Venezuelan diplomats speaking with oil counterparts (OIL for GOLD not $$$)

[Say_What]

Oil prices going up while the dollar is heading south. Venezuelan diplomats already talking with Russian, Mexican and Arab oil counterparts to say *sod off* to US $$$ dependency. Reuters article follows.

<clips>

Venezuelan diplomats speaking with oil counterparts to shake off the shackles of dependency on the US$ as it continues its international nosedive

In a story datelined Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Reuters news agency is quoting former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as having told the Saudis that they should sell oil for gold ... not US$ ... to avoid being "short-changed" by a decline in the US currency. "The price of oil is US$33 ... but the dollar has declined by 40% against the €uro, so you're effectively getting US$20," Mahathir told an economic conference, Sunday. "So you're being short-changed!"

Saudi Arabia has already justified higher world oil prices saying they're necessary to compensate for the slide in the US$.

The debate is just the latest round in a general move within the oil industry to move away from the Bush 2 administration's depreciating US$ ... fatefully, Iraq had switched to the €uro as the currency of preference just before Bush launched the unilateral invasion of that country to remove dictator Saddam Hussein.

Meanwhile retired Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad had spent much time during his administration in the face of western governments, defying their 'economic orthodoxies' ... at the same time he gained overall respect throughout the Islamic and developing world and received a standing ovation in Jeddah where he suggested that oil nation should count their total annual imports and exports and then settle the difference at the end of the year in gold.

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=14555

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<clips>

Sell oil for gold, Mahathir tells Saudi Arabia

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia should sell oil for gold, not dollars, to avoid being "short-changed" by a decline in the U.S. currency.

"The price of oil is $33, but the U.S. dollar has declined by 40 percent against the euro so you're effectively getting $20," Mahathir told an economic conference in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah. "So you're being short-changed."

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has justified higher world oil prices by saying they are necessary to compensate for the slide in the U.S. currency.

Mahathir, who retired last October, spent much of his time in office upsetting Western governments and defying their economic orthodoxies. But he became a respected spokesman in Islamic and developing states and received an ovation in Jeddah.

http://www.forbes.com/business/newswire/2004/01/18/rtr1216007.html

[aquart]

1. Oh, shit.

Bush deserves this but we don't.

[Ctuser]

14. perhaps not you

But if we are alive and living in this country we most more then likely do.We have wasted too much for too long already. My brother-in-law can't have a cloth line because the home owners assoc says no and he lives in Arizona great place to air dry. We're living in the waste land of the free

[camero]

2. I read somewhere

that there was a clause in the IMF agreements to debtor nations that they could pay back their debts in gold. Forgot where I read it.

There isn't enough gold in Ft Knox to pay for all our debt or oil though.

[JailForBush]

3. No kidding.

It's no longer a back-room rumor or the goal of one or two disgruntled foreign leaders. Other nations are now rallying against the dollar.

In a sense, we DO deserve it. Americans have got to be the most stupid people on Earth. I wish there was some way to draw a line through the middle of the U.S., put all the stupid people on one side, and let them pay for their stupidity.

Fucking morons.

[rooboy]

5. Just look for SUV's with Bush/Cheney stickers. n/t

[AndyTiedye]

8. And The Special Bush* Tax Credit For Hummers & other Huge SUVs

but only the biggest and most-gas-guzzling of them all.

You think I'm kidding?

[ret5hd]

12. or even better, all the old beater '83 chevys (or whatever)...

blowing blue smoke out their exhaust ...
with bald tires...
and a cracked windshield...
and 3 kids in the backseat...

WITH BUSH/CHENEY STICKERS!!!

I DON'T GET IT!!! WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

[Ctuser]

15. say thank you George&Tony

you can thank the piglet and the poodle and their little invasion for speeding things up but it was only a matter of time

[54anickel]

4. Same story from another source posted here.......

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=321463

[Dover]

6. Ryial is tied to US$

Saudi Ryial is tied to US$ (approx 3.24 Ryial per US$ for past several years) and everything in KSA priced in Ryials

[wuushew]

9. But that gold could still be used or converted to euros to buy things

since the Saudi economy is the oil and nothing else, the decline of the dollar really would not be that serious for the Saudis. The gold certainly would be a better investment.

[peacetalksforall]

7. Leaders, leaders everywhere and peons suffer

This could be a disaster for us. I'm now convinced that our U.S. leaders want us, U.S. citizens, to grovel.

I regret that our leaders are so despicable on the world scene that countries want to get back at us.

Those oil countries could take the dip (let's hope it's a dip) and treat it at a loss, but this seems to mean that they are out to take a stand and send a message targeting our predator leaders or they see a further fall.

Why does everyone say this is OUR country (by the people, of the people, for the people) when it's obvious we are laughed at, considered stupid by our representatives - that's all they are supposed to be, but we really have 'for the leaders, by the leaders, of the leaders'.

This administration equals the worst for us.

[BeHereNow]

10. May I call your attention to post #5

onn this thread-
It was my first thought when I heard the news
disclosed on this post...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=114&topic_id=4436
BHN

[Judi Lynn]

11. Thanks, BeHereNow!

Never would have run across this information without your post(s).

VERY interesting, isn't it?

[indepat]

13. My, my! A 40% depreciation in the value of our currency. Four more years

will bring what further decline?

[Say_What]

16. Future?? Cry for us, Argentina

I'd been saying to family members for some time that we're gonna end up like Argentina, and then this article was published.

On edit: The last paragraph of this article is a doozy.

<clips>

ARGENTINA retained the confidence of international investors almost to the end of the 1990s.

Analysts shrugged off its large budget and trade deficits; business-friendly, free-market policies would, they insisted, allow the country to grow out of all that.

But when confidence collapsed, that optimism proved foolish. Argentina, once a showpiece for the new world order, quickly became a byword for economic catastrophe.

So what? Those of us who have suggested that the irresponsibility of recent American policy may produce a similar disaster have been dismissed as shrill, even hysterical. (Hey, the market's up, isn't it?)

But few would describe Robert Rubin, the legendary former Treasury secretary, as hysterical: His ability to stay calm in the face of crises, and reassure the markets, was his greatest asset. And Rubin has formally joined the coalition of the shrill.

http://business-times.asiaone.com.sg/story/0,4567,104554,00.html