General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho will Iran sanctions really cripple?
The bigger story, of course, is that pushing Iran into the arms of China is not a particularly good thing for the almighty US dollar.
One of the most precious advantages of the United States is that only the United States offers enough currency liquidity to absorb the trade surpluses of the energy-exporting countries. A switch from US-denominated energy sales is never seen as a good thing. If more oil and gas revenues disappear into bilateral trade, such as Iran's China swap, that's less dollars to buy nice things - not just iPods and Nikes, but things like the US government debt that keeps the US government and its massive deficit afloat.
The bad news for the United States is that China is not denominating its foreign trade in yuan just to deal with the Iran situation and threats of US sanctions.
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China's master plan for internationalizing its currency involves setting up bilateral swap arrangements with its major trading partners.
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In sum, sidelining Iran from dollar transactions plays into the hands of China, which is looking to reduce its dollar exposure and fortuitously discovers a significant trading partner, Iran, which has no choice but to start denominating a significant amount of its energy exports in yuan.
Therefore, the US sanctions, in addition to granting China preferential access to the Iranian economy, are also facilitating the gradual displacement of the US dollar from the absolute center of the world financial system and compromising a critical weapon in the American soft power arsenal.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NF30Ad01.html
Iggy
(1,418 posts)the answer, based on the sanctions against Iraq. didn't do one damn thing to slow down Hussein... but
ended up killing alot of his peorsple, including children..but hey, no problem. Mrs Albright said this
was OK-- "collateral damage".
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)None of the three countries pushing for these sanctions give a shit. Israel and the US do not recognize Muslims as valid human beings, and Saudi Arabia doesn't recognize shia as muslims (and thus, does not recognize them as valid human beings)
Iggy
(1,418 posts)I guess this is where U.S. "Christians" embrace the Old Testament more than the teachings of their "Lord", put forth in the
New Testament.
In the Old Testament, there's plenty of info about huge wars, killing and sacrifice.
When the hysteria got going after 9/11, I frequently asked people on blogs, "how many Arabs do you want to kill?"
One million, TEN million?
Looks like the number is closer to ten million.
The astonishing thing about Albright is this is someone whose life was impacted by the holocaust. now she's OK with
another holocaust-- because it's in the "best interests of the U.S.- i.e. CHEAP OIL.