SELLING OIL WITHOUT THE USD--THE END OF AMERICA AS WE KNOW IT?

You may have read my [http://thepete.com/the-real-reason-well-invade-iran/|past] [http://thepete.com/the-euro-exodus-has-begun/|posts] on [http://thepete.com/iranian-oil-exchange-postponed/|Iran's oil bourse] (aka Iran's oil exchange) including my post on how, back in late April, it would be [http://thepete.com/irans-oil-exchange-to-open-next-week/|opening in a week]. Well, I can't confirm that it has or that it hasn't. Doing a Google News search gets me only articles from Early May saying that Iran's oil exchange will open, again, [http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mike_whi_060508_the_last_gasp_of_the.htm|in a week's time]. Yeah, that's what they said a week earlier.

So, the jury is still out on this.

HOWEVER, apparently, Russia is considering the Petro-Ruble now. Yep, according to [http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=KIM20060521&articleId=2486|a May 21, 2006 article] at GlobalResearch.ca (a somewhat questionable source), Putin is thinking about getting an oil and gas bourse going in his country. Here's a clip:

The announcement by President Putin of a Russian bourse trading oil and gas in Roubles threatens the stability of the US Dollar far more than Iran's bourse alone would do, and continues the slide in relations between the old Cold War foes.

In his annual State of the Nation address to both houses of parliament on 10 May 2006, Novosti reports President Putin said that work on making the Rouble an internationally convertible currency would be completed by 1 July 2006, six months ahead of schedule. To promote the currency, he announced that an oil and gas stock exchange will be created in Russia, that would trade in Roubles.

"The rouble must become a more widespread means of international transactions. To this end, we need to open a stock exchange in Russia to trade in oil, gas, and other goods to be paid for in roubles." - Putin

Is that how you spell "rouble"?

ANYway, the article also goes on to talk about how Venezuela's Chavez is considering selling only to Euro-toting customers, though Chavez has already been known to trade oil for things other than USD (like Cuban doctors).

Anyway, so in dark, not-often-travelled corners of the Internet people seem to be suggesting that the end of the America as we know it. I'm not talking about Alex-Jonesian, conspiracy-ridden sites talking about Martian pyramids and Bush being a shape-shifting lizards. These sites range from semi-reputable to full-on credible. I've read mainstream and non-mainstream articles/posts/entries/whathaveyou that point out things like the Iranian bourse, problems with America's economy being so tied up in oil, the weakness of the USD, capitalism's reliance on cheap labor and more.

They all make balanced, reasonable arguments that suggest (without being so blatant) that perhaps the current America's days are numbered. As a friend of mine pointed out to me recently in a college paper he wrote, it was partially the Roman Empire's reliance on slave labor that caused it to fail. You could easily compare Roman slaves to exploited immigrant workers. If they are so important to our economy, what does that say about the strength of our economy?

Another thing I've noticed that makes me concerned is how disconnected reports of our "booming economy" are to the reality of $3.40 gas and movie ticket prices that make credit cards look good. Have you noticed how the dollar bill is the new quarter? When I was a kid a quarter could get you a candy bar or a small bag of chips. Now it takes you a dollar to get a small bag of chips. I remember in 1987 how gas was $0.75 a gallon. Now it's more than three times that.

Then again, I heard a news report yesterday that gas was down a whole cent-and-a-half. WOW!

Maybe I was wrong. America is safe, after all!