In November of 2000, Hussein switched to selling oil in Euros, when normally all OPEC nations sell their oil in US Dollars. Why?
As Ron Paul explains the US added a secret agreement to the overall OPEC Agreement where OPEC nations promised to sell oil in US dollars, and no other currency. This effectively backs the US dollar in oil, and all countries need US dollars in their reserves. This article explains why.
This is why some people call our currency The Petrodollar.
When Hussein started selling oil in Euros, it attacked the dollar’s dominance as the world currency. And of course, two other countries tried, or are trying, to follow suit. Venezuela tried in 2001, and within a year Chavez was almost removed in a military coup – in the Ron Paul speech I linked to above, he states it is widely rumored that our CIA was involved in that coup.
And now Iran is starting its own oil bourse (exchange).
Notice a trend here?
Luckily for Bush, 9/11 happened not long after Hussein started selling oil in Euros, otherwise we would not be in Iraq. Interestingly, all Iraqi reserves were quickly converted back to US dollars once we took over, and oil was once again sold in US dollars. Boy were we lucky we had an excuse to get our military into the Middle East. Whew.
To add some fuel to the fire, you have Peak Oil. The link goes to a US Department of Energy Report, called the Hirsch Report, that talks about the peaking of world oil supplies, and future ‘energy shortages.’ Oh, and US and UK oil companies are also going to reap profits from the sale of Iraqi oil. Like icing on the cake.
Luckily we are in Iraq, making permanent bases to ’spread Democracy’. It is also very fortunate that Global Warming became widely known about a year and a half after the Hirsch Report stated:
“Waiting until world oil production peaks before taking crash program action leaves the world with a significant liquid fuel deficit for more than two decades.
Most sources feel we either hit ‘peak’ in 2005, or will hit it by 2012. So fortunately Global Warming became an issue. How would the US Government explain to people why they had to save energy and drive more fuel efficient cars? What would happen if the morning news started with “we are headed for 20 years of energy shortages, the worlds oil is in decline!”.
Panic. People would at least go into Survival Mode™, not spending any more money than necessary… which would send our economy into a horrible spiral.
So here we are. Our military is smack dab in the middle of the remaining oil left in the world, people are working to ‘become energy independent’ and never think to ask why we didn’t need to be independent back when Saddam was killing the Kurds… and they don’t panic because luckily, we have another reason to use to explain to people why they need to cut back on energy usage and of course, why other countries should too. We are ensuring that the worlds oil is sold in dollars… except for those pesky Iranians, trying to set up their oil bourse. I wonder what will happen when Iran gets that set up?
Iran completes oil bourse, February 17th, 2008.
Oh yes, the next time you see tiny speedboats ‘menacing’ US warships, remember that The Gulf of Tonkin never happened. 50K Americans, and millions of Vietnamese died and years later it turns out there were not even any Vietnamese boats there at all on the second day… and on the first day, OUR soldiers shot at the Vietnamese – and they still did not fire back at us.
So ask yourself: do you think Bush would care about 3000 dead Americans, now that you see there are solid, very real motives for attacking Iraq?
So long as the American masses are kept intoxicated on limitless freedoms (except political freedom of course; just an illusion of democratic institutes is enough) and kept ignorant of its governments underhand tactics, kept hooked to Hollywood and celebrity gossip, kept relatively well off (unless of course you happen to see ‘Sicko’ by Michael Moore), so will the neocon infested, Zionist infiltrated halls of power in Washington continue to squash the rest of the world underfoot such connotations as ‘war on terror’ ‘free world’ ‘democracy’ yada yada.
All this towards realizing what Rumsfeld and his cronies publicly boast as the vision for THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY.
And so long as the media continue to mislead the American public by misconstruing facts under the guise of a free and independent media (the only thing free about their media is the freedom to draw caricatures, talk about Britney spears newest undies- or the lack of it, publish pornography etc) by the likes of media barons such as Rupert Murdoch & other Jewish Interest Groups who owns the bulk of American media outlets, so will their so called “elected” leaders continue to invade sovereign lands and suck their natural resources openly And watch pacifically while innocent civilians (as the Palestinians) & sovereign nations are crushed in front of the worlds eyes.
The American mindset towards Israel is no chance happening; it is a psychology built in from the most tender ages (example- kindergarten teaches them Ann Franks diary and the horrors of a magnified Holocaust) through the media, teaching institutes as the prestigious universities and think tanks.
Coupled with this is the alliance of Christian zealots and such archaic notions as Palestine being the promised land for the Jews drive American foreign policy and public opinion, and who enjoy considerable clout over the Christian belt- where peace loving church going folk which make the bulk of the American population can be bent into any preferable ideology so long as they are kept well fed & their produce well subsidized, provided enough distractions(Sports, Hollywood, ‘Freedom’ ), kept voluntarily subdued beneath this veneer of supranationalism(die for the flag; God & Country: Support our troops) etc.
What the rest of us see as the beacons of western industrialization and superiority, be it LA NY DC , these are merely the economic powerhouses where the ruling elite make their trillions, oblivious to the hard working average blue collar Americans.
The fear of being labeled an anti-Semitic is so great and the loss to business so devastating that no leading newspaper or any other media outlet will dare criticize Israeli policy, at the expense of losing advertising revenue. Those of us who dare to question as per our ‘democratic right’ are immediately silenced through what ever means necessary(just ask Professors John J.Mearsheimer and Stephan Walt, whose infamous dossier has all but been erased from the publics memory by now,http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011/$File/rwp_06_011_walt.pdf, Or Ziopedia.org or any number of individuals, groups, peoples, governments that dared to state the obvious)
The United States (and its 51st state) constitutes the single greatest threat to world peace and stability. It actions can be traced to almost every conflict present and past.
Its underhand tactics in the middle east (the one relatively visible example) has been cleverly hidden under the guise of the Osama-bogeyman and “Muslim terrorists” out to kill us all because “they-hate-our-freedom”.
When in fact History stands testament to the key role CIA has played in flaring sectarian discord along ethnic and religious lines towards its own interests, be it in installing puppet regimes or actively engaging in terror plots within sovereign nations. Everything that is wrong today in west Asia has nothing to do with ‘Moslem Terrorists’ as much to do with covert American intervention towards securing an uninterrupted supply of oil & absolute control of Oil fields(& its profits), plus the security of the State of Israel(Eliminate Iran from the equation and divide the middle east into mini states- each with their own flag to die for, arm them and let them go at each other, make sure their population is deprived of any education or economic vigor and finally ensure the continuity of this profitable cycle through breeding religious zealots; which is not a difficult task given the prevailing atmosphere of desperation, destitution, and hopelessness of a starving,unemployed majority youth population.All you need to do is secretly fund and support separatist movements and ‘mullahs’ with their archaic notions of religious supremacism propagated through the said underdeveloped population,brainwashed on apocryphal prophetic traditions ).
Add to this the Trillions to be made FROM War and the equation is near complete.
Pages upon pages can be exhausted on this, and for those of us who have come about this realization its enough to keep them awake at night, and feel pity for the American public who must inevitable face the consequences of the actions of its “elected” and the wrath of the rest of the world suffocating under it.
Only Americans can stop what is being done in its name. For this they need to take control of its secular institutions from the clutches of Jewish interest groups and Christian fundamentalists and the war mongering corporate behemoths bred by them to serve their interests.
Even Rome fell, and the realization is slowly dawning in on Americans that their country is no longer run by them. Its government by Zionists, its technology and skilled workforce, at least the bulk of it, by Asians (Indians, Chinese, japs, you name it) and what not.
Those of us non-Jew, or non-American; we seek no wars, we seek no clash of civilizations; it is They who bring it to our doorsteps, cleverly disguised, and say We started it!
And 9/11 is their biggest hoax yet. Only a fool willbuy the ‘official’ 9/11commission’s findings. All too convenient in that it provided the perfect opening for these bloodsuckers to trample on the rest of the world, all the while making us apologize for it.
Evidently, the internet has proven indispensable in giving voice to the renegades, those of us Outlaws who have managed to unplug, if you will, from the matrix of media control.
Only a matter of time though, before the internet is also brought under the radar(http://www.freepress.net/)
*
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Venezuela opts for oil contracts in euros: report
AFP
AFP – Saturday, March 15 10:09 pm
CARACAS (AFP) – Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA has decided to sign some oil contracts in euros in the face of a plummeting dollar, local media reported, citing officials.
(Advertisement)
“There are some contracts in euros, contracts for crude, products and spot markets in euros. This is a subject which we are working on,” said energy minister and Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) chief, Rafael Ramirez, in an interview with the journal El Universal published Friday.
It remained unclear which oil sales would require payment in euros.
Venezuela, Latin America’s leading petroleum producer, has previously backed Iran’s proposals for OPEC to abandon the dollar and use the euro for oil pricing. But the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has rejected the idea, at least in the short-term.
The head of the journal Petroleum World, Elio Ohep, said the shift to euros was “good business” for Venezuela.
“PDVSA always had an interest to negotiate in dollars because the company had refineries in the United States and needed cash but currently with the euro rising, it is taking in more dollars and (Venezuelan) bolivars,” he said.
The dollar hit new lows this week against the euro and yen, with the euro at 1.5669 dollars at 21000 GMT on Friday.
Venezuela produces 3.3 million barrels of oil a day, according to official figures, and 2.4 million according to the International Energy Agency. Half of its production is sold to the United States market.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/2.....?printer=1
The Euro was not available for transactions like this until January 2002. Prior to this, it was used for internal accounting purposes, but it did not exist as a currency until its release on January 1, 2002. Did he have a time machine?
Read further back in the comments to find facts/explanation, James.
In the meantime look/see how things are moved further on.
Ekk
Russia throws a wrench in NATO’s works
By M K Bhadrakumar
[...]
Besides, post-Soviet Russia’s influence in Central Asia has peaked even as the first real possibility of the emergence of a “gas OPEC” involving Russia and the Central Asian countries has appeared. This may well outshine all other foreign policy legacies of Russia in the Putin era. Russia has been for long seeking an association of former Soviet gas producers and exporters on the pattern of the oil cartel. Russia and the Central Asian suppliers – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan – have now agreed that starting in 2009, they will switch to the European price formula.
The move, which bears all the hallmarks of the Kremlin, elevates energy cooperation between Russia and the Central Asian producers to an altogether higher level of coordination and common strategy in foreign markets. The implications are far-reaching for European countries and the US. Russia has checkmated US-sponsored trans-Caspian energy pipeline projects.
Surely, the great shortfall in the Putin legacy has been the failure of his presidency to make Russia a full-fledged partner of Europe. He has now made an offer to NATO that is irresistible – making Russia a participant in the alliance’s Afghan mission. The Russian offer comes at a time when the war in Afghanistan is going badly and NATO can afford to take help from whichever quarter help is available.
[...]
http://atimes.com/atimes/Centr.....5Ag01.html
hey zorn, nice article, i agree with most of it. like ron paul says in his youtube video — “commerce with all, alliance with none.” i think pat buchanan can be a little nutty, but he’s right when he advocates a non-interventionist policy for the US. keep up the interesting blog, thanks — larry.
Ekk, the fact is that Saddam could not use euros before 1/1/2002. You can not use a currency that does not exist. I worked for a Dutch Import Export company from 200 to 2003. We used Guilders until the euro was available.
Until the Euro war available for the Netherlands – that’s what you wanted to say.
As soon as there will be a suitable CMS for replacing the actual blog-site with it’s limited functions, there will be established ‘files’ about themes like “mind-control” which was started by Walter Lippman, “FED” and it’s owner who has now all the money you don’t have any more (516 trillion in derivates – see politikglobal), “the upcoming plans for the NWO” – and last but not least:
“Russia – our last hope for a free humanity” since Russia opposes to the NWO. I do not only know about Russia by TV or newspapers – а иногда нахожусь в России.
http://politikglobal.blogspot.com
[...]
Until recently all OPEC countries agreed to sell their oil for dollars only. This meant that oil importing countries, like Japan, needed to hold dollar reserves in order to be able to buy oil. So long as this remained the case, the Euro was unlikely to become the major reserve currency. There is not a lot of point to stockpiling Euros if every time you need to buy oil you have to change them into dollars. But in November 2000 Iraq switched to the euro, with potentially perilous consequences for the US. Only one country has the right to print dollars: the US! If OPEC were to decide to accept euros only for its oil, then American economic dominance would be over. Not only would Europe not need dollars anymore, but Japan which imports over 80% of its oil from the Middle East would have to convert most of its dollar assets to Euro assets (Japan is of course the major subsidiser of the US). The US on the other hand, being the world’s largest oil importer would have to acquire Euro reserves, i.e. it would have to run a trade surplus. The conversion from trade deficit to trade surplus would have to be done at a time when its property and stock market prices were collapsing and its own oil supplies were contracting. It would be a very painful conversion; potentially disasterous.
The purely economic argument for OPEC converting to the Euro, at least for a while, seem very strong. The Eurozone does not run a huge trade deficit like the US, nor is it heavily indebted to the rest of the world like the US. Nearly everything you can buy for dollars you can also buy for Euros. Furthermore, if OPEC were to convert their dollar assets to Euro assets and then require payment for oil in euros, their assets would immediately increase in value. Also, since oil importing countries would be forced to convert their reserves into euros, whose price would therefore be driven up. OPEC could then at some later date back some other currency, maybe the dollar again, and again make huge profits. This would offer a virtually inexhaustible source of profit for OPEC.
But of course it would not be a purely economic decision. The Eurozone countries do not threaten Middle Eastern countries militarily as the US does.
One article, written at the time the decision was made, claimed it made no financial sense and would cost Iraq millions. According to this “expert” the decision to convert was made by people who “are not experts, they are not central bankers, they are not even oil men”. At the time the article was written, the euro was worth 82 US cents. It is now worth about $1.05. So on economic grounds alone, the Iraqi decision has been a huge success (the $10 billion Iraqi fund at the UN, mentioned in the article, has apparently also since been converted). There may however be military consequences to it. The economic threat to the US may be influencing it in its belligerent stance towards Iraq.
One other OPEC country has been talking publicly about possible conversion since 1999: Iran. And of course it has since been included in the “axis of evil”.
So, as Feasta sees it, this threatened war does not serve continental Europe’s growth interests at all. But a far better reason for opposing the war is that it is a blatant case of mass murder for profit
Further information about this matter can be found at:
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~d.....es/305.txt
I knew about this over 5 years ago.
Then before the dust from the Shock & Awe bombing had settled, Chase Manatten was in Iraq reorganizing their [national/nationalized] banking system, including the switc back to trading oil into US$.
Ekk
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/W.....euro.reut/
U.N. to let Iraq sell oil for euros, not dollars
graphic
October 30, 2000
Web posted at: 8:45 PM EST (0145 GMT)
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — A U.N. panel on Monday approved Iraq’s plan to receive oil-export payments in Europe’s single currency after Baghdad decided to move the start date back a week.
Members of the Security Council’s Iraqi sanctions committee said the panel’s chairman, Dutch Ambassador Peter van Walsum, would inform U.N. officials on Tuesday of the decision to allow Iraq to receive payments in euros, rather than dollars.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s office is to report in three months on the impact of the switch to euros, which a U.N. study said would cost Iraq at least $270 million.
Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Saeed Hasan reported earlier that Baghdad would delay the changeover until after Nov. 6, rather than put it into effect on November 1, as originally announced. Iraq has called the dollar the currency of an “enemy state.”
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Hasan said the delay would give the United Nations time to make arrangements for the change, as it requested.
Iraq had also threatened to stop oil exports, the bulk of which flow through the U.N. humanitarian programme, if its request for payment in euros was denied.
On Friday, the chief U.N. financial officer, Joseph Connor, asked Iraq to delay any action until proper arrangements could be made. He did not say how long he would need.
Connor, the U.N. undersecretary-general for management, told Hasan in a letter that the Central Bank of Iraq and U.N. officials should consult first on “banking arrangements involved and currency management issues.”
Baghdad currently is selling about $60 million in crude a day, about 5 percent of the world’s oil exports.
Under the U.N. “oil-for-food” programme, Iraq is permitted to sell unlimited quantities of oil to purchase needed supplies for its people, to alleviate the impact of U.N. sanctions. The embargoes were imposed when Baghdad’s troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
Contracts for goods as well as oil sales are approved by the United Nations, which has a dollar-based escrow account at the New York branch of the French bank BNP-Paribas. More than $10 billion is in the bank.
In a 10-page report on Friday, Suzanne Bishopric, the U.N. treasurer, outlined how Iraq should go about making the switch but said the euro would accrue lower interest than the dollar.
She said buyers of Iraqi crude would pay 10 cents a barrel less to offset the cost of dealing in euros rather than dollars.
Hasan assailed the report as “highly exaggerated,” and diplomats said he gave a detailed critique of her analysis in his letter to the committee.
@James – I am looking into the Euro thing, here is one talking about Saddam selling oil in euros in 2000.
http://www.rferl.org/features/.....160846.asp
You can find this in 100 different articles. Could they all have gotten it wrong? Did Ron Paul get it wrong?
There must be an explanation.
[...] http://www.spartantailgate.com.....crite.html What if I told you that 10 months before 9/11, Saddam Hussein did something very big, and pissed off… Glenn Greenwald – Everyone we fight in Iraq is now "al-Qaida" – [...]
Zorn, that is for selling oil through the oil for food program only. Remember the “for accounting purposes” thing? It only means the account would be maintained in Euros and any sales would be converted from US$ to Euros for maintaining the account. It required UN approval, which the US could have blocked if it wanted to. And does mention the lost revenue from conversion. They did not get it wrong, you just don’t seem to grasp how banking and markets work. Try being able to understand what you read.
Here is a list of what the amercan government has been doing, THE CIA IS THE WORLDS LARGEST STATE SPONSORED TERRORIST GROUP
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.html share this link with everybody you know
Hand in the badge america, the whole world is sick of your lies and bullshit, and by the way Bush we know world trade centre tower 7 was brought down by thermate 7 hours after the planes hit 1 and 2, destroying the command post that was used to blow the 1 and 2 up.. check out WTC7, the smoking gun, still 6 years later still no answer didnt even make the commission report , what a joke, and american citizens do nothing, so bye bye US dollars around the world
@James. Why the attack? I don’t understand markets? Try to understand what I am reading?
Enlighten me. I am calling your bluff. You have no idea ‘how markets work’. I never claimed to be an economist, just presented facts and logical arguments.
The article that I linked to is PERFECT. The author explains that people are puzzled. “Why is Saddam selling oil in Euros? It only costs him money! There is no reason for this!”
The original addition to the OPEC agreement in the 1970s was secret at the time – not publicized?
So with your superior knowledge of markets, you are telling me the US Government offered to use its military to protect OPEC nations IN RETURN FOR NOTHING MORE THAN THOSE NATIONS PROMISING TO SELL OIL ONLY IN DOLLARS…
for no benefit? All this effort, to secretly add something to the OPEC agreement – for nothing?
It does not make any sense. People did not understand why Saddam was selling in Euros.
Here is an article about Venezuela accepting oil payments in Euros.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/2.....68574.html
Here is an article about the US seeking to add Venezuela to the terror-sponsoring list.
http://www.cpa.org.au/garchve08/1358venez.html
Interestingly, people are being slaughtered like dogs in Tibet, the military is flat out shooting people who dissent – and the US does nothing.
If oil is sold in Euros, other nations need more Euros in their reserves. I do not understand the entire mechanics about how this works, I am still looking into it. But to just tell me I do not understand markets… bleh. there is nothing wrong with not being an expert in a field, as long as you do not pretend to be an expert. But you seem to be telling me that I know nothing, while you are the expert. Please, enlighten me. Tibet and Darfur are basically ignored, but the big oil producing nations are all part of the ‘Axis of Evil’. Hmm…
Actually, you inspired my next blog post.
ELECTRONZ ISSUE 3
7 July 2003
Weekly international Ezine focusing on the New Economics
===========================================================
In this issue:
[ 1 ]U.K. INQUIRY INTO CREDIT CREATION.
[ 2 ]RUSSIA AND HUSSIEN RELATIONSHIP
[ 3 ]ALTERNATIVE VIEW ON CHINA. (C/F Issue 327)
==========================================================
2 ]RUSSIA AND HUSSIEN RELATIONSHIP.
Many were surprised that the US invasion of Iraq proceeded over the opposition of UN and outright antagonism of Russia. Various reports suggested that the antagonism must have been driven by more than just the lack of legal justification, which France had frequently cited. Confirmation of this suspicion is available from the Wall Street Journal. Some revealing extracts from their story run as follows:
“What is at stake is more than just the physical oil that the US can’t consume enough of, but the denomination of the oil trade in US currency. That has permitted the US to pay for its oil imports in currency of its own making. The drop of the dollar vis-à-vis the Euro short-changes the oil exporters.
The reserve status of its currency enabled the US to print bills or computer entries at practically zero cost to import goods and securities from the entire world, even while its balance of payments worsened. That has led to a climb of the Euro in dollar terms since 1999 from about 83 US cents to a current $1.10 plus. That is an increase of about 45%. That earned Saddam Hussein a fat currency gain when he instructed the UN to shift the approximately $10 billion in his blocked currency account from dollars to Euros. This hasn’t been lost on Iran, another of Bush’s evil axis, a ferocious rival of Iraq, and a far greater oil exporter. “President Saddam Hussein had promised Russian companies the chance to develop more than 25 billion barrels of oil in Iraqi fields. The Russian government, meanwhile, would like to be repaid Soviet-era debts that totalled $8 billion when Iraq stopped paying in the early 1900’s.
“Russia (however), has indicated it is more worried about world oil prices than any oil contracts or the Soviet-era debt”, the US diplomat said. But those prices depend upon whether oil internationally continues to be quoted and paid for in terms of a sinking US dollar or in Euros. “The Kremlin already has amassed a lofty financial cushion against any decline in oil prices in the aftermath of the war. Its 2003 budget is based on an average oil price of $21.50 a barrel.
“’In the past, Russia tried to convince the world of its greatness by building rockets,’ said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital Investment Bank in Moscow. ‘Putin has concentrated on the economy with essentially the same end in mind.’”
If the American administration would consider the costs in wealth, lives, morality, and sympathy among nations of its present autistic policies as a sole economic super-power, it would accept the erosion of its highly vulnerable position with grace. As did Britain and France in their day. That would not only provide an answer to the question that is bothering more and more Americans, “Why does the world hate us?” but a solution to the problem.”
Our Comment: Such blunt suggestions turning up in the W.S.J must be causing indigestion around the Bush network, but it will have to be pushed much harder before it can cause any policy directional changes. Unfortunately.
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~d.....es/326.txt
Let The Wall Street Journal tell the story (11/3/03, “Fast Wallet, Free Agent: Russia Goes its Own Way” by Alan Cullison). As ever, we treasure sources above suspicion of left-wing prejudice. “Moscow – Russia’s resistance to a US-led invasion of Iraq is a sign that the diplomacy of dependency may have run its course. After recovering from the post-Soviet economic deterioration of the 1990s, Moscow is awash in cash and not so easily plied by the West’s handouts.”
Private sources report that Muscovite tune-smiths are working on a blend of the International and the Czarist anthem to lyrics thanking the American insatiable appetite for SUVs for making possible their regaining economic independence. What is at stake is more than just the physical oil that the US can’t consume enough of, but the denomination of the oil trade in US currency. That has permitted the US to pay for its oil imports in currency of its own making. The drop of the dollar vis-à-vis the Euro shortchanges the oil exporters. That has not been lost on the oil exporters.
The reserve status of its currency enabled the US to print bills or computer entries at practically zero cost to import goods and securities from the entire world, even while its balance of payments worsened. That has led to a climb of the Euro in dollar terms since 1999 from about 83 US cents to a current $1.10 plus. That is an increase of about 45%. That earned Saddam Hussein a fat currency gain when he instructed the UN to shift the approximately $10 billion in his blocked currency account from dollars to Euros. This hasn’t been lost on Iran, another of Bush’s evil axis, a ferocious rival of Iraq, and a far greater oil exporter.
[...]
http://www.comer.org/Jan03/alligator.htm
Zorn, You just continue to be n example of the inability to understand. Look at this, http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/rm/2006/68968.htm. The US has been threatening Venezuela for a lot longer than their desire to sell oil in Euros. Not that is has anything to do with the fact that Iraq’s plan was to sell oil in dollars, then convert the sales to euros to maintain the Oil for Food account. That’s why the talk of losing money in the conversion was mentioned. I do not doubt that Iraq could have, and still will, start to sell oil in euros. But it does not change the facts. And it does not mean that people like you who hate the current administration are simply trying to make things up. Perhaps your next post can have some reality, but I doubt it. Iraq never made an oil sale in euros. The sales were in US dollars and converted. That is the fact and reality. yor blog will never newsworthy, it will always be the rantings of an idiot who could not grasp basic accounting and business principles. Just the posting of debunked conspiracy theories that sits here with yours.
“And it does not mean that people like you who hate the current administration are simply trying to make things up.”
Ahh, you tipped your hand there.
Iraq will not sell oil in Euros. They ceased doing so as soon as the US was in control.
Also, did the link you provided talk about Venezuela in 2006? Venezuela planned on selling oil in euros in 2000 – until a coup attempted to oust Chavez. Ron Paul stated that the coup was reportedly backed by the CIA. Don’t think the CIA would do that? Look for my post about the CIA overthrowing the democratically elected president of Guatemala in 1953. I would link it but I am busy.
Who are you? You ’sound’ familiar.
The Era of Fictitious Capitalism by Addison Wiggin
[...]
“War is the extension of politics and politics is the extension of economic interests,” Wang asserts. “America’s wars abroad have always had a clear goal, however, such goals were never made obvious to the public. We need to see through the surface and reach the essence of the matters. In other words, we need to figure out what the fundamental economic interests of America are. Missing this point, we would be misled by American government’s shows and feints.”
[...]
As we note in our book, since Greenspan assumed the central role at the most powerful central bank in the world, he has expanded the money supply more than all other Fed chairmen combined. From 1985-2000, production of material goods in the United States has increased only 50%, while the money supply has grown by a factor 3. Money has been growing more than six times as fast as the rate of goods production. The results? Wang’s research reveals that in 1997, before the blow-off in the U.S. stock market, mind you, global “money” transactions totaled $600 trillion. Goods production was a mere 1% of that.
[...]
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/.....10404.html
THE ERA OF FICTITIOUS CAPITALISM
[...]
But Wang sees a darker side to the equation. “Fictitious capital is no more than a piece of paper, or an electric signal in a computer disk. Theoretically, such capital cannot feed anyone no matter how much its value increases in the marketplace. So why is it so enthusiastically pursued by the major capitalist countries?”
The reason, at least until recently, is that the “major capitalist countries” have been using their fictitious capital to finance consumption of “other countries’” material goods. Thus far, the most major of the capitalist countries, the United States, has been able to profit from the system because since the establishment of the Bretton Woods system, and increasingly since its demise, the world has balanced its accounts in dollars.
[...]
And here we arrive at the crux of Wang’s argument that a war is brewing. “While [fictitious capital] has been bringing to America economic prosperity and hegemonic power over money,” he suggests, “it has its own inborn weakness. In order to sustain such prosperity and hegemonic power, America has to keep unilateral inflow of international capital to the American market…If America loses its hegemonic power over money, its domestic consumption level will plunge 30-40%. Such an outcome would be devastating for the US economy. It could be more harmful to the economy than the Great Depression of 1929 to 1933.”
Japan’s example suggests, as your editors have oft reminded you, that a collapse in asset values in a fictitious economy can adversely affect the real economy for a long time.
In the era of fictitious capital, Wang surmises, America must keep its hegemonic power over money in order to keep feeding the enormous yaw in its consumerist belly. Hegemonic power over money requires that international capital keep flowing into the market from all participating economies. Should the financial market collapse, the economy would sink into depression.
America’s reigning financial monopolies, he believes, (whoever they may be), would not stand for it.
http://www.billbonner.com/Issu.....CAPITALISM
Zorn,
Again you assume. I have tipped my hand? How about this, All politicians lie, cheat and steal. I don’t care for Bush and his fascism any more than I did for Clinton and his socialism. Dig deeper, Venezuela’s issues go back further (into the Clinton years, possibly before that). As another pointed out, you do too little research and rely on a single source (on another one of your stories here). Try the truth for a change.
Rightist Gangs Murdering Trade Unionists in Colombia
by Tom Burghardt
In the wake of recent mass demonstrations against state and paramilitary violence across Colombia, four trade union activists who helped coordinate the events were brutally murdered.
Convened by the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE), the March 6 mobilization denounced the complicity of the Uribe regime with paramilitary gangsters, aided and abetted by the Bush administration’s on-going sponsorship of rightist atrocities through Plan Colombia.
[...]
That these union leaders were “disappeared,” cruelly tortured and then assassinated by state-aligned paramilitaries is ironic, given that the U.S. State Department in its annual “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Colombia,” last week claimed there aren’t any new paramilitary groups in Colombia. That such mendacity passes muster in an official government report is indicative of the Bush regime’s panic at proverbial “facts on the ground.” As Latin America moves left, rejecting IMF/World Bank “privatization” (resource extraction) schemes, a corporatist façade of “democratic leaders” committed to “market reforms” and “the rule of law,” drive the North American ruling class and their proxies, to create their own hollow realities.
[...]
These are dangerous times for leftists and union organizers in Colombia. Since 1985 more than 4,000 union leaders and rank-and-file members have been murdered, either by the U.S.-backed Army or their paramilitary stand-ins. Often enough, activists have been killed or “disappeared” while organizing workers or during strike actions at giant American-owned firms. U.S. multinational corporations alleged to have collaborated with narcotrafficking rightist gangs include: the Coca-Cola Corporation, Chiquita Brands, Alabama-based Drummond Coal, to name but a few of the well-heeled U.S. companies pushing for a “free trade” deal with the death squad state.
Ironically, while praised by George W. Bush, Uribe was linked to drug traffickers by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) back in 1991. Citing documents published by the National Security Archive, according to Bill Van Auken,
[...]
Today’s plague of violence and mayhem is the deranged offspring of U.S. counterinsurgency doctrines taught in Colombia. Back in 1962, a proposal to organize “irregular” forces in tandem with regular Army units was made by a top-level U.S. Special Warfare team from Ft. Bragg. According to historian Michael McClintock,
[...]
Fast forward more than 40 years and tens of thousands of deaths later: “communists” in the form of union leaders, peasant organizers, human rights workers, or indeed, anyone who dares raise their voice against the oppressive social and economic policies of a narcostate backed by the full weight of the imperialist “Colossus to the North” is a target worthy of “elimination.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/i.....p;aid=8417
@James – Notice i quoted more than one source in my article? You are trying to say that I have conspiracy theories and that I do not really look for the truth – because there is some information I have not found yet? Exactly how much research should I do before I make a statement?
This blog is my way of passing on what I have found to others. If you can provide more information – Great! Teach me something, show me I am wrong.
You didn’t do that. You tossed out insults, and called me a conspiracy theorist. You never offered any real information, you just said i was wrong.
Go do some research, then come back and give me some links that prove me wrong. That .gov link doesn’t show anything. Which by the way – why would you think a link to something provided by the Bush State Department website would be reliable? The government has lied before to make normal countries look like the bad guys…
If you want to be treated with respect, provide alternative information, not insults.
1953
A Timeline of CIA Atrocities
By Steve Kangas
[...]
Iran – CIA overthrows the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh in a military coup, after he threatened to nationalize British oil. The CIA replaces him with a dictator, the Shah of Iran, whose secret police, SAVAK, is as brutal as the Gestapo.
[...]
re-linked from a previous comment:
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.html
Arab media warns Bush wants Iran war
Sun, 23 Mar 2008 05:57:40
The Arab media has raised US-Iran confrontation alarms, saying the US has a proxy war with Iran going at the tail end of the Bush administration.
The UAE-based newspaper, Gulf News, in its Friday’s editorial said that with George W. Bush in office the Washngton is effectively maintaining low intensity warfare with Iran and the potential exists to ratchet it up to more open hostilities.
The source asserted that the recurring visits by the US Vice President Dick Cheney and John McCain to Iraq and occupied Palestine are surely not ‘coincidences’ but a means to ensure Israel remains fully in the picture for any “plans the US could have against Iran”.
[...]
Meanwhile, Al-Ahram Weekly described Admiral William Fallon’s recent resignation as an orchestrated move to remove what it called the only obstacle “standing between the administration and their newest war plan”.
[...]
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.a.....=351020205
It always intrigues me when I see all of the propaganda about Global warming and the CO2 connection… CO2, that is carbon di-oxide… that is what we exhale. Carbon monoxide is what is produced from cars and caused air pollution. Plants use our CO2 and give us oxygen in return. Why do I keep seeing and hearing politicians and the media saying this CO2 is the concern?
Well actually just because we exhale CO2 does not automatically mean that it could not cause global warming. And part of the problem, it is said, is that a lot of the planet is covered in urban areas that were once forests etc. So our population grows, the amount of plant life declines…
My issue is that the major arguments used to ‘prove’ global warming have since been proved wrong, but no one seems to notice.
US dollar versus euro
In 1999 the euro was introduced as an accounting currency (travelers’ checks, electronic transfers, banking, etc.) and then launched as physical coins and banknotes on 1 January 2002. The euro replaced the former European Currency Unit (ECU) at a ratio of 1:1. However its value quickly began to drop, reaching a low of 0.8252 relative to the US dollar on 26 October 2000. This proved to be a solid support level for the next two years, and in 2002 the euro began its appreciation reaching a high of 1.60 as of 23 April 2008.
http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1685
ahh, thanks Ekk, that explains the Euro issue I think. You couldnt get Euros in physical form until 2002, but you could transact money electronically in 1999. I would assume that is how Saddam would receive payments for oil…
At last i know the story behind the media, no wonder Bush in Iraq for “peace”!
[...] ago I had posted about how Saddam had started selling oil in Euros in November 2000, just a few months before Bush was [...]
I think now is too late. he is already dead. I hope a terrible mistake like this won`t happen anymore.
I hope such an incident wont be repeated in the future..!
This is interesting theory, too bad he is dead and cannot confirm it. Some nice quotes from me:
Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.
Life without love is like a tree without blossom and fruit.
Life is what happens to you while you’re working for your future.
Well things have moved on since your origional blog: Russia has stopped mr bush in his tracks! thats the Iran invasion out the window Not even mr Bush would be able to sell that to the world, unless it was “engineered” that would have to be highly immagiative as most people are expecting such a stunt. In my opinion all these things are comming together not out of Banking systems, Euro v dollar or any other event,its quite simple! since the North American indian worked out for himself that “White man speaks with um forked tongue” the US has, over the years, pissed the world off, from Chile to Mexico in the Americas, the whole of the far East, the Arab world and most of Africa. Justified or not, there is a perception in the world that if you have something that America needs, if they cannot buy it from you then they will take it from you by force, you say no at your peril. When you read history books it becomes clear that in the “rise and fall” league the US is way past the halfway line. I am sorry because as a Democrat and a believer in freedom, even though non American, l am about to go down the plug-hole along with you.
#colin – interesting comments – especially around the hegemony and imperalism of the US. I wish it were more widely understood that the US and UK simply take exactly what they want, when they want it, no matter how they get it.
However, I don’t think you’re correct on the point about Iran.
Prior to Iraq, our governments successfully persuaded the masses that Saddam was behind the attack on the world trade centre and had
stock piles of “weapons of mass destruction” capable of killing us all in our beds and indeed, he was planning to do exactly that.
Of course, none of this was remotely true, but in we went to grab the oil.
They’ll have no problem coming up with something Iran. Nukes have already been mentioned. Plus war is good for a struggling economy and if the people are in fear, it’s much easier to divert fund from unprofitable things like health care, education and into profitable things, like building weapons.
Doublejay: Unfortunatly you are probably right, the truth. in any conflict is allways buried with the victims! But Bush went on record the other day when he said , ” in the 21st century it is unaceptable that a sovereign state should be invaded” well l totaly agree with that and so should every right minded person,—-but l forgot,—–hypocracy is the vaseline of political intercourse!
All about politic,and the truth. Please,OPEN YOUR MIND!!! When I say open your mind please do. Do your own research. Seek and you will find answers. People I encourage you, yes we must all get together. I mean seriously wake up, stop the hate and senseless war. Love is the answer… I mean above is the nice one .
“One head of Islamic Trade Finance admitted that there is no practical difference between the murabahah business that he does now and the conventional letter of credit business that he used to do in his previous job. Just the labels are different.”
That is only true from the 40,000 foot perspective, but from that point of view, humans are all ant like and you cannot distinguish between man, woman, child, good, evil, soldier, butcher, naked, happy, dying.
With this type of generalities, one will not fully understand the issues or find appropriate remedies to perceived problems.
YA… and Obama is a big liar !!!! fraud!! wake up robots..!
It only means the account would be maintained in Euros and any sales would be converted from US$ to Euros for maintaining the account.. It was used for internal accounting purposes, but it did not exist as a currency..
The implications are far-reaching for European countries and the US. Russia has checkmated US-sponsored trans-Caspian energy pipeline projects..US to pay for its oil imports in currency of its own making…
Surely, the great shortfall in the Putin legacy has been the failure of his presidency to make Russia a full-fledged partner of Europe. He has now made an offer to NATO that is irresistible – making Russia a participant in the alliance’s Afghan mission.
This is interesting theory, too bad he is dead and cannot confirm it. Some nice quotes from me:Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.
“Russia a participant in the alliance’s Afghan mission”
Russia must not be thinking clearly. I doubt this will hold up.
Here is the initial issue that started this thread.
I’m glad posters are still contributing,
because now/6years after the article below was written,
it still remains the crux of the matter.
Thx,
Ekk
ELECTRONZ ISSUE 326.
7 July 2003
Weekly international Ezine focusing on the New Economics
[ 2 ]RUSSIA AND HUSSIEN RELATIONSHIP.
Many were surprised that the US invasion of Iraq proceeded over the opposition of UN and outright antagonism of Russia. Various reports suggested that the antagonism must have been driven by more than just the lack of legal justification, which France had frequently cited. Confirmation of this suspicion is available from the Wall Street Journal. Some revealing extracts from their story run as follows:
“What is at stake is more than just the physical oil that the US can’t consume enough of, but the denomination of the oil trade in US currency. That has permitted the US to pay for its oil imports in currency of its own making. The drop of the dollar vis-à-vis the Euro short-changes the oil exporters.
The reserve status of its currency enabled the US to print bills or computer entries at practically zero cost to import goods and securities from the entire world, even while its balance of payments worsened. That has led to a climb of the Euro in dollar terms since 1999 from about 83 US cents to a current $1.10 plus. That is an increase of about 45%. That earned Saddam Hussein a fat currency gain when he instructed the UN to shift the approximately $10 billion in his blocked currency account from dollars to Euros. This hasn’t been lost on Iran, another of Bush’s evil axis, a ferocious rival of Iraq, and a far greater oil exporter. “President Saddam Hussein had promised Russian companies the chance to develop more than 25 billion barrels of oil in Iraqi fields. The Russian government, meanwhile, would like to be repaid Soviet-era debts that totalled $8 billion when Iraq stopped paying in the early 1900’s.
“Russia (however), has indicated it is more worried about world oil prices than any oil contracts or the Soviet-era debt”, the US diplomat said. But those prices depend upon whether oil internationally continues to be quoted and paid for in terms of a sinking US dollar or in Euros. “The Kremlin already has amassed a lofty financial cushion against any decline in oil prices in the aftermath of the war. Its 2003 budget is based on an average oil price of $21.50 a barrel.
“’In the past, Russia tried to convince the world of its greatness by building rockets,’ said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital Investment Bank in Moscow. ‘Putin has concentrated on the economy with essentially the same end in mind.’”
If the American administration would consider the costs in wealth, lives, morality, and sympathy among nations of its present autistic policies as a sole economic super-power, it would accept the erosion of its highly vulnerable position with grace. As did Britain and France in their day. That would not only provide an answer to the question that is bothering more and more Americans, “Why does the world hate us?” but a solution to the problem.”
Our Comment: Such blunt suggestions turning up in the W.S.J must be causing indigestion around the Bush network, but it will have to be pushed much harder before it can cause any policy directional changes. Unfortunately.
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~d.....es/326.txt