Drudge......Deal to END use of $ to trade Oil!

[Mega]

http://www.drudgereport.com/

Not sure if you can bank this, but Metalman !!!!!!
Mike

[e_goldstein]

Re: Drudge......Deal to END use of $ to trade Oil!

Here is a link to an article. I'm not sure it is the one that Drudge will post.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...r-1798175.html

[mooncliff]

Re: Drudge......Deal to END use of $ to trade Oil!

Here is a link to an article. I'm not sure it is the one that Drudge will post.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...r-1798175.html

End of the Carter Doctrine?

The Carter Doctrine was a policy proclaimed by President of the United States Jimmy Carter in his State of the Union Address on January 23 1980, which stated that the United States would use military force if necessary to defend its national interests in the Persian Gulf region. The doctrine was a response to the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, and was intended to deter the Soviet Union—the Cold War adversary of the United States—from seeking hegemony in the Persian Gulf. After stating that Soviet troops in Afghanistan posed "a grave threat to the free movement of Middle East oil," Carter proclaimed:
The region which is now threatened by Soviet troops in Afghanistan is of great strategic importance: It contains more than two-thirds of the world's exportable oil. The Soviet effort to dominate Afghanistan has brought Soviet military forces to within 300 miles of the Indian Ocean and close to the Straits of Hormuz, a waterway through which most of the world's oil must flow. The Soviet Union is now attempting to consolidate a strategic position, therefore, that poses a grave threat to the free movement of Middle East oil.
This situation demands careful thought, steady nerves, and resolute action, not only for this year but for many years to come. It demands collective efforts to meet this new threat to security in the Persian Gulf and in Southwest Asia. It demands the participation of all those who rely on oil from the Middle East and who are concerned with global peace and stability. And it demands consultation and close cooperation with countries in the area which might be threatened.
Meeting this challenge will take national will, diplomatic and political wisdom, economic sacrifice, and, of course, military capability. We must call on the best that is in us to preserve the security of this crucial region.
Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_doctrine

[doom&gloom]

Re: Drudge......Deal to END use of $ to trade Oil!

have long told friends the future of war will be more economic and resource based than the typical
conflict we are used to seeing. When you can bring an economy to it'sknees with it's owncurrency,
why arm up and kill your citizens?

So, while the FED and the Admin do theirbest to keep the bankers happy and afloat, the citizens and
our lenders take on more water with a sinking dollar. The end result can only lead to 1) currency controls,
2) higher inflation as import prices of staples rise, 3) lower standard ofliving, and most probably 4) severe
energy shortages at times.

But hey, what do I know, right? I only read thisstuff and pass on the more pertinent articles to the P&R
crowd, much of whom fail to listen to the ringing of the bells. Ask thyself, for whom the bell tolls -- it
tolls for thee...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...r-1798175.html
The demise of the dollar
By Robert Fisk

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China's former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. "Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable," he told the Asia and Africa Review. "We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security."

This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region's conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy. China uses more oil incrementally than the US because its growth is less energy efficient. The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves.

The decline of American economic power linked to the current global recession was implicitly acknowledged by the World Bank president Robert Zoellick. "One of the legacies of this crisis may be a recognition of changed economic power relations," he said in Istanbul ahead of meetings this week of the IMF and World Bank. But it is China's extraordinary new financial power – along with past anger among oil-producing and oil-consuming nations at America's power to interfere in the international financial system – which has prompted the latest discussions involving the Gulf states.

Brazil has shown interest in collaborating in non-dollar oil payments, along with India. Indeed, China appears to be the most enthusiastic of all the financial powers involved, not least because of its enormous trade with the Middle East.

China imports 60 per cent of its oil, much of it from the Middle East and Russia. The Chinese have oil production concessions in Iraq – blocked by the US until this year – and since 2008 have held an $8bn agreement with Iran to develop refining capacity and gas resources. China has oil deals in Sudan (where it has substituted for US interests) and has been negotiating for oil concessions with Libya, where all such contracts are joint ventures.

Furthermore, Chinese exports to the region now account for no fewer than 10 per cent of the imports of every country in the Middle East, including a huge range of products from cars to weapon systems, food, clothes, even dolls. In a clear sign of China's growing financial muscle, the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, yesterday pleaded with Beijing to let the yuan appreciate against a sliding dollar and, by extension, loosen China's reliance on US monetary policy, to help rebalance the world economy and ease upward pressure on the euro.

Ever since the Bretton Woods agreements – the accords after the Second World War which bequeathed the architecture for the modern international financial system – America's trading partners have been left to cope with the impact of Washington's control and, in more recent years, the hegemony of the dollar as the dominant global reserve currency.

The Chinese believe, for example, that the Americans persuaded Britain to stay out of the euro in order to prevent an earlier move away from the dollar. But Chinese banking sources say their discussions have gone too far to be blocked now. "The Russians will eventually bring in the rouble to the basket of currencies," a prominent Hong Kong broker told The Independent. "The Brits are stuck in the middle and will come into the euro. They have no choice because they won't be able to use the US dollar."

Chinese financial sources believe President Barack Obama is too busy fixing the US economy to concentrate on the extraordinary implications of the transition from the dollar in nine years' time. The current deadline for the currency transition is 2018.

The US discussed the trend briefly at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh; the Chinese Central Bank governor and other officials have been worrying aloud about the dollar for years. Their problem is that much of their national wealth is tied up in dollar assets.
"These plans will change the face of international financial transactions," one Chinese banker said. "America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate."

Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars. Bankers remember, of course, what happened to the last Middle East oil producer to sell its oil in euros rather than dollars. A few months after Saddam Hussein trumpeted his decision, the Americans and British invaded Iraq.

[cjppjc]

Re: Drudge......Deal to END use of $ to trade Oil!

I Robert Fisk a credible source? Anyone know much about him?

[Slimprofits]

Re: Drudge......Deal to END use of $ to trade Oil!

I Robert Fisk a credible source? Anyone know much about him?

Nothing other than what is known in the public domain, but I think he is credible.

side note: He has taken a lot of abuse for criticizing the Israeli government, but keeps on going.

[raja]

Re: Drudge......Deal to END use of $ to trade Oil!

I Robert Fisk a credible source? Anyone know much about him?

I went to a talk he gave about 7 years ago.
My impression was that he was out of touch with reality, bending the facts to support his agenda . . . he believed what he was saying.

[cjppjc]

Re: Drudge......Deal to END use of $ to trade Oil!

I went to a talk he gave about 7 years ago.
My impression was that he was out of touch with reality, bending the facts to support his agenda . . . he believed what he was saying.

Thanks. Where else can you get answers to your questions. I'm always a little suspicious of secrets.

[mooncliff]

Re: Drudge......Deal to END use of $ to trade Oil!

I went to a talk he gave about 7 years ago.
My impression was that he was out of touch with reality, bending the facts to support his agenda . . . he believed what he was saying.

I have been reading Fisk's articles in The Independent for over a decade. I assume since he has actually lived there for 30 years that he knows what he is talking about, although of course interpretations may differ.


Robert Fisk (born 12 July 1946, Maidstone, Kent) is an English writer and journalist. Middle East correspondent of the The Independent, he has been based mainly in Beirut for more than 30 years.[1] Fisk holds more British and International Journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent.[2]

The New York Times once described Robert Fisk as "probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain."[3] He reported the Northern Ireland troubles in the 1970s, the Portuguese Revolution in 1974, the Lebanese Civil War, the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. A vernacular Arabic speaker, he is one of few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden, three times between 1994 and 1997.[4][5] Awards include being voted International Journalist of the Year seven times.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fisk

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/

[mooncliff]

Re: Drudge......Deal to END use of $ to trade Oil!

Thanks. Where else can you get answers to your questions. I'm always a little suspicious of secrets.

Mish thinks it is a load of nonsense, which of course it could be, but Mish does not know what Fisk actually experienced or was told regarding this matter, so if he was not there, I don't know that he can say why Fisk is saying what he is saying and why it may or may not be true. Mish is looking from the outside in; Fisk from the inside out.

It is not possible to determine how and when it might come true, so I use this kind of thing, always, as a means of bringing things to my attention. We cannot really come to a conclusion at this point.