First I should say I am just dreaming here. Just imagining possibilities, based on gut instinct. I'm no expert; but I definitely hope experts and amateurs alike will comment on what I am about to say.
If you watched the video below, Robert Newman's History of Oil, you will run across something called the Magic Checkbook. The idea basically suggests that the American dollar is based in large part on debt at interest. The rest of the world never "cashes the checks" we write, in other words. And they never will, in my opinion. The only reason the world keeps giving us things in exchange for fake checks is that we are an aggressive superpower and are therefore not to be toyed with.
In his performance, Newman pointed out that America reached peak oil in 1970. In 1971, America convened an OPEC meeting that basically set an edict: the only legitimate form of currency when dealing in oil is the American dollar. Then in 2001, oil began being traded in Euros, thus undermining the fraudulent American dollar.
Am I being to extreme here? Am I blowing this whole issue out of proportion? I don't know. But it appears to me that America contributes very little to the world materially. We push pieces of paper around, we open amsuement parks and resorts, but that's basically it. We don't produce that much food, we don't manufacture very many goods (that's China). We are a society of aristocrats living large for very little effort, while most of the world toils away for 10 or 14 hours a day and gets very little in return. Just the basic necessities for them, if they're lucky.
That's the way I understand what's going on here. We're just a big fat cat. A big bully. Isn't that what it comes down to? Well the rest of the world is now standing up to us. They refuse to trade oil in US dollars anymore, thus removing the last shred of legitimacy of the dollar. They are fighting us in the form of terrorism. I guess. And now we are showing them that if you mess with us, you'll be killed and maimed.
Just a big bully. And common American citizens are the recipients of hush money. We aren't mad at our government - not really. Oh sure, many of us are somewhat peeved, and we bitch and complain about it. But we're not mad. If we were mad, we would rise up and drag the administration out of the White House and beat them to death in the streets and display their heads on stakes in the town square. No, we're not mad. We're pretty content. And well fed.
My main point here is that the U.S. economy is based on a falsehood. The dollar has no sweat and tears behind it. The dollar is not based on hard work, but on numerical manipulation and sleight-of-hand. Isn't that true? Am I missing something here? Am I being too simplistic? Naive?
The countefeit economy. It has a nice ring to it, and it sure makes a lot of sense to me. If I'm wrong, I'd like to hear why.
