New book explores America’s pending financial crisis.
The Mr. X Interviews, Volume 2 by Luke Gromen continues the economic analysis of the United States and the world that began in the first volume of interviews with Mr. X. Luke recounts his meetings with Mr. X, a fictitious sovereign creditor of the USA, Invented for the purpose of creating a dialogue about America’s economy and future. This second volume takes a detailed look at financial events and troubles from late 2017 through early 2019. The book’s opening quote, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, warns readers that a revealing revelation awaits: ” It is important to understand many stories that are always hidden in the open. “
The book begins with Luke and Mr. X’s first meeting at dinner. Mr. X opens the conversation by stating that China is no longer an emerging market, but investors are making a serious mistake by looking at it as if it still is. Mr. X then launches into a discussion about how China would only be an emerging nation if oil continued to trade in USD. However, China is now taking steps to price oil in its own currency, the CNY, and forcing other countries to accept payments in its currency, which could devalue and weaken the USD. Mr. X is thorough in his discussion, always citing articles and their sources. An article you cite claims that what makes the United States a superpower is really the position of the US dollar, and as China and Russia try to devalue the dollar by changing its international use, the power of the United States will collapse. Ultimately, Mr. X argues, Russia and China have us checkmate over the price of gold. Furthermore, China and other countries are no longer paying the burden of American debt, so the United States has to borrow from American banks and citizens.
Meanwhile, China is trading USD for control of physical assets around the world and changing the price of those assets in its own currency. Mr X fears that in response the Fed and the US Treasury will use the USD as a weapon, which could ultimately destroy the world economy.
According to Mr. X, things look pretty grim from a financial point of view for the world. President Donald Trump has endangered the supremacy of the dollar, Europe’s largest gas field is in decline and will halt production by 2030, and Russia is unlikely to survive as a state for many more years. Meanwhile, the United States is losing the trade war with China and the decline in American life expectancy, driven by suicide, alcohol, drug overdoses and chronic liver disease reflects “deaths of economic hopelessness.” X looks at all of these factors in his conversations with Luke, leading him to believe that the United States will have to make up for its loan binge by printing more money in the 2020s.
Summarizing this situation, he quotes former Federal President Paul Volcker, who said in November 2018: “America is in hellish trouble in all directions.” X goes on to quote former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who said: “It is the first time in human economic history or history in general that an empire is expanding its kingdom and its power and its strength and vitality by expanding its deficits. Usually when an empire runs a deficit, it is the beginning of its decline. Not in the case of the United States. “
At the end of the book, X concludes that if the authorities continue to weaken the USD, by the end of 2019, people might have to start taking money out of banks and storing essentials in their basements.
The Mr. X Interviews, Volume 2 paints a revealing picture of the United States economy over the past several years and into the future. Of course, Mr. X could not foresee the coronavirus pandemic that would come a year after the book ends, but his analysis in these pages leaves much to ponder, and perhaps fear, about our current global economy, especially for Americans. . It will be interesting to see what Mr. X has to say in Volume 3.