24, January 2008 Petro-euros
The white hot rhetoric from our government, directed against Iran, coupled with the falling US dollar may be worsening the US economic crisis. Next week the Iran Bourse will open to trade Iran’s oil revenue in euros, precipitating the further decline in the dollar. Following the Wall Street crash of 1929, the US insisted that it receive gold as payment for its trading goods leading to a huge stockpile of the precious metal in US vaults. This led to the establishment of the dollar as the ‘gold standard’ reserve currency. A staggering 66% of the total wealth of the world is stored in US dollars – mainly overseas. In 1971, attempts were made by several countries to exchange their dollar holdings to gold but all such requests were rejected by the US government.
Coincidently, in 2000 Saddam Hussein announced Iraq would switch from selling its oil from dollars to euros and began converting all their petro-dollars to euros. Could this have been the reason for the preemptive strike on Iraq? In the early days of the invasion, the oil fields were well protected but Iraq’s priceless national treasures, housed in its museums, were looted. Predictably, oil sales reverted back to dollars following the invasion. To better comprehend the exchange currency dilemma, just Google `petroeuro'.
To better understand our bellicose attitude towards Iran, and the identity of the foreign government which persuaded the US administration to embark on its disastrous war in Iraq, Google ‘Mearsheimer and Walt’. There you will find the answer
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