Comment on What's it going to take to truly stop the US?
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 days agoChina is going to flip the script very soon.
They’re one of the few rapidly developing economies left, following the post Soviet stagnation.
But that just introduces another superpower on the world stage. It doesn’t eliminate the US in any material capacity.
America’s only real power remaining is the military
America’s biggest card to play is the Petrodollar. The military has facilitated destruction of competition. But our ability to dictate currency flow and command global trade via a monetary system our federal bank controls is so much more important.
Everyone keeps saying Europe and Asia will go their own way. Let me know when they finally do. Because I’m still waiting.
FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The Petrodollar is dying fast though, with some saying it’s already dead.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It is absolutely not. The USD has enormous international buying power today, after coming off a bull running dating back to the '08 crash.
FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The backbone of the petrodollar is the deal with the Saudis where they agreed to exclusively trade oil in USD. That deal is no longer in place. Furthermore, Iran is reaching rapprochement with the Saudis, and the Trump tariffs have destroyed US trade credibility. The geopolitics of oil are shifting, and not in the US’s favor.
This is the real reason the US wants to steal Venezuela’s oil now. Their global oil hegemony is no longer enforceable through soft power.
So the petrodollar may not be dead today, and it may cling onto life for another decade, but (to my view) the writing is on the wall.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The non-renewal of the 50 year agreement hasn’t changed the Saudi wholesaling of their light sweet crude in USD. Nor has it discouraged the Saudis from accruing enormous volumes of US Treasury notes with those dollars. Nor purchasing US military equipment nor contracting with US energy companies for transport and refining nor gobbling up commodities in US agricultural and industrial markets.
It’s not. The US is a net oil exporter. We don’t need Venezuela’s oil now any more than we needed it 20 years ago, when the Fraking boom began.
But Venezuela’s export markets help keep Cuba’s economy afloat and their power on. Cutting off the bilateral trade between Venezuela and Cuba helps further isolate Cuba. And that opens Cuba up to a similar encirclement and bombardment and eventual decapitation of national leadership.
If you look at the people running the Trump bureaucracy, Cuba is the real crown jewel of Carribbean foreign policy. It’s the prize everyone from Marco Rubio to Jeff Bezos has their eyes on and the reason why Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is crowded with guisanos looking to re-colonize the island.
None of this has to do with the petrodollar, which remains as strong as ever. The goal is to finally crack Cuba like the US cracked Chile, Argentina, and (for at least a little while under Bolsonaro) Brazil.