-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [wvns] Iran Switching Dollars to Euros
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 18:08:01 -0000
From: World View
DEATH OF THE DOLLAR
William Thomas
Nov. 29 2005
http://www.willthomas.net/Convergence/Weekly/US_Dollar.htm
In the year of Allah 1385, a 2,500 year-old Islamic nation will
begin
pricing its oil in euros. With the launch of the Iranian oil
bourse
(IOB). Just about everyone on the planet will benefit—except the
United States.
Branded by Bush as an "Axis Of Evil" in 2001, Teheran converted
more
than half of Iran's Forex Reserve Fund assets from dollars to
euros
the following year, with dramatic consequences for both
currencies—called "products" in inner banking circles—which
continued
their movement in opposite directions. The MIBs (Men In Banks)
were
delighted. As Iranian Parliamentarian Mohammad Abasspour
explained,
the rising parity of the euro against the dollar "will give the
Asian
countries, particularly oil exporters, a chance to usher in a
new
chapter in ties with European Union's member countries."
Outside an imploding Fortress America, economists fed-up with
that
nation's global bullying, and anxious over America's endless
wars are
hailing the pre-emptive impact of the Iran oil bourse on the US
dollar
and economy as more devastating than if Iran launched a "direct
nuclear attack."
But their glee could be short-lived, if Iran's announced move to
a
"petroeuro" triggers a long-expected Israeli-American attack. As
The
Guardian warns, "Even a conventional weapon fired at a nuclear
research center—whether or not a bomb was being made there -
would
almost certainly release radioactivity into the atmosphere, with
consequences seen worldwide as a mini-Hiroshima."
With their recently demonstrated capability to reach Israel,
Iran's
modern missiles must be "launched on warning" or risk being
destroyed
in place. Are they nuclear-tipped? We may soon find out. As al
Jazeera
warns, "Without some form of U.S. intervention, the euro is
going to
establish a firm foothold in the international oil trade."
THE IRAQ EURO WAR
No mullah in Teheran will soon forget the fate of Saddam
Hussein,
after Iraq's dictator moved the world's second biggest oil
reserves
from the dollar to the euro in November 2000. With the euro
reaching
record lows as it traded at 82 cents to the dollar—down 30%
since its
launch the previous year—White House officials collapsed with
laughter
over Saddam's seeming ineptitude. "The move will cost Iraq
millions in
lost revenue," advised European pundits. "Currency traders say
they
don't expect a rebound soon."
The laughter stopped when the euro zoomed to over $1.05.
In 1997, a report from the James Baker Institute of Public
Policy
emphasized "the Threat of Iraq and Iran" to the free flow of
Middle
East oil. When the Bush regime "took" office in 2001,
Vice-President
Cheney's Energy Task Force highlighted a follow-up study, which
slammed Saddam for using his own euro-dominated export program
"to
manipulate oil markets." In response, Cheney stated, "The Gulf
will be
a primary focus of US international energy policy."
In January 2003, officials from the White House, State
Department, and
Department of Defense continued meeting informally with
executives
from Halliburton, Schlumberger, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and
ConocoPhillips to plan the post-war expansion of oil production
from
Iraq. With proven reserves of 113 billion barrels, the second
largest
in the world after Saudi Arabia and 11% of the world's total,
Iraq's
"sweet crude" was easy and cheap to extract. At least, if angry
Iraqis
weren't blowing up its pipelines every second day.
"Saddam sealed his fate when he decided to switch to the euro in
late
2000, and later converted his $10 billion reserve fund at the UN
to
euros," William Clark observes in his landmark essay, "The Real
Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq"—"The reason why the
corporate-military-industrial network conglomerate wants a
puppet
government in Iraq—is so that it will revert back to a dollar
standard
and stay that way."
But the Federal Reserve's greatest nightmare was OPEC following
suit
and switching its international transactions from a dollar to a
euro
standard. Once and for all, the fundamentalists in the White
House saw
that conquering the ruins of Iraq could be an OPEC breaker. They
never
dreamed their ill-advised invasion could be—like the Soviets in
Afghanistan before them—a US breaker.
WHY WORRY?
America's greatest vulnerability is its own government's
ineptitude—and an economy tied to the dollar's supremacy as the
world's reserve currency. More than two-thirds of national
foreign
exchange reserves are currently held in greenbacks.
The assumption by many Americans that the strength of the US
dollar
rests on their country's economic output is erroneous, PD Scott
continues in his incisive essay, "Oil, Petrodollars, And The
Opec Euro
Question". Instead, it's the $600- to $800 billion
"petrodollars"
funneled from OPEC every year that is "buying America"—and
keeping
that insolvent economy afloat.
This ultimate Ponzi scheme—printing US greenbacks virtually for
free,
and forcing the world to use them to buy non-US oil, so that the
proceeds can be used by America to purchase a rising torrent
goods
from abroad—is brilliant! At least, as long as its heavily armed
perpetrator can get away with it. Javad Yarjani, Head of OPEC's
Petroleum Market Analysis Department, ran it down for delegates
at a
conference in Spain in April 2002:
"Momentum for OPEC to consider switching to the euro will grow
once
the E.U. expands in May 2004 to 450 million people with the
inclusion
of 10 additional member states. The aggregate GDP will increase
from
$7 trillion to $9.6 trillion. This enlarged European Union will
be an
oil consuming purchasing population 33% larger than the U.S.,
and over
half of OPEC crude oil will be sold to the EU as of mid-2004."
Then Yarjani dropped a euro-nuke, calmly announcing, "I believe
that
OPEC will not discount entirely the possibility of adopting euro
pricing and payments in the future."
HEADING FOR THE YANKEE DOLLAR EXITS
In September 2000, after meeting with former US ally Saddam
Hussein to
discuss how to boost the role of OPEC," Venezuelan President
Hugo
Chavez advised OPEC heads of state to avoid using the dollar for
many
transactions. Chavez's government had already rocked Washington
by
established bartering its oil for goods from a dozen Latin
American
countries, as well as Cuba.
After meeting with key coup figures, the Bush regime was quick
to
endorse the failed military-led revolt against Hugo Chavez in
April
2002. Also that year, China began diversifying its currency
reserves
away from dollars into euros.
Russia's Central Bank followed suit, doubling its euro holdings
to 20%
of its $48 billion foreign exchange reserves. The reason was
simple
and compelling, argued First Deputy Chairman Oleg Vyugin:
"Returns on
dollar instruments are very low now. Other currency instruments
pay
more."
As an ascendant euro helps propel the dollar down, think
"teeter-totter". Already, the euro accounts for as much as 35%
of
global trade and reserve holdings.
BAD NEWS FOR BIG BORROWERS
Europe's money markets and biggest banks welcome a strong euro.
THE GRAY TSUNAMI
Meanwhile, reports USA Today, "The crippling US debt crisis
makes its
fragile economy mostly dependent on the high demand for its
currency
in order to remain afloat."
But thanks to its leadership's profligate ways, the world's
biggest
ailing Super Economy is already in serious trouble—before China
consolidates its economic supremacy, and Iran and OPEC are
pushed to
deliver a decisive dollar shakeup.
"We face a demographic tsunami" that "will never recede," says
analyst
David Walker, whose lengthy list of fiscal landmines is "led by
the
imminent retirement of the baby boomers, whose promised Medicare
and
Social Security benefits will swamp the federal budget in coming
decades." Calling its financial condition, "worse than
advertised,"
the nation's top auditor likens the United States to Rome before
its
fall.
With Congress about to make Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cuts for
the
wealthy permanent, and endless costly wars crowding that
country's
horizon, the national debt is set to exceed $11 trillion in
2010, with
interest payments to the rest of the world holding all those
loans at
$561 billion a year—the same as US warmaking expenditures. By
2050,
with catastrophic climate change lashing the United States in
waves of
$62 billion Katrina copycat storms, the $2.6 trillion projected
cost
of Medicare in 2050 will equal today's federal budget.
Which, of course, is impossible.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, director of the Congressional Budget
Office, says
he is "terrified" about what's coming for the United States.
Isabel
Sawhill of the Brookings Institute compares the rapidly heating
difference between what the US government spends and takes to a
"Category 6 fiscal hurricane."
SETTING SUNS
Now factor in Iran's demand that the United States get hosed
buying
euros with devalued dollars in order to keep its gas-guzzling
SUVs and
Hummers humming. Next, consider OPEC doing the same…as economist
Hazel
Henderson notes, if OPEC decides to accept only euros for its
oil…"American economic dominance would be over."
And don't forget Japan, which owns about 15% of all US Treasury
bonds
and would have to start selling them in a major banking crisis.
As
William Clark points out, "A large spike in oil prices could
create
huge problems for the imperiled Japanese banking system, the
world's
largest holder of US dollar reserves."
BUY IT OR BLOW IT UP
If the USA can't buy it's way out of a crisis with yet more
borrowing,
its default response is simple: blow it up. "Can the US military
control by force all oil-producing nations and dictate their oil
export transaction currency?" asks William Clark.
Nope. The good news is that the USA can no longer run its huge
current
account trade deficits to finance open-ended global war.
But will the slipping Superpower try? As Iranian pop music
proclaims
"the nuclear contribution to Iranian security", and its leaders
make
their ritual annual call for the destruction of Israel and its
"Great
Satan" patron…as plummeting polls and a growing clamor against
their
failed policies force a beleaguered administration to consider
yet
another desperate and disastrous distraction… "The conventional
wisdom
is that for both military and political reasons it would be
impossible
for Israel and the UK/US to attack" Iran, writes Dan Plesch,
author of
The Beauty Queen's Guide to World Peace.
But…
Just 120 US bombers could target 5,000 targets in Iran with
wildly
imprecise "smart" bombs in a single mission—igniting Shiite
populations in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and around the Gulf in a mass
uprising that at the very least will curtain oil shipments from
that
region, causing a worldwide economic meltdown.
Even better for the Armageddon-facilitators currently
"occupying" the
White House, all of the widely rumored and dispersed Iranian
nuclear
and biowar facilities would be impossible to tally and "take
out"—allowing the country's Shia Mullah Regime many unpleasant
retaliatory options against "all US allies" within range.
Are the fundamentalists in the White House crazy enough to try
it?
Look at their record so far…
And with the petroeuro about to detonate the dollar, do they
have any
choice—outside, that is, an overdue dose of humility and
international
cooperation?
With America's top auditor facing apoplexy, it might be smart to
look
to your community's talents and assets—and start stocking your
larder.
Y2K was just for practice.
Complete article Death Of The Dollar 3,900 words including
references
and images available instantly by signing up to Convergence
Weekly.
*********************************************************************
THE REAL REASON WE ARE AT WAR!
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/iraq_reason.htm
TIME MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 13, 2000 - Page 34
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
SADDAM TURNS HIS BACK ON GREENBACKS
Europe's dream of promoting the euro as a competitor
to the U.S. dollar may get a boost from SADDAM HUSSEIN.
Iraq says that from now on, it wants payments for its
oil in euros, despite the fact that the battered
European currency unit, which use to be worth quite
a bit more than $1, has dropped to about 82 cents.
Iraq says it will no longer accept dollars for oil
because it does not want to deal "in currency of the
enemy."
The switch to euros would cost the U.N. a small
fortune in accounting paperwork changes. It would also
reduce the interest earnings and reparations payments
that Iraq is making for damage it caused during the Gulf War,
a shortfall the Iraqis would have to make up.
The move hurts Iraq, the U.N. and the countries receiving
reparations. So why is Saddam doing it? Diplomatic
sources say switching to the euro will favor European
suppliers over U.S. ones in competing for Iraqi contracts,
and the p.r. boost that Baghdad would probably get in
Europe would be another plus.
-By William Dowell/ New York City
====================================================================
Saddam Turns His Back on Greenbacks
By WILLIAM DOWELL/NEW YORK CITY
http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,998512,00.html
=================================================================
The Euro And The War On Iraq
By Amir Butler
ATrueWord.com
info@atrueword.com
3-29-3
http://atrueword.com/index.php/article/articleview/49/1/1/
As Mark Twain once noted, prophecy is always difficult,
particularly
with regards to the future. However, it is a safe bet that as
soon as
Saddam is toppled one of the first tasks of the America-backed
regime
will be to restore the US dollar as the nation's oil currency.
In November 2000, Iraq began selling its oil for euros, moving
away from
the post-World War II standard of the US dollar as the currency
of
international trade. Whilst seen by many at the time as a
bizarre act of
political defiance, it has proved beneficial for Iraq, with the
euro
gaining almost 25% against the dollar during 2001. It now costs
around
USD$1.05 to buy one Euro.
Iraq's move towards the euro is indicative of a growing trend.
Iran has
already converted the majority of its central bank reserve funds
to the
euro, and has hinted at adopting the euro for all oil sales. On
December
7th, 2002, the third member of the axis of evil, North Korea,
officially
dropped the dollar and began using euros for trade. Venezuela,
not a
member of the axis of evil yet, but a large oil producer
nonetheless, is
also considering a switch to the euro. More importantly, at its
April
14th, 2002 meeting in Spain, OPEC expressed an interest in
leaving the
dollar in favour of the euro.
If OPEC were to switch to the euro as the standard for oil
transactions,
it would have serious ramifications for the US economy.
Oil-consuming
economies would have to flush the dollars out of their central
bank
holdings and convert them to euros. Some economists estimate
that with
the market flooded, the US dollar could drop up to 40% in value.
As the
currency falls, there would be a monetary evacuation by foreign
investors abandoning the US stock markets and dollar-denominated
assets.
Imported products would cost Americans a lot more, and the trade
deficit
would be magnified.
It is foreign demand for the US dollar that funds the US federal
budget
deficits. Foreign investors flush with dollars typically look to
US
treasury securities as a means of secure investment. With a
large
reduction in such investment, the country could potentially go
into
default. Things could turn very bad, very quickly.
In May 2004 an additional 10 member nations will join the
European
Union. At that point, the EU will represent an oil consumer 33%
larger
than the United States. In order to mitigate currency risks, the
Europeans
