Money - idleguy.com July 2025

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Money

Ladies and Gentlemen, Choose Your Currency

Like it or not, we're in the middle of a global economic war.

by Fearless Rick, July 1, 2025

Editor's Note: This article is a work-in-progress, derived from personal investigation, research, knowledge and insights from two recent articles, Vince Lanci's Complete BRICS 2025 Summit Analysis and Dan Fournier's ground-breaking article on his Inconvenient Truths Substack, One Great Financial Reset, Two New Monetary Systems. Both are recommended reading, FOR YOUR OWN WELL-BEING.

As such, and much of the news flowing rather quickly at present, some of this may appear in outline form. - FR

Here's a bit of an overview from a Western perspective:

The people have been turned into "hosts" (a food source - rent payers) for the 1% parasites (leeches/rent collectors) by the re-establishment of the "West Virginia Coal Mine Experience" (circa 1900). See Earned vs. Unearned income.

By incrementally monopolizing necessities (food, water, shelter, utilities, medicine, even information), by debt expansion, and by wage suppression, we now work in their company "mines" (cube farms, whatever), live in their company housing (mortgage/rent), shop in their company store (credit card debt), and pay MONOPOLY prices for basic necessities.

Literally, cradle to grave slavery to a small collection of "Nanny" Transnational Corporations (all owned at the top by a handful of investors).

It appears that everybody's headed to "Galt's Gulch", the legendary hideout for dissidents in Ayn Rand's epic, Atlas Shrugged, which is available for free download on this month's Books Page.

Once 65-85% of the population gets "herded" into 15-minute cities or magalopolies, like New York, LA, Mexico City, London, et. al., governments will launch CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currency), by which they will control not just how much "money" you will receive, but how you will spend it. Programmable currency, at the click of an internet switch.

There's likley time to adjust prior to liftoff of the "beast" currencies, but time appears to be growing short. The U.S. is on the brink of complete economic collapse, despite what the stock market and guests on CNBC tell you. $37 trillion in debt, with countless millions receiving government subsidies (Social Security, SNAP, Medicare/Medicaid, Veteran's Benefits, etc.), the path to solvency seems unlikely, despite promises from politicians and big, beautiful continuing resolutions in congress.

Recent passage of the GENIUS act by the Senate - on its way to the House and then to President Trump's desk - assures promotion of stablecoins such as Tether, Circle, and others to follow, with two goals in mind:

1) To buy up Treasury issuance that the rest of the world might not want. By keeping Treasury debt auctions somewhat "in-house", the government and the Fed can keep interest rates from exploding higher as demand for bills, notes, and bonds flounders.

2) To get more people accustomed to digital currency. Bitcoin was surely a government deep fake that promised anonymity, peer-to-peer seamless transactions, and low fees. Over time, bitcoin and the thousands of crypto-imitators it spawned became the playground for Wall Street institutions and an asset class all to itself. Promises made became promises broken as exchanges, ETFs, and deep Wall Street involvement became embedded in the crypto experience.

News travels fast, so, on July 1, Circle applies for US Trust Bank Charter to manage USDC reserve.

The two biggest stablecoins are Tether ($USDT) and Circle ($USDC), both committed to 1:1 relationships with the US$ through treasury pruchases.

Meanwhile, in countries far away, like China and Russia, BRICS countries have been de-dollarizing since the US, UK, and EU jointly froze Russian assets valued at somewhere between $500 and $600 billion, increased economic sanctions, and kicked them off the SWIFT system of international trade messaging and tranactions.

At some point, there's going to be a collision between CBDCs and BRICS that will shake global financial foundations to their cores. It's inevitable, but, getting the timing right is probably going to be next-to-impossible.

According to VBL's analysis, China is building a gold corridor to facilitate trade to BRICS and Global South (Africa, South America, East and South Asia, Pacific Rim) with a Saudi Arabia vault, a Shanghai vault, another planned for Singapore and the probability of more vaults in Africa and South America as China builds out its Yuan-Gold infrastructure.

China has been buying oil from Saudi Arabia with yuan, which will be redeemable in gold. Saudi oil trade is $58 Billion (according to VBL). Singapore and Malaysia will receive gold-pledged (renminbi) RMB loan services, as will some African nations.

China is seeding the rest of world with gold by circulting 100 RBM gold bars, though it's unclear whether China will make any official declaration about a gold-backed Yuan for international trade settlement at the upcoming BRICS Summit in Brasil, next week (July 6-7, idleguy.com will update)

The question, now that it's clear a duopoly of reserve currencies is emergent - Gold-backed yuan and U.S. Treasury-backed crypto-coins - which one do you prefer, or, can they both be used interchangably.

The answer to the latter part of the proposition is pretty much a big, fat NO, in Western countries. In the Global South, there's probably a very good chance that countries, and eventually, businesses and individuals, will carry on trade in just about anything, be it digital, physical, gold-backed or pure fiat.

It's easy to envision a scenario in which some Middle East country like Saudi Arabia or UAE will sell oil to anybody they please and accept payment in whatever currency they and the buyers agree upon. There might be (probably will be) a premium for $US versus gold, but that also could depend on the price of gold at the time as well as current political conditions. It's about to get complicated for some, but, those most capable of being flexible and smart are likely to flourish, much as traders on the ancient Silk Road found out selling spices and linen across multiple jurisdictions, accepting multiple currencies in exchange.

Trying to make sense out of what's ahead, just consider trying to pay for a luncheon in Cincinnati with anything other than US dollars. It's simply not done. Howeever, in places as far-flung as Zimbabwe, which now uses multiple foreign currencies, including the US dollar and the South African rand in addition ot their own gold-backed currency and probably soon, China's yuan and the euro, to Panama, where the US dollar is used alongside the Panamanian balboa, which is pegged to the dollar at par.

Other examples include East Timor (Timor-Leste): The US dollar is the official currency, but the country also issues its own coins; Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba), the US dollar is used alongside the Netherlands Antillean guilder; Cambodia: The Cambodian riel is the official currency, but the US dollar is widely accepted and often used for larger transactions, and; Lebanon: The Lebanese pound is the official currency, but the US dollar is also commonly used, especially in business and trade and especially since the country is essentially bankrupt.

Use of foreign currency isn't an issue in many cases thanks to online services. Having a PayPal account or using the PayPal debt card covers more than 200 countries and 25 currencies.

Visa, Mastercard and Ameican Express have been doing currency swaps for customers for decades, so, when making purchases, denominating that spend in many currencies is not difficult. The bigger question occurs when it comes to saving and/or accumulating wealth. Do you want your stationary money in US$, bitcoin, Tether, yuan, euro, yen, rubles, rupees, or baht? Or, maybe gold or silver is your preference.

That's where things may get a lttle tricky and sticky. For instance, if you begin to horde large amounts of Russian rubles, the IRS may come sniffing around. Or, the FBI, or FinCEN, the enforcement arm of the U.S. Treasury. After all, if you're an American and America is sanctioning Russia, why would you want rubles? Your government may want to know.

Why This Matters

There are a plethora of reasons why countries have their own currencies, but, for individuals, it comes down to the age-old concept of saving, which is different from the Americanzied concept of "invsting."

Saving money means you are accumulating money (or currency, more appropriately) for future use. Investing is just a more polite way to say "speculating." Investing seeks profit in the form of growth or income. Saving expects nothing more than a stable store of value.

And here's why your choice of currency, or even multiple choices, which may turn out to be the preferred route, matters. Let's go back in time to 1963, anywhere in America. Somehow, you, at the tender age of 8, have gotten your hands on $1000, and, you decide to not be dumb like most of your friends. You plan on saving that $1000. Here's the tricky part:

You either have 100 $10 bills, or 4000 silver quarters.

Now, the bills are obviously more convenient and easier to hide, and since you intend to not touch these until your retirement, they can be safely tucked away just about anywhere.

Those quarters, however, are heavy, bulky, and noisy. Hmmmm.

Back in the present, you are now 70 years old and suddenly remember that you socked away that $1000 many years ago. If you kept the money in $10 bills, it's still worth $1000 in US currency.

But, if you had 4000 silver quarters, which, in 1962, were 90% silver, you'd have the equivalent of $26,027.64 in $US with silver at the current price of $35.98 per troy ounce. Cha-ching! (that we could all be so prescient and precocious)

You will choose a currency for saving at some point. Choose wisely.