What is Best for the World: Chaos, Wars and Destruction, or Order, Peace and Prosperity?

Professor Rodrigue Tremblay

"As democracy improves, the role of president increasingly represents the soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), American journalist and political commentator (in the Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920.

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE), Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, (in 'Meditations, a handbook of stoic philosophy', 161-180 CE).

"We do not live [in the United States] in a constitutional Republic any more. We live in a state of soft tyranny. You may not like it but it's true. We vote, but the state runs us, we don't run it. Our government redistributes our wealth in a way that is criminal, and we do nothing to stop it."

Chuck Wooley (1941- ), American actor and game show host, (in a post on Twitter (X), March 26, 2018).

"When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them [the people] under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

American Declaration of Independence, (1776).

World peace and international order are extremely fragile nowadays, and this is very concerning. Indeed, in just a few years, the system of international laws and rules seems to have been replaced, in international relations, by unilateral and mostly improvised arbitrariness, based on brute force. This has created a dangerous situation of global chaos that threatens the peace and prosperity of nations.

In reality, such a legal anarchy and confusion stems from a major flaw in the Charter of the United Nations, which was adopted and signed in San Francisco, on June 26, 1945.

In fact, the U.N. Charter includes a clause that grants a veto power to the five permanent members of the Security Council (United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, and France), which also has ten other non-permanent members. A single negative vote (the right of veto) from one permanent member is enough to reject a Security Council resolution to maintain peace. (Article 27 of the Charter).

In practice, such a provision allows a permanent member state to launch a war of aggression against another country (or to protect a non-permanent member state that is doing so), irrespective of the provisions of the Charter specifically designed to maintain international peace and security.

Ironically, nowadays, it is one of the founding members of the U.N., namely the United States under the administration of President Donald Trump, that most frequently uses its veto power in the U.N. Security Council to launch wars of aggression around the world with near complete impunity.

This does not mean that the United States government, a signatory to the U.N. Charter, is not bound to respect the spirit and the letter of Article 2.4, which obliges all member states to refrain "in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."

However, if the government of one of the five permanent members of the Security Council wishes to act in bad faith, it can use its veto power to circumvent the basic U.N. principles.

I) The U.N. can be de facto paralyzed in its mission of world peace

The last war of aggression to date that the U.N. Charter has failed to prevent is the joint war launched by the American and Israeli governments against Iran, on Saturday, February 28, 2026.

Indeed, it was on this date that an unprovoked and illegal military bombing campaign against Iran was launched, in defiance of international law, by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This regional war could open a Pandora's box from which all sorts of misfortunes could flow.

Indeed, history shows that it is not always the country that starts a war that ends it. In this particular case, the Israeli government appears to have a regional and questionable long-term military plan, but the Trump administration seems to have been pushed into that improvised war by short-term partisan considerations, without any medium- or long-term planning whatsoever.

Moreover, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, 59 percent of the American people strongly oppose Trump's illegal war against Iran, which is being waged without clear motives or objectives. Similarly, Trump's overall approval rating is at a record low of 36 percent, and falling, as more and more Americans get informed about what is really going on.

So far, besides bringing much destruction, this war has killed as many as 3,492 people, including more than 175 innocent schoolgirls and school staff who lost their lives in a direct American missile strike on a girls' school in Minab, southern Iran. According to the Washington Post, about 1,500 civilians have been killed in Iran since the beginning ot U.S.-Israel bombing on February 28, 2026.

II) Economic and financial consequences

Moreover, the economic damage is enormous, with the shock of energy shortages around the world pushing oil prices and interest rates up, and provoking serious declines in financial markets.

For instance, the Israeli-U.S.-Iran war makes Japan especially vulnerable among industrialized economies, because it imports 95 percent of its oil consumption. This puts pressure on the yen to depreciate, forcing the Bank of Japan to sell U.S. Treasury bonds in order to have enough liquidity to sustain its currency.

This could trigger a domino effect, resulting in a major global economic and financial crisis. Indeed, when 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rise due to the sale of U.S. bonds, coinciding with a global surge in oil prices, the latter fuels inflation in many countries and causes financial markets to plummet. A widespread slowdown in economic activity inevitably follows. The overall result could be a severe global economic recession, possibly worse.

III) The role played by Donald Trump in the current disorder in the United States and the world

Since his first election to the American presidency, in 2016, tycoon Donald Trump has demonstrated that he is an autocratic, impulsive, and cunning politician, who often has uncontrolled fits of anger.

He has been a creator of chaos and of systematic destruction through verbal, economic, and military warfare, both abroad and within his own country. In the latter case, his ICE-Gestapo-style domestic police keeps adding new concentration camps.

Donald Trump has also shown himself to be dishonest intellectually, acting as a pathological liar who often makes things up out of thin air, to glorify himself and to humiliate, intimidate or destabilize his political opponents. People need to be on their guard because most of the time when that politician opens his mouth, he lies.

Moreover, business mogul Donald Trump is a politician with a highly controversial past. He has demonstrated himself to be a warmonger, a bully, and a predator. In fact, that is what he has done all his life, and he has transposed into politics the predatory one sided practices he developed in his private business dealings, as a builder of hotels, casinos, and golf courses.

Furthermore, Donald Trump is also an individual with a long list of misdeeds. In fact, his record is that of a con man, convicted on numerous occasions for criminal offenses.

Indeed, it has been reported in detail by Wikipedia that Donald Trump, in his business and personal legal affairs, from 1973 and until 2016, has unbelievably been involved in over 4,000 legal cases of numerous business litigations, personal defamation lawsuits, tax disputes, and cases of sexual misconduct.

Once in power, Donald Trump has been systematically abusing the pretext of 'emergency powers' to violate the U.S. Constitution. He often undermines the courts of justice by attacking judges who rule against his autocratic whims, calling the U.S. Supreme Court 'stupid'! Moreover, he played a leading role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, when he tried to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election results. In other words, Donald Trump is a threat to American institutions.

This is on top of his numerous and varied accusations of fraud and corruption, including one for accepting the gift of a $400 million luxury Boeing 747 from the foreign government of Qatar, and obvious manipulation of markets by some investors close to power and privy to inside information. The list is very long.

— All things considered, D. Trump is a politician who is vulgar and who has no class. He is often malicious, petty and obnoxious, like blocking the opening of a newly built bridge, or rejoicing callously when a person dies.

In fact, D. Trump does not project the image of the head of a competent and legitimate government, but he rather behaves like the head of a crime syndicate, who is constantly making aggressive ultimatums that can't be refused.

· The illegal cover-up of the Epstein files continues

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is pursuing its on-going cover-up of Donald Trump's role in the politico-sexual Epstein pedophilia network, which was responsible for having enslaved more than one thousand underage girls, from various countries, and which served many wealthy and influential individuals, and even involved the assistance of some intelligence agencies.

It was also an international sex trafficking ring that received more than one billion dollars from various sources.

All this is not widely known, in violation of a law passed nearly unanimously by Congress, the 'Epstein Files Transparency Act', adopted on November 18, 2025, requiring that the Trump administration release the totality of the documents in the Epstein files, and which is still far from having been done.

IV) How come a candidate as unprepared as D. Trump was elected to the U.S. Presidency?

Future historians will probably wonder about what unusual political circumstances made it possible for such a flawed candidate, convicted of 34 felony counts by a court, with an unstable character bordering on dementia, and who is known to have been deeply involved in the international sex ring of J. Epstein, trading in underage girls, to be elected president of the United States.

They could have trouble explaining how such an individual remained in office many years, without being impeached or removed from office, according to either one of two articles of the U.S. Constitution.

· Art. II, sec.4: ("The President... of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.")

· 25th Amendment, Sec.4: (Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments... transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.")

Both articles were designed to remove a rogue or sick president from office.

Indeed, on the health front, it increasingly appears that Donald Trump, 79, is being treated currently for Alzheimer's disease and dementia, like his father. Congress should take notice.

Indeed, over the last few months, Donald Trump has become a loose canon and is a global threat. He has been on an insane war path around the world.

Not only has he attacked militarily the country of Venezuela to steal its oil resources and launched another unconstitutional and illegal war of aggression against Iran, in order to steal its oil facilities, but—like a cruel tyrant—he has stooped so low as to impose an illegal oil embargo against Cuba, a small fuel-starved country in need of electricity.

Conclusion

According to numerous doctors, neuroscientists and psychiatrists, American businessman Donald Trump, 79 years old, and currently President of the United States, is rapidly declining and even getting worse on a daily basis, both in physical and mental health. This makes Donald Trump not only sick but also unfit to be head of any government.

Indeed, the sitting American president's questionable and weird behavior, improvised remarks and insults all around, and disruptive and sometimes very dumb policies, indicate that he is most unqualified and too dangerous to be president of the United States.

Moreover, his widespread ignorance causes him to constantly change his mind, which brings him to improvise and to shift positions, depending on the last person with whom he has spoken. His macro-economic policies are insane and improvised and have been condemned by virtually all renowned economists, while his justifications for illegally launching hubristic, destructive and costly wars against other countries have been strongly criticized.

The current political, economic, and war chaos in the world is largely attributable to Donald Trump and his unbridled interventions. This foreshadows not only humanitarian catastrophes, but also a severe worldwide economic recession. It also heralds a significant decline in the United States' reputation in the world.

Therefore, the elected members of the U.S. Congress, and especially the Republican majority in both the House and the Senate, should take concrete steps to put an end to D. Trump's daily political circus. They should stop him from launching unconstitutional wars of aggression and economic warfare against other countries.

Furthermore, as the Nuremberg Tribunal clearly ruled, military officers have the responsibility not to comply with unlawful orders to commit war crimes and atrocities.

___________________________________________________________

International economist Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is the author of the book about morals "The code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles" of the book about geopolitics "The New American Empire", and of his recent book, in French, "La régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018". 

He holds a Ph.D. in international finance from Stanford University.

Please visit Dr. Tremblay's site or email to a friend here.

Posted Thursday, April 2, 2026.

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______________________________________________________________

© 2026 Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay

 

The True motives Behind the United States and Israel's bombings of Iran and their foreseeable consequences

Professor Rodrigue Tremblay

"Without a debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed —and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment —the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution —not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and sentimental, not to simply 'give the public what it wants' —but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold educate and sometimes even anger public opinion."

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th U.S. President, 1961-1963, (in a speech before the American Newspaper Publishers Association, on April 27, 1961).

"Stability and peace are not built with mutual threats nor with weapons that sow destruction, pain and death, but only through a dialogue that is reasonable, authentic and responsible. Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions, I address... a heartfelt appeal to assume the moral responsibility of halting the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss."

Pope Leo XIV  (1955- ), (words spoken in St. Peter's Square, Sunday, March 2, 2026, following the illegal military attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran, which notably killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei).

"We are finally putting America First. Our policy of war, regime change and nation-building is being replaced by the pursuit of American interests... It is the job of our military to protect our security, not to be the policemen of the world."

Donald Trump (1946- ), Republican candidate, (in a speech during the presidential campaign of 2024).

"The time will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world, without trusting to the gossip of others. Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see."

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), American writer, (in his 1845 short story "The system of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether").

On Saturday, February 28, the U.S. Trump administration and the Israeli Netanyahu government launched unlawful, joint and unprovoked missile attacks against the country of Iran (pop. 93 million), on the basis of a series of shifting, false or unproven claims. Such military attacks have ignited a wider conflict in the Middle East, created economic disruptions worldwide, and could lead to a Third World War.

So far, there have been almost 2,000 deaths, including Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and more than 175 school girls, aged 7 to 12, and their teachers, when their all-girl Tayyebeh School, in the town of Minab in Southern Iran, was completely destroyed by a U.S. missile. Such barbarous acts could one day lead to accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

More often than not, U.S. mainstream media rarely go deeper than the official narrative and propaganda, when they do not reinforce the latter. It is easier for them, with some worthy exceptions, to reproduce literally the government's lies and omissions and to ignore the politicians' misdeeds at home and abroad, especially those they commit abroad and which lend themselves to bursts of patriotism.

However, it is a fact that wars of aggression are expressly unlawful under Article 39 of the United Nations Charter, which both the United States and Israel governments have signed. [Art.39: The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken. in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security.].

Moreover, it is also a fact that the U.S. government has used its veto more than 50 times at the 15-member U.N. Security Council to give diplomatic and legal protection to Israel for its crimes and violations of the terms of the U.N. Charter.

Last year, on September 18, 2025, the Trump administration cast its 6th veto against a resolution demanding a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and that Israel lift all restrictions on aid deliveries to its inhabitants. It's as if Israel were the 6th country to have a veto right in the Security Council!

It is difficult to know if it is Israel and the important Zionist political donors in the U.S. who control the U.S. government, or if it is the American government that uses Israel as part of its foreign policy in the Middle East.

I) President Donald Trump's close association with Israel and rich campaign donors is a danger for the United States and for the world

Politician Donald Trump's huge financial support by rich American Zionists is well documented. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election and during Donald Trump's first term, superrich casino owner Sheldon Adelson is reported by Newsweek to have contributed to the Republican candidate's election over $424 million. After Adelson's death in 2021, according to Forbes News, his widow Miriam Sheldon gave $95 million to the pro-Donald Trump 'Preserve America' Political Action Committee (PAC).

Indeed, since its January 2010 controversial decision on 'Citizens United v. FEC', the U.S. Supreme Court opened wide the floodgates of nearly unlimited amounts of campaign money that ultra rich individuals, corporations and unions can spend during an election.

This has made it easier for lobbyists and wealthy private interests to elect candidates to high office who can be receptive to their demands for lower taxes, deregulation and targeted public expenditures, in the military sector, among others.

It is a power that the rich American oligarchy has on a daily basis, while ordinary Americans can only exert influence when they vote, every two years... if they think it's still worth the trouble to go vote.

II) American elections, when big money flows freely

U.S. elections do not matter much anymore because the real issue is which political party can get the most money from the very rich and lie about defending the lower and middle classes against the very rich.

That is pretty much what real estate mogul Donald Trump did during the last three electoral campaigns. He has collected huge sums of money from very rich donors and made false promises to lower and middle-income voters.

III) The Israeli government, D. Trump and the Epstein international pedophilia sex ring

Recent history shows that Neocon advisors have had great success in persuading some incumbent presidents, low in public polls, to launch an unlawful war of aggression abroad, to stir up patriotism among the least informed part of the electorate, and thus to rise in the polls.

In a George W. Bush-like decision to go ahead with a war of choice against Iraq in March 2003, (under false pretenses), Donald Trump could also believe, in 2026, that a war of aggression against Iran could help him rise in the polls and solidify his support among Republican Congress members. Moreover, this could simultaneously help him drown out his involvement in the Epstein political-sexual scandal under a barrage of war news.

Indeed, now that the so-called 'withheld by accident' Epstein Files and FBI documents about Trump's perversion with young girls have finally been made public, this could explain why the current American president would like to assume the posture of a 'commander-in-chief' and why he is doing everything in his power to cover up his involvement in the sex scandal of the century.

Moreover, other documents of the Epstein Files about the international network of sexual exploitation of underage girls have also revealed that this was a front in order to compromise, blackmail and extort money and other advantages from a powerful group of politicians and wealthy individuals in several countries, with the help of Israel and people connected to its intelligence facilities and to other intelligence agencies.

It will take more time, possibly years, before the entire Epstein saga and all its fallout might be completely known.

Conclusion

The unlawful war of aggression, launched jointly against Iran by the American and Israeli governments, on Saturday, February 28, 2026, and in defiance of international law, is yet another example of military excesses, which undermine world peace and world order, create chaos, violate national sovereignty and devastate the global economy.

However, without the active military participation of the U.S. Trump government and its defense of Israel at the U.N. Security Council, such an unprovoked military attack against Iran, which could escalate into a global military conflict, could not have occurred or would not have had the same scope.

Indeed, after only a year and a few months in power, it is as if someone had suggested to Donald Trump, at the beginning of his second term, the rogue project of destroying everything, (American democracy, world peace, international trade, etc.), and that this would be good for his personal glory!

On the one hand, domestically, Trump has violated his oath of office by imposing an autocratic administration, in defiance of the U.S. Constitution and the constitutional powers of the elected Congress.

On the other hand, internationally, Donald Trump has made mafia-boss-like threats and launched illegal military attacks against many countries, in his insane quest for world dominance, in addition to adopting destabilizing economic policies that have been condemned by the vast majority of economists.

The consequences are clear for everyone to see: 1- a deep political division currently reigns in the United States, with some citizens being killed while simply exercising their right to protest; and 2- the global economy could regress 100 years and could be plunged into another global economic depression, like that of 1929-1939.

In such a context of domestic, external and general political, economic and military chaos, the primary responsibility of Democratic and Republican elected officials in the U.S. Congress should be to take concrete steps to put an end to the authoritarian and disastrous orientation that has taken hold in their country.

___________________________________________________________

International economist Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is the author of the book about morals "The code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles" of the book about geopolitics "The New American Empire", and of his recent book, in French, "La régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018". 

He holds a Ph.D. in international finance from Stanford University.

Please visit Dr. Tremblay's site or email to a friend here.

Posted Tuesday, March 10, 2026.

*** To receive new postings of Dr. Tremblay's articles, 

please send Subscribe to jcarole261@gmail.com

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______________________________________________________________

© 2026 Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay

 

The Coming Changes in the International Monetary System and Dedollarization, in a Context of Massive Debt Levels (public and private debts)

By Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay

"When every country turned to protect its own private interest,  the world public interest went down the drain, and with it the private interests of all."

Charles Kindleberger (1910-2003), American economic historian, (in his book 'The World Depression 1929-1939', 1973. 

"We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition...  More recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited, You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination... If we are not at the table, we are on the menu."

Mark Carney (1965- ), economist and Prime minister of Canada, in Davos, Switzerland, January 20, 2026.

"In the Great Depression in which I grew up and remember vividly, unemployment was over 25 percent, and over 35 percent where I lived. A grown man would work all day, 16 hours, for a dollar. I remember hundreds of people walking by, people who had come down from the North just to get warm. They would come to our house as beggars even though they might have a college education. People didn't have money."

Jimmy Carter (1924-2024), 39th U.S. president (1977-1981), (in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on Feb. 4, 2009).

One year before the end of World War II, in 1944, representatives of some forty-four countries met in an American town in New Hampshire and cooperated in establishing a new global monetary system based on the U.S. dollar, which was to be convertible into a fixed weight of gold. (Note: The U.S. then possessed 70% of the world's gold reserves.)

This system lasted until 1971, when the Republican administration of Richard Nixon unilaterally severed the link between gold and the dollar, making the latter a purely fiat currency—that is, a currency entirely based on confidence in the U.S. monetary authorities to maintain its relative value.

Fifty-five years later, in 2026, the world is once again faced with the task of adjusting the international monetary system to new realities, but this time without a shred of international cooperation. On the contrary, the current Trump administration does not hesitate to insult, antagonize and sometimes threaten allied nations, many of which are public and private creditors of the American federal government. To attack one's lenders is generally not the most appropriate thing to do!

I- What was the Bretton Woods Monetary System

Since the Bretton Woods Conference of July 1944, it was agreed by 44 countries that the U.S. dollar would be used as the principal international means of payments in the post WWII international monetary system. It was going to be backed by gold at the rate of one dollar being exchanged for 1/35 ounce of gold, (one ounce of gold being worth $35).

Other national currencies would have a fixed exchange rate vis-à-vis the dollar, to be adjusted only for structural balance of payments deficits or surpluses, as monitored by the newly created International Monetary Fund (IMF). Moreover, central banks would purchase and hold mainly American Treasury bonds as liquidity reserves to stabilize their currencies.

II- Why the international monetary system based on a fiat U.S. dollar has provided the United States with some exorbitant economic privileges

For many years, that one-sided international monetary system has created some exorbitant privileges for the United States.

Indeed, under such a system, the U.S. could not face a balance of payments problem because it was paying its imports with its own currency, which it could print at will.

It also allowed the U.S. government to finance part of its large budget deficits and its enormous public debt by selling Treasury bills and bonds, denominated in U.S. dollars, to foreign central banks, which held them as official reserves, and to other foreign investors. That structural demand kept the U.S. dollar strong in foreign exchange markets and assisted the Fed (the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank) in fighting domestic inflation.

From a geopolitical perspective, such easy access to foreign savings and dollar spending has enabled the U.S. government to deploy military power globally and to finance the building of some 750 military bases around the world, with contributions from host countries.

Since nothing is one-sided, there are some disadvantages for a country in having its national currency used worldwide.

First, the American central bank had to take into account the dollar's international role when formulating its monetary policy.

A second disadvantage resulted from net capital inflows in the U.S., which kept the dollar overvalued and encouraged domestic consumption and trade deficits. 

Thirdly, from a U.S. perspective, has been the ease with which large U.S. corporations could take advantage of their technological advances and finance productive investments abroad, and then repatriate their profits for the benefit of American investors.

Criticism against a dollar-dominated monetary system intensified when the U.S. government began weaponizing the system by imposing financial, economic and political sanctions on countries that did not bend to its foreign policies.

Therefore, it is to be expected that during the coming years, especially as the current Trump administration has become increasingly hostile to the economic interests of other nations, that the world is going to move away from the fiat US dollar international monetary system. This is even more likely since President D. Trump has openly said that he would welcome a debased U.S. dollar, going as far as saying that he thinks a weaker dollar would be "great"!

With large yearly federal fiscal deficits and political pressure to force the Fed to print more money in order to lower short-term interest rates, this is a recipe for creating a period of galloping inflation and of slow economic growth, possibly leaving the U.S. economy in a state of stagflation.

III- Many central banks have been gradually reducing their stocks of dollar-denominated Treasury bills and bonds in their official reserves relative to gold

In 2025, central banks around the world crossed an important threshold. For the first time in three decades, their combined gold holdings have exceeded their total holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds in their international reserves. This is because the U.S. dollar has become a heavily indebted fiat currency that is subjected to persistent inflation. Gold holdings, on the other hand, serve as a hedge against inflation and currency debasement.

An indication that the world is slowly moving toward a gold-based international monetary system is the fact that about one-fifth, or about nearly 36,200 tons of all the gold ever mined is now held by central banks. This was only about 15 percent at the end of 2023.

IV- In the United States and in other economies, lax fiscal and monetary policies could trigger financial crises and an important economic downturn

After the 2008-2009 Great Recession and after the Covid-19 recession of 2020-2021, nominal interest rates were pushed down, sometimes below the inflation rate, heralding an era of negative real interest rates. This was an invitation to borrowers to go deep into debt. Governments, corporations and households piled up their debt levels, even though real economic growth and real income levels did not follow.

The U.S. experience has been repeated in other economies, in Europe and in Canada.

Indeed, the Trump administration's fiscal policy is currently in disarray, with a yearly federal deficit approaching $2 trillion and federal public debt reaching $39 trillion (or set at 126 percent of GDP, in 2026), according to the Debt clock. If one adds the one $trillion of states' public debts, the total U.S. public debt will likely be $40 trillion, or 129 percent of GDP, later in 2026.

Rather than taking concrete measures to correct such an unsustainable fiscal situation, the D. Trump administration is increasing military expenditures, at the same time that it wishes to place the Federal Reserve Bank under its direct control, and when it is pressuring the central bank to artificially lower short-term interest rates.

All this undermines international confidence in the U.S. government and encourages other countries to sell part or all of their stocks of dollar bonds and other dollar assets, while reducing reliance on the international fiat dollar system.

The end result is to push up medium- and long-term interest rates in the U.S., with a negative impact on the real economy, employment and on banks facing rising defaults and bad debts. Thus, everything would seem to be in place for an important correction in financial markets in the coming months or years, not only in the United States but also in many other economies.

V- On the international stage, the economic and trade wars waged by the current U.S. president are a source of instability and economic slowdown

Since the very beginning of 2025, President Trump's second administration has irresponsibly chosen to launch economic warfare and the 'dumbest trade wars', (see The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 31, 2025), against other countries, including against long-time allies, rather than adopting a posture of mutually profitable economic cooperation. This has been a highly deplorable and counter-productive approach.

Indeed, after just one year in power in Washington, D.C., real estate mogul turned politician Donald Trump has managed to attack and insult almost every sovereign nation on Earth.

He began by antagonizing two neighboring countries in North America (Canada and Mexico). He then set about alienating Asian countries, starting with China. His boundless imagination led him to resurrect the old Monroe Doctrine of 1823 in order to turn all of South America against him and steal their natural resources.

And not to be outdone, he bombed countries in Africa and the Middle East (Somalia, Nigeria, Iran, etc.). The icing on the cake was when his foreign policy document identified Europe's NATO allies as adversaries and threatened to seize Greenland, under Danish rule, by force!

A few more months of the Trump 2.0 regime and the United States could be completely isolated and will have only one country allied with it, i.e. Israel, and be in a more or less state of rupture with the other 191 countries.

Conclusions

We do not know how many years it will take for the world to adopt a New World Order, based on the establishment of a new international monetary system. The reason being that this time, everything is being done in a context of conflict and disorder, rather than with studies, analysis and multilateral cooperation.

The U.S. political regime of D. Trump seems to have set itself the objective of ruining the reputation of the United States around the world and accelerating the decline of the American empire.

However, within the United States, legal, constitutional and political efforts to force either a resignation or a disqualification of the current president could change radically the path followed by the Trump administration 2.0, since January 2025.

Unfortunately, the damage is done and confidence in the U.S. government is broken. What this means is that over the coming years, there will be at least four ways to clear international payments: through the old dollar-based system still in place, with new mechanisms with either the euro or the yuan currencies, and more and increasingly through the new BRICS's Unit international currency, based on 40% gold and 60% of a basket of national currencies.

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International economist Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is the author of the book about morals "The code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles" of the book about geopolitics "The New American Empire", and of his recent book, in French, "La régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018". 

He holds a Ph.D. in international finance from Stanford University.

Please visit Dr. Tremblay's site or email to a friend here.

Posted Wednesday, February 11, 2026.

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© 2026 Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay