US($) rules the world by hook (traitor sell-outs) or by crook (kill all resistors)

@Sam, re Emmanuel Kant's "Zum ewigen Frieden," this might be the English language equivalent: "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch" Thanks.

[A bit long; sorry, but not too sorry, it is not simple.]

@Raimondo: "The Romans exacted tribute from their conquered subjects: we have inverted that tradition, instead paying tribute - in the form of "foreign aid" - to our allies and satellite nations, even as they denounce us and their Washington lobbyists demand more."

Me: No. The US extracts 'tribute' all right, and by the bucketful; let me count some of the ways:

1) $US as 'world reserve currency,' #1. You may have heard of 'interest?' Well, $US is a fiat currency = they just print them. Digitally, of course - most $US (M2) exist as book-entries, mainly in 'trading' banks; and come into existence as loans issued at interest = %. Deposits in banks may 'earn' a pittance = min-% in interest; the loans are charged the max-% the market will bear. The banks insist on getting their %, so all of M2 is contributing *un-earned* income to the banks - mostly owned by the fat-cats = the <1% (in OWS-parlance). This 'loans at %' is an outright racket, it's a wicked tax with neither value for the people, nor representation, hence banksters (see CWA & BND below). Then the *un-earned* income $USs are forced upon the world. It gets worse.

2) $US as 'world reserve currency,' #2. Many (most?) commodities are traded in $US. You may have heard of 'petro-dollars' whereby oil producers accumulate $US? It works like this:

Any country needing oil (most), needs $US to pay for it, Germany, say. So they manufacture things (Mercedes, BMWs, VWs, Audis & Porsches, say), and sell some of those to the US. Then Germany uses the $US to buy oil, which they then burn for heating & transport - the oil 'disappears' into the air as CO2. Ooops (twice); having burned the oil, they need more, so repeat the loop - eternally. The oil producers get royalties (5%, say, or perhaps 16.7% - who knows, except it's usually a (very) low %). US$s retained by the producer-countries are petro-dollars which a) are income, which may be shared with the sovereign resource-owners = the people, but b) more generally accumulate - or are 'recycled' by buying (mainly) US arms, say. Think KSA = Saudi Arabia.

2a) The 'petro-dollars' process is repeated by most countries producing 'exports' for the US; #1 = China say, taken over from former #1 = Japan. China has as an enormous accumulation of what may be termed as 'electro-dollars,' which a) earn a pittance-% and b) can't easily be spent back into china (too much would cause (massive) inflation), can't easily be 'recycled' by buying anything from/in US, neither weapons nor by being invested - US 'national interests' prevent that, as they say.

3) $US as 'world reserve currency,' #3. The US insists on its vassal-states allowing FDI = foreign direct investment. This is part of the WC10Ps = Washington Consensus, Ten Points. Another part is 'independent reserve banks;' The banks in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Iran are(were!) not WC10Ps-conform. Notice anything? WC7in5, perhaps? Another part of the WC10Ps is privatisation; the FIRE = Finance, Insurance, Real Estate sector buys what were publicly owned enterprises, strips them lean&mean then turns them into toll-booth operations, usually then viciously ripping-off the former owners. Essentially, privatisation = theft. The WC10Ps are a) accepted 'willingly' by traitor govt.s (hence SQSHsO = snivelling quisling sycophantic hangers-on) or imposed by military conquest, see Perkins' "Economic Hit Man;" possibly 1st victim = Allende's Chile.

3a) There is an alternative to FDI and independent reserve banks (which are subject to lobbying, especially by the US), and it's called 'state-owned banks,' see Ellen Brown's "The Remarkable Model Of The Commonwealth Bank Of Australia" (now, sadly, criminally privatised as CWA) and the existing BND, "Public Sector Banks: From Black Sheep to Global Leaders."

4) $US as 'world reserve currency,' #4. The (mainly US) corporations' modus operandi is to 'buy low, sell high.' When the resulting profits exceed 'cost plus a fair mark-up,' such profits are termed 'super-profits' = *un-earned* income aka 'economic rent.' In Aus, for example, ~83% of mining revenue exits the country – a tax designed to recover some of this loss contributed to the downfall of the two immediate predecessors of the new Aus PM. The 'other side' of 83% is 17% = the Aus' people's share if it ever trickles down, remarkably close to the amount originally offered to (= forced upon?) Iran as royalty, back before or around WW1. Surprise? Hardly.

All along the production, distribution, wholesale & retail chains sit the banksters and/or FIRE blood-suckers, hence Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi's famous remark vis-à-vis Goldman Sachs; a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

Some figures: I saw one estimate that up to ~40% of any particular product's price could be bankster %, added at multiple steps. Apple is rumoured to mark-up some products by ~300%. Iraqi oil costs ~$US1,- to 'dig up;' imagine the potential super-profit = economic rent when oil 'wholesales' at $US101,- say. Hence Iraq; illegal "Shock'n whore" invasion = mass-murder for oil (literally millions dead since 1991), most if not all directly due to US-meddling. Recall Al-CIAda and NED&ilk fomenting, CIA&ilk subverting.

It's crooked business (enforced by mafia methods); the <1% clean up, and the 99% may get some crumbs if 'lucky.' It really does seem that the (mainly US) corporations make most of their profits by unfair means (when not outright cheating), and even segueing into murder for spoil = supreme international crime (Iraq, Libya, etc.). Then there's the criminal Z-tail, wagging the US-dog. We see it happening; the Empire in operation.

IF any(most?) of this sad story is news, THEN it's likely because of the corrupt&venal MSM+PFCBs *not* telling us 'the rest of the story' - see Bernays: "Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."