The petrodollar is the stick that the American Empire has long used to keep its subject states in line. But our rulers’ recent bumbling in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East has prompted China to ramp up plans for a workaround.
Saudi Arabia is in active talks with Beijing to price some of its oil sales to China in yuan, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would dent the U.S. dollar’s dominance of the global petroleum market and mark another shift by the world’s top crude exporter toward Asia.
The talks with China over yuan-priced oil contracts have been off and on for six years but have accelerated this year as the Saudis have grown increasingly unhappy with decades-old U.S. security commitments to defend the kingdom, the people said.
The Saudis are angry over the U.S.’s lack of support for their intervention in the Yemen civil war, and over the Biden administration’s attempt to strike a deal with Iran over its nuclear program. Saudi officials have said they were shocked by the precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.
China buys more than 25% of the oil that Saudi Arabia exports. If priced in yuan, those sales would boost the standing of China’s currency. The Saudis are also considering including yuan-denominated futures contracts, known as the petroyuan, in the pricing model of Saudi Arabian Oil Co. , known as Aramco.
Some are trying to downplay this development, citing the yuan’s inability to replace the petrodollar. But they’re missing the bigger picture. Especially in light of current geopolitical trends.
President Vladimir Putin has unveiled new Russian oil and gas deals with China worth an estimated $117.5bn, promising to ramp up Russia’s Far East exports at a time of heightened tension with European customers over the Ukraine crisis.
Russia, already Beijing’s third-largest gas supplier, has been strengthening ties with China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, reducing its dependence on its traditional European energy customers.
It’s also worth noting that China is dragging its feet regarding American demands to sanction Russia. The Chinese also helped break the news of US bioweapon labs in the Ukraine.
So, we have Russia strengthening ties with China while Saudi Arabia signals increased willingness to sell oil in yuan. It’s hard not to see a pattern emerging.
That pattern continues to take shape as India, once a staunch supporter of US policy, has not only declined to follow sanctions against Russia but is now considering the purchase of Russian oil.
We are seeing the consolidation of an Asian trade alliance, which the US regime’s hamfisted foreign policy could push into a full-blown parallel economy.
Banishing individual dissidents from the economy is our feminized elite’s favorite means of enforcing their edicts. They are finding it far more difficult to put nations that won’t toe the line in economic time out.
It’s a sign that the global American Empire our founders dreaded and no real American wanted is on its last legs. Dissidents should welcome that sign.
It’s also a good time to point out once again that events are unfolding just as I foresaw in my hit military thriller.
For a vision of the post-future, read it now:
This is me speaking from my ignorance of global economics. Has America really been so hubristic that we’ve been forcing other countries to buy commodities like oil with the US dollar? Or has the rest of the world been acting like our “dearest ones,” as Putin would say, and have they voluntarily fallen over themselves to accomodate us?
Either way, let’s give thanks to God that He’s finally humbling us.
I think for a long time, folks traded using Fedbucks because their value was stable. In retrospect, there probably was some arm twisting, when we were selling arms, fuel, food, and junk to our client states, but I couldn’t say where or how much. As long as we (or our stuff) seemed worth it, they dealt on our terms. We probably shouldn’t ignore the drive from Madison Avenue and Hollywood to colonize the planet, either. We’re just another kleptogarchy now, with a DoD that hasn’t ever won a war that stayed won, and bad food, bad music and film, and fewer tourists going abroad or looking for the Golden Arches while they are there. Though, honestly, who goes all the way to Europe for a big mac, when there is schnitzel on the menu?
Pride goeth before a fall. I wonder if we have reached terminal velocity yet.
When it comes to European food, I feel the same way about Mediterranean countries. You don’t go to Italy or Spain to eat American food—but if you do, it probably tastes better, and it probably digests better. The food standards are some of the few things that I appreciate about the EU.
The petrodollar system was a deal made by Nixon and Kissinger with the House of Saud and OPEC after Nixon destroyed the Breton Woods system by taking the USD off of gold. To avoid losing Reserve Currency status, a monopoly was created that oil was to be purchased and denominated in USD. You can read more here:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/petrodollars.asp
https://www.financialsense.com/contributors/jerry-robinson/the-rise-of-the-petrodollar-system-dollars-for-oil
It’s interesting to see how the war in Yemen is only allowed to be brought up in the context of discussing other things.
Yes, that’s the dog that isn’t barking.
On the issue of the biolab story, while it does probably seem true, I automatically have to be suspicious of anything that comes from the Global Times. It’s quite literal Communist state propaganda, so you can hardly take anything it says at face value. Everything else in the post is both correct and salutary.
It came from Victoria Nuland, the official in charge of America’s Ukraine policy.
https://thezman.com/blogfiles/Nuland.mp4?_=1
Looks like tide is going out and it’s interesting to see who has been swimming in neocon speedos.
And then one day, for absolutely no reason at all, Putin decided to invade Ukraine.
I literally had someone say that to me today IRL