Been reading it this morning and researching some the complex issues he greatly over simplifies.
For example, he makes reference to the Bretton Woods system and alludes that it was some US plan to tax other nations. In reality it was an economic system designed and approved by 44 nations in an effort to fund the rebuilding after WWII.
I also makes no mention of the Marshall Plan or the Truman Doctrine, both of which can be argued led to the huge dollar to gold offset.
This part in particular:
However, the guns-and-butter policy of the 1960’s was an imperial one: the dollar supply was relentlessly increased to finance Vietnam and LBJ’s Great Society. Most of those dollars were handed over to foreigners in exchange for economic goods, without the prospect of buying them back at the same value.
The author is purposely vague on what those dollars were being exchanged for, leading the reader to believe it was part of some US government conspiracy. In reality had the it not been for the increased outflow of US dollars established by the Marshall Plan Europe may have never recovered from the war. Under the Truman Doctrine US dollars were used to assist nations fighting socialist takeovers. Again, the author avoids both these points because it doesn’t support his “dollars for material goods” arguement.
The author argues that Bush’s “master plan” about going to war with Iraq was entirely to do with securing the US dollar as the only accepted payment for oil. So the same people who claim Bush is the dumbest president we’ve ever had have no problem he orcastrated one of the most complex economic wars in modern history? I’m sorry, but it’s much easier to believe that Bush honestly, if incorrectly, believed Iraq was a serious threat to US security through their weapons program, not the monetary programs.
The other fatal flaw in this “war for oil dollars” theory is that US policy had shifted to a regime change prior to Saddam accepting Euros in 2000. Clinton’s 1998 “Iraq Liberation Act” and the US/UK’s 1998 “Operation Desert Fox” bombing campaign had much to do with Saddam’s switch from dollar to Euros. I think the author has his cause and effect timeline skewed in favor of his views.
And that gets me to the part of the article where he finally starts talking about the Iranian Oil Bourse. I will finish reading it, but the legs he’s basing his arguement on are already much weaker in my mind.