Iran Oil Bourse opening delayed

 

March 16, 2006 – In the last six months, the Muckraker Report has published numerous articles pertaining to Iran Oil Bourse and the impact that it could have on the stability of the U.S. dollar.  The Iran Oil Bourse is intended to be the third exchange in the world in which global oil transactions are processed.  Currently, all oil transactions are processed either by the New York Mercantile Exchange or the International Petroleum Exchange.  All oil transactions processed through these two exchanges are done so with U.S. dollars.  The Iran Oil Bourse is scheduled to process its oil transactions with euros. 

 

All indications suggested that the Iran Oil Bourse was scheduled to open on March 20, 2006, but according to John Partridge, Investment Reporter for the Globe and Mail, the Iranian Oil Exchange is now unlikely to begin till at least midyear.[1]  Quoting Mohammad Asemipur, special advisor on the project to Iran’s Oil Minister, in regard to the opening of the Iran Oil Bourse, Partridge wrote that Asemipur said, “In the middle of 2006, we are able to start the bourse.”  Asemipur went on to say, “The plan is to trade petrochemical products first, with a crude oil contract coming last, a rollout that likely will take three years.” 

 

The speculation by the Muckraker Report and many other economic theorists has been that if the world were to be able to purchase oil with euros instead of dollars and enough oil-consuming countries opted out of the dollar in favor of the euro, then the value of the dollar would be vulnerable to a significant devaluation.  With the Iran nuclear threat rhetoric rising in unison with the approaching Iran Oil Bourse, it is not unreasonable to consider that the two topics are somehow connected.  However, by suggesting that the sudden interest in Iran’s 30 year old, once U.S. sponsored nuclear power program, might be aggravated not by enriched uranium capabilities but by a overextended U.S. dollar that is only sustainable by faith in its purchasing power or by bullets, and such speculations are labeled as conspiracy theories, and discounted as if conspiracies have never proven to be factual. 

 

Despite the fact that British consultant, Chris Cook, who claims to have came up with the idea of the Iran Oil Bourse in the first place, says that the theory that the Iran Oil Bourse could possibly sabotage the greenback is, in his words, “bollocks”, it is simply delusional to ignore the fact that if even a small percentage of U.S. dollar holders around the globe were to lose faith in the dollar and dump it for another currency or commodity, whether for economic or political reasons, the value of the dollar will go down. 

 

For example, on March 13, 2006 the British news agency, Independent News ran a headline, “Arab central banks move assets out of dollar.”[2]  In this article by Economics Correspondent, Philip Thornton, the Independent News reported that a number of Arab central banks were considering switching reserves into euros.  The UAE, angry over the Dubai - DP World ports deal, announced that it was looking into moving one-tenth of its U.S. dollars into euros.  How did the dollar respond to this speculation?  It fell against the euro, pound, and yen that same day.  Scoff if you must, but the record shows repeatedly that the dollar loses value when enough of it is even hinted at being dumped.  The Iran Oil Bourse will create the mechanism for a potential global dump of the dollar.  Whether a significant number of dollars will be dumped once the Iran Oil Exchange is in full operation is anyone’s guess, yet to ignore the potential impact it could have on the U.S. economy is blind.

 

It will be interesting to watch whether the U.S. softens its Iran rhetoric now that this recent delay announcement by Iran regarding the Iran Oil Bourse opening has created a sort of reprieve for the U.S. dollar.  However, with the Federal Reserve hiding the M-3[3] effective March 23, 2006 it will soon be virtually impossible for most everyone to fully understand whether domestic and international calamities and global tensions are actually the result of economic indictors and a vulnerable dollar within a fiat money system controlled by a conglomeration of private banking corporations, or the result of whatever it is that the government is telling us through its talking heads within the mainstream media. 

 

Remember the weapons of mass destruction our government could not find in Iraq?  They’re telling us now, that they’re in Iran.  Are you going to blindly believe the talking heads again, or are you going to use your common sense?  It's a matter of life or death because human lives are at stake, so please make your choice carefully. 

 

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Freelance writer / author, Ed Haas, is the editor and columnist for the Muckraker Report.  Get smart.  Read the Muckraker Report.  [http://teamliberty.net]  To learn more about Ed’s current and previous work, visit Crafting Prose.  [http://craftingprose.com]