Ask HN: Why did the ruble stabilize and what's going on?
My suggestion is reading one&#x2F;some Antony Sutton books, simply to visualize a bit the fact that money is not anymore and since decades and decades a shared unit of measure of nearly anything being instead a virtual substrate of nearly anything under private control. With that in mind you can metabolize the fact that the actual dollar hegemony is at the end because it&#x27;s tangible value is less and less accepted.<p>Russia, and perhaps even more China, simply have done without saying a new Bretton Wood where instead of electing a currency the one for anything, a currency based on thin air, handled by a private cleptocratic company remaining in power thanks to propaganda and the army power, they propose one based on something tangible like natural resources and industrial power. Other countries have started to join (like Saudi Arabia, Israel and partially EU so far, the first two accepting renmimbi for oilm tge last for accepting paying Russian gas in rubles) and others &quot;ante litteram&quot; have already tested that and was crushed (like Saddam&#x27;s Iraq with oil in euros vs dollar, just before Iraqi invasion by the USA or Qaddafi&#x27;s Libya against the Paris controlled CFA designing a new local pan-African currency).<p>In the past the west have had the biggest world power in tech, industry, military, science etc than all those start to wane crushed by an economically-driven society. EU lost its place from WWI, USA gain back than and thanks to WWII establish a global power but now de-industrialization, new cyclic big crisis typical of all neoliberals models, with no one left to invade and steal big resources, internal populations reactions (strikes, social unrest, scandals etc) and the growth of big enough superpower, one industrial (China) and one in natural resources terms (Russia) have made the change. Neoliberals need a war to remain in power but they lost such war even before it&#x27;s start. So countries with neoliberals dominance and their currencies (dollar, sterling and euro) decline while new affirming powers rise. Not that much just because China have an extremely deep food problem: they can&#x27;t nourish it&#x27;s own people and their industrial system is still to lean toward export for the west, Russia have natural resources, but it&#x27;s not anymore Soviet Union, it&#x27;s economy is in a terrible shape and the need of China for mass production is a big vulnerability. But still enough to make the ruble rise and stabilize.<p>EU have admitted, while informally&#x2F;in actions not words, that no solution exists to makes a real embargo on Russian resources, we have started to buy gas in ruble [1] oil is still exchanged [2] with tricks, we still need aluminum, palladium, titanium, ... from Russia etc. Nothing can be done quickly and effectively. Neoliberals have clearly pictured how powerless they are [3] like believers who say &quot;to solve any issue we pry the god of the market that by market magic it will solve our crisis&quot;. So Russia know well that like the Korean war no compact front will exists against them. USA know fully well they haven&#x27;t anymore an industrial complex sufficient to get rid of China quickly and UK know fully well they do not have anymore an empire, they can just hope for USA help in exchange of Commonwealth natural resources witch aren&#x27;t really much under UK control anymore. On the other side the above described issues impede a quick win so we are there faltering a bit.<p>The first winner anyway is China: they get Russia, so the biggest reservoir of natural resources and probably high tech Russians military tech they equally need. USA have re-win EU, at least until EU Citizens will revolt against our corrupted government that act against our interest for some third party that prove countless time being no friend of us. So they are the II winner. Others are just looser. Many new movement will happen for India, the Gulf, Iran, Myanmar etc that will surely try to earn something in the game and while &quot;marginal&quot; just by their size and resources they are contended and contenders. That&#x27;s is. The Rand idea to weaken Russia [4] works at a so high price that dollar can&#x27;t win. The actual WWIII will probably see no real winner, but probably the least looser will be eastern-shifted and currencies start to reflect that a bit.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.helsinkitimes.fi&#x2F;world-int&#x2F;21419-european-commission-says-companies-allowed-to-pay-for-russian-gas-under-new-scheme.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.helsinkitimes.fi&#x2F;world-int&#x2F;21419-european-commis...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mishtalk.com&#x2F;economics&#x2F;how-russia-avoids-oil-sanctions-transfer-at-sea-to-destination-unknown" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mishtalk.com&#x2F;economics&#x2F;how-russia-avoids-oil-sanctio...</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;voxeu.org&#x2F;article&#x2F;how-solve-europe-s-russian-gas-conundrum-tariff" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;voxeu.org&#x2F;article&#x2F;how-solve-europe-s-russian-gas-con...</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rand.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;dam&#x2F;rand&#x2F;pubs&#x2F;research_briefs&#x2F;RB10000&#x2F;RB10014&#x2F;RAND_RB10014.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rand.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;dam&#x2F;rand&#x2F;pubs&#x2F;research_briefs&#x2F;R...</a>