[lutherquick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060311/ap_ ... s_security

This was all about dollar hegemony.
And much related to energy in an indirect way.

And dollar hegemony is a simple mechanism for subsidizing (higher standard of living) the US economy.
The truth is, the US produces squat, consumes way too many brls of oil per unit of GDP.
Factor in the creativity of the FED in calculating inflation and it becomes clear the entire US effort with dollar hegemony is being "now" implemented for survival.

The port deal was simple.
Let these foreign companies come and work and receive pay in US dollars that they remove out of the US economy. This money goes to other nations and generally stays there for awhile, not returning too fast to the US economy, thus delaying inflation. Get more and more of these kinds of deals and BINGO, the US is subsidized and everyone in America has hallucinations that we are competitive. Keeping world oil trading in US dollar, does the same. Mass marketing the world with advanced propaganda thus distorting the US image and you get peasants all of the world hording and coveting the dollar. Most Chinese millionairs save in US dollars... it all adds up to a gift for America... and this doesn't include the issue of governments saving US currency as a reserve nor does it include currency collection just to buy energy... but all together and this is why America had such a party...

Example: Take a Chinese Yuan, and drop it in the streets of New York City, almost immediately it will end up in a bank, propagate to a central bank, then exchanged for dollars or via Forex end up back in China... However, take a US dollar and drop it into the Chinese streets, and some one will find it and take it home and SAVE... or they will go to the local bazaar or shop and buy something and the receiver will horde it or it will circulate in China FOREVER... it never goes back to America and thus never creates inflation in America...

People get all worried about the exporting of jobs (out of the US), well that is just another engine of dollar hegemony, and it's good because it subsidizes the US economy, I say good, as in short term...

Ultimately, this crap will stop. If America can't keep up the dollar hegemony, then yes, Bush is right, it will be bad for America. This port deal failing is the failing of subsidized America. Ooooooo, maybe now we can work for our consumption.... Ooooooo, get a job America !!!! Start measuring productivity in ENERGY input, not be man hours...

End the end, if enough business like the port deal failure, yes, we will see hyper inflation, and energy will need to climb 25% per year just to stand still (I'm not calculating energy inflation due to Peak Oil fundamentals such as demand vs. supply and epiphany that technology will fall short and require more revenue)...

Got to hand it to Bush, he's trying real hard to keep thing as they are. We sure could use someone with a little vision rather than these Bush delusions.

If we could just keep going on with the $ hegemony, we could buy all the oil we need by just printing, and printing... and thus stay competative (I'm sarcastic... but this is the pathetic truth) and the books would reflect how competative America is...

Boy, what a 'jig' we Americans have....

[NeoPeasant]

We are trading OPEC countries and China lots and lots of dollar bills for their oil and consumer crap. But when they want to use some of those dollars to buy something of real value, we tell them no. Why dont you just buy some more IOU's from our treasury department instead?

How long will they want to keep taking our "money"?

[Sleepybag]

Lutherquick,

You are right about US Dollars circulating in the rest of the world. Keeping them out in the field reduces the need to balance the checkbook. However, since the European single currency was introduced in the streets in 2002, the Dollar is losing ground. Before 2001, US Dollars were the foreign currency of choice in Eastern Europa, Africa and Central Asia. At the moment of the introduction of the euro, the exchange rate was (2001) SIX EURO = FIVE US$, right now, this has reversed to (2006) FIVE EURO = SIX US$.

The reason is simple. Just go to any country in a 1000 mile radius of the EURO-zone, and you can see for yourself. The dominant currency is the euro in countries like Poland, Egypt, Turkey and Marocco. Excess Dollars flooded the banks and eventually returned to their motherland. With a rather small trade deficit, lower debt and more countries adopting to the Euro, this trend is likely to continue for the coming years.

[LadyRuby]

I disagree. It was all much simpler than that, and just your good old fashioned corporate greed.

Look how many companies are behind establishing a Middle East Free Trade Zone (MEFTA).

U.S. Middle East Free Trade Coalition

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'U').S. Middle East Free Trade Coalition Adds to
Steering Committee

With the addition of several new companies, the U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Coalition Steering Committee, which guides the direction and activities of the coalition, has now reached twenty organizations. Steering Committee members include: American International Group, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, The Boeing Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, the Business Council for International Understanding, CMS Energy, ChevronTexaco, Coca-Cola Company, Dow Chemical Company, ExxonMobil, The Herman Group of Companies, Intel, J. Ray McDermott, Motorola, the National Foreign Trade Council, Occidental Petroleum, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Raytheon, TECORE Wireless Systems, and Washington Group International. Over a hundred U.S. companies and organizations supporting the creating of a Middle East Free Trade Area by 2013 make up the coalition.

[Kingcoal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lutherquick', 'T')his port deal failing is the failing of subsidized America. Ooooooo, maybe now we can work for our consumption.... Ooooooo, get a job America !!!! Start measuring productivity in ENERGY input, not be man hours...

[lutherquick]

Kingcoal,

Nope, I don't have a job, I own several businesses and property in countries that I believe will survive peak oil...
My business is in energy management and of software engineering in other countries outside of the US.

So, I will assume my worry, about the country that I was born as a citizen in, the US, that we are screwed, that peak oil is real and the dollar hegemony is really what so much of the fancy foot work we see coming out of DC is all about...

I would have like to have seen your posting explain to me why hegemony is good, or how we are getting out of this mess... but no, you have no answers... just like Bush, we get hit with 9/11 and he starts off on a tangent of wmd here, and there, and war here and there...

Kingcoal, consider covering your azz... consider running away from the $ and moving into gold, and Yuan and Euro and Ruble... buy some property in a country that is energy self sufficient and has the nukes to protect itself by keeping the PNAC nut jobs in their corner and on a leash... and Kingcoal, don't get emotional... I would respect you if you could explain to me why my post was wrong.

[lutherquick]

Dear LadyRuby,

I agree it's corporate greed... but that is a small harmonic trend, there are bigger, super trends that we can't see... and I believe that if you aggregate all the corporate greed together with government methods such as this ludicrous foreign policy (monetary is part of it) that you would then see this super trend of hegemony... All governments try to get their currency to dominate global trade, but America accidentally did it, and it was good right after WW2... but like everything else, it was abused... Europe wants it, but is smart enough to take it slow and moderate... The Euro is going for the long haul...

The dollar was respected for the noble effort we did in WW2. Over time, it gained allot of momentum, and eventually the dollar was worth more than gold out side America... however, we abused it, corporations used it to drive jobs overseas, and the American consumers got into this feeding frenzy, happily trading their friend's jobs for something cheaper at Wal-Mart... in a nut shell, we printed money that left for overseas and never came back (abating inflation), yet goods from the rest of the world flooded the American economy...

anyway... there are many trends and all are resonating, peak oil, corporate greed, hegemony, exponential growth, US "nut job" foreign policy, and others are building into one strong signal, pulse if I may that will level the US economy, and I'll add and bet everything the parts of the world that have energy and production will do just fine while America smolders for a generation or two...

[sch_peakoiler]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lutherquick', 'K')ingcoal,

Nope, I don't have a job, I own several businesses and property in countries that I believe will survive peak oil...
My business is in energy management and of software engineering in other countries outside of the US.

[lutherquick]

sch_peakoiler,

This forum allows private messages, you are welcome to ask me such questions.

On a similar note, Peak oil isn't the end of the world, it's just the end of the world as we know it... There will be, and there are plenty of opportunities. I'm not speaking of cold fusion or hydrogen, there are more real endeavors... As important, anyone opening a business in the US today would be crazy... open it in a country that has energy or actually makes something... Markets are a "given" they are important, but pure markets that produce zipo (like the US) will become increasingly irrelevant as hegemony crashes in favor of real good and wealth... Trade is more important... Balanced trade, that is... Telling me America's market is so important is like me going to my bank and demanding more loans or I will default... America gives little in return except for a few fairy tales, trillions of fake worthless green backs and tons of threats, which I might add, are very entertaining...

[linlithgowoil]

lutherquick, sounds like you dont produce anything of value either. owning businesses and property? sounds like you have people who do all the real work whilst you sit on your ass and complain on peakoil.com all day long.

no idea why you want things to get bad so quick. guys like you have the most to lose. and lose it you shall, mark my words.

[lutherquick]

linlithgowoil,

Wow, linlithgowoil, I'm impressed...

You claim I have nothing to do all day but sit on my azz at peak oil and complain.

You joined PO on Dec 20 2004 and have 840 posts.
I joined PO on Feb 04 2005 and have only 121 posts.

Guess what? based on simple math, YOU sit on your azz allot more than me. Calculate the posts per day or week and it seems you have more screw off time.

Then you go and make a comment because I own a business that I must not produce... Lenin would love you for that...

Sorry to ruin your day man, but changing the language doesn't change reality.

Be it how many posts you do per millisecond or the fact the America needs a good crash, reality will not adjust for you.

It's people like you who believe in abiotic oil, wmd in Iraq, and America is go for mars after the last shuttle crash.
You should move to America where incompetency is a virtue... Here in America you can screw up (IraQ) and now have an excuse for (IraN) the next intership...

[Euric]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NeoPeasant', 'W')e are trading OPEC countries and China lots and lots of dollar bills for their oil and consumer crap. But when they want to use some of those dollars to buy something of real value, we tell them no. Why dont you just buy some more IOU's from our treasury department instead?

How long will they want to keep taking our "money"?

[horsestoaster]

Hmmm...Isn't all this gobbledee gook also known as money laundering or some such???