Marin Katusa: The Petrodollar is actually a device invented by Kissinger and Nixon.
Narrator: The standard of living of all Americans can be traced back to here, the vast oil rigs deserts of Saudi Arabia.
Marin Katusa: In the early 70s after the Arab the price has happened with the oil embargoes, OPEC basically triple the price of oil to the Western World. And at that time America realize that they were vulnerable because they were importing about 70% of all the oil they consumed.
Narrator: To secure a reliable foreign source of oil, U.S. President Richard Nixon send his secretary of state and National Security advisor, Henry Kissinger, to Saudi Arabia for a secret meeting. The result is a pact that still stands to this day.
Marin Katusa: If Saudi Arabia, which at the time was the world’s largest producer of oil, would sell the oil in U.S. Dollars, American would defend Saudi Arabia and make sure the House Assad would stay in power.
Narrator: As a direct result of this U.S.-Saudi agreement all other oil-producing nations also adopted the dollar as the de-facto medium of exchange. Demand for it increased exponentially all over the world, and soon it had a new name, the petrodollar.
Marin Katusa: Your currency is only as strong as the demand for it, just like everything else, it’s supply and demand. Why the petrodollar is important, it causes a demand for the U.S. dollar. A lot of Americans don’t realize that over 70% of all the hundred dollar bills in the world are actually outside of the US. There’s more hundred-dollar bills in Russia than there are in America.
Narrator: This stockpile of US dollars in countries around the world is because oil is bought and sold using the Greenback.
Marin Katusa: If oil start trading in non petrodollars such as a gold or a basket of currencies or if China and Russia start trading and Yuan and Ruble rather than US dollars, that demand isn’t there. And the way of life for the average American will be done. It will be worse than the Great Depression.
Narrator: To date, anyone who’s potentially threaten the status of the petrodollar hasn’t fared well. Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi publicly pushed for a Pan-African gold-backed currency that he would trade for Libya’s oil. He was killed during the US backed revolution in 2011. In just a few short years before Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, advocated selling oil for Euros.
George W. Bush: This hour, American and Coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq.
Narrator: The U.S. invaded under the guise of looking for WMDs.
Marin Katusa: Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction, and interestingly enough, after the Americans invaded, took over, put in their own government, the whole concept of selling oil in Euro never surfaced again.
Narrator: Today, many countries resent the current petrodollar system and they’re leading spokesperson is none other than Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
Marin Katusa: America’s should be very worried about what Putin can do. There is a new Cold War going on and it is the Colder War. That is exactly what is going on. And who’s in the center of this push, Vladimir Putin, and the petrodollar is so crucial to the Colder War. The only thing holding America, right now, at the top, is the petrodollar, and let me make it very clear, if the petrodollar dies, so does America as a superpower.
