Here, by way of a data point plucked more or less at random, are the current ten biggest banks on the planet:

1 Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
2 Agricultural Bank of China
3 China Construction Bank
4 Bank of China
5 JPMorgan Chase (USA)
6 Bank of America
7 HSBC (UK)
8 BNP Paribas (France)
9 Crédit Agricole (France)
10 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (Japan)

So the top four banks are Chinese state banks, followed by a couple of Yanks, with a bit of Anglo-Franco-Japonaiserie bringing up the rear. Half-a-century back, the Top Ten was seven US, two UK, plus a token Italian. That's such a lost world that the Top Twenty even had two Canadian banks.

That's the result of America's Chamber of Commerce "right" deciding to give the global economy to the Chinese politburo. If you've just spent the intervening half-century banking at the First National Bank of Dead Moose Junction, like your grampa did, you may be wondering what that's got to do with you. Well, if you recall Joe Biden's promise to bring Russia to its knees, part of the reason that failed is because of the Chinese dominance of global banking. The west transfers money hither and yon through the Brussels-based Swift system, which went along with the sanctions on Russia. But, as part of its financial architecture for the post-American world, Peking set up something called CIPS - the Crossborder Interbank Payment System. Since the start of the Ukraine war, the value of its annual transactions has doubled.

In 2022, China kinda sorta pretended to string along with Euro-American sanctions against Russia. Four years on, vis à vis Iran, they see no such need to:

Beijing Tells China Firms to Ignore US Sanctions on Refiners

As I wrote on the first day of the new war:

The weapons of war are different today. China has taken control of much of the world without firing a shot. Islam has annexed western Europe without firing much more than the occasional macheté or Christmas-market rental-car. Somalia has conquered Minnesota without firing off anything other than federal grant applications.


https://www.steynonline.com/16192/the-strait-jacket

Sprintcyclist wrote on May 6^th, 2026 at 3:09am:

African countries have long relied on US funding to support their health bills. Al Jazeera reported that African countries received $5.4bn in US assistance in 2024, spent largely on humanitarian, health and disaster needs.

Frank wrote on May 5^th, 2026 at 9:07pm:


Just so, dear boy. The smart money's on Chi-na. If the current US administration wasn't playing silly-billies with tariffs, culture wars and new forever-wars, we might have a chance with Uncle.

But no, while your DL tariffs the globe and riffs over pulling out of NATO, taking Greenland and ENDING CIVILIZATION TONIGHT, there's only really one smart investment, now isn't there?

Chi-na's currently in Africa, South and Central Asia, the Middle East, Russia and South America. They don't care who holds the head of the cow as long as they get to milk it. After your DL's tariffs, the Chows cleaned up. In the last decade, they've crept up to become the second richest country in the world. Now, with your DL at the helm, they're close to taking the top spot.

Uncle's friends and trading partners are lying low, awaiting the results of the mid-terms, when your DL becomes a harmless bot, bleating away on Truth Social. The US Congress will legislate his agenda out of existence, upending his executive orders and decrees. The new House Speaker will become the defacto US leader. America will be back in the game again.

That's the plan, anyway. If it was up to Mark Carney, US allies would be cutting Uncle out altogether. For us, that's not so easy - we rely on Uncle for AUKUS and defence. That's the bipartisan consensus of our DLs.

Who knows? We might do better taking Keating's advice and going all-in with the Chows. At the very least, they're consistent. That's what the stock market seems to think, anyway. The SSEC's booming. Its tech sector is raging. Its global market share is expanding.

This is all happening under your DL's watch. Uncle's trade deficit with Chi-na has increased, as has Chinese trade with Uncle's former trading partners. Consider the case of Argentina, where your DL tried to fix an election by giving billions in agriculture subsidies and orders for Argentinian beef. Chi-na stepped in, canned its US soy imports and handed them over to Argentina, killing US farmers, right in the GOP heartland.

Conversely, when your DL stomped on Brazil, Chi-na stepped in with the cheque book. The Chows own much of Peru, Bolivia, Columbia, Chile. Despite your DL's "Donroe Doctrine", Chi-na is all through the Americas, cashing in. With all his blather, there's not a thing your DL can do about it.

Look, that's just the thing, old boy. For all the rhetoric, promises and decrees, your DL has failed to deliver on his key agenda. We haven't even started on the domestic front, his failure to lower inflation, cut waste and mismanagement, his so-called incompetence and corruption, which, under your DL, now exists. Bigger than ever before.

Biden, by contrast, was succeeding in bringing back manufacturing. At the end of his term, US GDP was nearly 2% higher than it is today. Your DL isn't even trying. As you well know, he's too busy shorting the oil market, selling memecoin and sending Jared and Steve into major foreign negotiations to cut deals on the side.

We will make America great again, no?

Frank wrote on May 6^th, 2026 at 12:16pm:



So, you depend upon American military might for your free healthcare you fat Pom