Countries around the world have embarked on an irreversible agenda to divorce from the US dollar, according to veteran investment guru Matthew Piepenburg.
In a new interview at the Deutsche Goldmesse conference with the Soar Financially YouTube channel, Piepenburg, partner at emerging markets-focused Matterhorn Asset Management, says that economic powerhouses are now clearly attempting to “break ranks” with dollar supremacy.
He says that the raising of interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve is pushing nations like China and Russia to adopt settlement systems that don’t rely on USD.
Besides China and Russia, which are both part of the BRICS coalition, the family office guru says that 41 other countries are now following suit, perhaps concerned with the way the US has treated Russia during its conflict with Ukraine.
“So when that dollar gets higher, because Powell is raising the rates, that becomes more onerous and painful for the rest of the world and they begin to break ranks. Asia in general, China and Russia in particular are very big rank-breaking nations. And, of course, they’re bringing 41 other countries alongside to have trade settlements outside the US dollar.
And so there’s no doubt that the weaponization of the dollar, even the petrodollar comes into this because there’s threats to the petrodollar market and the demand of the petrodollar and the strong dollar. So a strong dollar was a real gut punch for years it became even more of a gut punch when we weaponized that dollar when we took Russia off of the STR and the SWIFT and of course froze its FX reserves. Other countries raise their eyebrows in alarm and looked differently in our thinking of ways to go around and break with the dollar.”
BRICS, which represents the economically-aligned nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is discussing the launch of a global currency that does not utilize the US dollar.
A long list of nations reportedly want to join in, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain, Indonesia, two unnamed nations from East Africa and one from West Africa.
Piepenburg says that he doesn’t see the yuan or any other currency replacing the dollar as the world reserve currency anytime soon. However, he does see a “clear trend” of countries around the world sidestepping the dollar as the main, trusted medium of trade.
“The clear trend of breaking ranks with the US dollar as a trusted, reliable, dependable trade currency and payment system is now I think irrevocable.”