Why COVID-19 was used to bring down the Global Economy

Analysis by: Stewart Brennan

The following post is a snap shot of the current global "Geo-Economic" picture from the World Economic Forum’s point of view including analytical commentary by yours truly, Stewart Brennan.

The World Economic Forum is one of the main Western Economic Cartel think tanks.

Forward:

Global domination has been the goal of every empire or conqueror over the past 3,000 years. The Romans, Greeks, Macedonians, Mongols, Chinese, Brits, French, Germans, Spanish, etc.…they all had one thing in common, an unquenchable greed and lust for power; and the application of it through their form of “Economics”.

In case there are some not familiar with who the Western Economic Cartel is, I will tell you. The Economic Cartel is a consolidation of business, finance and private banking institutions of the wealthiest families on the planet who have total economic and governing control over large swaths of the world. The World Economic Forum is their think tank, and the fractal reserve, interest bearing debt, private banking system is their tool and means to achieve global domination.

The Western Economic Cartel through the “World Economic Forum”, has laid out a plan for a global economic reset in 2021. To understand the bigger picture in what they are after, and why they used COVID-19 as an excuse to lock down the global economy and Geo-Economics, it is imperative to read the section of their plan on “Geo-Economics” (which I have included below) and then ask the question, "Why did the Western Economic Cartel back US Military and economic domination of the world since 1945 while also backing China's rise and drive for economic domination since the 1970’s?" - I'll tell you, because maintaining "Global Economic Control" through banking via the Bank of International Settlements, Central and Private Banks by the few requires a “Reset” once the old fraudulent economic system can no longer function due to extreme debt, inflation and poverty.

Private banking is set up as a pyramid scheme where the bulk of all wealth flows in one direction to the top…to put this into context, the people of the US and China were used as pawns to achieve total control of global economics for an over privileged gang of crooks and predators who made their way to the top of the food chain by economic stealth. Global Economic control in today’s world is a consolidation of wealthy families and oligarchs who own the majority shares of private banks and Industry from just about every nation.

"Geo-Economics" from “The World Economic Forum”.

Summary

Geo-economics: where nation-states impose control over the logic of commerce to achieve their goals. While the term was first coined in 1990, geo-economic rivalries did not fully emerge until after the 2008 financial crisis. Particularly since about 2014, countries have refined the use of economic tools to attain their geopolitical objectives and weaken rivals; some analysts have characterized this as the “weaponization of interdependence.” This exposes people to increasing related pressures, and multinational corporations and banks have had to adapt to heightened related risks. Global stakeholders should think about how to best contain geo-economic tensions, in the interest of more effective international cooperation on matters like climate change, migration, and the impacts of COVID-19.

This briefing is based on the views of a wide range of experts from the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network and is curated in partnership with Nicholas Mulder, Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University.

Institutional and Regulatory Instability

As traditional authority frays and trade wars mount, geo-economic institutions are being undermined.

Geo-economic concerns are beginning to shape economic regulation, both domestically and internationally. Individual states are increasingly invoking special circumstances in order to withdraw from, or to simply ignore international agreements. As a result, institutions such as the World Trade Organization are under serious pressure as their authority frays in a global trading landscape wracked by political disputes. The privileging of strategic industries in some countries - and the provision of subsidies to state enterprises - has made it more difficult to establish international norms on competition policy, product regulation, quality control, and environmental protection. Concerns about the security of access to resources such as food, water, and minerals, as well as a mounting wariness of the potential for corporate abuse (embodied in the European Union’s General Data Privacy Regulation, a measure aimed at helping people track use of their personal data that is the current gold standard for global data governance) may result in an even more divided global regulatory environment.

Traditional rules and institutions that rely on a politically harmonious global economy face an increasingly uncertain future. The EU, for example, has a reputation for effective and influential rule-creation - but its relatively strict competition policy enforcement has attracted criticism for preventing mergers in the defense, manufacturing, and technology industries that are seen as strategically important for geo-economic competition. Meanwhile newer institutions are shifting power away from the Bretton Woods Institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) established at the end of World War II, which grant Western states a disproportionate amount of global influence. Asian economies are at the forefront of this rebalancing; the New Development Bank, established by the BRICS countries (Brazil, China, India, Russia, and South Africa) in 2014, is headquartered in Shanghai and is committed to financing infrastructure and sustainable development projects in emerging economies and developing countries, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, headquartered in Beijing, began operations in 2016 with an eye to financing infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region - and its lending activity is growing.

Security Scrutiny of Foreign Funds

Governments are taking a closer look at investment directed at strategic industries and infrastructure.

The increased prominence of geo-economic policy has cast global “Foreign Direct Investment” patterns in a new light. The global stock of FDI grew significantly beginning in the late 1980's, before coming to a halt during the global financial crisis more than a decade ago. Although it recovered slightly in the immediate aftermath of the crisis, overall levels have since declined. Global foreign direct investment fell by 13% in 2018 compared with the prior year, marking the third consecutive annual decline, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Increased government scrutiny of foreign investment in key industries may only further dampen FDI activity. The US and the European Union have each passed legislation that imposes stricter standards on foreign investment in their defense and telecommunications sectors, electricity grids, power installations, and pharmaceutical, IT, aerospace, and shipbuilding industries. The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) of 2018 changes the way the US reviews foreign investment based on national security concerns, while the EU’s FDI screening regulations established in 2019 set requirements for security reviews by member states.

Some recent examples of close scrutiny applied by domestic governments to foreign investment include the US’s reluctance to permit the use of technology from China’s Huawei in American communications networks, Germany’s decision in 2018 to block the purchase of tool manufacturer Leifeld Metal Spinning by a Chinese suitor, and Canada’s decision that same year to block the planned takeover of construction firm the Aecon Group by a Chinese company. Although these geo-economic measures are unlikely to lead to a total collapse of FDI, they do create a more complicated new landscape for international investors. If they continue unabated, the investment ecosystem is likely to split into two spheres. One is a large domain accessible to global players and marked by high levels of competition and speculation. (I.e.: The Economic Cartel) The other is a smaller, less accessible national realm where governments maintain tight control over investment and production (in a way that verges on a monopoly or oligopoly) in the interest of national security (I.e.: CHINA) - with correspondingly high profit margins for the small cartel of firms operating within it.

Infrastructure Decoupling

If you are a country at risk of losing access to vital infrastructure, you may want to create your own.

One of the most consequential recent trends in geo-economic competition - which is usually expressed through sanctions and tariffs, regulatory competition, and intense investment scrutiny - is the effort being made by national governments to create their own alternatives to global infrastructure networks. These attempts at rewiring globalization are often responses to the political exploitation of crucial channels of exchange. The US-instigated removal of Iranian banks from the SWIFT international payment network in 2012, and again in 2018, is a case in point - a supposedly neutral payments infrastructure was manipulated for political purposes by a powerful government, calling into question that network’s reliability as a safe, impartial technical system. In response to similar sanctions threats, Russia began in 2014 to develop an alternative to SWIFT, dubbed SPFS, which went into operation in late 2017 and has since been linked to China’s international payments system, CIPS. SPFS has reported that it now has hundreds of users and agreements with a number of foreign banks and legal entities in Iran, Turkey and India.

In addition to financial payments systems, the trend towards “decoupling” from established infrastructure is becoming more prominent in the realms of computing and 5G communications networks (which deliver far greater internet speeds and hold out the promise of modern economies built around internet-connected devices and autonomous mobility). Although the Chinese firms ZTE and Huawei hold globally dominant positions when it comes to 5G equipment and phones, other firms such as Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia have also been rolling out 5G networks. Because of its connection to the so-called Industrial Internet that connects growing parts of national manufacturing sectors to the web, 5G-related competition between the US and China has been particularly fierce. It has mixed up the commercial motives of chip and technology producers with the strategic objectives of national governments (and their intelligence services) keen to retain control over data and information-sharing networks. Although the US has labelled Huawei a security risk, it remains to be seen whether its concerns related to Chinese government surveillance will have an impact on the broader spread of 5G infrastructure.

Trade Conflict

Global trade and manufacturing supply chains were disintegrating even prior to COVID-19.

Under the Trump Administration, the US has pursued aggressive trade policies targeting China. This has resulted in what are now the highest tariff levels inhibiting international trade since the early 1960s. Combined with the COVID-19 crisis, the Sino-American rivalry is causing serious geo-economic instability. Progress made by January 2020 in easing bi-lateral tensions may now be lost - through unintended consequences, such as trade barriers to imported Chinese medical supplies, have forced a limited policy reversal by the US. The global recession triggered by the pandemic may be considerably worse than the 2008 global financial crisis - and it comes as the US has ramped up hostilities not only with China but also traditional allies such as the European Union, Japan, and Canada. This has prompted some leaders to reassess their trade relations with the world’s premier superpower, and in certain cases resulted in retaliatory tariffs targeting the US. These trade hostilities already in place before COVID-19 may significantly hamper the global economy’s ability to quickly recover once the pandemic recedes.

While much of the current trade hostility has its roots in a growing American desire to regain competitiveness (with rivals and allies alike), economic rivalries are feeding greater levels of political antagonism. The longer the general atmosphere of trade conflict continues, the more it is likely to spur wider strategic and ideological conflicts among the US, the EU, China, and Russia. While some protective and retaliatory tariffs may be justified in specific industries, there is a real danger when these measures become entrenched - especially during a pandemic, when greater collaboration is needed. However, another important area of tariff development is one that could have a genuinely positive effect on international cooperation: so-called carbon border adjustments, which incentivize both developed and developing country exporters to fulfill their emissions reduction targets under the Paris Agreement on climate change. Unlike other tariffs, these measures create new opportunities for investment in renewable technology, and can help create greener supply chains. A productive way to wind down the current period of trade conflict would be to embrace these carbon tariffs while removing others.

The Economic Weapon

Countries are increasingly targeting each other with economic sanctions.

Countries have been applying economic sanctions since the end of World War I. But their use has increased dramatically since the 1970s - and since the end of the Cold War in particular. The US, the European Union, and the United Nations are the most avid users of sanctions, though the breadth and impact of their individual programs vary considerably. The most severe variety are US extra-territorial sanctions, such as those targeting Iran and North Korea; these measures block global firms and banks from conducting business with or in targeted countries, on pain of legal prosecution in the US and exclusion from US markets. Sanctions can potentially inflict serious damage on the social, economic, and environmental conditions of targeted countries, but their effectiveness as policy measures is often mixed at best (most research suggests that their economic effects are more significant than their political efficacy, which is generally limited). The most effective sanctions are often those that are merely threatened, rather than actually imposed.

The growing use of sanctions poses three specific risks to the global economy. Mounting compliance costs for any firm engaged in international trade and investment can be onerous, and even when sanctions are lifted these firms require reliable guarantees that formerly-targeted countries are once again safe for doing business. This means that a country’s post-sanctions economic recovery is often lacklustre. Oftentimes, sanctions are left in place for many years - or even decades. This can stunt economic development, and entrench political animosity. Governments and businesses should explore all available options to curb the growth of sanctions, which reduce prosperity, impose severe material and social costs, and often deepen rather than resolve international political disagreements. There is also a risk of unintended negative consequences; by further antagonizing countries, sanctions can raise the risk of war. Even for those countries clinging to a tenuous peace despite ongoing economic conflict, sanctions are fragmenting the international networks of exchange that they rely on, and generally pushing globalization in a more unstable and military conflict-prone direction.

Strategic Industrial Policy

A growing number of countries are developing the means to weather storms and spread influence.

Industrial policy has been an important part of many countries’ economic development for the past two centuries. In the US these policies have been used since World War II to build up autonomous research, development, and production capacities in strategic industries - particularly in defense. More recently, China has begun to actively use industrial policy to reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers in high-tech industries, under the “Made in China 2025” program. In the realm of central banking, Russia is building up a large reserve of foreign currency in order to help it independently weather crises - something that Southeast Asian countries did in aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Meanwhile South Korea and Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have developed strategic food policies that involve purchasing vast tracts of land in East Africa to grow cereals and grains. While policies like this can bolster growth and socio-economic development - especially when geared around positive efforts tied to renewable energy and green technology - they can also have detrimental effects on the well-being of local populations and the quality of governing institutions.

This tension is apparent in China’s ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure-building initiative. Belt and Road has led to a boom in construction activity due to lending standards that are looser than those at the Bretton Woods Institutions (the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank). It has also increased Chinese control of key foreign ports and railroads, and local populations have been excluded from many of its benefits due to its reliance on Chinese workers. The ultimate geo-economic consequences of the initiative remain unclear; many participating countries continue to have serious governance problems, exacerbated by being flush with foreign money with few strings attached. On the other hand, Belt and Road has provided development finance for countries that face serious structural challenges. While Western institutions like NATO show no sign of clashing with Belt and Road projects in the countries where they overlap (including Italy, Greece, Turkey and several Balkan states), there is increasing concern about growing Chinese power in many Western capitals. As long as such concerns do not produce more pro-active Western economic and financial engagement with the underdeveloped regions participating in Belt and Road, the underlying causes of these anxieties will remain.

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The Hidden Topic:

At face value, every word and action made by the western economic cartel revolves around economic control but what is not talked about is the truth of what controls economics and our economic destiny…and that topic is energy. i.e. “OIL”, but more urgently in regards to our economic destiny is, “Peak Oil”.

We are now at a point in history where constant economic growth can no longer be maintained due to the limited supply of cheap oil and the growing demands by a growing global population. Economic growth takes on an exponential nature under the current private banking system which is controlled by oil in terminal decline. Therefore, we can no longer count on the current consumer debt economic system to continue providing a way of life. If we continue relying on a decaying system built by consumer growth and debt, it will cause great harm to the global population through its economic collapse.

Oil is a part of every consumer item we produce. It is also very prevalent in the production of our food, its growth, packaging and transportation. Higher energy costs mean higher food prices and I’m sure you would agree that food more than anything outweighs non-essential consumer items.

Therefore, in a time of growing demand and increasing prices due to inflation, cost reduction becomes tantamount to a corporations’ bottom line and continued existence or they simply cannot survive in this economic paradigm. I.e. When growth is no longer possible in a market and costs exceed the products value, the company must inflate prices or go bankrupt.

Lean Manufacturing 101

When in-house materials become too costly to make (as overhead costs are factored in) they are outsourced to other companies that produce the products at a lower fixed price. That is why most of the North American industrial capacity was moved to China, cheap production costs…the western Industrial capacity and economy was directly affected by the offshoring of these jobs to China and the jobs were allowed to go because western governments were lobbied by corporate and private banking interests of the western economic cartel into accepting their growing Chinese exports. NAFTA played an important role in this from 1992 to present as it allowed companies to leave North America via Mexico and then straight on to China. There was no consideration for our communities by western governments or corporations when they off-shored the manufacturing jobs to China, and so the North American standard of living has shrunk considerably. 

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, China was labeled as an unfriendly communist country and not a good potential business partner by the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, especially after the Tiananmen Square incident, at least that was the "verbal appearance" our governments made to the public, but in reality, China and the western economic cartel were in stealth business together. I was in the packaging industry so I saw it first hand.

If there are doubts about this then ask yourself, how is it that the western governments allowed our Industrial capacity to be sent to China while allowing the import of “Made in China” products to flood our markets since the 1990’s while also plugging China into all the oil they needed (even in Canada's Tar Sands) to power up their economy?

China needs to import vast amounts of oil to maintain its huge economy and today, they get the oil from every oil producing country on the planet, including those under the western economic umbrella.

The western economic cartel, helped built China’s economy, and now China is poised to assume the global economic leadership from the USA. Is this not by design?

Reducing Oil Consumption

It’s true that in the past 20 years, we have seen technology fixes that have helped reduce our consumption of oil such as the elimination of products by digitization (music, movies, photos, paper, etc.) including the consolidation and contraction of business volume with products manufactured in China. But the COVID-19 event has single handedly reduced oil consumption by an incalculable amount across the world and we are still in the throws of this seemingly never-ending operation.  

However green it may seem, we still rely 100% on jobs created within a collapsing economic system, when we should actually be focused on a new deal and the preservation of the basic elements of life and community. Unfortunately, the majority of us are disconnected from nature and the environment which is needed to sustain our existence.

What we have not seen, and probably never will, is the western economic cartel relinquish their economic power; nor have we seen them converse with the public in a truthful honest way forward out of the peak oil and economic mess we are in. They seem more concerned with spinning a web of lies to maintain control of economics and power rather than the preservation of humankind.

The Global Economic War

With the “Global Economic Reset” slated for 2021 as per the World Economic Forum, China is waiting patiently to assume the global leadership role on technology, global economics and military power. The only hurdle in their way is Donald Trump, who has thrown a wrench into the economic gears of the western economic cartel’s plans to crown China as their New World Order champion; replacing the USA.

Ever since Donald Trump came to office in 2016, the western economic cartel has been in overdrive trying to thwart his every move while also trying to remove him from office.

As Donald Trump overturned the economic cartel’s trade agreements (TPP & NAFTA) and then imposed economic sanctions with mounting tariffs on Chinese goods, he made a stand against the western economic cartel and China by maintaining a nationalist position and keeping a 2016 campaign promise.

China, for its part, reciprocated the Trump Administration sanctions and countered each US economic slap with one of their own, helping to drive a wedge between the two economic superpowers into two polarizing economic spheres engaged in an economic war.

As far as China is concerned, the deal they made with the western economic cartel in the 1970’s, that raised China out of poverty and into a global economic Power with government approved access to western markets is no longer needed…and so China pushed back at the western economic cartel with their own global economic banking structures powered by national central banks and large oil producing partners to power themselves up with a, “go it our own way attitude”.

So, we are left with the following to ponder;

1.     Was COVID-19, the western economic cartels operation to save face in their partnership with China in lieu Donald Trumps economic war?

2.     Was COVID-19 used to begin the economic decoupling from a China led World Order?

3.     Was COVID-19 used to hide the inescapable economic facts of Peak Oil.

 Since cheap oil is all but, in the past, economic growth cannot continue to rise exponentially as supply can no longer meet those types of demands, therefore massive amounts of capital will have to be erased due in most part by the self-serving economic equation employed by the private banks.

One thing is for sure, the lock-downs, mask laws and fear peddling on COVID-19 have put global economic changes into high gear as the destruction of global economics that functions via the US reserve currency, is now heading for a major correction and market call, bankruptcies are escalating, all while the cartel plans for a New World Order via its economic reset plans.

The Chinese Banks and economy are in a very strong position because they use four State controlled central banks that create and spend their own money into existence to power their growth while carrying little to no debt which includes energy partners that supply them with the oil needed to power their economic drive. Whereas the US Treasury and the American people are on the hook for trillions of US dollars loaned to them through the western economic cartels Federal Reserve, not to mention the hundreds of trillions in derivative debts that will become very real when major interests cash in, causing panic and a US stock market crash. The Oil leverage that the United States once had on the World is also in decline…yet it is not the US as a nation that controlled global economics through oil but the western economic cartel that controls both the monetary systems and oil corporations that keeps the economic system in their control.

China doesn’t need to do anything right now except sit and wait…

The western economic cartel’s continued use of their false COVID-19 pandemic will determine which economic paradigm will emerge from the ashes. As it stands now, COVID-19 is being used in western nations to force people to wear masks under penalty of the law, even though the masks don’t work, and on a petered-out flu virus at that. Most travel, outside ones’ nation, is still forbidden and there is talk of another lock-down in western countries. These unreasonable laws are totalitarian and not based on facts. The western mainstream news and governments do not provide any proof that COVID-19 is worse than the annual flu and yet the doctors and specialists that are speaking out against the lock-down, mask wearing and providing statistical facts are being censored by corporate internet social media platforms and search engines in league with the World Health Organization and the western economic cartel.

It’s as if COVID-19 is being used to suppress the global economy on purpose which coincides with the lead up to the November 2020 election. All while the economic cartel uses every media trick in the book to hamstring Donald Trumps push for a second term as US President…

The closer we get to November, the more we see street violence, media deception, corporate censorship and panic…the stakes are getting higher and the western economic cartel is extremely determined to get their way. Is this a coincidence?

The United States is divided into two camps going into their November 2020 election, those in favour of Donald Trump and his nationalist “Make America Great Again” program and those opposed…most of whom believe whatever fear-porn or fabrication they are told by mainstream media. However, regardless of who wins the November 2020 US election, the American people will be bitterly divided leaving the country on the threshold of oblivion. Division of the people is how a nation is destroyed while thieves make off with all the money…this is such a time.

There is a Better Way for all of us to live on this planet but it requires transparency and honest governance with an informed and engaged population by investigative journalism that is not controlled by special interests.

The world of “Economic Cartels” and totalitarian dictatorships must come to an end. Economic control must be removed from the hands of the few and returned to the population within each country...it's time for a sober discussion on how to rebuild together.

Censorship and economic dictatorship by an economic cartel does NOT further the enlightenment of mankind, nor does it bring fairness, honesty or a lasting peace...the solution and way forward is to end all economic cartels and their corporate / private banking governing structures. The nations of the world must move towards a resource-based economy that removes the greedy power structures that control our societies and destroys our environment. Everyone has a responsibility and part to play in rebuilding our own communities / countries while bridging our differences with each other. The truth is, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. Economic dictatorship must be dismantled because it always leads to war, and “War” is not an option in a nuclear and bio-weapon age…nor is economic deception an option by an economic cartel in a world of peak oil…it’s time for mankind to evolve…

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LINKS:

Peak Oil is here and it will Break Economies - BP Geologist

Michael C. Ruppert

Collapse

Road to Endless War - The Final Chapter - Part 6 - The US, China, & Peak Oil

Sustainability 101

The Great Reset

Geo-Economics - The World Economic Forum

The World’s 20 Largest Banks

Canada Under Siege – The Tar Sands, Free Trade and Government

Anxiety Builds in the Aftermath of the 2016 US Election

Event 201 - A Corona Virus Planned Coincidence?