Final Thoughts from Rio: The Dawn of a New Financial Era

Final Thoughts from Rio: The Dawn of a New Financial Era

Peter Reagan

What we saw in Rio made one thing clear: BRICS isn’t just pushing back on the dollar. They’ve built a new financial system. From accelerated dedollarization to gold hoarding, here are five key takeaways you won’t hear on the nightly news…

I reflected on something I’d heard from a number of BRICS delegates over the week:

“We are not against the U.S. but we are against dollar dominance. We don’t want confrontation, but we do want the freedom to choose.”

Those two sentences may best capture what the Rio Reset is all about.

Being there, in-person and on the ground, I got an entirely different perspective. From my desk in Los Angeles, it was easy to see the BRICS 2025 summit as a gathering of anti-American anarchists trying to tear down the existing financial order.

Instead, I found a gathering of sovereign nations quietly working toward their own economic freedom. Building financial circuit breakers in advance of the next global crisis. Creating escape hatches from dollar dependence.

Phillip Patrick and I came to Rio to learn, to listen and to report on a subject the mainstream media mostly ignores.

Here are five of our biggest takeaways from the BRICS 2025 Summit…

1. Dedollarization is now mainstream policy

What used to be called a “fringe theory” or alarmist speculation is now public, official policy for BRICS members.

Brazil’s President Lula, host of the summit, had some observations on dedollarization:

“The world has changed… We are sovereign countries. There’s no going back. Reducing dependence on the dollar will happen step by step – until it is consolidated.”

“Nobody has determined that the dollar is the currency standard,” he added. While history says otherwise, Lula’s point is clear: BRICS nations no longer accept that arrangement.

Multiple formal speeches and summit documents confirmed that reducing dollar dependence is not a wish – it’s a working plan. Confirming everything we learned in our interview with Professor Pablo Ibañez.

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