Yekaterinburg in Russia
Can we expect the CIA and its friends to take action against India, Pakistan, Brazil, Iran, Russia and China?
In mid June 2009, these countries are meeting in Yekaterinburg in Russia.
The leaders of India and Pakistan are likely to meet at this Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting.
The leaders of Afghanistan, and Iran are also expected to be in Yekaterinburg.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrghyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia.
Brazil, Russia, India and China will hold a separate BRIC summit in Yekaterinburg, after the SCO meeting. - India, Pakistan leaders may meet at Russia SCO summit
Yekaterinburg from above by Andrij Bulba
Challenging America will be the main focus of the meetings in Yekaterinburg, according to Professor Michael Hudson, writing at Global Research, on 13 June 2009.
(De-Dollarization: Dismantling America’s Financial-Military Empire)
Among the points made by Professor Hudson:
1. The attendees in Russia say they are discussing mutual aid.
This mutual aid will not involve the USA, NATO or the US dollar as a vehicle for trade.
In 2005 the SCO asked the USA to set a timeline to withdraw from its military bases in Central Asia.
2. The Yekaterinburg agenda is about setting up a new financial and defense system.
At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on 5 June 2009, Russia's Mr. Medvedev called for China, Russia and India to "build an increasingly multipolar world order."
Professor Hudson writes:
"What this means in plain English is:
"We have reached our limit in subsidizing the United States’ military encirclement of Eurasia while also allowing the US to appropriate our exports, companies, stocks and real estate in exchange for paper money of questionable worth."
3. In June 2009, Medvedev said: "The artificially maintained unipolar system" is based on "one big centre of consumption, financed by a growing deficit, and thus growing debts, one formerly strong reserve currency, and one dominant system of assessing assets and risks."
Medvedev concluded that the cause of the global financial crisis is that the United States makes too little and spends too much.
4. And the USA has very large military spending. It has recently increased military aid to Georgia; it wants the NATO missile shield in Eastern Europe; it is building up forces in the oil-rich Middle East and Central Asia.
5. Successful trading countries like China end up with lots of dollars.
China can use these dollars to buy US Treasury bills.
Or, China can stop buying US Treasury bills.
That would mean the dollar would fall and the Chinese currency would rise.
This would price China's exports out of world markets and hence create unemployment and business insolvency.
Countries like China have been hooked into the dollar system.
Now some of them want to find a way out.
6. Back in 1971, the USA was spending too much on its military.
The US balance of payments was in deficit.
The USA came off gold.
Central banks lent money to the USA and were given US Treasury Bonds.
These loans have been helping to keep the USA afloat.
A very large chunk of Washington's spending is for defence and military operations.
The international financial system is thus organized in such a way that it finances the Pentagon and US buyouts of foreign assets.
7. Now, the SCO and BRIC countries intend to trade in their own currencies.
China has made deals with Argentina and Brazil to carry out their trade in the Chinese renminbi rather than the dollar.
China has made a deal with Malaysia to carry out trade between the two countries in renminbi.
8. The United States is now the world’s largest debtor.
But, the USA has avoided the pain of 'structural adjustments' imposed on other debtor economies.
9. The USA tells debtor economies to:
A. Sell off their public utilities
B. Sell off their natural resources.
C. Raise their interest rates.
D. Increase taxes.
E. Gut social safety nets.
F. Squeeze out money to pay creditors.
10. In the USA there have been tax cuts and interest rates have been reduced.
China was alloed to invest in some dud American companies but was blocked from buying Unocal.
11. Yu Yongding, a former Chinese central bank advisor, suggested that the USA should cut back its military budget.
Since the 13th century, war has been a major factor in creating debt.
Normal peacetime budgets tend to be balanced.
12. China, Russia and their non-aligned allies want the USA to stop living off the savings of others and going in for unlimited military expenditures and adventures.
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Fidel Castro and Argentina's Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (above) both got cancer.
Luli Fernandez
