This all comes down to Petro Euros vs. Petro Dollars. Arab politics is hard to gauge. But my personal opinion is that these events may prove negative for Americans struggling with monthly bills.
"Oh the Dubai Port Deal will have NO effect on our economy. Oh no, none. Dubabi will just grin and thank us for peeing on them"
Thanks, Hillary!
Good. They can earn their terror supporting dollars elswhere.
Anyone putting their money in Euros is committing financial suicide... take a look at the short yet stormy history of the Euro and the stability of the political basis for that currency. I'll be amazed if it's still in use in 10 years from now.
This is what happens when you follow economic advice from Chuck Schumer and Hillary! Clinton.
This trend will continue... because the US is using the dollar domiance to police the entire world moneyflow,
what to catch a few money-laundering criminals and terrorists?
Welcome to world police state!
Internet buzz means nothing to me. Paper dollars are no more worthless than paper euros. Our economy is stronger than the European economy so the US dollar is not likely to decline significantly relative to the euro.
It's hard for me to believe that the port fiasco had absolutely nothing to do with this.
Let them switch to Euros. They'll lose money like never before.
The problem for the Arab countries is that the market controls the sale of oil, despite their stranglehold on supply. As it stands, Middle Eastern oil contracts are sold in dollars just like North Sea Crude is sold in Pounds Sterling. Even OPEC admitted a few years ago that they can't control the denomination of oil contracts. If they want to convert their dollars to euros then fine, they'll have to convert back when the oil is sold. Plus, how absurd is it to convert from one denomination to another denomination that's selling near its high. It doesn't make sense.
It's a fascinating scenario. The game works this way: The first person that successfully exits the dollar door without alerting the others gets to transfer his dollars into other currencies with minimal losses, as their cash-ins drop the value of their dollar holdings. However, any move towards the door alerts the others, which prompts them to move toward the door too, thereby guaranteeing that EVERYBODY loses their asses via a panic selloff and a precipitous drop in the value of the dollars they will be desperately trying to cash in enmasse.
Yeah...this'll last forever.........
....and here it comes...
If and when those diaper-hat wearing geeks decide to totally switch to the Euro we better tighten up our buttcheeks because our dollar will deflate faster than Pamela Anderson's ta-ta's.
Either we call an all out war for oil now - or wait until our money and credibility is worthless before trying to kick those Arab scumbags off the planet.
Forecasting a dollar collapse is an absolutely unrewarded enterprise. If you're wrong - everybody can come back to you within the highly-functional status quo to razz your butt about being wrong.
If you're right, nobody's gonna A) give a crap and B) be able to get online for you to accept any kind of acknowledgement in any case.
Therefore, if I'm wrong - I will be happy to earn your razzing by the fall of this year. If I'm right, good luck to us all.
I think there is more to this than just "economic warfare." I suspect these countries -- along with many other foreign investors -- are taking a good hard look at the U.S. economy and realizing that a prolonged period of inflation in the U.S. dollar is almost a certainty. This was the real reason for the 1973 "Arab oil boycott," and it's looking more and more like the early 1970s by the day around here.
Again???
Isn't the ME going through a stock market crash? Are they trying to deflect from that?
If they can knock the legs out from under us economically (rather than militarily), they know it'll make enough voting idiots over here mad enough to vote a Dhimmie into the POTUS in 2008, and then we go back to practicing euroweenie diplomacy with the ME like we did back in Jimmah's and Bubba's administrations. - OB1
I'd like to see the list of countries that "allow the US to buy anywhere." I'll bet there are very few who do not restrict our ownership in some fashion. Mexico springs to mind, and doesn't Dubai have restrictions on foreign investments as well?
We should counter-threaten by saying we'll make it our nations mission to make oil obsolete in ten years.
They can go back to riding camels in that worthless sandbox.