMF, BIS and World Bank have been preparing for the rollout of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) along with a single IMF controlled global digital currency attached to the SDR basket. The BRICS cannot compete with the dollar directly, unless the IMF and BIS help them to do so.
The upcoming BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, slated for July, should be watched carefully because it is timed almost exactly in line with the end of Trump’s 90-day tariff pause. The summit is expected to address the trade war in depth as well as the subject of de-dollarization. Trump has previously threatened a 150% tariff on any country that makes an attempt to de-dollarize.
While speaking at the BRICS Summit in 2024, held at Kazan in Russia, Vladimir Putin said:
“The dollar is being used as a weapon. We really see that this is so. I think that this is a big mistake by those who do this.”
This was the same summit where Putin shared a mock-up of a “BRICS dollar” and spoke about the adaptation of a shared BRICS currency.
Of course, Russia is in no position to field a new reserve currency! Neither is China, but I believe this talk is a precursor to a larger international push for a new reserve system managed by the IMF.
The BRICS intend to court the Mexican government at the 2025 summit and there is also talk of European nations increasing trade with China to frustrate Trump’s tariff efforts. But again, China’s economy is far weaker than they let on. Even so, there’s not a single nation or group of nations that will be able to fill the void in consumer markets left behind by the U.S.
The behavior of the BRICS indicates that there is some kind of plan afoot. China and India have been stockpiling massive gold reserves and this may be a preparation for a break from the dollar, with gold appreciating as the dollar falls. The ongoing shift into CBDCs is also, I believe, an attempt to create a cushion for de-dollarization. Just remember that none of this is possible without globalist organizations facilitating the spread of the technology.
The BIS has been particularly active in testing cross-border CBDC swaps and secure CBDC transactions. See Project Icebreaker for more details on this.
The BRICS are nothing more than a vehicle for the proliferation of a globalist CBDC reset.
Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs give both BRICS and their European globalist allies the perfect excuse to do two things:
- Accelerate their de-dollarization efforts (mostly, to date, by massively boosting their central bank gold reserves)
- Launch their own international trading currency – whether they call it an “international reserve asset” like the IMF’s SDR or something else – globalist money, for the use of central banks and corporations only
Elites always want their own type of money. One that can be managed for their own benefit, rather than the best interests of mere citizens. Historically, the best form of money has been gold. Hence Norm Franz’s famous quote:
“Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants – but debt is the money of slaves.”
Trust me, the globalists believe they’re the kings and you and I are the slaves.
With that observation in mind, is the current trade war playing into their hands?
Is Trump’s trade war a trap?
Do tariffs make it easier to justify an international shift away from the dollar?
Well, yes, obviously so. Higher tariffs means less international trade; less international trade means lower dollar demand; lower dollar demand means a growing void in the global financial system that could be filled by anything.
To be clear, the trade war is certainly less of a justification for global de-dollarization than Biden’s historically unprecedented weaponization of the dollar against Russia. First freezing, then seizing another sovereign nation’s dollars – and handing them over to an enemy nation! – isn’t a move the rest of the world is likely to ever forget, let alone forgive.
I argue that this reset is going to be attempted regardless; Trump and conservatives are going to be blamed regardless. (Just as we would’ve blamed Biden, had it occurred on his watch.)
Americans will blame the BRICS and Europe.
The BRICS and Europe will blame America generally – every administration since Eisenhower’s 1960 sanctions against Cuba has employed economic weapons against rivals. Although we should note American use of sanctions has increased nine-fold since the 2001 terror attacks. Though we tend to think of economic warfare as bloodless, they’re much more akin to a financial carpet-bombing of another nation, wounding the guilty and the innocent alike.
Conflict between the rising power and the former leader is historically inevitable.
So how do tariffs fit in?
Tariffs are a way for the U.S. to disrupt the forced interdependency of globalism, but there’s going to be pain involved as things change. In other words, tariffs are necessary. The end of globalism is necessary. America needs to stop relying on the dollar’s reserve status and the global supply chain.
But we should be extremely wary of what kind of system ends up replacing the Bretton Woods Agreement. Remember, Bretton Woods was only made possible by two conditions:
- In the aftermath of World War II, nearly the entire world desperately needed economic aid to help rebuild shattered nations and get their economies working again
- Uniquely, the U.S. was the only industrialized nation that had actually grown during the conflict
That left the U.S. in the enviable position of being able to dictate the specific terms of Bretton Woods. European and Asian nations had no leverage. Beggars can’t be choosers.
That is no longer the case. Today, China surpassed the U.S. as the world’s industrial superpower 15 years ago. Bretton Woods made the U.S. the greatest debtor in global history – subsidizing the entire world’s economic development, while hollowing out our own. Bretton Woods was forged during a time of desperation and dependence.
Those who were once the beggars at the feast now have the upper hand. And they’re tired of being bullied by a 70-year-old global economic pact that no longer reflects reality.
The next BRICS Summit, what Peter Reagan is calling the Rio Reset, should be scrutinized carefully because it could give us insight into when the next stage of their scheme will begin. Don’t be surprised if their rhetoric is wildly hostile towards the U.S. and decoupling from the dollar is the main topic of discussion.
Don’t be surprised if their real plan is buried deep in the agenda, either. The Rio Reset will not be accompanied by a press release.