Where are you getting this? What I have heard is that Germany, for example, has enjoyed East European labor and that this has helped their massive exporting economy. Am I missing something?
U.S. has its foot on Iraq & Iran's throat. Their economy still dwarfs China's and the European Union. Their military force dwarfs all. If someone tried to repeg oil to another currency - they would be on the "axis of evil" and aconvenient george bushian reason would be dreamt up to blow them off the map imo.
It's not just a matter of pride whether oil is priced in American Dollars or Euros. The United States has enjoyed the benefits of an interest free loan for trillions of dollars for decades since their currency is used by almost every country for international trade. If oil is priced in Euro's instead of Dollars this would trigger demand for repayment of the loan that the United States has all over the world. Strange coincidence that the Iraq started pricing their oil in Euros in 2000 and the Iraq war started in 2001. Iran is planning to sell in Euros, what will happen to them? Is Iran's nuclear program the real threat?
This is not as big a deal as everyone is making it with regards to the dollar because the total dollar market is so monstrous. I can't remember the exact figures but total petrodollars to the total dollar currency market is only a few percent. If some of the petrodollars switch to, say, the euro, it's not that big of a deal for the dollar. Any argument that petrodollars is a huge factor in all of this has to be based primarly on "psychological" arguments which is weak at best...
I too believed in the Iraq-Euro-Oil connection but no more.... If you look at the entire landscape....Iran is on the way to getting the bomb supported by Russia/China, like it or not the US needed a ruse to get between Iran and Israel before each had the ability to start lobbing nukes... Saddam was the most convenient bum of the month.... WMD was just a sideshow... in the not too distant future, my guess is the US will install a substantial missile defense system somewhere in Iraq...if it's not already there to start with.... an opinion of course and I could be wrong...
Amen, bruther. Huge international markets are governed by supply and demand and are wild animals completely out of control of governments and multinationals. Everyone can believe what they want, but brute force supply and demand operates unfettered here... And, btw, when peak oil hits, it is that same primal supply and demand force that will push oil to the limits (unless there is some sort of technological miracle)...