Greg Palast: Bush, petrodollars and Hugo Chavez
Excerpt - Greg Palast on how petrodollars keep the US economy afloat, and how Chavez won't play by the [US] rules
democracynow: I just got back from meeting with Chavez, as you know, and you showed our interview a few weeks ago. He's offered the U.S. $50-a-barrel oil. That's a third off of what we're paying right now. Now, you would think our president would be down in Caracas kissing Hugo Chavez's behind and saying, "Thank you, thank you for dropping the price of oil by a third, and let's make a deal," because Chavez wants a deal.
But he's not doing that, our president, even though the high prices are costing about a million jobs right now. And the reason he's not is that what Chavez will not do is that Chavez will not return the money. It's not about petroleum, it's about petrodollars, as I explain in the book. In other words, when George Bush rides around King Abdullah in his little golf cart on the Crawford ranch, he's not trying to get Abdullah's oil. Abdullah can't drink the stuff. He's got to sell it to us and Japan. But Abdullah takes the money back from the -- when you fill up your SUV, you give your money to Saudi Arabia, the big oil companies, Saudi Arabia. But then he returns it in the form of petrodollars, and that is what is funding George Bush's mad spending spree.
We have a president who has racked up $2 trillion in extra debt, you know, stone sober, apparently. And someone's got to pay for that. And basically we're paying for it by effectively an oil tax, which is returned to us, because the Gulf states and our other trading partners are now buying up $2 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds and debt. So, in other words, they're recycling the money back and paying for George Bush's spending spree on ending inheritance taxes, you know, several wars, etc.
Now, Hugo Chavez says, "I'll give you cheap oil, not only to the poor, but to everyone. But I'm not giving you back the money. That money is going to stay in Latin America to build our nations." And he just withdrew $20 billion out of the U.S. Federal Reserve. You have to understand, this is a punch in the face of the U.S. administration, far more than withholding oil, withholding and withdrawing petrodollars, as I explain in the book, and that's why you have that little nice floater from -- balloon thrown out by Reverend Robertson, Pat Robertson, saying "Hugo Chavez thinks we're trying to assassinate him, and I think we ought to just go and do it" because they have got to get that -- it's not that they need that oil, they need that oil money. And if they can't get it, they have to eliminate Hugo Chavez. Read more
Reuters: Foreign buying of US corp bonds up 45 pct in March
democracynow: I just got back from meeting with Chavez, as you know, and you showed our interview a few weeks ago. He's offered the U.S. $50-a-barrel oil. That's a third off of what we're paying right now. Now, you would think our president would be down in Caracas kissing Hugo Chavez's behind and saying, "Thank you, thank you for dropping the price of oil by a third, and let's make a deal," because Chavez wants a deal.
But he's not doing that, our president, even though the high prices are costing about a million jobs right now. And the reason he's not is that what Chavez will not do is that Chavez will not return the money. It's not about petroleum, it's about petrodollars, as I explain in the book. In other words, when George Bush rides around King Abdullah in his little golf cart on the Crawford ranch, he's not trying to get Abdullah's oil. Abdullah can't drink the stuff. He's got to sell it to us and Japan. But Abdullah takes the money back from the -- when you fill up your SUV, you give your money to Saudi Arabia, the big oil companies, Saudi Arabia. But then he returns it in the form of petrodollars, and that is what is funding George Bush's mad spending spree.
We have a president who has racked up $2 trillion in extra debt, you know, stone sober, apparently. And someone's got to pay for that. And basically we're paying for it by effectively an oil tax, which is returned to us, because the Gulf states and our other trading partners are now buying up $2 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds and debt. So, in other words, they're recycling the money back and paying for George Bush's spending spree on ending inheritance taxes, you know, several wars, etc.
Now, Hugo Chavez says, "I'll give you cheap oil, not only to the poor, but to everyone. But I'm not giving you back the money. That money is going to stay in Latin America to build our nations." And he just withdrew $20 billion out of the U.S. Federal Reserve. You have to understand, this is a punch in the face of the U.S. administration, far more than withholding oil, withholding and withdrawing petrodollars, as I explain in the book, and that's why you have that little nice floater from -- balloon thrown out by Reverend Robertson, Pat Robertson, saying "Hugo Chavez thinks we're trying to assassinate him, and I think we ought to just go and do it" because they have got to get that -- it's not that they need that oil, they need that oil money. And if they can't get it, they have to eliminate Hugo Chavez. Read more
Reuters: Foreign buying of US corp bonds up 45 pct in March
posted by exoplanet at 12:27 AM
<< Home