Why the West Can't Win: From Bretton Woods to a Multipolar World

Introduction-- "Why the West Can't Win: From Bretton Woods to a Multipolar World" is a book from the mind of Fadi Lama. From just the title it intrigued me as someone interested in what’s going on in the world. It hooked me immediately with the title saying why the west can't win made me want to read it immediately and learn just why that is while living in the west myself.Overview-- This book goes over how many of the countries in the middle and far east as well as others under colonialism were held back by the west initially through the use of the Bretton Woods system and constitutions put in place by the colonial powers. Then Fadi Lama later goes on to show just how some of these countries were able to still pull themselves up and into the global economy competitively. There is also talk of how the US has maintained itself as the “leader” of the free world even as it declines and other countries rise up to meet it and some to even surpass it.We see the span of time from around the 1960s to 2023 and how economies and countries have changed in some ways and either grown or fallen. There are also many of the geopolitical conflicts that are caused by both the west and the east towards others. I believe the author wants to reveal many things that haven't been made well known to the general public about what is currently happening in our world and what affect it will be having on the people.Commentary-- I felt that this book’s examples and evidence of how the US was declining economically until they made the sale of oil to be done in USD back in 1973 made some strong points and really connects to some things I've learned in class about the creation of the petrodollar rather than staying on the gold standard. This was a strong point for me, mainly because they use evidence of how oil was/is a major lifeline of countries around the globe and once it was under US control it drastically raised in price to cover their deficits with other countries.They also talked about a seemingly big player in global geopolitics that they have going by the name of Money Powers. At first this grouping of people seemed to be just what we already know of with politicians being bought by people with money, but the more I read, the worse they seemed to become. I feel like one of the strongest points made about their effect on the world was how these people in the west attempt to and have succeeded many times in the past to exploit the east for their resources and more over many decades. This would be because .Throughout this book, I found that Fadi also discusses and explains many aspects of the Bretton Woods system and how the west has been using it to exploit countries post colonization and how it's connected to the money powers. This made me very surprised that there are all these systems and things that the west has used to directly and indirectly control these other countries. It also reminds me of some of the movies about sub-saharan africa post colonialism, in which the previous colonizers still had a good amount of control or leverage over the countries even though they were now free.Then one of the things I really liked was when Fadi showed all these statistics about how the G7 countries have been in a decline for several years now while the countries part of BRICS have been growing. I liked it because no mainstream media really talks about our country declining while others start and continue to surpass us economically, but instead dance around the issues and blame other things or countries.However, I do think it would have been an even more compelling book if Fadi had gotten some firsts hand accounts from citizens living in these countries from the US to China and more, showing how their lives have changed over the years as the world has been changing. It would have helped solidify the arguments made with some first hand accounts on the experience with the effects on the people, whether positive or negative.Conclusion-- "Why the West Can't Win: From Bretton Woods to a Multipolar World" was great with its depth of descriptions of the geopolitics from both the past and the present and even its estimations at what the future world may look like. Honestly in all, I found this book very informative with some new things and also backing of things I have either suspected or been learning in class. If you are looking for a great read on where we've come from and where we seem to be headed, then I highly recommend this book.

Some of the book reinforces what was said before. Smedley Butler, two time US medal of honor winner said that war is a racket and that he was just muscle for Wall St. Someone said "All wars are bankers wars." The Ayn Rand quote above also applies.In summary, the Money Powers create wars to make money using proxies. The Money Powers control the governments and the media to report on the wars. BUT ... economic well being is correlated to energy use and the West is declining in that metric while much of the world is improving. That material reality will assert itself over the western virtual and financial reality.E.g. A 1993 Soros paper proposed using western tech and eastern European troops to reduce NATO bags. See Ukraine. You can't call it a conspiracy theory when it is out in the open. Material reality matters. See Ukraine.The results of the current Ukr/Russian war shows that reality matters. US congress justifies the war in terms of US defense jobs. 6 US corps control 90% of media and the news on the war. Reality is not optional although the MSM creates their own virtual reality.I do not understand international finance. I understand that international finance is rigged to extract wealth from the rest of the world to the western world, especially the US. See many of Micheal Hudson's videos and books where he tries to explain this. Having the USD as world reserve currency greatly benefits the US. (Also, having the French CAF as an African regional reserve currency benefits France. So NATO had Ghadaffi killed when he proposed a gold backed dinar to replace it.)The US/West overplayed their hands in the international financial wealth extraction racket and it is starting to unravel. Russia got around SWIFT. The petrodollar is starting to unravel.Much of the book deals with reality, which the west ignores in favor or virtual reality or financial reality. I recall the Saudis snubbed the US diplomat recently, keeping him waiting overnight for the now postponed meeting. The Saudis cancelled a UK meeting in order to meet with Putin. Putin being isolated? Either UAE/Saudi current king AND 88 year old retired king met Putin at the airport to hug him. 21 gun salute, honor guard, horse cavalry, camel cavalry, and finally a flyby with jet exhausts painting the Russian tricolor in the sky. The world is changing.

If you want to know how things truly are, instead of the normal human tendency for us to indulge in the present and what is explicit and what is obvious, get this book ASAP. It weaves, connects, guides. It's a bigger picture kind of book, connecting dots, tying seemingly irrelevant events, reading between the line, showing what's under the surface.Some things, huge things, work silently (sometimes the silence is by design), affecting entire nations, but as people are laying in ruin, they are unaware of the forces that were deliberately put into action to cause this.Must read. Should be mandatory reading in every university.

Best overview of the dominating influence of the western elites over the last several centuries resulting in endless wars, carnage, societal destruction and untold misery and suffering to these people who couldn’t defend themselves against these ruthless monsters. There are any tangential works related to this such as the murder of JFK and other world leaders who got in the way of the Money Powers evil designs, and evil they are.

If you want to understand how the world really works and what we can look forward to, then this is the book for you. It's the best book I've read all year!

In contrast to so many others, the author knows how to read numbers a.k.a. statistics. Thus, his analyses are exceptionally well-founded.

This book provides an excellent analysis of the current state of global geopolitics and geoeconomics. The 'West' is losing its power whilst the 'East' is rising.

I was interested to know the background of the flow of power and of course the money. This book gives factual data that is hard to refute, covering these topics in history with lots of charts and graphs.A very informative read.