- Joined
- Sep 17, 2001
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- 2,011
I have absolutely no idea where to put this, but this is an excerpt I recieved last week from a listserve I'm on and thought I'd post in light of Brian Ellwood's question on the euro thread in UL's. This article's take would seem to be more that this wiil be the result, not cause of the War. (note: redlining is the practice of instituions like banks & insurance from serving a particluar geographic area, usually beacause of the race or income of the residents)
Mods, merge (or not) as you see fit. -lopaka
----------------------------------------------------------------
'Bush plunges U.S. into rapid decline'
Date: Saturday, October 18 @ 09:43:23 EDT
Topic: Foreign Policy
The previously unthinkable is now on the table. Russia, the world's second
largest oil exporter, is giving serious consideration to trading its black
gold in euros, a switch that would surely set dominos in motion among other
oil producing nations and, ultimately, knock the dollar off its global
throne. Americans can thank George Bush and his Pirates for accelerating a
process that might have taken decades to evolve, but which now looms as a
"catastrophe" on the horizon. "There are already a number of countries
within OPEC that would prefer to trade in euros," said oil analyst and U.S.
Council on Foreign Relations member Youssef Ibrahim, in an interview with
the Moscow Times, October 10. "Putin's putting a big card on the table."
A switch to the euro "is really possible," according to Russian economist
and Putin advisor Yevgeny Gavrilenkov. "Why not? More than half of Russia's
oil trade is with Europe. But there will be great opposition to this from
the United States."
Gayrilenkov can be forgiven his understatement. Russian President Vladimir
Putin dropped his bombshell as if casually stating the time of day. Is
Russia considering a switch from dollar-pricing of petroleum? "We do not
rule out that it is possible. That would be interesting for our European
partners," Putin told reporters at a joint news conference with German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the Ural Mountains region of Russia.
Interesting, indeed. Even more important than the huge and immediate boost
that a Russian oil-euro arrangement would provide to the European Union,
the move would signal the definitive end of America's artificial
dollar-domination of the planet, a privileged status the U.S. has abused as
a weapon since the end of World War II.
As Dr. Sonja Ebron wrote in , February 20, "Given the highly leveraged and
fragile state of our economy, an OPEC switch from the dollar to the euro
would bring a quick and devastating dollar and Wall Street crash that would
make 1929 look like a $50 casino bet." (See "Why African Americans Should
Oppose the War.")
One month before the U.S. invasion, Dr. Ebron warned of the monstrous
blowback that would result:
"War is not the answer. It's a shortsighted desperation play that is
doomed to failure. Our military forces may take but cannot hold Iraq's oil,
as they have failed to tame Afghanistan's land. Far from staving off
disaster, our arrogance may instead compel OPEC to 'go euro' en masse,
taking many oil-consuming nations with them by force of economics. And a
trade war with Europe will lend the coup de grace to our economy."
The shrinking superpower
The Bush men launched their offensive largely to ensure that oil would
continue to be priced in dollars. American military dominance of the Middle
East and a series of "regime changes" would eliminate the euro-threat - or
so the theory went. An opposite chain of events has occurred, with the
impetus coming, not from OPEC, but from an increasingly confident and
assertive Russia, for whom Shock and Awe is mere fireworks.
Putin displayed his card to the world - a bargaining chip with the EU and
an implicit threat to the United States - because he could. The "sole
superpower" cannot stop him, but must instead come up with terms that
outweigh the benefits of euro-logic. The Bush Pirate's quest for a global
market subordinate to American fiat has failed. This shift in the global
relationship of forces should have been expected when Bush declared war
against world order. It is the logical result of, and answer to, the
president's 2002 ultimatum, "either you are with us, or against us." The
planet now prepares to turn on its own axis. Once set in motion, the
effects will be irreversible, no matter which party wins the White House in
2004. Henry C. K. Liu got it right in his far-sighted April 5 Asia Times
piece, "The War that may end the age of superpower."
"This war has succeeded in pushing Russia, France, Germany and China
closer, in contrast if not in opposition to US interests worldwide, a
significant development with long term implications that are difficult to
assess at present..
"This war will end from its own inevitable evolution, even without
anti-war demonstrations. It will not be a happy end. There is yet no
discernible exit strategy for the US. After this war, the world will have
no superpower, albeit the US will remain strong both economically and
militarily."
Saudi Arabia is the number one oil exporter. Having severed its military
alliance with the U.S., the Saudi royal family may be ready to drop the
other shoe. "The Saudi Crown Prince [Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud]'s
visit to Russia was of great significance and the regime is talking about
closer cooperation with LUKoil and other Russian companies," says Council
on Foreign Relations oil analyst Youssef Ibrahim.
No nation is eager to upset the global currency regime. ("We do not want to
hurt prices on the market," President Putin was quick to add, at his Urals
press conference.) The Saudi princes, who value their dollar-denominated
wealth more highly than the teachings of Wahhabi Islam, are by inclination
among the least likely candidates to lead an OPEC euro-shift. Yet
relentless pressures from Ariel Sharon's Israel, its lobbyists and allies
on Capitol Hill, and from the Likkud group within the Bush administration,
have pushed the Saudis closer to the breakpoint. If Russia goes euro, they
will likely follow - sooner, if there is one more military outrage against
a sovereign Arab state. (In that sense, the fate of the dollar may be in
Sharon's hands.)
Iran, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, would go euro in an instant,
once it saw others headed for the door. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez
relishes the idea. His nation exports about as much oil as Iran.
Muslim Indonesia, the oil giant of the Pacific with huge contracts to
supply the Chinese, actively debates the merits of the euro. In an April 17
report filed by Bloomberg's Tokyo bureau ("Indonesia May Dump Dollar; Rest
of Asia, Too?"), Indonesian Vice President Hamzah Haz was quoted: "One
thing is for sure, the adoption of the euro as an alternative means of
payments could be an effective solution to speculative dollar-oriented
dealings.'' [...]
A kind of international redlining will increasingly make itself felt,
but not seen. The Bush men believe they are willing into existence a New
American Century, while in reality they are creating an America-phobic
planet in which the U.S. has earned an invisible but powerfully
consequential non-favored nation status. Having invented the concept of
globalism, the United States will be consigned to pariah status - and
shrink, until it learns to live by human norms and scales.
Think of an oil-producer switch to the euro as the redlining of America.
http://www.blackcommentator.com
Mods, merge (or not) as you see fit. -lopaka
----------------------------------------------------------------
'Bush plunges U.S. into rapid decline'
Date: Saturday, October 18 @ 09:43:23 EDT
Topic: Foreign Policy
The previously unthinkable is now on the table. Russia, the world's second
largest oil exporter, is giving serious consideration to trading its black
gold in euros, a switch that would surely set dominos in motion among other
oil producing nations and, ultimately, knock the dollar off its global
throne. Americans can thank George Bush and his Pirates for accelerating a
process that might have taken decades to evolve, but which now looms as a
"catastrophe" on the horizon. "There are already a number of countries
within OPEC that would prefer to trade in euros," said oil analyst and U.S.
Council on Foreign Relations member Youssef Ibrahim, in an interview with
the Moscow Times, October 10. "Putin's putting a big card on the table."
A switch to the euro "is really possible," according to Russian economist
and Putin advisor Yevgeny Gavrilenkov. "Why not? More than half of Russia's
oil trade is with Europe. But there will be great opposition to this from
the United States."
Gayrilenkov can be forgiven his understatement. Russian President Vladimir
Putin dropped his bombshell as if casually stating the time of day. Is
Russia considering a switch from dollar-pricing of petroleum? "We do not
rule out that it is possible. That would be interesting for our European
partners," Putin told reporters at a joint news conference with German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the Ural Mountains region of Russia.
Interesting, indeed. Even more important than the huge and immediate boost
that a Russian oil-euro arrangement would provide to the European Union,
the move would signal the definitive end of America's artificial
dollar-domination of the planet, a privileged status the U.S. has abused as
a weapon since the end of World War II.
As Dr. Sonja Ebron wrote in , February 20, "Given the highly leveraged and
fragile state of our economy, an OPEC switch from the dollar to the euro
would bring a quick and devastating dollar and Wall Street crash that would
make 1929 look like a $50 casino bet." (See "Why African Americans Should
Oppose the War.")
One month before the U.S. invasion, Dr. Ebron warned of the monstrous
blowback that would result:
"War is not the answer. It's a shortsighted desperation play that is
doomed to failure. Our military forces may take but cannot hold Iraq's oil,
as they have failed to tame Afghanistan's land. Far from staving off
disaster, our arrogance may instead compel OPEC to 'go euro' en masse,
taking many oil-consuming nations with them by force of economics. And a
trade war with Europe will lend the coup de grace to our economy."
The shrinking superpower
The Bush men launched their offensive largely to ensure that oil would
continue to be priced in dollars. American military dominance of the Middle
East and a series of "regime changes" would eliminate the euro-threat - or
so the theory went. An opposite chain of events has occurred, with the
impetus coming, not from OPEC, but from an increasingly confident and
assertive Russia, for whom Shock and Awe is mere fireworks.
Putin displayed his card to the world - a bargaining chip with the EU and
an implicit threat to the United States - because he could. The "sole
superpower" cannot stop him, but must instead come up with terms that
outweigh the benefits of euro-logic. The Bush Pirate's quest for a global
market subordinate to American fiat has failed. This shift in the global
relationship of forces should have been expected when Bush declared war
against world order. It is the logical result of, and answer to, the
president's 2002 ultimatum, "either you are with us, or against us." The
planet now prepares to turn on its own axis. Once set in motion, the
effects will be irreversible, no matter which party wins the White House in
2004. Henry C. K. Liu got it right in his far-sighted April 5 Asia Times
piece, "The War that may end the age of superpower."
"This war has succeeded in pushing Russia, France, Germany and China
closer, in contrast if not in opposition to US interests worldwide, a
significant development with long term implications that are difficult to
assess at present..
"This war will end from its own inevitable evolution, even without
anti-war demonstrations. It will not be a happy end. There is yet no
discernible exit strategy for the US. After this war, the world will have
no superpower, albeit the US will remain strong both economically and
militarily."
Saudi Arabia is the number one oil exporter. Having severed its military
alliance with the U.S., the Saudi royal family may be ready to drop the
other shoe. "The Saudi Crown Prince [Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud]'s
visit to Russia was of great significance and the regime is talking about
closer cooperation with LUKoil and other Russian companies," says Council
on Foreign Relations oil analyst Youssef Ibrahim.
No nation is eager to upset the global currency regime. ("We do not want to
hurt prices on the market," President Putin was quick to add, at his Urals
press conference.) The Saudi princes, who value their dollar-denominated
wealth more highly than the teachings of Wahhabi Islam, are by inclination
among the least likely candidates to lead an OPEC euro-shift. Yet
relentless pressures from Ariel Sharon's Israel, its lobbyists and allies
on Capitol Hill, and from the Likkud group within the Bush administration,
have pushed the Saudis closer to the breakpoint. If Russia goes euro, they
will likely follow - sooner, if there is one more military outrage against
a sovereign Arab state. (In that sense, the fate of the dollar may be in
Sharon's hands.)
Iran, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, would go euro in an instant,
once it saw others headed for the door. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez
relishes the idea. His nation exports about as much oil as Iran.
Muslim Indonesia, the oil giant of the Pacific with huge contracts to
supply the Chinese, actively debates the merits of the euro. In an April 17
report filed by Bloomberg's Tokyo bureau ("Indonesia May Dump Dollar; Rest
of Asia, Too?"), Indonesian Vice President Hamzah Haz was quoted: "One
thing is for sure, the adoption of the euro as an alternative means of
payments could be an effective solution to speculative dollar-oriented
dealings.'' [...]
A kind of international redlining will increasingly make itself felt,
but not seen. The Bush men believe they are willing into existence a New
American Century, while in reality they are creating an America-phobic
planet in which the U.S. has earned an invisible but powerfully
consequential non-favored nation status. Having invented the concept of
globalism, the United States will be consigned to pariah status - and
shrink, until it learns to live by human norms and scales.
Think of an oil-producer switch to the euro as the redlining of America.
http://www.blackcommentator.com