What The Collapse Looks Like...

 ... on the example of Russian-Iranian financial relations. 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and Russia have taken a key step toward linking their banking systems in a move that further boosts their cooperation in the face of Western sanctions, an Iranian official said. At a signing ceremony on Sunday, Mohsen Karami, the deputy central bank governor, said banks in the two countries had connected their messaging networks following agreements reached over the past year, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. It was not clear whether those links would allow for the transfer of funds, and services were not yet available to bank customers. Karami said 100 banks in 13 other countries were connected to the network, without naming them.

This was a week ago. Now it is a DONE deal. Both systems are linked as Ria Reports and ramifications are global:

"Мы соединили друг с другом системы передачи (финансовых - ред.) сообщений двух стран. Это значит, что банкам двух стран больше не нужна Швейцария для связи друг с другом и коммерческие банки обоих государств могут устанавливать друг с другом посреднические отношения. Экспортер может выставить российской стороне счет в риалах и получить по нему деньги от российских банков в Иране", - приводит слова Карими агентство Fars. Заместитель главы ЦБ Ирана также подчеркнул, что экспортеры обеих стран могут осуществлять сделки в своих национальных валютах. Днем ранее член исполнительного совета Фонда национального развития Ирана Хосейн Айвазлу заявил, что фонды национального благосостояния России и Ирана планируют создать совместные инвестиционные комитеты для реализации различных проектов в нефтегазовой, нефтехимической, фармацевтической и ряде других сфер. 

Translation: "We have connected the transmission systems of (financial - ed.) messages of the two countries with each other. This means that the banks of the two countries no longer need Switzerland to communicate with each other and commercial banks of both countries can establish intermediary relations with each other. The exporter can set the Russian side an account in rials and receive money from it from Russian banks in Iran,” Fars agency quotes Karimi as saying. The deputy head of the Iranian Central Bank also emphasized that exporters of both countries can carry out transactions in their national currencies. A day earlier, Hossein Ayvazlu, a member of the executive board of the National Development Fund of Iran, said that the national wealth funds of Russia and Iran plan to create joint investment committees to implement various projects in the oil and gas, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and a number of other areas.

This is the end of Petrodollar and with it America's "exorbitant privilege". But then again, since 1980s US Dollars was supported by... pretty much nothing other than mythology left from US industrial capacity of 1940-1970s and some serious rewriting of military history and military art to support the bluff of "the finest fighting force in history". The bluff has been called and the revealed reality is rather pitiful. Remarkably, though, at this stage both the United States and Russia would rather see Europe weak and lacking any ambitions. There is a logical explanation for this on both sides, but if the United States preserves itself as a country and sees some new crop of statesmen emerging, Russia will talk to the US. With Europe--no.

But now, it is all up to respective central banks in Russia and Iran how to settle accounts and nobody cares what Washington says. The trend not only continues but accelerates, and Russia and China settle accounts in Rubles and Yuans, which are supported by immense industrial capacity of China and immense Russia's resources and... the finest fighting force in history. I wonder why Lloyd Austin and Pentagon didn't even bother with informing the White House about Secretary of Defense hospitalization--this is a WOWser! Are these the signs of a start of decomposing of American governance as such?