The decline of America parallels the rise of China

By Curtis Scoon

“Knowing is half the battle – moving accordingly is the remainder.” – Curtis Scoon  

On a humid June summer evening in 2000, I found myself at a swanky Embassy Row residence in northwest Washington DC taking in the classic boxing match between undefeated Shane Mosley and “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya. It was the Olympic gold medalist De La Hoya’s return to the ring since suffering his only loss to Puerto Rican boxing sensation Felix “Tito” Trinidad the previous year.  

Embassy Row is a section of DC with a high concentration of embassies, diplomatic missions, and diplomatic residences. I remember the night well because an old college buddy invited me to his girlfriend’s fancy townhouse to watch it with them. Also in attendance was a powerhouse DC couple. It was my first glimpse into how the politically connected live and think. 

The husband was a Washington lobbyist and his wife worked for the World Bank. According to him, he had been in and out of the White House going back to Reagan’s presidency. Later in the evening, the conversation naturally turned to politics, which was more in the wheelhouse of the company I was in. I picked the lobbyist’s brain for all the insight I could extract. At some point in the discourse he matter-of-factly stated, 

“It is already understood within certain Washington circles that America will go to war with China in the next fifty years and it’s a war we will in all likelihood lose.” 

Those words hit me harder than any punch Mosley delivered to De La Hoya’s head in the fight earlier. The indifference with which this man made the statement was as troubling as the message. I replied, “If we know this war is coming, why don’t we do what we must to make sure we don’t lose?!” 

His response was even more chilling. 

He retorted, “Who gives a damn about fifty years down the road when we have the next quarter [Financial] to worry about?” Aside from not wanting to believe my ears, I was equally puzzled as to how such prominent people could be so cavalier regarding America’s potential military defeat. Such a defeat would surely threaten American dominance, as the dollar remains the world reserve currency solely through our military prowess. 

The lack of concern among America’s elite regarding such a defeat by a foreign power implied possible complicity to me on their part. Perhaps it’s just another scheme for the elite to concentrate wealth and power. After all, America’s elite has a way of finding opportunity in chaos. As former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once stated, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”  

“There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.” – Vladimir Lenin.

Bill Clinton’s second term was coming to a close back in 2000 when this information was shared with me. Clinton, lightheartedly referred to as America’s “first black president” by the black community, turned out to be a complicated public figure. 

Like all presidents, he did some good and some bad. He personified “cool” and has withstood many attacks to his brand. However, there was also his White House dalliances with intern Monica Lewinski, his alleged black love child named Danney Williams, and his close relationship with human trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Those are just a few of his personal faux pas, but there’s also questionable legislation signed by him that borders on betrayal of national security. 

The possibility of a military defeat by China increased significantly when it was reported in May, 1998, that President Clinton approved a transfer of technology that would enable China to improve its ICBM’s (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile). The prospect of an American president arming our military rivals with technology that can in turn make us vulnerable is unfathomable, yet Clinton remains a Democrat icon to this day. It’s difficult to rationalize some of the military and monetary decisions made by more than a few presidents. One plausible explanation is they answer to a higher authority than the American people.  

“Give me control of a Nation’s money supply and I care not who makes its laws.” – Mayer A. Rothschild.  

One of the major reasons for the American Revolutionary War was the Currency Acts of 1751 and 1764. The acts prohibited the British colonies from creating their own currency. After the Revolutionary War, the United States used gold and silver coins as its currency, or, as was done during the Civil War, issued ‘Treasury Notes’ such as the “Lincoln Greenbacks” to borrow money in times of economic distress and war. Paper banknotes redeemable in gold or silver were issued by privately owned banks. If the banks failed, the public lost their money. 

In 1863, President Lincoln signed the National Bank Act into law. Some historians argue Lincoln’s attempt to create a true federal banking system threatened the privately-owned banks’ role of issuing currency and the profits made from it. Furthermore, it is claimed this is what actually led to his assassination in 1865 rather than his position on slavery. 

Regarding the issuance of currency, Lincoln is quoted as saying, “The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of the consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.” 

The practice of issuing private bank currency as a substitute for national currency was the standard in Europe. Therefore, Lincoln’s proposal threatened international bankers who did not, and do not, hesitate to use subterfuge, usury, war and ostensibly assassination to maintain power and profit. If what Lincoln attempted actually worked, other nations would follow.  

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before the morning.” – Henry Ford.

American presidents capitulating to “money changers” can be traced to the early 20th century after the banking panic of 1907. This prompted a collective of government officials and top bankers in the U.S. to form the National Monetary Commission and travel to Europe to see how central banking was handled there. They were very impressed by the British and German systems and modeled an American central bank after the British central bank in particular. What came to be the Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by Woodrow Wilson, America’s 28th president, on December 21, 1913. 

The creation of a central bank for the United States has been the subject of much heated debate among America’s political leaders and historians from time immemorial. President Wilson has long been accused of placing the United States under the control of international bankers. Some historians claim he regretted signing the act for this reason. The Fed is reportedly owned by both private and public banks, essentially taking control of our currency out of the hands of the government elected by the people.  

Congressman Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee in the 1930’s, had this to say about the Fed, “Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders.” 

More recently, former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul said this about the Fed, “Nothing good can come from The Federal Reserve. It is the biggest taxer of them all. Diluting the dollar by increasing its supply is a vicious, sinister tax on the poor and the middle class.” 

The very name “Federal Reserve” appears to be a misnomer. Despite being the most powerful institution in the country, it is not technically a government agency. Coincidentally, less than one year after the formation of the “Fed,” World War I began. This would be the first real test of the Fed to stabilize the economy during times of military conflict, which historically had caused turbulence in America’s financial system. Moreover, it was the late 19th century Spanish-American War, which preceded the formation of the Federal Reserve, that established America as a global power and ensured consistent involvement in major conflicts moving forward. 

Wars placed a heavy financial burden on the young nation by keeping it in debt that had to be transferred to its citizens. In fact, it was the Civil War that prompted the first income tax in 1861 to help pay for the war. The cost was approximately $3.1 billion, an estimated $59.6 billion today. 

Although the tax was repealed in 1872, the stage was set and the 16th amendment was ratified on Feb 3, 1913, establishing Congress’s right to impose a federal income tax. From there on, America would follow a pattern of costly wars and skirmishes preceding innovative, if not questionable, monetary policies. 1913 has proven to be an economic “watershed moment” in American fiscal history.  

“Gold is money, everything else is credit.” – J.P. Morgan.

Prior to the Federal Reserve’s creation, most major nations were on the gold standard or a bi-metallic standard comprised of gold and silver. During WWI, however, the gold standard was partially or fully suspended by a majority of countries to offset the cost of war. Afterwards, there was periodic volatility in global markets, most notably the Great Depression of 1929 that again forced world powers like the United States and Britain to temporarily get off the gold standard.] 

It should also be noted that prominent economists Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz released their study in 1963 blaming the Great Depression on Federal Reserve monetary policy of contracting the money supply. This theory appeared to be confirmed decades later by former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. In July 1944, not long after “D-Day,” 730 delegates from 44 countries met at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. At this meeting, the U.S. dollar was pegged to gold and all other currencies were pegged to the dollar at $35 per ounce, effectively making the dollar the world reserve currency. 

By the 1940’s, America had become the world’s number one manufacturer. By 1945, more steel was produced in Pennsylvania than by China and Japan combined. America had become a military and economic “force majeure.” 

Bretton Woods sought to stabilize exchange rates, curb competitive devaluations, and foster economic expansion. All parties at Bretton Woods saw the outcome of WWII as a foregone conclusion and were preparing for a world after Hitler. After D-Day, the Nazis were clearly being routed, and the financing of the global reconstruction was the order of the day. 

The foundation for the World Bank and the International Monetary System to “help” emerging economies was also established at this time. WWII proved to be America’s most costly war thus far at $296 billion, the equivalent of $4.1 trillion today. While that is an astonishing expense, it pales in comparison to the $10 trillion in debt amassed since Covid in 2020, a virus many suspect to be a bioweapon and an act of war. Not all wars are fought on the battlefield. 

To help finance WWII, U.S. income taxes were raised to the highest levels in history at a marginal 94% for those earning more than $200,000 per year. The cost of war put governments in debt and subsequently at the mercy of the bankers who issue currency in a system where money is ultimately debt. One can deduce that international investment banks such as Deutsche Bank and the Bank of England have every reason to incite nations to war as both made huge profits from the Nazi war effort. 

“Finance is a gun. Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.” – Mario Puzo.

The Bretton Woods system became fully operational in 1958. The world’s economy grew rapidly during the era of Bretton Woods, but it didn’t take long for the reappearance of monetary turbulence that Bretton Woods was supposed to mitigate. Balance-of-payments deficits caused foreign held dollars to exceed the U.S. gold stock. In 1961, the United States and eight European countries created the London Gold Pool in an attempt to maintain fixed convertible values for their currencies at $35 per ounce of gold. The printing presses were outpacing the gold supply. 

In 1962, the year before he was assassinated, it was suggested to President Kennedy by British Prime Minister MacMillan that doubling the price of gold to $70 per ounce could solve most of the world’s monetary problems. Kennedy refused because he understood that to mean a 50% decline in dollar purchasing power, and he saw a devaluation of the dollar as a signal to the world that America was weakening. He also refused to implement austerity measures at home, meaning America kept expanding its money supply. 

By the mid-60’s, the dollar shortage from the previous decade had become a dollar glut. The major issue was the world’s gold supply did not increase to match the growing supply of dollars. Beginning in 1965, the French began deliberately converting their dollars to gold to force what they felt was much needed reform to the international monetary system. 

Pressure from the French, coupled with the expense of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society social programs and the Vietnam War, eventually caused Bretton Woods to collapse. According to the International Monetary Fund, the Bretton Woods system unraveled between 1968 and 1973.  

On August 15, 1971, President Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard to halt the demand to convert dollars into gold by the central banks of other nations. This also led to gold being traded freely on the open markets. That action combined with the OPEC oil embargo of 1973, caused by Nixon’s providing U.S. aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War, officially ended Bretton Woods; the dollar has been plummeting ever since. 

At publishing time for this article, an ounce of gold on the open market ranges from $1800 to $2000 – A long way from $35. The 1970’s saw the United States enter into a recession caused by the 1-2 punch of a declining dollar and America’s support of Israel. This led to OPEC’s oil embargo and skyrocketing oil prices from $2.90 per barrel to $11.65. Hard times hit America’s urban centers. New York City, home to Wall Street and the financial capital of the nation, faced bankruptcy in 1975. The front page of the NY Daily News famously read, “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD” referring to President Gerald Ford, Nixon’s successor. These were trying times indeed.  

With the imminent collapse of Bretton Woods and trouble brewing in the Middle East, President Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, looked to the Pacific Rim seeking to build relationships with The People’s Republic of China. 

The PRC was firmly established in 1949 after soundly defeating the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek when they abandoned the mainland and retreated to Taiwan, officially ending the Chinese civil war. Fueling speculation by conspiracy theorists is the fact that China’s Central Bank was created in December 1948. For the anti-western communists to fall in line with western banking systems makes one wonder who financed them to begin with. 

In the wake of the 1969 Sino-Soviet Border Conflict, Nixon saw China as a competent ally against the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.). The Soviets and America were in the midst of a “cold war” that officially began when American spies Klaus Fuchs, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and others passed along nuclear secrets to the Soviets soon after WWII. 

A weakening American dollar and a formidable nuclear capable adversary was the impetus for such an overture to the PRC. Realizing the strategic geometry of the cold war with the Soviets would be altered immensely if China could be pulled away from its communist ideology, U.S. officials set out to implement such a plan. 

China’s leader Mao Zedong isolated the nation from the West by its leader after WWII and backed what would become North Korea in the Korean War. The war split the Korean peninsula in two along the 38th parallel (demilitarized zone) establishing North and South Korea. 

Technically, the war has never been declared over. Mao was a staunch communist and the PRC also backed the communist Viet Cong against the United States in the Vietnam War following the Korean War. Vietnam cost America an estimated $111 billion ($738 billion today) and approximately 58,000 casualties. 

The Chinese proved to be worthy adversaries in the Pacific region, so the seven-month border skirmish with the Soviets was an opportunity to one-up the Soviets. A rivalry between the two largest communist nations was something America wanted to exploit.  

A month before Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard, Henry Kissinger made a secret trip to China to prepare for Nixon’s historic visit in February of 1972 for the “Shanghai Communiqué.” One can only wonder what role, if any, Kissinger’s secret dialogue played in America’s decision to come off the gold standard the following month. 

The Shanghai Communiqué promoted the normalization of relations between the two nations along with the relaxation of tensions in Asia and the world. The agreement saw the rise of a tacit alliance that would transform the cold war immensely. The Soviet Union now had to contend with two powerful allies working to counter them and a potential two-front war with NATO in Europe and China on its eastern border. This induced the Soviets to partake in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, and SALT would segue into “Détente,” which ultimately brought down the Soviet Union in 1991. 

The Sino-American partnership saw an official end to the Vietnam War and brought about reforms that began moving China to economic prosperity long after Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974. Once Chairman Mao died in 1976, his replacement Deng Xiaoping took complete power in December 1978. 

Deng is often referred to as the “Architect of Modern China.” Deng was far more aggressive with opening China up to the West than his communist party peers. Kissinger’s diplomacy opened the door for China to end its international isolation while gaining access to global institutions and the world economy. Beijing started to receive valuable intelligence, technology, and military goods from the United States as well as aid, trade, and investments from close American allies such as Japan. 

In hindsight, a far more formidable adversary than the Soviets was in the making. The question remains whether this was intentional or simply geopolitical tomfoolery. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “In politics nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”  

“Behind every great fortune there is a crime.” – Honoré de Balzac.

The 1980’s began a rapid decline in American social order as the cities saw crime and brazen displays of murder reminiscent of the Prohibition era and notorious gangster Al Capone. Instead of alcohol, it was heroin and cocaine driving the violence. Washington DC would eventually become the murder capital of the country as drug transactions took place within walking distance from the White House. American society’s moral decay was on full display for the world to see. 

Simultaneously, inflation was high and America’s enemies were getting bolder. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard had seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held its occupants hostage for 444 days. The hostages were paraded before the world to humiliate America. An attempt to free the hostages failed disastrously as eight servicemen lost their lives and no hostages were freed, further embarrassing President Jimmy Carter and the American military. 

On the day of incoming President Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, nearly $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets were released and the hostages were freed. It has long been alleged that Reagan’s campaign negotiated a deal with the terrorists to hold the hostages until he took office to ensure he won the election and start his term on a strong note. Anyone with common sense knows this type of negotiation has to be conducted by the intelligence community and not by a politician’s campaign team. If true, it only means Reagan was the candidate the intelligence community wanted in office because presidents are seemingly selected, not elected.  

Reagan was also adamant that he didn’t negotiate with terrorists, yet later it was revealed his administration arranged for arms sales to the same Iranians for their assistance in freeing American hostages held in Lebanon. While all of this was going on, the American auto industry was failing due to new imports from Japan that were smaller and more fuel-efficient. The Japanese economy became robust and was the envy of the world. Japan in many ways provided the blueprint for how America went from a manufacturing powerhouse to a consumption economy relying on the “service industry.”  

For all the praise Reagan gets, it was on his watch America negotiated with terrorists, the auto industry became a shell of itself needing bailouts, and cocaine poured into the country from Colombian cartels. 

Conversely, Wall Street did great in the 80’s due to deregulation and “supply side economics.” Corporate raiders like Carl Ichan bought huge companies and saddled them with debt they’d later pay back by firing thousands of employees to cut costs. The stock market saw corruption unlike anything since the 1930’s with the arrests of insider traders such as Ivan Boesky who openly said, “greed is good.” 

Boesky ended up doing 22 months in prison and paying a $100 million fine after turning in other “robber barons” from our financial center. Junk bond king Michael Milken ended up getting sentenced to 10 years in prison and paying $600 million in fines and penalties. In times of economic difficulty, wealth does not evaporate, it simply finds its way into fewer hands.  

As America struggled with inflation, unabated corruption in its financial sector, and growing threats from Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East, China was having its share of “growing pains” from its transition from absolute communism to a market economy. 

The rapid economic reforms implemented by Deng Xiaoping created an influx of wealth that greatly benefitted a few and seriously disadvantaged others. The expectations of the masses, in particular the youth, didn’t quite pan out the way they envisioned. This all culminated in the protests and subsequent massacre in Tiananmen Square in 1989. 

The brutal crackdown on student protesters, supporters, and bystanders proved China to be very much the same iron fisted regime beneath the veneer of westernization. There was widespread outcry in the international community and human rights organizations. Political analysts condemned the Chinese Government and Western nations imposed arms embargoes on China. All of this brought the economic reforms that had been going smoothly during the decade to a temporary halt. Not until Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour in February 1992 did his economic reforms resume. Coincidentally, less than two months prior, the Soviet Union collapsed on December 25, 1991. 

As one American adversary fell, another was prepared to loom even larger.  

“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.” – Norm Franz.

At the end of his presidency in 2001, Bill Clinton left the United States in debt to the tune of $5.8 trillion. By comparison, today’s total of $30.5 trillion and counting makes that seem like the good ‘ole days. When Nixon left office in 1974 the national debt was $353.7 billion. The last president to see a national debt in the billions was Jimmy Carter. 

The increase in debt is directly tied to an increase in spending, caused by a devalued dollar no longer convertible to gold. The devalued dollar has less purchasing power requiring more to do less. Today’s dollar would be worth less than 4 cents in 1913 when the Federal Reserve took over the U.S. banking system. 

The national debt is owed to intragovernmental holdings that include federal agencies such as the Social Security Trust Fund and Medicare, but more importantly a staggering 78% of the national debt is public debt owed to U.S. banks and investors, both domestic and foreign. Japan is the leading foreign investor with $1.28 trillion owed. China is close behind with $1.1 trillion. 

In 2000, China’s GDP was $1.211 trillion USD compared to The United States’ $10.25 trillion USD. The Chinese are also the world’s largest holder of foreign exchange reserves with an astounding $3.1 trillion. At the end of 2021, China’s GDP was $17.7 trillion while America’s was $23 trillion. 

The deindustrialization of America has done much to weaken America and transfer her wealth abroad. In 21 years, the Chinese have practically closed the economic gap and are working feverishly to close the military gap. Much of this can be attributed to American greed that outsourced our manufacturing while turning us into the world’s number one consumer of goods bought with cheap and easy credit. However, it seems so deliberate and orchestrated that my mind often goes back to the conversation in 2000 when the lobbyist predicted a war with China that we’d in all likelihood lose. Our leaders are not incompetent, but they must surely be complicit.  

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” – Walt Kelly.

On September 10, 2001 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted, “According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 Trillion in transactions.”  

As unbelievable as this sounds, it was knocked off the news cycle within 24 hours. The following day America witnessed the “Pearl Harbor” of my generation posing a major challenge for the newly elected Bush administration. Alleged radical Islamic terrorists commandeered passenger jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Northern Virginia. 

I lived in Brooklyn at the time and saw the towers burning from downtown Brooklyn. America was under attack, but who could be so brazen, and why? We’d soon find out the hijackers were Al-Qaeda operatives. 

 Al-Qaeda was previously unknown to the general public. 15 of the 19 terrorists were Saudi nationals. One of the terrorists was Mohamed Atta, whose passport was discovered fully intact several blocks from the attack by some miracle. The alleged leader of Al-Qaeda was a shadowy figure named Osama bin Laden. Based in Afghanistan, Bin Laden hid from spy satellites and avoided a massive manhunt for a decade while on dialysis. 

The average height for men in Afghanistan is 5ft 6in, but Bin Laden was 6ft 5in, making it easy for him to blend in with his surroundings, no doubt. Bin Laden also had a history of working with the CIA against the Soviets in the Soviet-Afghan war in the late 80’s. Recently, former CIA station chief Bob Grenier claimed President Clinton prevented the CIA from killing Bin Laden in 1998, the same year he allowed the Chinese to obtain advanced missile technology. Compounding matters was the arrests of five Israelis seen celebrating and recording the attacks on the World Trade Center. Witnesses were so troubled by their behavior they called the police on them.  

The five were detained for months due to suspicions they were Israeli intelligence agents. They were eventually deported to Israel and the moving company that served as their employment front vanished with them. The perplexing thing in all of this is that both Israel and Saudi Arabia are American allies. Getting to the bottom of what happened that fateful day became even more difficult when the steel was all shipped to China to be recycled. 

Seemingly, every American loss is a gain for China. How that came to be reeks of treason in high places. 

The attack on American soil rallied the citizenry and many enlisted in the military. The “enemy” had brought the fight to our shores and we were eager to retaliate. The first order of business was bombing and invading Afghanistan to fight Al-Qaeda and its Afghan ally the Taliban. The Taliban had seized power in 1996 and implemented an Islamic theocracy in the country. The United States aligned with the Northern Alliance to aid with this task. 

The Northern Alliance consisted of Soviet-Afghan War veterans like Shah Massoud and various drug-dealing warlords who made their money through poppy cultivation and opium production. The warlords were also known for partaking in “Bacha Bazi” which translates to “boy play.” Apparently, prior to the Taliban takeover, it was customary for well-to-do Afghan men to keep young boys for sexual pleasure as a status symbol since women were exclusively for procreation. Only in that part of the world could such vermin pass for the “good guys.” 

After Afghanistan, Iraq was next. Although Bin Laden had no ties to Iraq’s “President for Life” Saddam Hussein, the premise for the Iraqi invasion was supposedly possession of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” or WMDs. Four-star general and Secretary of State Colin Powell sat before the United Nations and sold the lie that Iraq possessed WMDs.  

The symbolic value of having a highly respected and trusted black man argue for a furtherance of American hegemonic ambitions took pressure off many who reluctantly approved. The Iraqis had the fourth largest military in the world, but were no match for the United States and its allies. 

What little resistance they put up lasted roughly two weeks in the face of what American General Norman Schwarzkopf referred to as “shock and awe.” The war was booming business for military contractors. A recent study estimated $8 trillion has been spent on the so-called “War on Terror” in the 20 years since 9-11. The cost for Afghanistan alone was $300 million a day for 20 years, totaling $2.3 trillion. 

The war on terror was tantamount to the pillaging of American taxpayers by high-ranking government officials such as American Vice President Dick Cheney and his cronies at Halliburton. Cheney was a man so feared that he once shot a member of his hunting party in the face “accidentally” and the man publicly apologized to him. Meanwhile, the national debt was steadily increasing and the worst was yet to come.  

As the Bush-Cheney administration neared the end of its second term, America had become somewhat “war weary.” The stock market showed signs of trouble in 2007 that led to a full crash the following year in September, a mere two months before the November election that would see America elect its first black President, Barack Obama. 

Obama had campaigned on the promise of “Change We Can Believe In” and “Si Se Puede,” which translates to, “Yes, we can.” The symbolism of Obama was supposed to signal progress to Americans. Instead, it was little more than a distraction from the rapid decline of a once mighty nation. 

The market crash preceding the election only added to government spending in the form of bailouts. The auto industry and housing market needed government bailouts as the global recession impacted sales and liquidity. Declining home values caused an increase in foreclosures as many buyers found themselves owing more than the homes were worth. The Fed intervened with failing banks due to risky subprime loans. Subprime loans were issued to people considered high risk with bad credit ratings. In other words, people who couldn’t afford the homes in the first place. 

The auto industry was even worse as two of the “Big 3” automakers, General Motors and Chrysler, needed emergency loans. Both companies filed chapter 11 bankruptcy and they restructured. GM emerged from bankruptcy as a new company majority-owned by the United States Treasury, while Chrysler emerged primarily owned by the United Auto Workers union and foreign automaker Fiat. There was also the bailout of insurance giant AIG for $150 billion. America was looking less and less like a capitalist society with every crisis and subsequent bailout.

A clear pattern was developing in the economy where money has to be pumped into a system that produces little. A discerning eye can see the proverbial economic can has been getting kicked down the road to postpone the inevitable since 1962 when the British PM suggested to President Kennedy to devalue the dollar by half. As if intentional, decades of pointless wars, deindustrialization, and massive financial deregulation had succeeded in bringing America to its tipping point. Greed and self-interest superseded any semblance of national pride and patriotism. What has taken place is tantamount to the looting of a nation.  

Under President Obama and his Vice President Joe Biden, America’s focus pivoted to social issues as a distraction from economic losses to China in several key areas. There was little media attention to the growing trade deficit that cost America 2.7 million jobs total, with 2.1 million jobs in manufacturing, by 2011 according to The Economic Policy Institute in Washington DC. Additionally, 55% of the $217.5 billion increase in the trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2011 was from the import of computers and electronic parts, including audio-video equipment and semiconductors. 

Conversely, sexuality issues such as same-sex marriage and racially motivated police brutality incidents dominated the American media. While China built its military and produced 40% of ships in the world, Obama entertained a bevy of rappers and D-List celebrities for photo ops in the Rose Garden. Black Lives Matter front man Deray McKesson also got lots of “face time” in the White House. Obama took the country so far-left that it was inevitable for a self-fashioned populist candidate to follow. After all, the pendulum always swings the other way.  

“The few assume to be the deputies, but they are often only the despoilers of the many.” – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. 

During the 2016 election year, Donald Trump campaigned on the promise to “Make America Great Again.” The slogan appealed to the portion of the country that longed for the restoration of traditional American values. For many Americans, the country had moved to the extreme left making them very uncomfortable. Trump’s promise to end foreign wars, bring back manufacturing jobs and troops, and end reliance on foreign oil resonated with a population overwhelmed with social issues. A population that no longer wanted America to be the world’s “policemen.” 

Candidate Trump also promised to rein in the national debt, but that proved to be easier said than done. To the surprise of more than a few, Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. From the onset of his tenure, mainstream media and social media undermined him. Trump was too eager to engage his detractors via social media and it came off as anything but presidential. Whether intentional or not, Trump was a very polarizing political figure. There was virtually no gray area when it came to him. Despite a rocky start filled with constant bickering, infighting, and abrupt resignations within his own administration, Trump grew into his role by year three in office, and managed to achieve some sense of normalcy. Towards the end of 2019 though, the world was rocked with the emergence of a deadly virus called Covid-19 coming out of Wuhan China. 

The virus spread rapidly and became a global pandemic threatening trade, supply chains, and the global economy as international and local commerce became hindered. The human toll of the virus was in the millions and country after country implemented lock downs to contain the spread.  

As small businesses folded under government restrictions, corporate behemoths such as Walmart and Amazon were allowed to operate and saw record profits. Covid-19 did more than take lives – the lockdowns in conjunction with the subsequent vaccine mandates did irreparable damage to the middle class as a wealth transfer unlike any in history was underway. According to published reports, there was a new billionaire every 17 hours of 2020 worldwide. 

The pandemic also caused a global recession and the stock market to crash. The Federal Reserve responded with what’s called “quantitative easing” to increase money supply and pump money into the system like never before in its history. Much of this money ultimately found its way to the wealthiest demographic in the country, and the increase in liquidity made the market behave erratically. Despite 30 million Americans unemployed in April 2020, the market roared; the opposite of what it should’ve been doing. 

In his one term as president, Donald Trump added $7.8 trillion to the national debt in what some say was a last-ditch effort to assuage criticisms of his Covid-19 response and get re-elected. The timing of the pandemic couldn’t have been worse for Trump. The combination of record unemployment, social unrest, and a rising body count from Covid proved to be too much for Trump to overcome. Election night irregularities only added to the obstacles to a second term.  

What began as a rough year ended on an even rougher note as allegations of election fraud and foreign interference in our electoral process saturated the news cycle. After the votes were tallied, it was determined former VP Joe Biden had emerged victorious over incumbent Donald Trump. Biden had received the most votes of all presidential candidates in history and Trump had received the most votes of any sitting president. The country was seriously divided, and that division culminated in events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Politicians were fearful, and national guardsmen were dispatched to the Capitol, where they established a protective perimeter of armed troops and fencing – a most surreal, if not dystopian sight.  

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” – Edward Bernay.

At 78-years-old, Joe Biden is the oldest elected president. His cognitive acuity has been questioned since the campaign trail. As president, he’s fallen up stairs and off a bicycle on national media, no less. Compounding matters, he had two brain aneurysms in 1988 and at that time his neurosurgeon gave him a 50% chance of full recovery. Additionally, he reportedly suffers from a heart condition that causes periodic dizziness and confusion. Of all the potential candidates to run for president, surely there were better options. Even his running mate and current Vice President Kamala Harris couldn’t carry her home state of California, forcing her to drop out before voting even began in the primaries. 

Nothing about this tandem makes common sense, much less political sense. One has to wonder who backed these people, and why? Whoever backed this duo did not have the best interest of the country in mind. On his very first working day as president, Joe Biden signed his first executive order allowing men to compete in women’s sports. With a divided nation and troops protecting the Capitol, this is what he prioritized. Comparatively, our political leaders are akin to the puppets we once installed in vassal states. Enemies of the American people must sense victory is near.  

As American politicians focus on transgender and social issues, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has developed the largest Navy in the world. They have the second highest number of satellites in space and are leading America in the arms race to develop the best hypersonic missile technology. The PRC and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), its military wing, also routinely violate the airspace and disputed waters of American allies in the Pacific. Specifically, Taiwan and Japan. China has fully militarized at least three of the several islands it has built in the disputed South China Sea. Clearly, they are preparing for conflict and that conflict can only be with America and its allies. 

Roughly forty years ago, the primary mode of transportation in China was the bicycle. The Chinese were a poor people, but with lots of foreign complicity, they are now a superpower. In 1990, China’s GDP was $350 billion, but today they have the second largest economy in the world. This can be attributed to a deliberate, orchestrated deconstruction of the United States economic infrastructure and the transfer of American wealth to China. The meteoric Chinese ascension to power is reminiscent of the rise of the Nazi war machine coming out of the Weimar Republic. Like Hitler and the Nazis, there’s nothing organic about it.  

The world is in the throes of an economic war if you will, or a currency war that will inevitably lead to increasing military conflict, and possibly World War III. Back in 2019, months before the emergence of Covid-19, Thanos Vamvakidis, the Global Head of G-10 FX strategy at Bank of America’s Merrill division said this, “Central banks are currently embroiled in a covert currency war causing stagnation in foreign exchange markets.” Mr. Vamvakidis speaks of central banks as if they’re autonomous entities, and perhaps they are.  

It is not inconceivable that the Covid-19 virus is possibly a bioweapon and an escalation of this covert war given the impact it has had on the global economy. Who controls the banks? The ownership of these banks is the subject of much controversy. There has long been foreign influence in China’s monetary affairs going back to the mid 19th century with the British Oriental Bank Corporation. 

Whenever there’s talk of central banks and global conspiracies, the name of the famous Rothschild banking family is often whispered. “Whispered,” because any indictment of the family leads to accusations of Anti-Semitism. However, a visit to the Rothschild website shows the family has been doing business in China going back to the 1830’s and were one of the first western institutions to re-establish relations after 1953. 

In 2008, the Bank of China struck a deal to buy a 20% share of the private banking and asset management company controlled by Benjamin de Rothschild of the French faction of the multinational banking family. None of this proves or disproves a Jewish conspiracy, but it shows a basis other than bigotry and Anti-Semitism for the suspicions. Benjamin de Rothschild is quoted in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, saying, “I do not believe in God, I do not report to him.” Not a view in alignment with Judaism at all.  

Although war in the Pacific has not yet materialized, the same cannot be said for Europe. There is an ongoing proxy war between Russia and the West playing out in Ukraine with no end in sight. It’s a war that has only further strained western economies with supply chain breakdowns, increased fuel prices, and record inflation – a war that is gradually expanding. 

Currently, the United States is seeing the highest inflation in 40 years with unprecedented national debt at over $30 trillion. A war will finish the dollar as the world reserve currency.  

Perhaps that’s the goal to pave the way for the “Great Reset” promoted by the World Economic Forum where we’re told we’ll own nothing and be happy. In his 1997 best-selling tome “The Grand Chessboard,” former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski warned against a coalition of Russia, China, and Iran. That forewarning seems prophetic today. Whereas we once plotted against the Soviets/Russia with China, it appears it is they who plot against us. Should the PRC decide to invade Taiwan, it would force America to fight two nuclear superpowers at once on two different fronts. This scenario is apocalyptic and the outcome may threaten human existence itself. 

There’s nothing more comforting than knowing our commander-in-chief of record is President Joe Biden.  

“There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.” – Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince.