Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. What was it that George Washington said about foreign entanglements?
Paul Craig Roberts on the Iranian Oil Bourse
Paul Craig Roberts sends this post on the Iranian Oil Bourse:
Readers keep asking if Bush is attacking Iran because it plans to open an oil bourse that would permit oil to trade in Euros. A number of readers mistakenly believe that this would wreck the dollar’s value.
The answer is no.
The neocons’ plans for the Middle East predate any notion of an Iranian oil bourse.
Will an Iranian oil bourse hurt the dollar? Not really.
The dollar’s value depends on the world’s willingness to hold dollar denominated assets, not on the currency used to pay oil bills. If payments were not made in dollars, there could be a slight negative impact on the dollar from countries reducing their dollar cash balances and from the psychological shock of pricing oil in Euros (or some other currency). However, what really counts is what do the oil producers, for example, do with the currency that they are paid. If they are paid in dollars, but exchange the dollars for Euros or Yen and purchase equities or bonds or real estate in Europe and Japan, it doesn’t help that oil is billed in dollars. Or if they are paid in Euros but exchange the Euros for dollars and purchase US assets, it doesn’t hurt that the oil is billed in Euros.
The negative impact on the dollar will be far greater from the additional red ink necessary to finance an attack on Iran than from an oil bourse. Today, US war-making capability is dependent on the rest of the world to finance it.
Oil is billed in dollars because the dollar is the world reserve currency. The dollar is not the reserve currency because oil is billed in dollars. The US is abusing the dollar’s role as reserve currency. When a trusted alternative appears, the dollar is likely to lose its reserve currency role. Iran, however, cannot cause that transition.
“I’m a murderer.”
Thursday night I met a guy who, it turns out, was a soldier in town (Austin) from Ft. Hood. He was a nice chap. We chatted for a while, then when he complained about the overwhelming show of force by the local cops on their taxpayer horses, I took the opportunity – of course – to say something to the effect of, “All government does is tax, torture and murder people.”
Then he asked me, “See this haircut?”
I nodded.
He said, “That means I’m a murderer.”
To which I responded, not sarcastically, just surprised, “Oh. … Really?”
“Yup.”
I asked, “Who do you murder?”
He answered in one word: “Hajis.”
I wondered aloud if that meant everybody east of Jerusalem or what?
He said “Iraqis. Hajis.” His girl grabbed his arm and off they went.
National Security Whistleblowers Hearing
Via Sibel Edmonds:
February 9, 2006
Greetings,
The hearing on National Security Whistleblowers by the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats & International Relations (Chairman: Christopher Shays) is set to go. The list of witnesses on three panels includes: Professor William Weaver (NSWBC), POGO, GAP, Mark Zaid (WB Attorney); DOJ-IG, DOD-IG, DOE-IG; Russ Tice (NSWBC member, NSA), Tony Shaffer (DIA), Mike German (FBI), and Major Provance (Army).
We are working on getting coverage by C-SPAN; we’ll keep you posted on that.
You are strongly encouraged to attend; this is the first hearing dealing exclusively with National Security whistleblowers. Here is the information:
Hearing Date: Tuesday, February 14
Hearing Time: 1:00 pm
Hearing Location: Rayburn House Office Building, Room #2154
For those of you who are planning to attend, we will gather in front of the Rayburn House Building Cafeteria (First Floor) at 12:00 p.m.
We will issue our press advisory on Monday, February 13; and will be available to answer questions by the press after the hearing.
Best,
Sibel Edmonds
www.nswbc.org
In Case You Missed It…
It’s a fundraising week (please help!), so the highlights aren’t on the front page, but don’t miss David R. Henderson’s latest, “Why Libertarians Should Be Critical of War.”
Prelude to World War IV
I see my good friend Matt has a response to my latest comment on this blog concerning the Muhammed cartoon brouhaha, and I think it makes the main point of my original piece: that an atmosphere of hatred is being created in which it will seem not at all unusual or morally deficient for the West to be bombing Middle Eastern cities — Tehran? Damascus? — because, after all, they’re all a bunch of mad-dog fanatics under the sway of an inherently destructive, oppressive, and hateful religion. This is true whether or not anyone intended it.
Considered in the context of the War Party’s larger agenda, the Danish controversy has to be seen as part of the prelude to World War IV.
UPDATE: Oh, and it looks like the Danes won’t be publishing those Holocaust cartoons after all. I kinda thought so ….