Kuwait unpegs US$. On the road to the Petro-Euro, again?
Kuwait’s central bank has unpegged the
dinar from the tumbling US dollar, throwing plans for currency union with other
Gulf countries into disarray.
Which one would you take?
Kuwait’s central bank has unpegged the dinar from the tumbling US dollar, throwing plans for currency union with other Gulf countries into disarray.
The bank, which battled speculators for weeks to defend the peg, said the dinar will now be linked to a basket of currencies.
It said the dollar’s fall against other currencies had forced it to break ranks with fellow Gulf states to contain inflation from the rising cost of some imports.
A fair number of folks - especially those with experience on the inside of oil ventures outside the U.S. - consider Saddam Hussein’s conversion of Iraq’s oil exports to PetroEuros instead of PetroDollars as the consummate reason for the Cheney-Bush decision to invade.
It is now obvious the invasion of Iraq had less to do with any threat from Saddam’s long-gone WMD program and certainly less to do to do with fighting International terrorism than it has to do with gaining control over Iraq’s hydrocarbon reserves and in doing so maintaining the U.S. dollar as the monopoly currency for the critical international oil market.
Indeed, the neoconservative strategy of installing a pro-U.S. government in Baghdad along with multiple U.S. military bases was partly designed to thwart further momentum within OPEC towards a “petroeuro.” However, subsequent events show this strategy to be fundamentally flawed, with Iran moving forward towards a petroeuro system for international oil trades, while Russia discusses this option.
I wonder if this will now add Kuwait to the “Axis of Evil”?
Posted: Tue - May 22, 2007 at 03:15 PM