Showing posts with label Euro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Euro. Show all posts

Monday, November 7, 2011

While The Euro & Dollar Die; Brother Nathanael Explains



courtesy Brother Nathanael Foundation

71% of Germans want a referendum

Germany itself is now demanding a referendum. According to Welt, 71% of Germans want a referendum, and want to to vote directly on important decisions for Europe and the Euro. Only 27% oppose the motion. And the same poll has found that 63% of Germans think Greece should be kicked out of the Euro, with just 32% believing the country can still be saved.
(...)
Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy, in response to the idea of a Greek referendum on the bail-out package, raised the possibility of a country leaving the euro – so far a taboo in European political circles. This is the second time in less than four months that European leaders could have  opened a Pandora’s Box: on July 21, the decision to involve the private sector in the Greek bailout signaled that euro area government debt is no longer risk-free and thus sparked massive contagion into Spanish and Italian debt markets. This past week, by raising the possibility that a country might (be forced to) leave the euro, core European governments may have set in motion a sequence of events which could potentially lead to runs on sovereigns and banks in peripheral countries that make everything we have seen so far in this crisis look benign.

the whole thing at Zero Hedge

Monday, February 21, 2011

Red Alert for U.S. Residents: Dollar Fades in International Oil Trading

 January 25, 2011

By Robert Fisk

 

In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading. Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars.

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold, and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar.


Future Economic War?


Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan, and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.
The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China’s former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the U.S. over influence and oil in the Middle East. “Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable,” he told the Asia and Africa Review. “We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security.”

This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the U.S. and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region’s conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy. China uses more oil incrementally than the U.S. because its growth is less energy efficient. The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves.

World Bank Confirms Decline

The decline of American economic power linked to the current global recession was implicitly acknowledged by the World Bank president Robert Zoellick. “One of the legacies of this crisis may be a recognition of changed economic power relations,” he said in Istanbul ahead of meetings this week of the IMF and World Bank. But it is China’s extraordinary new financial power – along with past anger among oil-producing and oil-consuming nations at America’s power to interfere in the international financial system – which has prompted the latest discussions involving the Gulf states.
Brazil has shown interest in collaborating in non-dollar oil payments, along with India. Indeed, China appears to be the most enthusiastic of all the financial powers involved, not least because of its enormous trade with the Middle East.


Read The Whole Thing