actually, the currency that a commodity is priced in -can- have a large impact. a perfect recent example is the crash in Indonesia's rupiah; due to their crossing from an exporter of oil to a net-importer....coupled to the 3:1 subsidies they provided to citizens on refined products. it set up a positive-feedback loop where, the more rupiah they had to convert to dollars to buy oil, the worse the rupiah fell, causing even more rupiah to have to be converted.....etc.. solution: cancel all gas/diesel subsidies overnight. would not want to be an Indo. politician right now....not without excellent bodyguards anyway... It is also interesting to wonder what results are building up underneath the Japanese economy, due to the tremendous rise in oil coupled with their wanton printing and propping of the buck using yen-sales. the numbers must be getting truly impressive by now...
d9d Is not the problem with Indo that the subsidize petroleum products. In europe there would be no cost to gov't (deficits ect) and they receive the tax revenue from the companies and % tax on gas. I think I see now its not a wash it is that they are a constant buyer of US$ helping to support the $. It would be interesting if we could see the data on the imports from Iran to europe to see what % of buying they represent. I agree with others that the UK does not want a higher Euro and a cheaper dollar. I live in Canada and The CAN$ just hit multi-year highs and manufactures are struggling. But i'M GOING TO VEGAS...
US can launch 350 cruise missiles on 300 targets identified by intelligent as nuclear sites. Then squadrons of B-2 stealths will blow the rubbles again to make sure nothing is left untouched. This will get the message through to the Iranians. If they retaliate, USAF will go on 'full swing' and kill the highly priced military assets to put them back by 40 years in military sense. By the way, if US stops importing, then the world will go into recession.