It's Not the World Exploiting the U.S.—It's the U.S. Exploiting the World: Why Tariffs Miss the Real Story
"The reality of the situation is that the USA created trillions out of thin air and spent it around the world. But now they are pissed off and are spewing a narrative that they’ve been ripped off. "
Bonds and stocks remain somewhat correlated because both are heavily influenced by Federal Reserve and central bank purchasing activity.
However, this cycle is likely to play out differently. So, where is the safe haven?
In my opinion, it’s going to be real assets. Bonds are not real assets—they are liabilities owed by other entities. Frankly, I don’t trust the United States to repay its debts.
Historically, the U.S. has broken trust multiple times:
In the 1930s, they betrayed their own citizens by ending the dollar’s convertibility to gold for individuals.
In 1971, they betrayed foreign central banks by canceling the dollar’s convertibility to gold entirely.
Over the last decade, they’ve demonstrated that they will simply print bonds as needed and monetize them—what they like to call "quantitative easing" (QE).
QE is just a fancy term for printing money and devaluing everyone’s savings by expanding the money supply.
This trend is deeply entrenched, and there’s no realistic scenario where angry citizens in the U.S. willingly pay back these debts through taxation.
The excerpt above paraphrased from Kevin Bambrough’s twitter page. Kevin was founder of Sprott Resources & Consulting.
Wayfair is Way Unfair to the sweat shop laborer
Gold & Silver Fixes “Abuse by Privilege”
Op-Ed by Carmine Lombardi
Imagine a reality TV show where affluent couples don hardhats, grab sledgehammers, and gleefully demolish perfectly functional homes to replace them with mass-produced furniture from IKEA and Wayfair.
This spectacle mirrors the United States' approach to global trade and monetary policy: smashing a functional system, exploiting its advantages, and then blaming others for the resulting mess. The irony is palpable. While the U.S. accuses the world of unfair trade practices, history reveals that it has long wielded its "exorbitant privilege" as the issuer of the global reserve currency to extract wealth from other nations.
The U.S. dollar’s dominance was cemented at Bretton Woods in 1944, where the dollar became the linchpin of global finance, convertible to gold at $35 per ounce. This arrangement allowed America to finance its post-war ambitions by effectively printing money that other nations accepted as valuable. However, by 1971, the U.S. abandoned gold convertibility under President Nixon, breaking its promise to foreign central banks and shifting to a fiat currency system. This move unshackled America from fiscal discipline and enabled decades of unchecked monetary expansion.
Since then, the U.S. has leveraged its dollar hegemony to run massive trade deficits—importing far more than it exports—while exporting inflation and financial instability to the rest of the world. Over the last 50 years, America has consumed approximately $46 trillion more in goods than it has produced, financed by issuing debt denominated in dollars. This system allows Americans to enjoy cheap imports while other nations toil in sweatshops producing goods for a currency that can be devalued at will.
The Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (QE) programs exemplify this exploitation. By printing trillions of dollars to buy bonds and prop up financial markets, the U.S. devalues global savings held in dollars while inflating asset prices domestically. Emerging markets bear the brunt as capital floods out of their economies, destabilizing currencies and fueling inflation. Meanwhile, U.S. consumers click away on Amazon and Wayfair, oblivious to the labor exploitation underpinning their purchases.
Yet, in a stunning act of hypocrisy, American policymakers now decry being "ripped off" by trading partners like China or Mexico. Tariffs imposed under this narrative are counterintuitive; they disrupt global supply chains while ignoring that America’s trade deficits are self-inflicted by its overconsumption and underinvestment in manufacturing. The real "rip-off" lies in decades of monetary manipulation that enriched U.S. elites while hollowing out domestic industry.
This cycle cannot sustain itself indefinitely. Bonds—essentially IOUs—are liabilities dependent on trust in America’s ability to repay its debts. But with mounting deficits and no political will to raise taxes or cut spending, that trust is eroding. Real assets like gold, silver, and commodities are emerging as safer havens because they are tangible stores of value immune to currency debasement.
The U.S.’s history of breaking promises—from ending gold convertibility for individuals in 1933 to abandoning it for nations in 1971—shows a pattern of prioritizing short-term gains over long-term stability. As global trust wanes, de-dollarization efforts are gaining momentum. Nations are exploring alternatives like bilateral trade in local currencies or digital assets to reduce dependence on the dollar.
In truth, America’s "grift" has been remarkably effective—but it is also unsustainable. The world is waking up to this reality, leaving the U.S. with fewer walls left to smash and fewer excuses for its self-inflicted economic woes.
end of segment
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