To: dennisw
Good read until the tenth paragraph.
To: Former Proud Canadian
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 authors theories were true about the USs 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 Americas economy. This simple fact casts a lot of doubt the authors total gloom and doom scenario and his postulated dependence solely on oil.
No doubt that oil is probably the single largest influence on the worlds (especially Europes) economy. However, a large problem hidden in the authors 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 authors argument is that the USs own oil reserves would not be tapped when the price (in whatever currency increases). Additionally, he ignores the contributions of Britains North Sea oil contributions as well as Venezuelas input to the world market.
Yet, another, huge problem with the authors conclusions is that one of Europes 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 Europes 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 authors 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 authors input is more of screed than a serious economic analysis.
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