[montag813]

All Iran has to do is call an emergency meeting of all OPEC members and urge them to adopt Euros as the official trading currency. Switching to Euro Dollars will totally shaft the U.S. economy.

Not true. The Saudis began a shift towards the Euro a year ago. The Euro has fallen from 1.38 to 1.19 per dollar since then.

[ex-Texan]

I am aware of the clout behind the potential move to Euro Dollars. Most of the OPEC nations favor the Euro. Putin favors the Euro as well. Iran does not sell oil directly to the U.S. But oil is fungible. A barrel from Iran is much the same as one produced in Saudi Arabia. Oil speculators drive the cost of oil up on world markets. I object to rich sheiks, that made money selling oil to Shell, playing speculator again with the world oil market. Arab bankers, private hedge funds, and people like Soros make tons of money speculating in oil futures. That is like double dipping for fun and profits.

[jwpjr]

Good point!

I am not an economist and I didn't spend the night in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but my memory tells me that virtually NOTHING the experts predict EVER comes out the way they expected. Sometimes the outcome is worse, sometimes it's better, but it's usually an unexpected outcome. We need to decide what outcome is in the best interest of the U S of A and then set about to assure that outcome, regardless of how it affects our friends or our enemies. No one is going to look out for our best interests and if something needs to be done then we best get busy and get it done!