Has the US crossed the Rubicon? - Trump thread #142

[Spandauer]

Here be dragons.

Previous thread:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5307874-are-we-feeling-liberated-yet-trump-thread-141

What is wrong with US voters? Bigly must be the only person in history who couldn't make money from a casino. So why not let this failed businessman play with the world economy? Piss ups and breweries spring to mind immediately. It's beyond all reason.

@TooBigForMyBoots you have exactly summed up Trump and the rest of the world.

last time annoyed people but this time alliances without America will be mad

I’m also waiting China to reveal its gold bullion. The world will turn on its head.

up to the election the status quo suited China now they could reveal that they have more gold than the US and be the currency of international trade

China always prides itself on not being volatile in comparison.

I think that alliances WITHOUT America with be an inevitable consequence of Trump's MAGA actions.

Defense.
UK-EU collaboration.
UK-Australia recently signed the Defence and Security Cooperation Agreement (joint operations/exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, and resource sharing)

CANZUK - Ideas around trade, defence and foreign policy, nothing definite yet.

Where this leaves other agreements that include the US such as Five Eyes and AUSCANNZUKUS (naval command and control) is anyone's guess, particularly since the incident where Trump stopped intelligence to Ukraine and ordered the UK not to share intel either. This resulted in significant military losses for Ukraine and undermined its negotiating position.

It has become increasingly clear that the US is no longer a trusted ally to many western countries.

Not true, unfortunately. The Chinese do use trade as leverage - most directly against Australia whose imports, on a few occasions have been refused because reasons. The Chinese are also quite pushy about increasing their influence in universities etc. They might not be as crazy as Trump and his pals but they are predictably unpredictable.

That was a result to tobee.

I bow to your better knowledge @TomPinch ☺️

Lol, strictly speaking I think you're right! But they aren't what they pride themselves on being.

During the Asian financial crisis in the 1997/8, South Korea asked its citizens to donate the gold they owned to help out and they did. Imagine the gold that Chinese citizens own, plus the state too. I'm not saying that the Chinese people would 'volunteer' to donate gold they own though!

Wow, @littlebilliie your post made me curious and it's estimated that China has more than double US gold reserves.

I also didn't know that China is the world's largest gold producing nation....and that none is exported. No wonder they can afford to offer loans to developing countries across the globe and also buy up their assets.

https://moneyweek.com/investments/commodities/gold/603131/how-much-gold-does-china-own

They also have been buying gold through the UK for decades. It has suited China to trade with US and leave things as they are. They hold $1.1 trillion in US treasury bonds and they could start to redeem too.

They’ve been buying up gold for some time now. It was commented on last year I think as a sign that they saw global uncertainty and insecurity coming. Lots of people assumed it was on preparation for invading Taiwan but perhaps they just foresaw the shit show that is Trump 2.0

Wow this could go so very wrong for Trump.

And yet still somehow there would be MAGA supporters saying Trump is doing it right.

“And yet still somehow there would be MAGA supporters saying Trump is doing it right.”

Unfortunately you can’t argue with stupid. I think it’s safe to say many in the MAGA cult don’t understand the basics of the economy or how things like bonds works and could impact them.

Trump has warned China against dumping selling off their T-bonds, but can the US actually do anything to prevent this happening?

Japan been selling over the last few days their Tbonds approx $20 billion in the first 2 weeks of April.
China have set up a digital yuan based on Bitcoin that bypasses SWIFT, traders and businesses can trade and get payment in seconds vs days.

japan is the biggest holder of Tbonds so the next few months could get very interesting. American could really lose its position

Listening to yesterday’s Silicon Curtain episode and this quote really struck me - “it is the mission of MAGA to interfere in democracies. Don’t think of it as a bug, it is a feature. They will not stop interfering, will not stop using all the economic and political tools at their disposal because they want to deconstruct your institutions, replace your politicians with venal right wing grifters and degrade you to the point you can no longer resist” - speaking about the US’ former allies.

That's both concise and correct. Thank you.

Also very chilling

Trump is again causing economic uncertainty as he declares that his administration will reimpose tariffs it paused on 9 April within “the next two, three weeks” where countries had not struck a deal with the US.

He is so obviously manipulating the markets with this 'will I, won't I?' bollocks.

I can't imagine the US has any way of preventing dumping of Tbonds. They're traded. The US could try redeeming them all I suppose.