Posted originally on the CTH on December 27, 2023 | Sundance

If you followed my research on banking and the reality of the Russian sanction regime, this report takes on an entirely new dimension.  The article is from ZeroHedge, and the topline is not the real story.

ZEROHEDGE – The collapse of three US regional banks – First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank – marked some of the largest failures in the banking system since 2008. Central banks contained the “mini-crisis” earlier this year with forced interventions and the mega-merger of Credit Suisse and UBS. Despite the interventions, global banks still axed the most jobs since the global financial crisis. 

A new report from the Financial Times shows twenty of the world’s largest banks slashed 61,905 jobs in 2023, a move to protect profit margins in a period of high interest rates amid a slump in dealmaking and equity and debt sales. This compared with the 140,000 lost during the GFC of 2007-08. (more) 

Look carefully at the graphic labeled “global banks.”  What do they all have in common?

These are not global banks, they are all “western banks.”  Do you remember a key component of my trip to eastern EU {Password Protected}.   That part of my research trip was specifically to understand the contradiction between what the west says about the Russian financial sanctions, and the reality of the irrelevance of those sanctions in Russia.

I didn’t talk, I watched; I listened.

Here’s how it really looks from the outside looking at the USA.  The same way the Patriot Act was not designed to stop terrorism but rather to create a domestic surveillance system. So too were the “Russian Sanctions” not designed to sanction Russia, but rather to create the financial control system that will lead to a dollar-based western digital currency.

BRICS+ was creating a non-dollar-based currency alternative for trade. Then comes the western financial sanctions, under the auspices of punishment for the Ukraine conflict. However, think “stopgap.” The sanctions didn’t block Russia, they walled-in the WEST.

The sanctions were not designed to keep Russia out of western banking, they were designed to keep us in.  Start thinking from that perspective, and all of the downstream activity, including the aggressive USA govt/banking response to crypto markets, makes total sense.

♦GROUND REPORT – You might ask how I know the Russian sanctions are ineffective – here’s an example.  After doing advanced research, I went to three separate banks as a random and innocuous customer.  I put my reason in the kiosk at each bank, got my ticket number and sat down to listen to the conversations. When my ticket number came up on the digital board, I just ignored it and sat for hours listening to conversations.  No one ever noticed or questioned me – not once.

At every one of the banks, the majority of the customers, at the “new account” desk, were foreign nationals asking about setting up business accounts to trade with Russia. In every bank the conversations were friendly and helpful, with the bank staff telling the customers exactly how to set up their account to accomplish the transactions.  No one was saying no; instead, they were explaining how to do it in very helpful detail.

Within Russia, there are now 3rd party brokers with international accounts, an entirely new industry, which creates a layer of transactional capability for the outside company to sell goods into Russia.  A Samsung TV travels from South Korea to the destination in the RU with the financial transaction between manufacturer and retailer now passing through the new ‘broker’ intermediary. Essentially, that process is what was happening in the banks for small to medium sized companies.

The USA led “western” sanctions against Russian interests were not designed to keep Russia isolated financially, they were designed to keep USA and Western banking customers walled in.  The end goal?  To create a dollar based CBDC for western finance.

In order to accomplish that goal, WESTERN govt/banking needs full control.  Any alternative (BRICS+ currency/trade) is a threat.

The Western sanctions created a financial wall around the USA, not to keep Russia out, but to keep us in.  The Western sanction regime, the financial mechanisms they created and authorized, creates the control gate that leads to a “dollar based” digital currency.

In essence, the Ukraine war response justified a system that creates a digital dollar.

The loss in “western banking” jobs, the downsizing within the banking system, is a feature – not a flaw.