Reddit reviews Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar

It's astounding that so much has happened since January 20th, which was less than five months ago.

But you can trace the loss of hegemony back through the last several decades:

• Military misadventures: The Bay of Pigs, the Vietnam War, the Iran-Contra Affair and the Sandinistas, the Iraq War, and our involvement in the Syrian Civil War. On a smaller scale - reckless drone strikes with unacceptable amounts of collateral damage. So much conflict and loss of life; so little achieved.
  
  
• Our 2007 MBS blow-up prompted a global recession, specifically because we allowed investment firms to sucker the world into a securities scam based on shoddy credit ratings. Far from fixing that problem, we applied a few haphazard patches that are now being repealed.
  
  
• We have taken on a lot of foreign debt (which is not necessarily bad as long as it remains comfortably serviceable, which it is), and then complained about it as unfair (which is stupid) and threatened to default on it (which is mind-numbingly awful).
  
  
• We have shown such poor economic leadership that the world is steadily moving away from petrodollars. Trump's actions are accelerating it - note this under-reported development - but it's a trend going back 20 years (1999, 2003, 2005, 2012,
  2014, 2016, etc.)
  
  
• We have incessant and growing political, social, and economic problems that, together, dampen the productivity of the nation in a subtle but sweeping way. We're losing our edge in academia and technology. We're exacerbating poverty and failing to elevate standards of education. Despite our vast resources, we are making less productive use of it than ever.
  
  
• A major problem that we've refused to confront - for 30 years now - is our aging population: the imminent en masse retirement of the Baby Boomers. While forestalled by several years (for reasons that are mostly bad), this shift will require tremendous resources to manage both the needs of the retirees and the vacuum of skilled labor. We can see the consequences of such failures in Japan, which has struggled with an aging population - and unlike Japan's direct and head-on problem-solving approach, we're letting class warfare and Tea-Party philosophical BS distract us from the problem. The 2020's-2030's will be very difficult times for America as a result of this particular problem.
  

Let's make a list of countries that do not (entirely) or considered not trading in the petrodollar

Russia (bad guys!)

China (bad guys!)

Iran (bad guys!!!!!)

Venezuela (RIP)

Libya (RIP)

Iraq (RIP)

The US Dollar hegemony is real make no mistake. 9/11 was merely an excuse to take military action and secure petroleum resources. We have none other than Dick Nixon to thank for this foreign policy. Furthered by the scum of the Earth Cheney the fucking dredge. despicable.

https://www.amazon.com/Petrodollar-Warfare-Iraq-Future-Dollar/dp/0865715149&ved=2ahUKEwjZvv_Au4nkAhWYq54KHSbVCpUQFjAMegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw000xKD5u-E9cheksSxasX0

https://www.amazon.com/Petrodollar-Warfare-Iraq-Future-Dollar/dp/0865715149

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/feb/16/iraq.theeuro

http://www.monetary.org/was-the-iraqi-shift-to-euro-currency-to-real-reason-for-war/2010/12

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1095057.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CLA410A.html

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Petrodollar-Warfare-Iraq-Future-Dollar/dp/0865715149

http://www.economist.com/node/1378764

This all relates to the petrodollar warfare hypothesis. The basic contention thereof is that the reason for the predominance if the dollar is because of some sort of collaboration between the US and OPEC to only seen oil in dollars, and that the US attacks anyone who ever tried to deviate.

Of course, the issue is that there are countries who seek oil in currency other than the dollar--including counties the US is extremely close to (Canada and the UK), and the volume of trade that's done in the dollar that has little or nothing to do with oil. (The vast majority of trade)

After a cursory examination, you've got to become skeptical about where this theory originates from because is the weaknesses in the theory--and in this case this theory originates from a curious source: A guy named Richard Clarke, who turns out to be an IT guy, not an actual economist or political scientists.

In the field nobody thinks that the petrodollar warfare hypothesis has any merit. It's basically the mad fantasy of a guy who didn't like George Bush. It's really disregarded, except for the inexplicable popularity it has on the internet.

It's not about oil. It's about petrodollar. Saddam Hussein had plan to use euro for its oil export. That was 2000. The US already had war plan for Iraq before 9/11. All these are just a justification. If you are interested in this topic you should start with these books.

Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar

A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order

I found couple random sources from Wikipedia, and from other redditors. Hopefully this gets you started on your own research to see what makes the most sense to you.

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1095057.html

>Shammas says the idea of switching to the euro has appeal to Iran and Iraq because they feel if several major oil producers did it they could create a stampede from the dollar which would weaken Washington.

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998512,00.html
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/feb/16/iraq.theeuro
http://www.monetary.org/was-the-iraqi-shift-to-euro-currency-to-real-reason-for-war/2010/12
http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1095057.html
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CLA410A.html
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Petrodollar-Warfare-Iraq-Future-Dollar/dp/0865715149
http://www.economist.com/node/1378764

> Oil isn't any more cheap because it's currently traded in dollars.

Wrong. If you have to buy oil in a foreign country's currency, you have to buy that currency first, then buy the oil. You will always lose value in the exchange. In fact, the Iraq War may have been started to ensure the world's oil supply continues to be priced in American dollars and not Euros.

Automation will affect China and India less, because the citizens of those countries are not used to the standard of living Americans have enjoyed as a result of being less than 4% of the world's population but holding over 30% of the world's wealth. Globalization and automation will level the standard of living across the world; what that means is that as life for Indians and Chinese improves, life for Americans gets worse.

The ethnic divides in America have been kept assuaged by the bouyant economy and petrodollar; once those tank, the fissures in society will erupt and America will implode into a violent racial, ethnic, and religious civil war with horrific casualties.

There ya go. A whole book:


http://www.amazon.com/Petrodollar-Warfare-Iraq-Future-Dollar/dp/0865715149

Thank F**KING CHRIST! Bitcoin is saved! To the mods. Thankyou for what you have done. You have realised that ANY WEAKNESSES, especially ones brought on by raising the block limit (without ensuring safety first) in the current environment is DANGEROUS for the survival of bitcoin in a world dominated by central agencies that issue fiat currency for their own purposes in pursuit of power, that DO NOT wish there to be any competitors. They will destroy competition if they have the capcity, just like they did in IRAQ and LIBYA:
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/06/new-hillary-emails-reveal-true-motive-for-libya-intervention/
http://www.amazon.com/Petrodollar-Warfare-Iraq-Future-Dollar/dp/0865715149