Congress prepares to ratify IMF reforms, as Fed raises interest rates

In recent years the US government has used its power to impose sanctions on whoever it pleases, especially those nations that do not have Rothschild-owned central banks. Any oil-producing nation that decides to accept payment for oil in a currency other than the US dollar has been overthrown (Iraq, Libya, etc.).

The nations have become allies by fear, not by love, and now many are turning against the US government. In 2010 the IMF voted to shift the voting power to reflect the increasing economic power of China and other developing nations. The only holdout has been the US Congress, which does not want to admit that its empire is diminishing.

Because of this opposition, China, Russia, India, and other countries began to create their own trade systems that bypass the Fed’s SWIFT payments system—and the US dollar itself. Now that the alternate systems are in place, it seems that the US congress is belatedly agreeing to the IMF reforms.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/imf-quota-reform-approved-by-congress-in-spending-bill-2015-12-16?link=MW_latest_news

“WASHINGTON--U. S. lawmakers look set to ratify a five-year-old international deal to overhaul the governance of the International Monetary Fund that gives emerging markets such as China greater power at the emergency lender.

“Lawmaker approval would resolve a long-running grievance by emerging powers that their voice and vote at the shareholder institution doesn’t represent their growing economic heft in the world.

“Congressional leaders agreed early Wednesday morning to include the changes in a catch-all spending bill, which could become law in the coming days.”

By this time, of course, it is too late to stop the alternate payment system based in China.

This comes on the heels of the Fed’s decision today to raise interest rates by .25%.

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/12/16/fed-raises-interest-rates-cites-ongoing-u-s-economic-recovery/21284564/?icid=maing-grid7|htmlws-sb-bb|dl1|sec1_lnk3&pLid=558444784

“WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade on Wednesday, signaling faith that the U.S. economy had largely overcome the wounds of the 2007-2009 financial crisis….

"The Committee judges that there has been considerable improvement in labor market conditions this year, and it is reasonably confident that inflation will rise over the medium term to its 2 percent objective," the Fed said in its policy statement, which was adopted unanimously….

“The dollar firmed modestly after the rate rise. Based on interest rate futures markets, traders expected a second hike in April.

“The median projected target interest rate for 2016 remained 1.375 percent, implying four quarter-point rate hikes next year.”

It is the first raise in nearly 10 years. The Fed is putting a smiley face on this, telling us that the economy is strong enough to handle it. But it is clear from their past reluctance to raise rates that they do not believe this themselves. They are being forced to do this in order to save face, and also because failure to raise rates would make everyone question the true state of the economy. That is what happened last September when they failed to raise the rate after promising to do so.

It will be interesting to watch the stock market. No doubt the Plunge Protection Team is poised to spend massive amounts of money buying shares of stock in order to support the markets and keep investors calm. Will they be able to keep the markets stable? We will see in the next few weeks.

In the past year the US dollar has strengthened considerably as other currencies have weakened in value. Raising interest rates normally strengthens any currency, so we should watch the value of the US dollar. If it continues to increase, it would negatively affect exports and increase imports. This would aggravate the balance of trade.

I find it curious that at the same time the Fed raises interest rates, Congress would finally consider ratifying the IMF reforms after resisting them for the past five years. These are both momentous changes that can have far-reaching economic and political effects.