Rickards: “We Are in a New World”

The Global Chess Match [The Daily Reckoning] October 16, 2023 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Rickards: “We Are in a New World” - Beyond barbaric… - The three-way political game between Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran… - “We are in a new world”... [There is MASSIVE change happening within our company]( And I want you to [hear about this – from me]( – otherwise this new policy could blindside you. This has gone into effect immeditaly, so I want you to understand exactly what it will mean for you. [So please, watch this video for my full announcement.]( [LEARN MORE]( Portsmouth, New Hampshire [Jim Rickards] JIM RICKARDS Dear Reader, What has happened and is happening in Israel is beyond barbaric. In the words of historian and scholar Victor Davis Hanson, it is pre-civilizational and just barely above animal behavior. While the coverage rightly focuses on events on the battlefield and the fate of hostages, there is a deeper geopolitical drama playing out among Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States with Russia and China watching closely from the sidelines. A recent article from The Hill gives a lengthy explanation of these developments. When I use material from The Hill, it usually comes with a warning label that it’s biased, with a left-wing slant. But it’s my job as an analyst to consider all sides of an issue. You don’t want to get caught up in your own echo chamber, where you only read sources that confirm your biases. That’s not analysis. That’s why I read a lot of material from propaganda outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post. It’s not that their reporting is true (it’s not). But when you know what your opponents are lying about, you gain insights into what they’re really thinking and what they care about. Why lie if you don’t care in the first place? That said, the Hill article is relatively free of bias. It explains that the Hamas attack was totally planned, financed and green-lighted by Iran. Hamas has the killers and a base of operation, but it does not have the resources to conduct a coordinated attack like this without complete support from Iran. What is Iran’s motivation? You Can’t Reconcile! Apart from hurting Israel, they wanted to derail pending reconciliation talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel as a continuation of the Abraham Accords launched under President Trump. Iran wants to keep Israel and Saudi Arabia separated. They also want to prevent some of the assistance the U.S. was prepared to give Saudi Arabia in exchange for the reconciliation, including a mutual defense treaty and nuclear technology. As expected, Saudi Arabia put the reconciliation talks with Israel on hold because they cannot be seen to be friendly with a country that is destroying the pro-Palestinian Hamas, even though that destruction is well-deserved and now necessary. [PREDICTION: The Next Trillion-Dollar Stock]( [This Simple Chart]( In 2007, he predicted Facebook would become a $100 billion company. In 2010, he predicted Apple would reach a three-trillion-dollar valuation. In 2013, he called Bitcoin -- before it rose 50,000% and ultimately reached a trillion-dollar market cap. And now, this A.I. Genius is stepping into the spotlight to predict the next-trillion stock. [To see his shocking new reveal, go here now](. [LEARN MORE]( This three-way game among Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran comes against a backdrop of substantial assistance given to Iran by the United States. That includes non-enforcement of oil export sanctions (that allowed Iran to accumulate tens of billions of dollars of hard currency oil revenue), release of $6 billion in fresh cash to Iran that was frozen in South Korean banks and a course of appeasement by the U.S. in connection with the ongoing talks to limit Iran’s uranium enrichment programs. No wonder Iran felt they had a free hand to green-light an attack on Israel after the U.S. has done everything to take the pressure off Iran. Zooming out to the bigger picture, this conflict could intensify major geopolitical developments already underway. BRICS Control Vital Choke Points This August, the BRICS Leaders’ Summit ended with a momentous decision to expand the membership of BRICS for the first time since 2010. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Argentina, Ethiopia, and Iran were all admitted to membership effective Jan. 1, 2024. That means three of the nations most heavily involved in this conflict — Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran — will soon be official BRICS members. Each of them sides with the Palestinians, as do most of the BRICS nations (India is the exception). As I’ve explained before, with the additions of Saudi Arabia, Iran and UAE, the BRICS have now effectively surrounded the Persian Gulf. With the addition of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, they now effectively control the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Meanwhile, the addition of Argentina gives BRICS control of the Straits of Magellan for transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans (good luck in the Drake Passage; I’ve been there. It’s a daunting body of water). As my colleague Byron King explains: Egypt is soon entering into BRICS. This has obvious geostrategic implications in terms of that country’s control over the Suez Canal, a key transit point for world trade in general, and certainly for oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Middle East to Europe. Meanwhile, Egypt also occupies a strategic position in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, plus a long coastline along the Red Sea. Again, think in terms of how these coastlines enable control of sea-lanes that form key elements of global trade in that part of the world. Now move south to Ethiopia, at the bottom end of the Red Sea. This area too is a strategic point in terms of controlling ship traffic into/out of the Red Sea sea-lanes. Plus, Ethiopia is well positioned as a kickoff point for trade into the heart of Africa, where there are immense amounts of minerals and agricultural potential. And let’s not neglect Argentina, at the southern end of South America. Argentina is rich in agriculture and all manner of minerals, especially critical elements like copper and lithium, essential for the future of world energy development. Plus, Argentina controls strategic sea-lanes around the southern tip of the continent, and it’s worth noting that the shortest distance from any landmass to Antarctica is out of Argentina. [11/1: The Beginning Of A Brand-New Inflation Surge?]( [This Simple Chart]( Inflation officially peaked in June 2022 at 9.1% -- and ever since, it’s come back down to just 3.2%. But if you think the worst of this crisis is over, think again… Will Nov. 1 mark the beginning of a new – and far more serious – inflation surge? [Click here now to see my urgent warning.]( [LEARN MORE]( BRICS to Dominate World Island and Heartland BRICS are moving closer to the dual visions of Halford Mackinder, the geopolitical theorist whose notion of the World Island and Heartland were both based in Asia — and to Alfred Mahan, the naval strategist whose theory of sea power emphasized control of critical straits and other sea chokepoints. The BRICS are consolidating physical control of both the land and sea pivots of history. And that has serious long-term geopolitical implications. For example, the U.S. has dispatched two carrier battle groups to the eastern Mediterranean to demonstrate support for Israel. What if the U.S. wanted to transit those carriers through the Suez Canal, into the Red Sea and ultimately the Persian Gulf? And what if Egypt refused to grant them passage through the Suez Canal because the U.S. supports Israel? They’d have to turn around, exit the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar, head all the way down the African coast past the Cape of Good Hope and all the way up the east coast of Africa before they could access the Persian Gulf. That would take about two weeks. And Iran, another BRICS nation, dominates the Strait of Hormuz. I’m not suggesting anything like that is going to happen in the near future. I don’t want to exaggerate the threat. But as BRICS grows in power and influence over time, it can’t be ruled out in the future. So BRICS is about much more than seeking an alternative to the U.S. dollar. It has potentially major geopolitical consequences. Getting back to more immediate concerns, this is the most grave crisis in the Middle East since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Israel will not rest until Hamas participants are annihilated and Hamas governance in Gaza is gone. We’ll be lucky if the war does not spread to include attacks on Iran. It would be foolish to rule that out. We are in a new world. Regards, [James Altucher] Jim Rickards for The Daily Reckoning P.S. The entire Middle East could become destabilized in a matter of days from now. For you, that could mean surging oil prices, unprecedented market volatility and even the potential for a new global conflict, if the U.S. were to get involved. [That’s why I’m issuing an urgent alert for all Strategic Intelligence readers today.]( You see, the world is more uncertain than it’s been in decades — and that uncertainty continues to grow by the day… You can see it happening in front of you right now. [And you’ll need someone to help guide you through what comes next, every step of the way.]( That’s why I’m announcing a massive upgrade to your Strategic Intelligence subscription, to help make sure you’re prepared for what I see happening next. [Click here immediately for details.]( Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:dr@dailyreckoning.com) [Jim Rickards] James G. Rickards is the editor of Strategic Intelligence. He is an American lawyer, economist, and investment banker with 35 years of experience working in capital markets on Wall Street. He is the author of The New York Times bestsellers Currency Wars and The Death of Money. [Paradigm]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( © 2023 Paradigm Press, LLC. 808 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press, LLC. delivering daily email issues and advertisements. To end your The Daily Reckoning e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from The Daily Reckoning, feel free to [click here.]( Please note: the mailbox associated with this email address is not monitored, so do not reply to this message. We welcome comments or suggestions at feedback@dailyreckoning.com. This address is for feedback only. 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