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Originally Posted by Elphaba
Jorgelito, what if it isn't about potential nuclear weapons but another more immediate threat? Consider that Iraq intended to switch to petroeuros rather than dollars before the US invasion, and Iran has already set up an international oil trade to be exchanged in petroeuros.
Our government needs to keep it simple for the likes of it's citizens, so the big mushroom cloud will do just fine. We seem to respond to fear mongering quite nicely.
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Ah yes, good question - I believe that is an entirely different matter.
One could make a good argument that the US, as a matter of good policy SHOULD be more careful with deficit spending AND also take a serious look into resource dependency in others' hands.
A. Energy and resource dependency
The US need for foreign oil (is it like 20%? I don't know the statistic) could be considered an element in how our grand strategy and foreign policy is shaped.
1. Alternative energy sources as one solution - if the US is less suscestible to the oil market, then the dynamic of international politics and foreign policy changes.
2. Or, release the reserves on to the domestic market. Open up ANWR for drilling, limit environmental restrictions on oil exploitation and processing (gives more incentive for oil producers and refiners to invest in infrastructure). *I don't necessarily advocate this - just showing the options I guess.
B. Deficit spending
I am not very knowledgeable in this area but I will attempt to make an analysis.
1. Swithing to the Euro could potentially cause a lot of problems because the Chinese are major consumers of oil and buy in US dollars. They also hold a lot of US dollars as well. The switch to the Euro COULD cause the Chinese to buy Euros with their dollars to purhcase oil with, especially since they are "in" with Iran. This could conceiveably cause the dollar run people speculate about.