The whole world uses the imperial dollar because it gives us access to imperial trade. We all pay tribute to White Empire by buying forex. Our tribute lets them finance their wars and bail out their rapacious elites.

Lately, however, Empire has been cutting more and more people out of the digital trade routes. It started off with a few poor kingdoms, but with sanctions on China and Russia, it’s affecting everyone. Including within Empire itself. They’re even threatening India.

We’re all expected to participate in Empire’s beefs, when all we want is to eat actual food.

Worst of all, Empire has been just robbing people in plain daylight. They stole all of Afghanistan’s forex, leaving them to starve to death, in full view (insomuch as anyone gives a fuck. I do). This isn’t the first time either. They’ve been sending a message that anyone can get impoverished by Empire, but we always thought it wouldn’t be us. Now we’re not so sure.

So people are hedging their bets, all across the globe. Countries are swapping currency directly, not going through the dollar at all. They’re even bartering, like Sri Lanka trading tea for Iranian oil. We’re setting up our own trade routes—shitty inefficient, trade routes—but these things evolve. And when they do, Empire devolves into goo.

What happens to an Empire when people stop taking the imperial roads? When they start dealing with each other, instead of going through the boss What happens to Empire when people stop paying tribute, when we stop buying all the debt that finances their corruption and war?

Well then, Empire’s not an empire anymore. It’s capital becomes just another asshole country, losers in both finance and war. Indeed, we’ve already watched its Capitol literally burn. The mandate of heaven has already been withdrawn. Empires take a while to fall, but in the end they all do.

All I’m saying is that the end is coming into view.

Sieges

Let’s start with sanctions, the white word for sieges. White Empire besieges civilian populations to a point that would make a Khan blush. If you besiege one city that sucks for them, but if you besiege a lot of cities, that sucks for you.

Sieges are a two-edged sword, but Empire has been able to avoid consequences by just stabbing poor people.

America has been besieging small, poor, brown countries for decades, which sucked for them. North Korea and Cuba since the 1950s. Iran and Syria since the 1980s. Venezuela and China since now. The message was clear, if you defy White Empire, they’ll make sure your great-grandchildren don’t get medicine.

Sending this message didn’t cost Empire much, they just missed out on Cuban cigars and vaccines, and had to frack oil out from under their own homes. But they have kept sanctioning people, and now Empire is becoming increasingly isolated itself. They’ve been beating the drums of war on Russia, but look at how the rest of the world has reacted.

UN votes are one thing, everybody votes that America’s siege of Cuba is wrong, but that doesn’t change anything. Look at how people act. None of the people in grey have followed Empire’s sanctions on Russia. That’s most of the world.

It’s not that we’re evil countries who support invasions. We’re normal countries, like the US was before World War II. We don’t consider ourselves the world police, and we understand the concept of not making things worse.

Russia is also not some already isolated, poor country. Lots of us depend on them for fuel, for fertilizer, for food. Empire wants us to starve cause they’re having a grudge match? Fuck them. We’re already having a food crisis. This bickering over borders is causing a full on collapse.

Empire is even talking about enforcing sanctions against India, an erstwhile ally. If they’re enforced, India will be unable to maintain 50% of its military materiel. While America and Europe continue importing fuel from Russia themselves, they want us to suffer for this distant war.

We’ve all been paying tribute for security. If no one is safe from sanctions, then what the fuck are we paying tribute for?

Breaking Sieges

Our tribute, out constant buying of American debt, it enables them to not have these worries. They can just print money and even profit from these sieges. But we don’t have those options, so we’re not playing along with this war.

America’s new sieges against Russia have already been broken. Along these faultlines, new trade routes are emerging. China and Russia are just trading directly with each other. Hell, even America and the EU have ‘broken’ their own sieges, they’re continuing to buy Russian fuel.

Empire is trying to tighten the screws, but this risks the whole thing falling apart. If they sanction India and China they’d be sanctioning almost half of the world, and skirting sanctions themselves. At that point, what is imperial trade even worth? Might as well be out.

The truth is that this collapse has been a long time coming, this crisis is just hurrying it along. It’s like how Hemingway described bankruptcy, he said it happens slowly, then all at once. For example, here’s Putin and China’s Xi talking about ‘independent financial infrastructure’ in 2021:

“Special attention was paid to the necessity of accelerating efforts on the formation of independent financial infrastructure for servicing trading operations between Russia and China, meaning the creation of such infrastructure, which third countries could not influence,” Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov said.

Well, now that infrastructure is being used. South and South-East Asia have been doing direct currency swaps as well, as has China and African countries. China’s Belt and Road project comprises actual hard infrastructure, actual trains, ports, and roads, all out of imperial control.

Is any of this a replacement for the global dollar regime, for SWIFT, and for all the things that make a globalized economy tick? Fuck no, these arrangements are all marginal hacks, workarounds, they all suck.

These new trade routes are much worse than the old imperial roads, but the imperial roads are full of brigands and soldiers now. The old routes don’t exist anymore. We’re forced into something new.

And so we’re carrying wheat on our backs across mountains, fording digital streams, trading tea for oil, trying to avoid imperial tax collectors and banking thieves. The new trade routes are small and treacherous now, but given enough traffic they’ll widen into proper highways. All out of the Empire’s reach.

And what is an Empire without control? This is precisely how empires fall. Slowly, then all at once.

Theft

The other big problem is outright thievery. We pay tribute in the form of buying dollars, keeping stores of imperial currency. We often even keep this in the imperial banks. But when they seize this currency, what’s the point? All faith and credit is gone.

America has just taken money that belongs to Iran and Venezuela. Most recently they just stole all of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves, dooming millions of people to starvation, destroying the country even worse than all their bombing.

We have shamefully tolerated this ritual torture of poor people for decades, as long as we could trade ourselves, but now even that’s falling apart. So the ritual torture kinda sticks out.

The main benefit of any Empire is that you can move goods from one end to the other with relative safety. You put up with all the bullshit for a reliable cup of tea. But what if the Empire itself starts robbing people? What is the point of such a road? Might as well trek through the woods.

Empire was always a carrot and stick kinda deal, but now it’s all stick, and they’re waving it at everyone.

People are wising up to the fact that not only can we get sanctioned, we can get outright robbed. Our foreign reserve is not safe with these fuckers. On a whim they could just take it all away. They don’t keep their word, like the Iran nuclear deal. They’ll even turn against allies in turn. China is holding lots of US debt, they’re certainly on high alert.

We’ve all been paying tribute for security. If we’re not safe, then what the fuck are we paying tribute for? If people stop or even slow down paying tribute, Empire can’t raise money for all of its corruption and war. And that brings Empire rapidly down to Earth.

Exit

I’ll return to the idea of imperial trade routes, because that’s all this is. SWIFT and CHIPS and the whole global banking system are just the trade routes of today, digital movements instead of actual roads. People used the Roman roads because they were easy, and we use the US dollar because that was easy too. Easier than getting bombed and besieged certainly, but also just convenient to use.

Now all that stuff is getting hard. Now everybody’s getting hit, for conflicts we have nothing to do with. We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, and what do people do in that situation? They move.

When people stop using the imperial roads, when they don’t pay attention to imperial edicts and sieges, then it’s really just a matter of time. I could make a lot of money if I knew when the buck stopped, but all I can tell you is this. It has to stop sometime. Only a fool would predict the collapse of imperial currency now. But only a greater fool would predict it never.

Right now all the signs are screaming ‘the buck stops here.’ I don’t know what the fuck comes next, but all I can tell you is this. Buckle up.

Note: don’t fucking tell me about cryptocurrency. That’s just vultures feeding on vultures, it’s just grift upon grift.

Michael Hudson wrote something similar to this and better informed that I just read. I'm ordering his book, so I guess I'll tell you about it in a few months when/if it arrives lol.