Once upon a time, the U.S. dollar was backed by the gold standard in a framework that established what was known as the Bretton-Woods agreement, made in 1944. The dollar was fixed to gold at a price of $35 an ounce, though the dollar could earn interest, marking one notable difference from gold. The system ended up…
Donald Trump has delivered a shockingly bellicose speech during his first appearance before the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The speech began by striking a tone which sounded more like a speech before a domestic US audience than before the nations of the world. Trump welcomed delegates and leaders to his home town…
In a move that is largely seen as Maduro giving Washington the middle finger, Venezuela has made good on its promise to layoff the U.S. dollar, publishing its oil prices in yuan on Friday. Last Friday, Maduro had announced the forthcoming change, but that threat came after 14 years of similar threats, made by former…
China walks through the doors the US has left wide open. In economic warfare, like in traditional battle, one’s weapons are only as powerful as the shields which they are up against. This simple concept has not yet sunk in among the powers that be at the US Department of the Treasury. Donald Trump’s Treasury…
Did the doomsday clock on the petrodollar (and implicitly US hegemony) just tick one more minute closer to midnight? Apparently confirming what President Maduro had warned following the recent US sanctions, The Wall Street Journal reports that Venezuela has officially stopped accepting US Dollars as payment for its crude oil exports. As we previously noted,…
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that Venezuela will be looking to “free” itself from the U.S. dollar next week, Reuters reports. According to the outlet, Maduro will look to use the weakest of two official foreign exchange regimes (essentially the way Venezuela will manage its currency in relation to other currencies and the foreign exchange market), along…
