Vetted by NeuralPress's Multi-Agent Verifier for strict factual validity and event relevance. Our compliance engine cross-checks and filters search results to ensure zero false correlations or misleading content.
Primary Sources
A Primer on the Petrodollar and the War on Iran: The Sixteenth ...
Bahman Mohasses (Iran), Untitled, 1968. Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. As you and I worry about how war and inflation will impact our families and nations, bond traders are fixated on the numbers on their screens, calculating what might happen to seemingly arcane financial instruments. Their job is to protect the treasure of the wealthy. For the past fifty years, the relative stability of the US dollar – above all as embodied in US Treasury securities – has rested in part on what is called the ‘petrodollar’ system. When petroleum prices are relatively stable, the costs of production and transport are more predictable, inflation is easier to contain, and the prices of bonds and other financial assets are less likely to swing wildly. In such conditions, the wealthy can multiply their paper wealth with greater confidence. Despite the existence of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil cartel since 1960, the United States continues to shape the terms on which much of the world’s petroleum is shipped, priced, and paid for through its monopoly on violence – by securing key chokepoints and client states with its bases and fleets, and by using sanctions to make oil sales involving targeted states or firms harder to insure, finance, transport, and settle financially. Coups and wars also serve to discipline states that seek too much control over their own resources or wish to move outside this dollar-centred order. Inflation – a sustained increase in prices over a period of time – is the enemy of financial wealth, as it depreciates the purchasing power of financial assets. Since the world economy is dependent on energy derived from oil, a rise in oil prices leads to a rise in the price of all other commodities and the overall cost of production and transport, lowering the value of bonds and other financial assets that depend on low inflation. Holders of financial wealth therefore tend to favour policies that curb inflation through austerity, restrictive fiscal policy, and by keeping the prices of oil – and therefore costs of production, including wages – down. The wealthy prefer holding assets that are stable relative to the prices of commodities and wages, which is why the US dollar has been their currency of preference for holding wealth and denominating major debts and contracts. By offshoring production to poorer countries, the US has kept wage levels and inflation low at home and...
The Iran War Is a Boon for the Petrodollar - WSJ
A Deutsche Bank report making the rounds argues the Iran war represents a "perfect storm" for the petrodollar, the primary currency in which oil is bought and sold. The report says that U.S ...
Iran War's Ripple Effect: Petrodollar & Global Markets in Turmoil
Explore how the Iran conflict impacts the petrodollar, energy giants like ExxonMobil, and global markets. Stay informed on key players and investment opportunities amid rising tensions.
The Iran War Is Exposing the Petrodollar While Boosting the Yuan
Iran's strategic move to shift oil trade in yuan is, at once, a blow to the petrodollar and a handout to the petroyuan. Gold's Role Becomes Clearer Beyond oil prices and inflation, the deeper conversation surrounding the Iran War's fragmentation of the USD-led global economy isn't complete without considering the impact of safe-haven ...
