The BRICS alliance is a strategic geopolitical partnership between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.  The nature of the alliance is based on trade and big picture economics.

Readers familiar with our discussions of trade and international finance, will remember the importance we previously discussed with BRICS after the 2016 election and President Trump representing economic nationalism for the first time in several generations.  In this outline, we are going to share the bigger picture of why BRICS should now be back on the center stage of American focus.

Xi Jinping (China), Vladimir Putin (Russia), Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), Narendra Modi (India) and Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), the BRICS group.

The BRICS economic partnership was formed during the Obama administration.  Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) saw President Obama sub-contracting, actually giving away, U.S. trade policy to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  In the aftermath of the 2007 economic crisis created by the financial system, the BRICS group connected two central points that concerned them.

In the aftermath of the great housing/financial crisis, the relationships around the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), EU central banking system and various multinational institutions and, more importantly, multinational corporations, merged even closer with the government.  The priorities of the Davos and World Economic Forum (WEF) crowd were now virtually indistinguishable from many national governments.

We are fifteen years downstream from that inflection point, and we are now seeing the outcomes.  The WEF is now giving direct instructions to installed politicians for government policy.  Put another way, multinational corporations are now telling government officials what to do.

Think of “The Great Reset” or “Build Back Better” or climate change, as examples.  Worse yet, those governments are doing exactly what the WEF has told them to do.

This corporate control of government is exactly what the BRICS assembly foresaw when they first assembled.  When multinational corporations run the policy of western government, there is going to be a problem.  In the bigger picture, the BRICS assembly are essentially leaders who do not want corporations and multinational banks running their government.

As a result, if you really boil it down to the common denominator what you find is the BRICS group are the opposing element to the WEF assembly.

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It was only a matter of time before someone had to admit what the instructions were within the Biden administration.  Today, the video surfaces showcasing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm making the admission.

During a U.S. Department of Energy roundtable, on February 28, 2022, launching the Biden administration’s Better Climate Challenge initiative, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm explained the core of the Biden energy policy.  Underneath all the blocks to oil and gas development, is the larger objective to transition away from fossil fuels to Green New Deal climate change initiatives.

$10/gal gasoline is a feature, it is part of the plan. Rising electricity rates and massive increases in home heating and cooling costs are part of the plan. The downstream impacts of inflation inside the entire U.S. economy are structural issues to be managed.  The financial pain to the U.S. citizen is the biggest problem they need to manage.

Within this ‘transition’ process, the administration needs something they can point to as a false justification. That’s where the Ukraine-Russia conflict serves their current interests.  The Biden team need Americans to blame something or someone else, as they execute this policy.  First it was COVID, now it’s Vladimir Putin. All of this is being done on purpose.  WATCH:

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This DeceptiCon, this specific one, owned by the multinational corporate conglomerates, is one of the worst in office.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski tells Politico tonight that she is in favor of higher gas prices for Americans if that’s what it takes to punish Vladimir Putin.

…”We’re going to see price increases. Nobody wants to see that. This is going to hurt. But we need to recognize Europe is in the midst of a war w/ Russia. Innocent people are dying. We have not been in as volatile as a situation as anytime in my life.“…

~ Senator Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)

Here we go with the narrative of you being unpatriotic if you are not willing to financially suffer the pain inflicted intentionally by the U.S. government.  Not willing to pay $7/gal for gasoline?  You’re selfish.  Not willing to forego a better life for your family, in order to save Ukraine?  You are a horrible person.

However, this narrative is even worse, because the NATO (aligned with World Economic Forum) economic warfare is not only a combination of ideology and corporate influence, but it is also made worse by U.S. government energy policy – which is aligned with the multinational corporations demanding the confrontation.  Effen’ FUBAR all the way around.

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Hindsight is not only 20/20, in this case it’s a little alarming. 

Last year, we were discussing the massive increases in food and farming costs associated with increased fertilizer prices.  By the time we got to late January, the World Bank (WB), United Nations (UN) and the Davos / World Economic Forum (WEF) group were discussing it.  At first the perspective was the potential for lower crop yields creating increased global famine.

However, if we apply a little hindsight from the geopolitical world surrounding the current issues in Europe, specifically Ukraine, and then consider the background of what the Biden team were doing, while Russia, Belarus and China were stockpiling, things look a little more concerning than just lower crop yields as an outcome of higher natural gas prices – vis-a-vis nitrogen fertilizer.

As noted by Forbes last month, “Russia and China have imposed export restrictions on fertilizer. Both are, or were, big exporters of plant food. The decline in exports makes getting the vital nutrients harder across the globe. China and Russia account for 29% of world exports for nitrogen-based plant food. The two countries also have significant, albeit, smaller shares of the phosphate and potash markets, respectively, the report states.”

Now, keep in mind how Belarus helped Russia with the current military operation.

In August of 2021 the United States, Canada and the EU hit Belarus with punitive sanctions on the one-year anniversary of what they called a fraudulent election.  As noted by Politico at the time, “The sanctions partially ban imports of potash fertilizer, petrol and petrol-based products from Belarus.”  […] Targeting Belarus’ potash sector was a strategic move insofar as the country is the second largest exporter of the fertilizer behind Canada, covering 21 percent of the world’s potash exports in 2019.

In September of 2021, at the same time as China was investing heavily in the purchase of U.S. farmland, Beijing simultaneously announced a ban of export for phosphates until June of 2022.  With China banning export of the source material, the global fertilizer market now needed to look elsewhere for future purchases.

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Kamala and Pete have been in a contest to see who can use the most words without actually saying anything.  Previously, Pete set the record during his presidential bid of 2020. However, in 2021 Kamala got serious about the contest.  Harris fired her communications team and brought in new brand image consultants to help her finally achieve that first-place status which was so elusive.

Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show with Savannah Guthrie, the additional training paid off.   Kamala Harris was asked about the U.S. economic impact of sanctions on Russia and whether stopping purchases of Russian oil was possible.  This was the opening Harris had been looking for to highlight her sharpened linguistics.

Using the communication team notes for reference (watch her eyes), for almost a minute Kamala Harris assembled 247 various words in a random sequence. The result is remarkable. WATCH: (prompted):

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Everything including oil, natural gas, wheat, and fertilizer is skyrocketing in price right now.  Ten- and twenty-year records are being eclipsed, as energy prices are soaring on the back of oil flirting with $114 a barrel.  Unfortunately, here comes more inflationary pain, and everything is being blamed on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Toward the end of last year, we warned that fertilizer costs were going to harvest costs in 2022 (field to fork, go deep), long before Ukraine came into the picture.  Unfortunately, future wheat prices reached $10.59 a bushel today, the highest since March 2008.  Additionally, corn prices have passed their highest rate since December 2012.

It may seem like those crops are not that important.  However, keep in mind that corn, wheat and soybeans represent the baseline for not only grain production in the U.S, but they are also the primary feed products for proteins: chicken, pork and beef.  We are going to feel this second wave surge at the grocery store.  Hopefully everyone has prepped.

Additionally, oil prices have jumped to near eight-year highs. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose as high as $113.94 a barrel, the highest since June 2014, and has been trading around $111 for most of the day.  If you were paying $4/gal for gas, these oil rates add around another .50¢ today alone.  Yes, you read that correctly, inbound tankers of gasoline will offload at your convenience store at a rate ten percent higher than yesterday.

Making matters worse, the Joe Biden energy policy -focused almost exclusively on green energy- is making any investment in domestic oil production tenuous at best.   The major oil companies are wary of spending money for U.S. energy development in a climate where the U.S. government is specifically against that effort.

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Remember that fourth quarter GDP result that seemed manipulated?  Well, I suspect the record setting trade deficit now being reported for January is an outcome of those pesky fourth quarter trade results being intentionally skewed by the withholding of December 2021 import data.

Additionally, methinks we are likely to get some increased economic clarity about why the White House needed Ukraine to become the big shiny thing with such urgency.

Just like everything else, geopolitical dynamics –especially those surrounding entrenched ideology– are always about the economics.  Someone, eventually, always has to pay.  Follow the money; there are trillions at stake.

First, keep in mind that missing Port of Los Angeles result from December as you review the import/export details:

(REUTERS) […]  The goods trade deficit jumped 7.1% to an all-time high of $107.6 billion last month. Imports of goods increased 1.7%, led by food and motor vehicles. There were also large increases in imports of industrial supplies, capital and consumer goods. Imports of other goods, however, tumbled 15.3%.

Exports dropped 1.8%, weighed down by consumer goods, motor vehicles, food and other goods. But exports of capital goods and industrial supplies increased. Trade has been a drag on gross domestic product for six straight quarters. (read more)

That missing Port of LA December import data, now being introduced into the month of January, might just be the cause of the “all time high” noted above.  I will bet one sustainable rice cake on it.

Next up, inflation.

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A fantastic piece by Peter Beinart on substack {SEE HERE} puts excellent clarity on the people around Joe Biden baiting Russian President Vladimir Putin to enter Ukraine.

Current CIA Director William “Bill” Burns was the former ambassador to Russia and Jordan.  Bill Burns had a 33-year career at the State Department under both Republican and Democratic presidents and speaks fluent Russian. If the people in the background of Joe Biden wanted an intelligence operative to trigger a specific result from Russia, there’s no one more strategically perfect for the job than CIA Director Bill Burns.

The article by Beinart is mainly focused on pointing out the irreconcilable nature of Joe Biden implying Ukraine could join NATO, while his own CIA Director has a history of giving serious warnings emphasizing the “brightest of all red lines” about that specific point.

[…]  “Two years ago, Burns wrote a memoir entitled, The Back Channel. It directly contradicts the argument being proffered by the administration he now serves. In his book, Burns says over and over that Russians of all ideological stripes—not just Putin—loathed and feared NATO expansion. He quotes a memo he wrote while serving as counselor for political affairs at the US embassy in Moscow in 1995. ‘Hostility to early NATO expansion,” it declares, “is almost universally felt across the domestic political spectrum here.”

On the question of extending NATO membership to Ukraine, Burns’ warnings about the breadth of Russian opposition are even more emphatic. “Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin),” he wrote in a 2008 memo to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin’s sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests.” (read more)

Against this backdrop of Bill Burns, the details about the lead up to the Russia-Ukraine crisis gain quite a bit of clarity.

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A recent image attributed to the Moscow subway system presents some consideration for a potentially larger problem.

Increasingly, people everywhere have stopped using cash to pay for simple purchases.  The electronic payment systems shifted to credit cards and debit cards, and then, eventually as technology merged with phone platforms, the linking of your portable transponder to your financial institution in order to make purchases became an efficient way to make transactions.

However, as governments start using definitions of who is good and who is bad to create sanctions against the bad actors, and with Russia representing the most expansive modern targeting of the global financial system, the control of monetary transactions enters the sphere of integrated payment systems like VISA, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay and others.  With Russia being essentially “de-banked” on the world stage, this happens:

There’s an irony to this surfacing now… so soon after the Canadian government began targeting their political opposition for de-banking.

Essentially, what is happening in Russia, on an entire citizen scale, is the same issue that happened in Canada to the individuals targeted.  The financial mechanisms in this integrated system of payment are now creating havoc for the individual.

The SWIFT transfer system sanction(s) against the Russian government, end up debanking everyone in the country.  These are remarkable times, and this is an example of something that needs to be factored into how you can retain individual liberty and freedom.

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In case you missed it, March 1st has been declared as the unofficial end date for COVID-19 as a political weapon.

Domestically, the political leftists, who weaponized science for their totalitarian control, have decided it is time to head for the exits.  We are now supposed to ignore the last two years of brutal impact they inflicted on society.  You can always spot the shift by looking at how Hollywood and pop culture are triggered by the messaging from the political crew.

Once given the nod, there’s a silent move toward the exits while everyone is distracted.  Of course, the exit strategy is always frustrating for those who have watched this play out.  The SNL segment is presented as humor, but when you recognize the inherent message, there’s nothing funny about it.

The left weaponized COVID for their political needs.  However, within this COVID fiasco there were real victims.  Many people lost incomes, small businesses were closed, families were torn apart as people were caught up in the frenzy.  All of that now positioned as a joke, as the professionally political left try to find a way to tell their tribe it’s over.

We are supposed to forget the pain they inflicted as loved ones were choking in anguish, unable to visit family in hospital, the funerals that were not permitted, the catastrophic damage to our children’s lives, and the massive ridicule deployed (with maximum snark) in their condescending attacks against anyone who did not kneel at the altar of COVID virtue signaling.  All of it…. ALL OF IT… now boiled down to a few jokes as they walk backwards trying to avoid the political fallout.

They are declaring victory, and moving on.

These are sick people.

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