10 reasons why US can no longer dictate world policy

From The Economic Collapse:

1) China and Japan
2) The BRICs
3) China and Russia
4) China and Africa
5) China and UAE
6) Iran
7) China and Saudi Arabia
8) The UN
9) The IMF
10) Most of the rest of the world

Ahmadinejad says US can no longer dictate world policy

Today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that the United States' time has passed.

"It's better to respect nations than to scare them and colonize them. The time of imperialism has long gone. Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history will be punished."
-Reuters

Speaking at a regional conference on Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad also called for the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from the country and proposed that NATO use part of its military budget to help revive the Afghan economy.

The U.S. delegation to the conference, headed by Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake, left the hall when Ahmadinejad began to speak and returned after the conclusion of his speech.
-Reuters

The New World Order

China, meet Russia.
Russia, meet China.

So Saudi Arabia is the king of OPEC, and they say they're gonna open up the pumps, but it ain't that easy.

Khalid al Falih, chief executive officer of state-owned Saudi Aramco, recently warned in April that at the country’s current rate of growth in domestic oil consumption, Saudi Arabia would burn a staggering 8.3 million barrels a day of its own oil by 2028. That is almost its current level of production.
-Globe and Mail

So much for OPEC.
Pumps in Russia, on the other hand, have already been flowing freely.

Russia, the one country actually capable of producing 10 million barrels a day, isn’t even at the table at the OPEC meeting. And it’s been Russia that has been adding the most to world exports over the better part of the last decade as OPEC exports have faltered.

Oil production in Russia, the world’s largest producer, rose to a near post-Soviet high of 10.26 million barrels a day in May. Unlike Saudi Arabia, which has been hard pressed to maintain even a nine million barrel a day production level, Russian production has been north of ten million barrels a day since September 2009.
-Globe and Mail

Interesting.
Invading, occupying, and stealing all of the oil out of Russia won't be such an easy task for the United States (the world's largest consumer of oil). Russia actually has a military. Oh yeah, AND a shitload of nuclear missiles. I guess we'll actually have to purchase it.
Speaking of which...
China has become the world's largest consumer of energy, but still uses up only half as much oil as the US. That could certainly change if Russia wanted it to, and why wouldn't they want it to? They know Beijing's new aircraft carriers weren't built to attack Moscow. Oh yeah, and the two countries just opened up a direct oil pipeline between Russia's East Siberia and China's city of Daqing.

So Russia has all the oil, and China owns everyone's debt, but the banking cartel is run by Europeans and Americans.
I'm bearish on the latter two.

UPDATE: Apparently, a couple of Chinese guys were invited to this year's Bilderberg meet.

DSK daily recap

Wow, so today was a full one on the DSK-related news front.
1) He resigned as the “head” of the IMF
2) He was granted bail
3) A grand jury voted to proceed with the indictment against him

Representing the defendant, William Taylor argued to the court that Strauss-Kahn was an "honourable man" who had only one desire at this time, "to clear his name". He presented the judge with the details of a New York security company, Stroz Friedberg, that would be responsible for ensuring that the former IMF chief would not flee the country.
Stringent conditions would include an electronic bracelet that would send a signal to the company and a police station the moment Strauss-Kahn left the property, video cameras to monitor him inside the property, and a 24-hour rotation of armed guards who would be physically present at the apartment.
Taylor said that Strauss-Kahn's wife, Anne Sinclair, had bought a property in Manhattan under her name, and that it had been scoped out and approved by the security company as a suitable location for him to remain under house arrest.
-The Guardian

Representing common sense, New York state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus noted that, “If the defendant were to be able to leave the country it might very well be impossible to bring him back.”

Must be nice to:
1) Regularly stay in $3,000 a night luxury hotel suites
2) Be able to ride first class anytime without having to make reservations
3) Have the wherewithal to purchase any property in Manhattan, let alone on a few days notice
I can’t think of a worse candidate to grant bail to.
Actually, I can’t think of a better candidate to have his mugshot, or better yet a pic of him doing the perp walk, floating around on the internet.

As for his resignation, the posturing to name his successor started quickly.

European officials, who have picked IMF heads for 65 years under a deal that also gives the U.S. the lock on the top World Bank post, moved to retain the privilege, with Sweden backing French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. Russia and South Africa have called for an emerging-market candidate, while some Asian policy makers suggested someone from their region.
-Bloomberg

At the risk of understating the obvious, this is very interesting.

Lagarde is the favorite for the job, according to odds at London-based bookmaker William Hill Plc. It is offering six pounds ($9.71) for every four pounds bet that Lagarde will be the next IMF head, down from odds of 20-1 previously.
Nout Wellink, a European Central Bank Governing Council member, told the Dutch talk show Knevel & Van den Brink late last night: “I know a fantastic candidate, that’s Jean-Claude Trichet,” whose term as ECB president ends in October.
Japan, which has the second-biggest share of voting power at the IMF with 6.25 percent, has yet to decide on its stance, Tetsuro Fukuyama, the government’s deputy chief cabinet secretary, told reporters in Tokyo today.
The U.S., which has the largest share of votes, at 16.8 percent, has also given no indication of a preference.
South African and Russian officials said yesterday the next head should come from an emerging economy. Trevor Manuel, head of South Africa’s National Planning Commission, is “highly respected in the world,” Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said of his predecessor in an interview in Pretoria.
Russian central bank Deputy Chairman Sergei Shvetsov said a developing country should be given the chance to run the IMF to better reflect the role of those economies in global trade. South Korea’s central bank governor made similar remarks before the announcement late yesterday that Strauss-Kahn would resign.
-Bloomberg

Russia wants someone from the under-developed world eh?
What say you China?

BEIJING (MNI) - The new IMF leadership needs to reflect changes in the world economic order and be more representative of emerging market economies, Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Thursday in his first public comments since the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
"The senior management team of the IMF should better reflect changes in world economic patterns and should be more representative of emerging market economies," he said.
-iMarket News

Oh. Et tu China?
For some perspective on the enormity of what is at stake here, we turn to the ever-reliable Tyler Durden:

It is also safe to say that with China now unofficially Europe's backstopper (and there were those wondering why China is buying all those Spanish and Portuguese bonds), what China wants, China gets.
-Zero Hedge

About those missiles Russia sold to Iran…

It's official, Russia has sold its S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile defense system to Iran. The S-300, which Iran has been trying to buy since 2005, is considered to be one of the best SAM systems in the world, can hit a target at 100 miles, and will be delivered to Iran within months.
The sale is viewed as a massive blow to Israeli defense chiefs, who already fear Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is building up a nuclear capability to attack them.
Tensions couldn’t be higher in the region.
On April 14, Jordan’s King Abdullah II told members of the US Congress that a war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon is “imminent.” The next day, King Abdullah told the Chicago Tribune that, although most in the Middle East wanted peace, there was a “very good chance” that war could break out in the region in the coming months.

“If we hit the summer and there’s no active process, there’s a very good chance for conflict – and nobody wins when it comes to that.”

Considering that Iran, a potentially nuclear state, has been the main supporter of Hezbollah, and considering that in a nuclear conflict, it's all or nothing, there will be no winners indeed. It is true that Israel and Hezbollah have squared off without resorting to nukes in the recent past, but current events in the region are still quite unsettling.

Israel’s government has not helped ease tensions. They object to the US establishing diplomatic relations with Syria, even though this could result in further isolating Iran, and they object to any notion that the Palestinians are entitled to their own state. While President Obama has called Arab-Israeli strife “harmful” to US interests, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has compared the international community’s handling of a potential nuclear program in Iran to Europe’s failure to stop the Nazi war machine prior to World War II.

“Israel's hardline government is deeply worried that the U.S. will try to impose a Mideast peace deal, that the Palestinians might declare statehood unilaterally and that Washington could be moving to end tensions with Syria. These fears underscore how the current differences between the U.S. and Israel go far beyond a still unresolved diplomatic row over Israeli settlement building. Instead, there is a deepening chasm between the visions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama, raising questions about the strength of the U.S.-Israeli alliance despite mutual pronouncements that the bond is unshakable.”
-CBS News

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has indeed floated the idea of unilaterally declaring statehood as early as next year, and his proposal led Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to threaten to annul past peace agreements and even annex parts of the West Bank. But disagreements in the Holy Land are not anything new.



Contrary to what the hawks in Israel are saying, there are also hawks in Washington. In response to Mr. Ahmadinejad taunting the US with a display of Iran’s already strong missile arsenal during its annual Army Day Parade, Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen let it be known that the Pentagon is already considering its options of last resort:

The Pentagon was ratcheting up pressure for military action against Iran last night as America’s top uniformed official said for the first time that a strike on nuclear targets would “go a long way” towards delaying Tehran’s uranium enrichment programme.
-The Times Online

Obama had already made it clear earlier this month that a nuclear attack on either North Korea or Iran would remain a policy option for his administration.
And it just so happens that Iran is holding war games exercises this week in the Gulf and Straight of Hormuz, a waterway crucial to world oil supplies. As if that weren't enough to heighten tensions, on April 20, Iran's Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, responded to the tough talk out of Washington by demanding that the international community not let Obama get away with nuclear threats.

"We will not allow America to renew its hellish dominance over Iran by using such threats."
-Reuters

In response, the next day, the Pentagon reiterated its hardline stance:

“We are not taking any options off the table as we pursue the pressure and engagement tracks,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said. “The president always has at his disposal a full array of options, including use of the military... It is clearly not our preferred course of action but it has never been, nor is it now, off the table.”
-The Jerusalem Post

Meanwhile, focusing on the more moderate voices in Washington, Israeli hardliners were concerned that the US would tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, and debated the prospect of launching their own, unilateral military strike:

"The Israeli security establishment is divided over whether it needs Washington's blessing if Israel decides to attack Iran, Israeli officials say, as the U.S. campaign for sanctions drags on and Tehran steadily develops greater nuclear capability."
-The Wall Street Journal

Needless to say, we're following these developments closely.

More on US/Russia tensions

On April 4, CNN reported explosions in Russia's North Caucasus:

An explosion that derailed a train in Russia's North Caucasus was being investigated as an act of terrorism, Russian media reported.
-CNN

Then on April 7, The Kyrgyzstan government was overthrown:

Kyrgyz opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva said on Thursday she had taken over the government after violent protests forced the president of the Central Asian country to flee the capital.
-Reuters

Here is a video that makes it very clear what is happening in that country:
"The government is firing on it's own people."

Kyrgyzstan is home to a US airbase that is very very important to its Afghan operations. I wonder if the Kyrgyz opposition forces support that base...

No sooner had presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed an arms reduction pact in Prague as part of an effort to "reset" strained relations than a senior official in Medvedev's delegation urged Kyrgyzstan's new rulers to shut the base.
-Reuters

Speaking of war...

On March 28, Radio Free Europe reported that Russia was accusing the of U.S. aiding the Afghan Drug Trade.

The next day, on March 29, an alleged suicide bomber attacked the Moscow Metro during Monday morning rush hour, killing 38 and injuring at least 60.

Later on that week, Russia announced that it had signed arms deals with Bolivia, Venezuela, and China, and that it was finalizing a missile deal with Iran.

Setting up shop in America's backyard:

Russia has said that it will help Venezuela to set up its own space industry and develop nuclear energy, the Latin American country’s President announced yesterday. The two have also signed a new contract to exploit Venezuelan oil and are discussing a raft of further military and energy deals.

The deal will allow Moscow to entrench its foothold in Latin America through a deepening alliance with America’s main regional foe. As the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Caracas, Venezuela’s vocal, anti-imperialist leader, President Chávez, said that the allies were building “a new, multipolar world”.
-Timesonline

Selling missile defense systems to China and Iran:

China is a major buyer of Russian weapons, and the two countries say they are trying to forge a strategic partnership, though senior Russian officials are privately concerned about an increasingly assertive China.
-Reuters

I'm sure none of these news stories are related though, since no news networks are telling us they are connected.