Transcription / Notes:

Darrell Castle talks about the economic and industrial nature of modern war and how that nature inures to the benefit of China as well as how the world is turning away from the financial system of the U.S. and the U.S. dollar.

MAKING CHINA GREAT AGAIN

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 28th day of April in the year of our Lord 2023. I will be talking about the economic and industrial nature of modern war and how that nature inures to the benefit of China. I will also talk about how the world is turning away from the financialized system used by the US and how much of the world’s population of people and nations are turning away from the dollar to other currencies especially the Chinese Yuan.

For purposes of our discussion, I will presume that modern war began with World War ll, and that war certainly was industrial. The United States, protected from attack by two oceans, was able to convert its massive industrial base into war production while Germany and Japan were subjected to strategic bombing to destroy their industry and with it their capacity to make war, and therefore, industry was the difference.

Most war today is psychological although there is plenty of kinetic warfare in the world. Both still depend to a large extent on economics and industry. For example, this Castle Report was inspired by an article I read on Russia Today entitled Russia has enough coal for 300 years—Energy Ministry. It seems that Russia has enough coal to last for centuries and while industry in the US is winding down largely because of efforts to convert from fossil fuels to green energy, and the movement of manufacturing offshore. Russia, meanwhile, just goes about digging its coal out of the ground and shipping it all over the world.

Russia has far more coal than it can use at the present time so who is buying it, Europe at first, but now, China of course. I quote briefly from the article; “Russia produced 443.6 million tons of coal in 2022, a 0.3% increase from 2021. Exports fell 7.5% to 210.9 million tons following the introduction of embargoes last August on Russian coal by the EU and UK, which had previously been the recipient of nearly a third of Russian coal exports.”

You can see from that quote that almost half of Russian coal is being exported and before the sanctions it went to the West. Now the sanctions have allowed the enemies of the West, or at least the opponents if you prefer that term, to prosper. This seems like madness to me, but I suppose it is part of the suicide of the west as Pat Buchannan used to refer to it. China has continued to stockpile Russian coal this year in record amounts with imports hitting a record last month of 8.8 million tons up 29% over February and three times more than the same month a year ago according to Chinese customs data.

So, despite the sanctions, the Russians don’t seem to be having any trouble finding markets. While the US and the West are breaking down industry and talking constantly about wind and solar the BRICS nations led by China are importing coal and ratcheting up their industries. That is a message that the world apparently wants to hear but the West isn’t listening. Many nations are tired of the US drive for world hegemony and they now sense weakness. The sanctions have finally made the difference in the world’s willingness to put up with financial bullying.

Russia covers 12% of the earth’s surface and coal is only one of its many sources of fuel. Russian deposits of oil and gas can and did power most of Europe until Joe Biden decided to teach those Germans who runs this world and sabotaged the Nord Stream. Russian timber, a renewable resource, can be converted into charcoal in massive amounts. Many other natural resources lie under Russian soil as well.

To counter all this the US has the world’s reserve currency. We can print money at virtually no cost and the rest of the world tak...