swift money US dollar
© Carlo Allegri / Reuters
Well, I'm getting deeper into it - and in fact this is practically a breaking story, so I prefer not to wait and you have it here first hand while it's evening in Europe and early afternoon in the US.

Let's start with a very well informed source, a top German financier in Switzerland, commenting on German FM Maas floating the idea of an EU - or global - payment system bypassing the US (Here's the Reuters story.)

By the way, were it to be global, that's exactly what Russia-China and the BRICS have been discussing for years.

According to the source, "too many European (and Swiss) financial institutions (and regulators) are run by Americans or ardent fans of the U.S. Plus, they are extremely afraid of the American rhetoric of locking them out of Wall St. if they misbehave."

He adds that since the Treaty of Rome, the EU could not agree on even A SINGLE important decision related to money, banking, taxes, subsidies, you name it." So why now?", he asks.

Moreover, "the trust by other nations in a 'EU-leadership' is even lower than the feared, yet customarily obeyed, U.S, global-leadership."

And, "even if they could have a vague attempt at such a large-scale revolution, before the croissants are eaten, NYC currency traders would have nuked the Euro and the USAF could have a dominant presence all over Europe before Brussels has finished its after-lunch siesta..."

How cool is that?

For our very well connected friend, "in the economy of the future, Europe will be an also-ran. In a 5-10 year horizon I rather see the Chinese monetary dominance as inevitable. Forget Europe."

Now compare it with the shorter-term view by my analyst friend Peter Spengler. Peter correctly argues that SWIFT is not the problem:
"SWIFT, the world's largest cooperative[!] payment network, operates under Belgian, that is EUropean law - which the US Treasury warriors [+ GCHQ & NSA] have been breaking for more than ten years now, against many a protest on the EP level. Europe and the associated countries and currencies do not need another system, but INTERNATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE ELIMINATION OF THE USD (emphasis mine) and hence the NYFed from payment transactions - for real neutral and multilateral clearing."
Now for the bombshell - coming from a restricted list circulated at the highest levels and provided by one of my EU finance sources.

According to their analysis, the German Foreign Ministry "did not launch this trial balloon without permission from those above Merkel, who is nothing but a stooge of the financiers."

It gets better:
"Germany is in deep fear of the Strait of Hormuz being shut stranding a major supply of her natural gas and oil and placing her totally dependent on oil and natural gas from Russia. That is why they have to hold up the Iranian deal against all costs, as they could lose Russia next. Hence, the recent meeting of Merkel and Putin, (I covered it for Asia Times here) and the floating of a new currency plan to break the control over Germany and the world of the SWIFT-CHIPS dollar system."
So according to these heavyweights "what is prompting the powers above Merkel to threaten to move away from the US dollar" is FEAR of losing Russian, Central Asian stans and Strait of Hormuz oil and natural gas in case Trump goes nuclear on the sanctions and Iran responds against the blockade.

The message here is that the German elite seems to believe the US would not have the military ability to keep the Strait of Hormuz open - and in this case Germany will be completely paralyzed. And that's why the dismantling of US dollar control of world finance is now being floated by Germany; as a matter of national survival.

Now imagine all this being discussed in the open in the upcoming (sometime in September) Russia-Germany-France-Turkey summit.