Gwynne Dyer on Iran, Oil, and Euros
In order to believe that the US government is planning an attack on Iran to head off the challenge to the dollar that a euro-based Iranian oil bourse would represent, you must first believe that the Bush administration actually worries about such things, and there is little proof that it does.
It certainly should, but if it truly did, would it have pushed through the biggest tax cuts in American history?
The Bush administration is reckless enough to contemplate an attack on Iran, but it is too ignorant about fiscal and monetary matters to worry about such esoteric matters as the potential connections between a shift to euros in the oil market, foreign investor confidence in the US dollar, and the sustainability of the massive US budget and trade deficits. As Vice-President Dick Cheney said to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill when the latter protested over the huge Bush tax cuts (an issue on which he later resigned): "Ronald Reagan proved that budget deficits don't matter."
If the US does attack Iran, it will be for other motives.
See source.
It certainly should, but if it truly did, would it have pushed through the biggest tax cuts in American history?
The Bush administration is reckless enough to contemplate an attack on Iran, but it is too ignorant about fiscal and monetary matters to worry about such esoteric matters as the potential connections between a shift to euros in the oil market, foreign investor confidence in the US dollar, and the sustainability of the massive US budget and trade deficits. As Vice-President Dick Cheney said to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill when the latter protested over the huge Bush tax cuts (an issue on which he later resigned): "Ronald Reagan proved that budget deficits don't matter."
If the US does attack Iran, it will be for other motives.
See source.