Free Republic

You can understand their frustration, as the steady stream of radical environmentalist successes during the Obama years has been replaced with endless setbacks. Oil, gas and coal leasing, permits and production have risen significantly. Big Green just lost its first Big Cities v. Big Oil climate change shakedown lawsuit. President Trump pulled the USA out of the economy-wrecking, all-pain-no-gain Paris Climate Treaty and will soon nominate another Supreme Court justice. So, all these rabidly anti-fossil-fuel actions in Oakland and New York and across the USA will have no effect on global emissions or even theoretically on Earth’s climate. It’s all...

Politicians, economic “experts” and the talking heads in mainstream media will never tell you that monetary policy is the most important issue facing the United States. Whether you realize it or not, monetary policy has a direct and significant impact on all our lives. When the US abandoned the gold standard in the early 1970’s, it steered our economy toward a cliff that we are closer than ever to driving over. Once the gold standard ended, the Nixon administration went to Saudi Arabia to strike up a deal that would give immense power to the US’s rent-seeking elites for many...

If, when in February Victoria Nuland infamously launched a (not so) covert campaign to replace the ruling Ukraine president oblivious to the human casualties, resulting in a civil war in east Ukraine, NATO encroachment along the borders of Russia, and a near-terminal escalation in hostilities between Ukraine, Russian, and various regional NATO members, the US intention was to provoke the Kremlin so hard that the nation with the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources would jettison the US Dollar and in the process begin the unraveling of the USD reserve currency status (as much as Jared Bernstein desires...

SunNews' Brian Lilley follows up with Josh Tickell, filmmaker. The ultimate highlight is at 03:49 as it is revealed directly from the horses mouth: "The truth is that about 30% of the films in Hollywood are funded through the Middle East"video link via VladTepesBlog

The mainstream media in the United States is almost totally ignoring one of the most important trends in global economics. This trend is going to cause the value of the U.S. dollar to fall dramatically and it is going to cause the cost of living in the United States to go way up. Right now, the U.S. dollar is the primary reserve currency of the world. Even though that status has been chipped away at in recent years, U.S. dollars still make up more than 60 percent of all foreign currency reserves in the world. Most international trade (including the...

The short version of the story is that a 1970s deal cemented the US dollar as the only currency to buy and sell crude oil, and from that monopoly on the all-important oil trade the US dollar slowly but surely became the reserve currency for global trades in most commodities and goods. Massive demand for US dollars ensued, pushing the dollar's value up, up, and away. In addition, countries stored their excess US dollars savings in US Treasuries, giving the US government a vast pool of credit from which to draw.

21st Century SocialismThe attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.  The Obama administration started out on the wrong foot in world affairs. It used techniques better suited for domestic political campaigns — popularity contests — in its foreign policy. In our own hemisphere, the result was confusion for our allies and our enemies alike. The overriding objective of U.S. policy — in Latin America and elsewhere — should be to advance U.S. national interests, not to curry favor with foreign leaders. If we can be liked while advancing our interests, so much the better. But when we try to befriend...

Is the U.S. Recycling Saudi Petrodollars into Weapons Sales? By: Chris Pocock January 10, 2011 AIN Defense Blog I have long suspected that the main U.S. purpose in supplying huge arms packages to Gulf countries is to recycle petrodollars. Uncle Sam pays heavily for its reliance on imported oil, but offers in return a shopping list of shiny new weaponry from the U.S. defense industry. Like kids in a candy store, the Arabs take up these offers, although with not enough thought given to how they might absorb and operate the kit. Some evidence to back my theory is available...

Dubai: The oil boom and current petrodollar recycling are creating a strong basis for a new Gulf economy that is fast becoming a key driver of global economic growth and future oil demand, according to Lehman Brothers, a leading global investment bank. The flow of investment stemming from the high oil prices has increased cash flows of both the public and private sector. These increased cash flows have resulted in a rapid increase in government spending which has fuelled domestic demand for energy in the Gulf, Edward Morse, Leh-man Brothers' chief energy economist said in a recent report. Analysts from...

The petrodollar pipeline that recycles billions from oil producers back to the U.S. economy has turned crude-laden nations from Norway to Iran into the world’s biggest sources of global savings. These nations are also key sources of foreign demand for U.S. assets. Now new research predicts a trend that could affect the U.S. economy nearly as much as swings on crude exchanges: Oil producers might be looking to diversify how they spend and invest their cash. Such changes are worth watching — mainly because the flood of money generated for oil exporters by sustained high crude prices has become a...

J'accuse...! In 1898 a Parisian literary newspaper, L’Aurore, printed what some have called the greatest newspaper article of all time. Written by Emile Zola, the 4,000-word article exposed a corrupt French military more concerned with appearance than reality. An innocent man, Alfred Dreyfus, was falsely convicted and sent to Devil’s Island. Then, it was pride, fear and anti-semitism the drove the machinations. Today, our military is undermined by Saudi petrodollars promoting a single religion, indeed, a single sect, politely known as Wahhabi Islam, but more accurately termed Islamic Fascism, that threatens our nation with physical and economic terror. Aside from...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Petrodollars have returned to the world stage, and could play a potentially destabilizing role in the U.S. and global trade imbalances, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund released Thursday.Petrodollars, just as much a part of the 1970s as bell bottoms and platform shoes, are dollars paid to oil-producing countries and then re-invested in major financial markets. In the 1970s, these funds were deposited in big Western banks. This time around, it is more complicated. Petrodollars are being recycled through international capital markets and offshore accounts, partially because of the post 9/11 Patriot Act...

A number of Middle Eastern central banks said on Tuesday that they would seek to switch reserves from the US greenback to euros. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said that it was considering moving one-tenth of its dollar reserves to the euro, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the decision by the United States to force Dubai Ports World to transfer its ownership to a "US entity", the UK Independent reported. "Is it protectionism or discrimination? Is it okay for US companies to buy everywhere but it is not okay for other companies to buy the...

Iran and Venezuela joined forces to undermine the U.S. dollar. Last year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that his country's plans to move its foreign-exchange holdings out of the dollar into the euro, calling for the creation of a South American central bank designed to hold in euros all the foreign-exchange holdings of the participating countries. On the other hand, Iran started since 2003 demanding oil payment in euros, not dollars, although the oil itself was still priced in dollars. The Islamic Republic has already announced plans of opening the Iranian Oil Bourse in March, challenging by that the NYMEX...

The Next Crisis By Oliver North January 13, 2006 Official Washington has the attention span of a fruit fly. A "crisis d'jour" momentarily captures the attention of the so-called mainstream media, politicians and government bureaucrats. For a few days -- occasionally for a few weeks -- the potentates on the Potomac will focus on "the problem," hold hearings, introduce some legislation, devise a way to spend more of our tax dollars, initiate an "investigation" -- and move on when they are "shocked," "stunned," and/or "surprised" by the next catastrophe or scandal. Like a pan of soup on a hot stove,...

Some may understand the surging demand that comes from a billion Chinese and a billion Indians who have joined the oil market as consumers—not only to fuel their cars and planes but as an ingredient in fertilizers, pesticides, medicines, paints, and plastics. Guess how many barrels of oil we import a day? A million? Five million? No, the staggering answer is . . . 12 million barrels a day, and we're heading for 20 million barrels a day by 2025. The price increases over the past year mean that we consumers will send oil producers an additional $50 billion this...

Tomorrow, President Bush could make the following speech: "We are all concerned that the industrialized world, and increasingly the developing world, draw too much of their energy from one product, petroleum, which comes disproportionately from one volatile region, the Middle East. This dependence has significant political and environmental dangers for all of us. But there is now a solution, one that the United States will pursue actively. "It is now possible to build cars that are powered by a combination of electricity and alcohol-based fuels, with petroleum as only one element among many. My administration is going to put in...

    « Dhimmitude at the LA Times: "Beheading for Sake of Fear, Not Islam" | Main | Eurabia in action: Former French PM Calls Balfour Declaration "Historic Mistake" » June 23, 2004 Douce France, by Hugh Fitzgerald One of the most dispiriting things about the comments shutdown, which we are working to end as quickly as we possibly can, is that we have all missed out on remarks from our friend Hugh Fitzgerald, one of the most erudite and articulate anti-jihadists on the scene today. In fact, I can't think of anyone who tops him in either erudition...