5 of 10 Top Economies in the World Drop the Dollarselfnews Post ZeroHedge points out today that Australia, the worlds 12th-ranked economy, has now joined a growing list of nations that have agreed to bypass the dollar in bilateral trade with China. China, ranked 2nd behind the U.S., also has similar agreements with Japan (3rd), Brazil (6th), India (9th), and Russia (10th). Although unilateral agreements have been in place for some time between China and the countries listed above, last week the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) agreed to set up a development bank to compete with the IMF, indicating its gearing up to compete in a post-dollar world. Additionally, Brazil, who agreed in principle to drop the dollar with bilateral trade with China some time ago, just made it official with $30 billion in annual currency swaps which will facilitate around 50% of all trade between them. Besides those agreements with China, some of these nations have made other similar agreements with each other. India and Japan began swapping $15 billion in each others currency in 2011 to handle their bilateral trade. And the sanctions against Iran havent stopped them from trading oil with China, Russia, and India in anything but the dollar. It appears that the dollar is certainly nearing the end of its reign, which could lead to severe economic hardship for the United States. Dave Hodges writes: And Marin Katusa of Casey Research writes: Americas imperialism, combined with its ultra-fiat status of unending debt creation, appears to have created a final downward spiral that has caused many of the top economies to abandon a sinking ship. It might not be too much longer before the rest follow suit. Now might be a great time to consider diversifying into other currencies, and even digital currencies, to mitigate growing losses in the U.S. dollar. Read other articles by selfnews Post Here 