The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse (Guess who wants to kill the US dollar)

Gold Eagle ^ | 20 January, 2006 | Krassimir Petrov

[dennisw]

ping

[Former Proud Canadian]

Good read until the tenth paragraph.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Tinfoil anyone?

[Just mythoughts]

The US has oil, appears that it is in the interest of a few to keep it in the ground. Wonder if those votes are bought in EUROS?

[thoughtomator]

Classic example of unjustified confidence in the Euro. It is the Euro which is in trouble, not the dollar. All the Euro economies are stagnating - who wants to tie themselves to that?

[DB]

I guess this guy got his PHD in a crackerjack box...

First, taxes aren't voluntary. Duh...

No one forced other countries to use or invest with dollars. It just so happens dollars are safer holdings of wealth verses other currencies. Especially in times of trouble. In addition these other countries wanted us to buy their products. Hence they received dollars in exchange... Shocking...

I'll laugh my butt off if the Euro becomes the worlds "reserve currency". The Euro is an illusion coming apart at the seams. There will be major losses for all that go down that road.

[dennisw]

ping

[tort_feasor]

This is gold bug nonsense. There are litterally hundreds of billion in foreign currency exchanged every day. Someone who wants to buy oil in euros swaps his euros for dollars the momemt of the trade. While this creates an artifical demand for dollars it is tiny in comparison to the American economy. For example if there are 100 million barrels of oil traded daily at $65.00 a barrel, that is a demand of only, $6.5 billion dollars for the oil trade every day. The American economy is over $10 trillion dollars in size. Which make $6.5 billion a mere 0.65% of the size of the economy.
I posit another theory. The American government is the most free has the strongest property rights and is the only country with the millitary might to protect its interests globally. That certainly makes it a better investment than, any other currency.

[Jaysun]

Crackpottery.

[G.Mason]

"No doubt, Commander-in-Chief Ben Bernanke, a renowned scholar of the Great Depression and an adept Black Hawk pilot, will choose inflation. Helicopter Ben, oblivious to Rothbard's America's Great Depression, has nonetheless mastered the lessons of the Great Depression and the annihilating power of deflations."

Yeah ... What he said.

[reformedliberal]

What I cannot understand is why the Euro stays above the US dollar. All their economic and social fundamentals are, IMO, negative.

[Thermalseeker]

Many have criticized Bush for staging the war in Iraq in order to seize Iraqi oil fields. However, those critics can't explain why Bush would want to seize those fields-he could simply print dollars for nothing and use them to get all the oil in the world that he needs. He must have had some other reason to invade Iraq.

Really? Maybe it was no-bid contracts for Haliburton subsideary KBR? Nah, Haliburton has been trying to sell KBR for quite a while. Must be another reason.... /sarcasm off

[Thermalseeker]

That certainly makes it a better investment than, any other currency.

Especially a currency that is backed up by bloated socialist regimes with little or no military to protect themselves, lackadaisical workforces, companies that can no longer afford to do business there due to high taxation, and no natural resources to speak of outside of the oil field in the North sea.

If this should happen, the obvious counter to it is the Fair Tax which would create a tax haven here, lower the cost of doing business here and then let the feathers fly......

[Lucky Dog]

This author is expounding the theory, popular among economic historians, that all wars have their roots in economic reasons. Additionally, his postulates about empires taxing (demanding tribute) other nations seem to match known historical precedents.

Unfortunately, his arguments about America demanding “tribute” in the stealthy form of insisting that the rest of the world use US currency as a de facto international medium of exchange is more than a bit of a stretch. Even if this author’s theories were true about the US’s “stealthy world taxation,” there are problems with attempting to tie a global economic theory to a single commodity such as oil and to what currency in which it is traded.

Furthermore, as one poster has already pointed out on this thread, oil is not the only component of America’s economy. This simple fact casts a lot of doubt the author’s total “gloom and doom” scenario and his postulated dependence solely on oil.

No doubt that oil is probably the single largest influence on the world’s (especially Europe’s) economy. However, a large problem hidden in the author’s argument is an unstated premise that all of the oil producing countries (except Saudi Arabia) see a problem with trading in US dollars. Another, important, unstated premise in the author’s argument is that the US’s own oil reserves would not be tapped when the price (in whatever currency increases). Additionally, he ignores the contributions of Britain’s North Sea oil contributions as well as Venezuela’s input to the world market.

Yet, another, huge problem with the author’s conclusions is that one of Europe’s major trading partners (arguably the largest) is the US. In fact, the volume of trade between the US and Europe dwarfs the volume between Europe and Iran or any other single oil producing nation. Consequently, as the saying goes, “if the US sneezes (economically) then Europe gets a cold.”

Therefore, it logical to conclude that it is not in Europe’s long term interests to assist oil producing nations in precipitating a US economic collapse, or even, a major depression. This axiom is true regardless of what Iran or any cabal of oil producers may desire in terms of economic (or other) damage to the US.

The net result of the author’s failure to consider all of the economic factors in his argument is that his entire argument is weakened to the point of unbelievability. Therefore, the thoughtful reader is left with the impression that the author’s input is more of screed than a serious economic analysis.

[Colorado Doug]

Bump for later read

[Travis McGee]

I read it last week on 321Gold. Interesting take. What happens when the era of dollar supremacy comes to an end?

For 50 years, we've been able to "play Monopoly" with the world, and at the same time play the games "banker." This sure gives a player a mega-advantage! What happens when we can no longer play "banker" and print all of the thin-air money we want?

Interesting times.

[Travis McGee]

All the Euro economies are stagnating - who wants to tie themselves to that?

Somebody like the insane messianic dictator of Iran, who could care less about maximizing profits, and who has the stated goal of wrecking the world economy (including Iran's) in order to usher in the worldwide islamic caliphate which will rise for the ashes of war and chaos.

I kid you not. Look it up. He also wants to "wipe Israel from the map" and is trying very hard to build the nukes to do so.

[thoughtomator]

I know all about it. But besides insane suicidal fanatics, nobody is really chomping at the bit to go from dollars to euros.