of fears around the coming financial system competition.

See the second part of this write up. China is bringing online it's own payment system, so is Russia, and they will be linking them.

China is in serious talks with the IMF about designating the Yaun a world reserve currency.

The US could not go after China: we are too dependent on their continuing to buy our bonds. Russia was seen to be the next best thing.

Hold to your hat: Because we seem to be burying our own chances by trying to enforce continued monopoly on the world financial system and currency.

The dollar has been held up by deficit spending and tricks like QE for too long. It can't survive competition without a severe adjustment.

the BRICS countries have basically made an end run around the IMF, creating an IMF alternative.

he was trying to get off the petrodollar.

Um, no.

China bought US debt in an attempt to keep their currency low relative to the dollar. That way China could keep being a source of cheap labor for US companies. Eventually, it stopped working and China drastically cut back on US debt purchases - they reached the point where keeping their currency low would require purchasing more debt than we produce.

Not to mention, "going after China" would be a fantastic way to reduce our debt. An open conflict would allow us to declare the bonds they purchased to be invalid, instantly reducing our debt.

The vast majority of US debt is owed to.....the US. US People and US companies bought it. National debt does not have to be sold to other nations. National debt is not the same as your credit card debt. Stop using that right-wing framing.