Rebirth of Hong Kong 1981

   Chapter 644 Petrodollars

   I don't blame Yang Chen for having such negative thoughts.

   And don't say he's timid.

  To be honest, he is not a person who is afraid of things.

   timid, even more impossible.

   As a rebirth, no matter how unbearable and timid he is.

  It is also impossible to be afraid of this and that, fearing the east and fearing the west.

   Actually, he was only afraid of one thing.

   That is 'death'.

   With the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the US petrodollar has officially entered the world stage.

  Anyone, any country, as long as they dare to play the idea of ​​oil, then the end will definitely not be good.

  Later Iraq War, Afghanistan War, any country that shakes the US petrodollar plan, has been ruthless sanctions and military strikes by the United States.

   Think about why Saddam and Gaddafi died?

   Not only because they tried to stop the petrodollar program, so that not only themselves, but the country they were in ended up in pieces.

   From this point of view, it is not difficult to see that whoever touches the cheese in America will have a very bleak end.

  The powerful military bulls like Saddam and Gaddafi were finally beaten by the old beauty. He is a little reborn, unless he is impatient, he will touch the tiger's butt.

   Speaking of the Bretton Woods system, its collapse is indeed a pity.

   In later generations, the United States spammed US dollars and plundered the world's resources through green papers. A big reason for this was the collapse of the Bretton Woods system.

  If the Bretton Woods system had not collapsed, even if the polar bears had fallen, the United States would not have been reckless, dressed as the world's policeman, and bullied people everywhere.

  In the early days of the world, after two world wars, the international monetary system in Europe and the United States was divided into several competing currency groups. Due to the war, the currencies of European countries competed to depreciate, which caused domestic economic turmoil in various countries.

   In the late World War II, the US and British governments conceived and designed a post-war international monetary system out of consideration for their own interests, and proposed the "White Plan" and the "Kane Plan" respectively.

The purpose of    is to establish international financial institutions, stabilize currency exchange rates of various countries, expand international trade, and promote world economic development.

  Because the United States has accumulated a lot in the Second World War, it has completely surpassed the United Kingdom in the economic and military fields, and its international status and international gold reserves have greatly surpassed that of the former suzerain, the United Kingdom.

   As a result, after the war, the United States defeated the United Kingdom by virtue of its domestic three-quarters of the world's gold reserves and strong military strength, and established the Bretton Woods system with the United States as the main body.

  The US dollar is pegged to gold, the currencies of various countries are pegged to the US dollar, and gold is exchanged to the United States at the official price of thirty-five dollars an ounce.

At the beginning of the establishment of the    Bretton Woods system, it not only brought great benefits to the United States, but also brought great convenience to other European countries, and played a role in stabilizing the currencies of various countries.

   Of course, as long as this is beneficial, there will be disadvantages.

  With the end of the war, the economies of European countries began to slowly recover. The American industry, which once monopolized global trade, began to shrink a little bit, and the trade deficits of various countries began to change.

  Especially after World War II, the United States was deeply mired in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The war caused the United States to expand its fiscal deficit at that time. In order to solve the financial problem, the United States began to excessively print dollars by relying on its gold reserves, which in turn caused a crisis of dollar credibility.

  Due to the dollar crisis brought about by the war, a large amount of capital concentrated in the United States began to flee one after another, just like the capital outflow from Europe during World War I and World War II.

   The two wars of the United States, the final result.

   directly catalyzed the rise of Japan and South Korea. By making a fortune in war, Japan and South Korea are two loyal allies of the United States, and the domestic economy has developed rapidly. The island country took this opportunity to become the only developed country in Asia.

   Countries around the world sold their dollars and snapped up gold. In less than 30 years, the dollar-gold system collapsed like this.

   In 1971, with the outbreak of the seventh dollar crisis, the Nixon administration announced the implementation of the "New Economic Policy", and stopped fulfilling the obligation of foreign governments or central banks to exchange dollars for gold in the United States.

   The dollar depreciated and the Fed refused to sell gold to foreign central banks. So far, the dollar-gold-pegged system existed in name only.

  The United States stopped the fixed exchange rate system of the dollar to gold, marking the collapse of the post-war dollar-centered monetary system.

   However, after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the dollar did not collapse, but because the dollar was decoupled from gold, the dollar was accepted by more countries.

What is the reason?

   Here, there is only one reason, that is, the United States has found an alternative to gold, 'oil'.

  Compared with gold, which can only be used as a currency, oil is more widely used. After human beings entered modern industry, oil is used more and more. The economic development of any industrial country is inseparable from oil resources.

   The Middle East war broke out in 1973. The impact of the war caused a global oil shortage, which caused the global oil price to rise and formed a worldwide energy crisis.

   Since then, the United States has actively promoted the petrodollar program.

  The United States first reached an "unshakable" agreement with Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer. Saudi Arabia relies on the strong military power of the United States to ensure its own national security, while Saudi Arabia has made it clear that the US dollar is the only pricing currency for oil.

   One of them seeks protection and the other needs to stabilize the dollar.

   hit it off immediately and started the journey of mischief.

  The war in the Middle East has prompted the dollar to be closely linked to oil, and the two have been drawn an invisible equivalence. Any country that wants to conduct oil transactions must have sufficient dollar reserves.

  Compared to gold, the peg between the US dollar and oil is what really makes the United States move towards hegemony.

  The import and export of gold, its rights and obligations are relatively equal, according to the theoretical basis, a country can only print as much domestic currency as it has, even if there is an excess, it will not exceed too much.

   But petrodollars are different. As long as the US military is strong enough to protect oil-producing countries, no matter how many dollars the US prints, there will be no problem.

   As for the reason.

it's actually really easy.

  Because of modern industries, oil is the most indispensable energy source for the development of an important industrial economy. The petrodollars are bound together, so that the United States will not be affected by its own finances under any circumstances.

   In later generations, the United States has a fiscal deficit of more than 2 trillion US dollars, and the world owes people money, but its domestic economy has not collapsed.

   On the contrary, the more you owe, the better the economic development.

   If it wasn't for the sudden rise of the inland, the rise was so fast that it was too late for all countries in the world to react.

   Countries want to challenge the U.S. petrodollar and replace the U.S. dollar with other currencies, which is no doubt a dream come true.

   From this point, it is not difficult to see how important the petrodollar is to the United States. There are many profitable industries in the world. It is obviously not a good choice to grab cheese with Uncle Sam.

  ——

   (end of this chapter)