Federal Racketeering

In the second season of the Sopranos, there is a story arc with a sporting goods store owner named David Scatino, who owes more money than he can pay to a mafia boss (Tony Soprano).  Tony’s solution is to “Bust-out” the sporting goods store. Tony and his crew start by liquidating the inventory on hand for anything they can get. Then they max out the store’s credit line to get more inventory they can liquidate, all with no intention to pay the suppliers when the bill comes due. Eventually, the suppliers realize they are not getting paid and stop shipping new inventory. With only scraps left to liquidate and nothing new coming in, Tony moves on to the next scam, while the once-thriving sporting goods store, gets shuttered for good.

When you think about it, the business model of the US federal government (Gman) bears a strong resemblance to the mafia. You cannot open a business or get a job without giving Gman, well, a taste.  There is no better example of their mafia-like behavior than Henry Kissinger in the mid-1970s striking a deal with the Opec nations to accept ONLY US dollars for their oil. This was the birth of the “petro-dollar.” From that moment forward, every country on Earth that wanted gas for their cars, fuel for their planes, heating oil for their homes, etc…, had to get their hands on US dollars first. The leadership in nearly all countries had no choice but to play the “Petro-dollar” game. Sure, some African countries opted not to play, but only because their citizens were content living in straw huts and chasing their dinner with a spear. Other than that, though, all countries had to go to the United States and kiss the ring offer something of value (products & services) in exchange for the dollars they needed to buy oil.

The 50-year Bust-out….

For decades now, the US Federal Mafia has been behaving like Tony Soprano in a sporting goods store. They meet with country after country,  extorting whatever they can, offering only paper dollars in exchange for their goods. Bag imagines the one-sided - behind closed door conversations between world leaders, goes something like this:

Germany … “So glad to see you, thanks for coming by. Listen. We see you produce some of the world’s best Pharmaceuticals, so we’ll take a couple hundred tons, and we really love those luxury cars you build, so we will take some of those too….here, you take these dollars and go get yourself some oil, have a nice day….”

Costa Rica… “Come on in, have a seat. Let me start by saying you guys have the best pineapples & bananas; you don’t mind if we help ourselves, do you? You guys also have some of the best weather on the planet, and since we can’t take that with us, surely you don’t mind if we build some resorts on your oceanfront property? Great! Here you go, take these dollars.”

India…. “Glad you made it. You guys really have the whole slave labor thing down to a science; surely you won’t object if we put some call centers around your country to be staffed by your citizens at, like, 7 grains of rice an hour, do you?  Great, here are some dollars for you ….”

France …. “We realize those brightly colored designer handbags you guys manufacture by the gross aren’t worth much, but since the average US housewife is willing to all but sell her soul just to get her hands on one, I guess we’ll take them. Oh, and throw in some of those bottles of wine too, no-no, not the cheap ones - we’ll take the ones off the top shelf. Thanks - here, take these dollars….”

Japan…. “We need more flat-screen televisions for all those video game consoles you sent us last month; I mean, let’s be honest, how else will our kids be able to raise themselves? We appreciate you guys getting that stuff over here ASAP. Oh, I almost forgot, here are some dollars for you.”

      On and on it goes, for the last 50 years, our federal mafia has been strip-mining every country on the planet, opportunistically snatching every valuable asset they have - and handing them paper promises called “dollars” in return. Unfortunately for the US, the Bust-out of planet Earth is coming to an end. One by one, countries all over the world have started securing an oil supply without the use of dollars. The BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and others are turning their backs on the petro-dollar game. Many of the goods these countries have provided us in the past are suddenly rising sharply in price, if they are available at all, because the US can no longer procure them with just paper promises. This de-dollarization is the root cause of the broken supply lines & soaring inflation we are experiencing today.

   Inflation in the US will continue to accelerate until we, as a nation, produce goods the rest of the world wants and are willing to exchange for their products. Since the chief exports of the US are things nobody wants, like Vaccines,  Inflation, and War, just to name a few …. The US is not in a position to trade for the world’s resources. The social media-addicted younger generations in the US, having been raised in a culture of excess, are not capable of actually having to produce value in exchange for resources. They have no idea what work is. For a generation now, their primary resource acquisition strategy has been claiming victimhood in a loud shrill manner, believing the world owes them for some perceived injustices. You might recognize this strategy by its proper name: Wokeism.  Unfortunately for our youth, and our country as a whole, that strategy will not work on the world stage.

Take a deep breath, and allow this following sentence to land:

  With the US producing little of value to the rest of the world and country after country refusing our currency, a total collapse in the purchasing power of the US dollar, is unavoidable. The US Empire is about to join the ash heap of history, boarded up like Scatino’s sporting goods store.  Like every empire before us, all the signs of imminent collapse are there.  Soaring inflation, peripheral wars, bank bailouts, cultural rot, high taxes, and political corruption are just fuel for the upcoming bonfire. The spark which will ignite it all is the continued worldwide abandonment of the petro-dollar, leading directly to a total inflationary collapse of the US dollar. When that day does get here - and it’s coming soon - the crash will be swift and devastating. On that day, there will be only two kinds of people: Those with assets outside the dollar system, and the fucked.

Which one are you?