“There’s colors on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin’ their feet
People sleepin’ in their shoes
But there’s a warnin’ sign
on the road ahead
There’s a lot of people sayin’
we’d be better off dead
Don’t feel like Satan,
but I am to them
So I try to forget it,
any way I can.”
~ ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ by Neil Young
Written by Bryan Lutz, Editor at Dollarcollapse.com:
In solidarity with Ukraine, Biden’s Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken got up on stage in a Kyiv bar this week to play ‘Rockin’ in the Free World…’
.@SecBlinken plays “Rockin’ in the Free World” at Barman Dictat, an underground cocktail bar and music venue in Kyiv, Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/n2Xmlquoo6
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 14, 2024
Which is ironic.
First, the song was never meant for solidarity, or as a patriotic anthem celebrating democratic freedom.
Rather, the song was meant as a criticism of everything the United States had been doing internationally over the past two decades.
Second, what brought down the Soviet Union seems to be happening to the United States, today. Especially, in their battle for Ukraine.
You can see parallels in the Cold War, and the Currency War (from 1967-1987), which played a large role in dissolving the Soviet Union.
Here are three parallels:
1. Cheap Oil
During the 1980s, oil prices fell dramatically. Since oil was the Soviet Union’s primary export, that hit Soviet economy hard, slowing their revenue and other producers around the world.
But for the Americans, cheap oil only improved production and quickened economic recovery.
Today, higher(and rising) oil prices are contributing to “stubborn inflation” and “higher for longer” interest rates in the US. And that means, higher costs to produce, and slower economic recovery.
2. Trade Imbalances and Rising Debt
While exporting mostly raw materials, and importing consumer goods and new, innovative technology from the West, Russia was losing money. And most raw materials, including oil all had to be bought and sold in oil, per US agreements with the Middle East.
So more countries needed and wanted the US dollar.
Today, less and less countries want to trade in the dollar. China’s demanding trade in Yuan, and Russia is doing the same. Especially for oil.
While gold is rapidly accumulating in China, the United States is rapidly accumulating sovereign debt.
3. Reagan’s Economic Policies
Reagan’s economic policies allowed the United States to isolate the Soviet Union’s economy in the 1980s.
Reagan tightened export controls on innovative western technology the that Soviet’s needed to compete with the United States.
He also pumped up the US spending on National Defense, which forced the Soviet Union into an arm’s race. It was a race the Soviet Union could not afford, or hope to win.
Today, those same policies aren’t working. Sanctions aren’t working on Russian oil. China buys Russian oil, and then resells it. And they’re doing business in their own currencies while seeking to stabilize their own currencies with the most reliable money around – gold.
Now the United State’s is in the Soviet Union’s old position, one of increasingly high government spending and fiscal deficits to the tune of $1 Trillion every 100 days.
That spending includes funding the war in Ukraine against Russia.
So when Blinken gets on stage in Kyiv and starts singing, ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ we ought to consider the irony of the lyrics, and the real meaning of the song.
Take these lyrics as an example:
“We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand”
A “kinder, gentler machine gun hand” were lyrics referencing then newly elected President Bush’s campaign promise for a “kinder, gentler nation.”
It wasn’t until 1989, that the US had already fought two decades of foreign wars, a currency war, and about to start another in the Persian Gulf…
And only about another few months after ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ was released for the Berlin Wall to come tumblin’ down.
Ironic as it is…
Blinken may have just signalled, sung Ukraine’s “Swan Song.”
How much time does Ukraine really have left?
How much time before Kharkiv, and the rest of Ukraine gives way to the Russian offensive?
And here’s another, more important question:
How much time does the US have left?
