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The Rise Of The Petroyuan And The Slow Erosion Of Dollar Hegemony
For seventy years, one of the critical foundations of American power has been the dollar’s standing as the world’s most important currency. For the last forty years, a pillar of dollar primacy has been the greenback’s dominant role in international energy markets. Today, China is leveraging its rise as an economic power, and as the most important incremental market for hydrocarbon exporters in the Persian Gulf and the former Soviet Union, to circumscribe dollar dominance in global energy – with potentially profound ramifications for America’s strategic position.
Since World War II, America’s geopolitical supremacy has rested not only on military might, but also on the dollar’s standing as the world’s leading transactional and reserve currency. Economically, dollar primacy extracts “seignorage”—the difference between the cost of printing money and its value—from other countries, and minimises U.S. firms’ exchange rate risk. Its real importance, though, is strategic: dollar primacy lets America cover its chronic current account and fiscal deficits by issuing more of its own currency – precisely how Washington has funded its hard power projection for over half a century.
Since the 1970s, a pillar of dollar primacy has been the greenback’s role as the dominant currency in which oil and gas are priced, and in which international hydrocarbon sales are invoiced and settled. This helps keep worldwide dollar demand high. It also feeds energy producers’ accumulation of dollar surpluses that reinforce the dollar’s standing as the world’s premier reserve asset, and that can be “recycled” into the U.S. economy to cover American deficits.
Many assume that the dollar’s prominence in energy markets derives from its wider status as the world’s foremost transactional and reserve currency. But the dollar’s role in these markets is neither natural nor a function of its broader dominance. Rather, it was engineered by U.S. policymakers after the Bretton Woods monetary order collapsed in the early 1970s, ending the initial version of dollar primacy (“dollar hegemony 1.0”). Linking the dollar to international oil trading was key to creating a new version of dollar primacy (“dollar hegemony 2.0”)—and, by extension, in financing another forty years of American hegemony.
Gold and Dollar Hegemony 1.0
Dollar primacy was first enshrined at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, where America’s non-communist allies acceded to Washington’s blueprint for a postwar international monetary order. Britain’s delegation—headed by Lord Keynes—and virtually every other participating country, save the United States, favoured creating a new multilateral currency through the fledgling International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the chief source of global liquidity. But this would have thwarted American ambitions for a dollar-centered monetary order. Even though almost all participants preferred the multilateral option, America’s overwhelming relative power ensured that, in the end, its preferences prevailed. So, under the Bretton Woods gold exchange standard, the dollar was pegged to gold and other currencies were pegged to the dollar, making it the main form of international liquidity.
There was, however, a fatal contradiction in Washington’s dollar-based vision. The only way America could diffuse enough dollars to meet worldwide liquidity needs was by running open-ended current account deficits. As Western Europe and Japan recovered and regained competitiveness, these deficits grew. Throw in America’s own burgeoning demand for dollars—to fund rising consumption, welfare state expansion, and global power projection—and the U.S. money supply soon exceeded U.S. gold reserves. From the 1950s, Washington worked to persuade or coerce foreign dollar holders not to exchange greenbacks for gold. But insolvency could be staved off for only so long: in August 1971, President Nixon suspended dollar-gold convertibility, ending the gold exchange standard; by 1973, fixed exchange rates were gone, too.
These events raised fundamental questions about the long-term soundness of a dollar-based monetary order. To preserve its role as chief provider of international liquidity, the U.S. would have to continue running current account deficits. But those deficits were ballooning, for Washington’s abandonment of Bretton Woods intersected with two other watershed developments: America became a net oil importer in the early 1970s; and the assertion of market power by key members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1973-1974 caused a 500% increase in oil prices, exacerbating the strain on the U.S. balance of payments. With the link between the dollar and gold severed and exchange rates no longer fixed, the prospect of ever-larger U.S. deficits aggravated concerns about the dollar’s long-term value.
These concerns had special resonance for major oil producers. Oil going to international markets has been priced in dollars, at least since the 1920s—but, for decades, sterling was used at least as frequently as dollars in order to settle transnational oil purchases, even after the dollar had replaced sterling as the world’s preeminent trade and reserve currency. As long as sterling was pegged to the dollar and the dollar was “as good as gold,” this was economically viable. But, after Washington abandoned dollar-gold convertibility and the world transitioned from fixed to floating exchange rates, the currency regime for oil trading was up for grabs. With the end of dollar-gold convertibility, America’s major allies in the Persian Gulf—the Shah’s Iran, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia—came to favour shifting OPEC’s pricing system, from denominating prices in dollars to denominating them in a basket of currencies.
In this environment, several of America’s European allies revived the idea (first broached by Keynes at Bretton Woods) of providing international liquidity in the form of an IMF-issued, multilaterally-governed currency—so-called “Special Drawing Rights” (SDRs). After rising oil prices engorged their current accounts, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab allies of the United States pushed for OPEC to begin invoicing in SDRs. They also endorsed European proposals to recycle petrodollar surpluses through the IMF, in order to encourage its emergence as the main post-Bretton Woods provider of international liquidity. That would have meant Washington could not continue to print as many dollars, as it wanted to support rising consumption, mushrooming welfare expenditures, and sustained global power projection. To avert this, American policymakers had to find new ways to incentivise foreigners to continue holding ever-larger surpluses of what were now fiat dollars.
Oil and Dollar Hegemony 2.0
To this end, U.S. administrations from the mid-1970s devised two strategies. One was to maximise demand for dollars as a transactional currency. The other was to reverse Bretton Woods’ restrictions on transnational capital flows; with financial liberalisation, America could leverage the breadth and depth of its capital markets, and it could cover its chronic current account and fiscal deficits by attracting foreign capital at relatively low cost. Forging strong links between hydrocarbon sales and the dollar proved critical on both fronts.
To forge such links, Washington effectively extorted its Gulf Arab allies, quietly conditioning U.S. guarantees of their security to their willingness to financially help the United States. Reneging on pledges to its European and Japanese partners, the Ford administration clandestinely pushed Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab producers to recycle substantial parts of their petrodollar surpluses into the U.S. economy through private (largely U.S.) intermediaries, rather than through the IMF. The Ford administration also elicited Gulf Arab support for Washington’s strained finances, reaching secret deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for their central banks to buy large volumes of U.S. Treasury securities outside normal auction processes. These commitments helped Washington prevent the IMF from supplanting the United States as the main provider of international liquidity; they also gave a crucial early boost to Washington’s ambitions to finance U.S. deficits by recycling foreign dollar surpluses via private capital markets and purchases of U.S. government securities.
OPEC’s commitment to the dollar as the invoice currency for international oil sales was key to broader embrace of the dollar as the oil market’s reigning transactional currency.
A few years later, the Carter administration struck another secret deal with the Saudis, whereby Riyadh committed to exert its influence to ensure that OPEC continued pricing oil in dollars. OPEC’s commitment to the dollar as the invoice currency for international oil sales was key to broader embrace of the dollar as the oil market’s reigning transactional currency. As OPEC’s administered price system collapsed in the mid-1980s, the Reagan administration encouraged universalised dollar invoicing for cross-border oil sales on new oil exchanges in London and New York. Nearly universal pricing of oil—and, later on, gas—in dollars has bolstered the likelihood that hydrocarbon sales will not just be denominated in dollars, but settled in them as well, generating ongoing support for worldwide dollar demand.
In short, these bargains were instrumental in creating “dollar hegemony 2.0.” And they have largely held up, despite periodic Gulf Arab dissatisfaction with America’s Middle East policy, more fundamental U.S. estrangement from other major Gulf producers (Saddam Husseinn’s Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran), and a flurry of interest in the “petro–Euro” in the early 2000s. The Saudis, especially, have vigorously defended exclusive pricing of oil in dollars. While Saudi Arabia and other major energy producers now accept payment for their oil exports in other major currencies, the larger share of the world’s hydrocarbon sales continue to be settled in dollars, perpetuating the greenback’s status as the world’s top transactional currency. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab producers have supplemented their support for the oil-dollar nexus with ample purchases of advanced U.S. weapons; most have also pegged their currencies to the dollar—a commitment which senior Saudi officials describe as “strategic.” While the dollar’s share of global reserves has dropped, Gulf Arab petrodollar recycling helps keep it the world’s leading reserve currency.
The China Challenge
Still, history and logic caution that current practices are not set in stone. With the rise of the “petroyuan,” movement towards a less dollar-centric currency regime in international energy markets—with potentially serious implications for the dollar’s broader standing—is already underway.
As China has emerged as a major player on the global energy scene, it has also embarked on an extended campaign to internationalise its currency. A rising share of China’s external trade is being denominated and settled in renminbi; issuance of renminbi-denominated financial instruments is growing. China is pursuing a protracted process of capital account liberalisation essential to full renminbi internationalisation, and is allowing more exchange rate flexibility for the yuan. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) now has swap arrangements with over thirty other central banks—meaning that renminbi already effectively functions as a reserve currency.
Looking ahead, use of renminbi to settle international hydrocarbon sales will surely increase, accelerating the decline of American influence in key energy-producing regions.
Chinese policymakers appreciate the “advantages of incumbency” the dollar enjoys; their aim is not for renminbi to replace dollars, but to position the yuan alongside the greenback as a transactional and reserve currency. Besides economic benefits (e.g., lowering Chinese businesses’ foreign exchange costs), Beijing wants—for strategic reasons—to slow further growth of its enormous dollar reserves. China has watched America’s increasing propensity to cut off countries from the U.S. financial system as a foreign policy tool, and worries about Washington trying to leverage it this way; renminbi internationalisation can mitigate such vulnerability. More broadly, Beijing understands the importance of dollar dominance to American power; by chipping away at it, China can contain excessive U.S. unilateralism.
China has long incorporated financial instruments into its efforts to access foreign hydrocarbons. Now Beijing wants major energy producers to accept renminbi as a transactional currency—including to settle Chinese hydrocarbon purchases—and incorporate renminbi in their central bank reserves. Producers have reason to be receptive. China is, for the vastly foreseeable future, the main incremental market for hydrocarbon producers in the Persian Gulf and former Soviet Union. Widespread expectations of long-term yuan appreciation make accumulating renminbi reserves a “no brainer” in terms of portfolio diversification. And, as America is increasingly viewed as a hegemon in relative decline, China is seen as the preeminent rising power. Even for Gulf Arab states long reliant on Washington as their ultimate security guarantor, this makes closer ties to Beijing an imperative strategic hedge. For Russia, deteriorating relations with the United States impel deeper cooperation with China, against what both Moscow and Beijing consider a declining, yet still dangerously flailing and over-reactive, America.
For several years, China has paid for some of its oil imports from Iran with renminbi; in 2012, the PBOC and the UAE Central Bank set up a $5.5 billion currency swap, setting the stage for settling Chinese oil imports from Abu Dhabi in renminbi—an important expansion of petroyuan use in the Persian Gulf. The $400 billion Sino-Russian gas deal that was concluded this year apparently provides for settling Chinese purchases of Russian gas in renminbi; if fully realised, this would mean an appreciable role for renminbi in transnational gas transactions.
Looking ahead, use of renminbi to settle international hydrocarbon sales will surely increase, accelerating the decline of American influence in key energy-producing regions. It will also make it marginally harder for Washington to finance what China and other rising powers consider overly interventionist foreign policies—a prospect America’s political class has hardly begun to ponder.
24 Comments on "The Rise Of The Petroyuan And The Slow Erosion Of Dollar Hegemony"
Davy on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 6:41 am
Geeze is PO site becoming “Peak oil and Anti-American studies”. Excessive anti-American postings and comments amount to ideologue (-NESS) and propaganda pandering. Whoever is choosing articles should show some balance.
Good, as an American I want an isolationist America so we can leap frog other regions in collapse preparedness. We also need to use food as an economic weapon against the Chinese Mongols and other anti-American basket Brics. The world cannot decouple from the dollar except around the edges. Any talk of a paradigm shift is folly. Bau will end before this occurs. When Bau ends it will be local currencies that dominate. Gold for what little international trade that is left. Would you trust the Chinese? I wouldn’t talk about “smoke and mirror economics” as very trust worthy. I find the whole Chinese business environment the most corrupted and manipulated in the world. The Chinese are the worst among large economies at kicking the bad debt down the road. There has been close to zero bankruptcy realizations in China. The moral hazards in China are off the chart. Much of China’s growth is fake because of the large insolvent investments. The hypothecation of collateral and hyper credit creation from thin air is off the charts. Mal-investments from industry overcapacity, ghost cities, highways to nowhere, inefficient coal mines, and housing bubble all has to show a return at some point. These Chinese companies have gotten around this by shadow banking. Shadow banking is the same as smoke and mirror economics. Basically worse than a Ponzi scheme because you mesmerize the participant with fantasy and deception. Most Ponzi participants know it is a scheme except the suckers that get swindled in the end. China has gold which is a big plus. China has lots of foreign currency but that may soon be worthless. If they try to dump dollars they kill their export markets. All this talk about the dollar dumping and end of dollar hegemony is not being related to collapse. For the most part either the corrupted America MSM or the alternative anti-American/anti-west MSM are cornucopian. All these MSM outlet preach these changes to BAU without consequences and unintended consequence. They treat collapse as a distant possibility. The talk of collapse is a doomer/collpasnik fringe discussion. Cornies are in the MSM driver seat across the board. This will change when decline and contraction set in for all countries and economic regions. It is above foolish to believe in a good outcome to all these changes and crisis in the news. There is only one outcome and that is financial and social collapse. It will all come back to the final card and that is food. When a hyper complex global economy sputters the food will not be deliver properly and the following planting season will be disrupted starting a downward spiral until famine and food insecurity is the economic driver. Famine leads to social and economic collapse. So sure jump in bed with the Chinese Mongrels and their Asian sidekicks if it makes you feel good. They will be the first to be hungry so don’t expect food exports out of China to buy with those worthless Yawns in mean Yuans.
MSN Fanboy on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 7:16 am
Davy, how is this writing anti-American? LIKE ANYWHERE IN THIS ARTICLE?
Secondly: Famine will be everywhere…
America, China, who cares, Famine doesnt have an ideologie or a discrimination basis. Its all encompassing, if it were a person we can say it would be a liberal then lol
MSN Fanboy on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 7:36 am
Why am i even commentating, we all agree anyhow.
Maybe this is what this site is: a confirmation of our beliefs based on the data we pick.
Dave Thompson on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 8:11 am
When human planetary habitat loss becomes apparent due to the global climate crisis, numbers on pieces of paper will be irrelevant.
Pveroi on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 8:35 am
This is a great site. Helps me disseminate info to others and also with my own writing. Hope it sticks around.
Also don’t see the anti-American in here. It’s just not written from an American point of view. Pretty common language out there no?
JuanP on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 10:34 am
I take deglobalization, relocalization, and decreasing complexity in the short term future for granted. This, necessarily, implies the end of BAU and the Dollar’s role as an international trade and reserve currecy with all that implies, too.
The things this article describes are nothing more than symptoms of BAU’s weakness and coming demise. Expect more of the same and much worse in the future. Things will get incrementally worse for the rest of our lives, so go plant something!
noobtube on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 11:03 am
I suppose it shows the unwillingness of the fat, lazy, and entitled to understand there are billions and billions of other people out there who do not appreciate being leeched and stolen from just because of one group’s ridiculous beliefs in exceptionalism.
Anyone in this world can be replaced.
Welcome to reality.
penury on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 11:28 am
Davy, the only Ideologue and propaganda pandering I see on this site is generally from you. You seem to feel that any comment which might be perceived as slanted to not reflect American exceptialism is propaganda. Most of us are not anti-american, however we are not blind to the activities and ambitions of the government.
clueless on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 11:33 am
Davy,as usual…your blabbering, plus your zealous patriotism is utterly annoying. The readers i assume would like to puke.Everything for you seems to be about your stupid country..Hellooooo!!!! Celebrate !!!America got at least a century of fruitful years of excessive waste, arrogance and extravagance. China is just starting, considering they’re ancient. She may have just a decade or two before SHTF.
Now go sulk. booohoooo!!!
Davy on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 12:02 pm
P, did I touch a nerve. Sorry friend, your comment obviously shows where you stand.
Northwest Resident on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 12:11 pm
clueless — What you term “zealous patriotism” on Davy’s part seems more to me like he just gets annoyed with you and others blaming America for all the world’s evils and problems. I also find such blaming on your and others’ parts annoying and extremely inaccurate — but most of the time I just let it slide without comment. After all, arguing with irrational people never solves anything, no logical conclusions are ever arrived at, it just turns into a shouting/insult match. So, I walk on by.
China is just starting — correct. But a decade or two before TSHTF for China??? Amazing prediction, especially given the many serious fundamental issues that China is struggling with right now. But go on believing whatever you want to believe, clueless, and I’m sure you will.
penury on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 3:31 pm
Davy: I would appreciate if you could expand on where I stand. Please. because I do not exhibit nor endorse a jingoistic view of U.S. policies and or actions, and in that regard seem to be in varience with your seemingly narrow focus on world events. However, I would like to know where I stand. It would allow me to accept some of the asinine opinions which are presented.
Davy on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 4:40 pm
Penny, just as you are is were you stand. It is obvious open your eyes friend.
MKohnen on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 4:53 pm
Davy and NWR do seem to be rather myopic when it comes to understanding why the rest of the world might not see the US as a benevolent dictator. But there are many on this site who definitely choose to direct all global problems toward the Americans. I would agree that, as Americans, we have caused an awful lot of the trouble the world is now facing. But far from all of it. My only concern with regards to the US at this point is an attempt to forestall internal public strife by starting a global war. Other than that, I feel Davy and NWR are both realists when it comes to the amount of pain all Americans, along with all other members of the globe, will experience during the collapse (deflation, slumping stagnation, or if you’re Nony, eternal growth in FF’s.)
Northwest Resident on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 5:11 pm
MKohnen — You come pretty close to figuring out exactly the way I see things. But I would like to add that I have been very critical of America and American policies, I DO see the damage inflicted and the I do see the many injustices and excess uses of raw power by certain America political and industrial/financial entities. Where I tend to really disagree with posters like clueless, noobtube and others is that they want to blame all Americans for the evils that their government and industrial/financial powers perpetrate. In reality, the true powers — what I often refer to as TPTB — are global, not American-centric. These powers are hidden behind the curtain and they use American government, American mass media and the American military to accomplish their goals. American boys and girls die in wars that TPTB decide must be waged. Americans are bombarded daily with propaganda, lies, crappy food and all kinds of unhealthy stuff that has turned most of them (us!) into anything BUT the land of the free. Our politicians are bought and paid for by the global powers that be — they answer to TPTB, not to American voters, for the most part. Don’t think I am uncritical of America or that I am defending America against all attackers — I just hate to see America and Americans blamed as the sole source of evil in this world by those posters who come to this forum and do that.
MKohnen on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 5:14 pm
NWR,
From what I have read of what you’ve posted – I would concur and humbly stand corrected.
Davy on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 5:33 pm
MK, I totally understand why the world hates our government and increasingly the American dream and by extension the people. Americans are increasingly looking fat with poor manners in general. We are violent and wasteful. The rich are living like kings as the world suffers on and on and on. I will tell you this MK it is not everyone. There is a significant section of the population of good hard working solid individuals that are as good as any anywhere. There are plenty of active and healthy folks. What I get tired of is the stereotyping of a continent sized country of 318MIL people from many ethnicities, regions, urban, and rural. I have travel around the world, I have a degree in finance, I spent 25 years in a medium size corporation as one of the owners, and I am well read. I am not impressed at what I see anywhere else compared to what I see here. I tend to enjoy the differences and accept the differences as the spice of life but where I live now is home to me. I love home and hope to die here. All this anti-Americanism is from people throwing rocks who live in glass houses. The rest of the world wants to blame their problems on the US. They act like their shit don’t stink and it does. You can’t single out the US for all the problems going on now. I will accept more than average responsibility because of our previous superpower status. It is not our faults the rest of the world could not get their shit together and be superpowers. It takes balls to do what the US did. Screw the anti-American crowd here and I am not ashamed of admitting I am standing up for my country, my people, my local, and my family. Yet, I am not ashamed to criticize the DC mafia for destroying our constitution. I will admit the US has committed crimes and done horrible things behind the phony flag of freedom and democracy. Much of these crimes were because of the cold war with the Russian empire of the USSR days. I will stand up for what I believe and take flack. If you don’t have a backbone you don’t have shit.
MKohnen on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 6:12 pm
Davy,
I have done a lot of business in the US, and a lot of travelling there, too. I couldn’t agree with you more about the diversity of the people. Generally, I like the people of the US as much as I like Canadians. I don’t like how you do to Russia and China what you accuse people of doing to the US. Just because other people are blind to facts doesn’t make it alright. I realize that there are many who denigrate your country and that you feel compelled to respond. If someone attacks Canada unfairly, I, too, will respond. But responding by denigrating other countries and their peoples doesn’t show backbone, it’s bullying, and worse, it’s short sighted. I also know a lot of Russians, Chinese, Ukrainians, Natives, Indians, etc. To describe their countries as “basket cases” is ignorant, and I mean this in the most literal sense.
Davy on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 6:36 pm
True enough MK, live by the sword then expect to die by it. So I accept your criticism. Sorry MK, my efforts will not change because this is a propaganda war and I will point out the failings of the poster girls of the anti-American crowd. I am not a propagandist nor ideologue by nature but there should be balance. I am not passionate about politics. I am a doomer and preper and that is my passion. I am among the most vocal of American critics here and will bash America when deserved. The cowards of the anti-American crowd are too afraid to say their nationality. They present comments in an unbalanced and denigrating manner then run and hide.
JuanP on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 7:03 pm
Back from fishing. I want to be specific about where I stand. I try to avoid attacking people, sexes, ages, races, sexual perferences, or countries.
I don’t much care where a person comes from, whether they go to one church or another or none at all, who they go to bed with or how; all I want is honesty and respect.
Makati1 on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 9:09 pm
ALL Americans are hypocrites in most of what they do, from religion to politics.
Were god to spare the Us if they could find 100 truly honest, god fearing,
intelligent people, I fear they would come up short. Unless they were children.
The country accurately represents its citizens. Look at who they put in office and keep there. Look at the lazy who do not even vote. Look at the rampant greed in every corner. That they cannot get off their asses and revolt is their fault, not the politicians who are destroying a once great country.
Yes, the rest of the world is not perfect. Never was. Never will be, as long as homo sapiens walks the earth. But to defend the only country in the world that has over 1,000 military bases in 150 countries is to defend what those bases do to the rest of the world.
The list where we are killing innocent people around the world, at this minute, is long. I don’t see any Asian countries doing the same. Nor Russia.
So, yes, I point out the failures of my country, because it is time those failures get pointed out until the lazy, “let someone else do it” citizens turn off their TV, pick up their guns and go into the streets like the people in Eastern Ukraine. They know more about the responsibility of a free citizen than any American. They are willing to die for what they believe in. Americans are willing to let other die so they don’t have to. Nuff said.
Makati1 on Wed, 6th Aug 2014 10:03 pm
In other news:
“‘Huge Number’ of Tax-Dodging Corporations Preparing to Expatriate”
“…In the past ten years, 47 major corporations have shifted their base abroad—at least on paper—and another dozen have their move in the works. Schumer estimates that there are many more with some “big announcements” expected in August. On Wednesday, Walgreens announced that they were forsaking their plans—which drew huge national condemnation—to relocate to Switzerland….”
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/08/06/huge-number-tax-dodging-corporations-preparing-expatriate
Pveroi on Thu, 7th Aug 2014 11:21 am
I’m Canadian but most of my family is American. I’ve heard this kind of whining my entire life. I can’t speak for anyone else here but personally I’ve never equated the American individual with the country. It’s usually Americans who do that themselves. I know my family and they’re good people, but they don’t have the hand in the decisions made on national levels that they think they do, good or bad.
If you feel personally attacked when a country is criticized (although the article above doesn’t really do that in my mind), or if you feel personally vindicated when a country is praised, it should tell you something about the place you live in and it’s relationship with you.
I for one find the info in the article to be useful, whether it’s about this country or that. Notice I didn’t say your country or mine – because to me that’s just silly. I don’t come here to learn about your feelings. My apologies if that offends (not really).
Northwest Resident on Thu, 7th Aug 2014 12:43 pm
Makati1 said: “Were god to spare the Us if they could find 100 truly honest, god fearing, intelligent people, I fear they would come up short.”
Makati1, this is an example of you just being wayyy to critical and one-sided. Making absurd statements like that really diminishes the rest of what you have to say. But China and Philippines, I suppose, according to you, would be just packed full of “truly honest, god fearing, intelligent people”. Man, that cracks me up.