[FARS]

Links to two recent articles by alan Peters on the same subject but with much broader and detailed perspective.

Serious Chatter 1

Currency Chatter 2

[RegulatorCountry]

"The last time oil-exporting countries reduced their exposure to the dollar — in late 2003 — it pushed the euro to an all-time high against the dollar."

Telegraphing a belief that interest rates are headed down.

[Brilliant]

"reduced their dollar holdings to the lowest level in two years"




Another media piece trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

[KoRn]

This may be a dumb question since I'm a bit ignorant of currency exchange, but here it goes anyway.

If OPEC were to totally abandon the US Dollar and begin using a currency of higher value such as The EURO, would it cause our oil prices to dramatically increase due to the higher value of The EURO against the dollar?

[Normal4me]

How does going from 67 to 65 equal "Abandon"?

[FARS]

Still a gradual unhooking of the dollar but could be dire if it continues or speeds up. Check the analysis on the two links shown above in Reply #1:

Chatter 1 and Currency Chatter 2

Iran's Oil Bourse intends to help do just that. It's Iran's best weapon. Far better than nukes and quite legal, contravening no pact or accord.

[RaceBannon]

you really are rubbing our faces in it, aren't you?

Go Ahead, GLOAT!!

OKAY, YOU WERE RIGHT!!!

:)

[WashingtonSource]

Headline: "abandons dollar." Lead sentence: "Reduces dollar holdings." Big difference.

[IronJack]

I think this is just another front in the war. I suspect much of the redesign of our currency is because the various towelhead nations have been trying to undermine its credibility by counterfeiting Federal Reserve notes. The oil spike in the last couple of years has certainly contributed to inflationary pressure. The housing bubble burst at an oddly selective time; there didn't seem to be any more reason for it to pop when it did than at any other time. China is buying friends all over Africa using money from its vast trade surplus. And now the ragheads are shorting dollars.

This isn't just coincidence. All these events wouldn't just randomly converge against the United States at the same time. There's something behind this, he declared, at the risk of being called a Colander Commando.

[AmusedBystander]

Respreading one's portfolio from time to time is always a wise decision.

Certainly the oil sheiks could have made much more money by doing this much earlier like when one Euro was launched to equal one Dollar.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

bump

[gotribe]

Well, the oil princes DO own us.

[SunkenCiv]

That'll screw up the foreign currency trade, particularly in the Far East where they buy a lot of oil. The Euro will be moving based on the price of oil instead of whatever the European economy is doing. If I had to guess, this has to do with the Saudis, who still dominate, wanting Turkey in the EU.

[SunkenCiv]

GoldMoney Alert: OPEC Has Already Turned to the Euro
Edited by James Turk
18 February 2004

US Imports of Crude oil
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
Year	Quantity (thousands of barrels)	Value (thousands of US dollars)	Unit price (US dollars)	Average daily US$ per € exchange rate	Unit price (euros)
2001	3,471,066	74,292,894	21.40	0.8952	23.91
2002	3,418,021	77,283,329	22.61	0.9454	23.92
2003	3,673,596	99,094,675	26.97	1.1321	23.82

We can see from column (4) in the above table that in 2001, each barrel of imported crude oil cost $21.40 on average for that year. But by 2003 the average price of a barrel of crude oil had risen 26.0% to $26.97 per barrel. However, the important point is shown in column (6). Note that the price of crude oil in terms of euros is essentially unchanged throughout this 3-year period.

[longtermmemmory]

Misleading headline.

The accurate headline is "OPEC reduces dollar INVESTIMENTS."

The yellow journalism fake headline implies the dollar is not the reserve currency any more.

SHAME ON NEWSMAX.

[skateman]

We're doooooooooooooooooooooooomed.

[Deo et Patria]

Reducing their dollar holdings from 67% to 65% is now "abandoning" the dollar?

We're doomed! /sarc