– From Petrodollar To Petrogold: The US Is Now Trying To Cut Off Iran’s Access To Gold (ZeroHedge, May 16, 2013):
The US is moving to broaden its ‘blockade’ efforts of Iran to the movement of pure gold into the Islamic Republic. The US-led embargo of Iranian crude succeeded in slowing the flow of petrodollars into the nation but as Foreign Affairs committee chairman Edward Cohen remarked, there is “no question that there is gold going from Turkey to Iran.” While the official line from US elite such as Bernanke remains that ‘gold is not money’ it appears that increasingly other nations would disagree, as Cohen admitted, “in large measure what we’re seeing is private Iranian citizens buying gold as a protection against the falling value of Iran’s currency.” It would seem somewhat self-evident that the US is admitting, by attempting to embargo this gold flow, that outside the US, the Dollar is becoming increasingly irrelevant (see China’s gold demand); and that for many countries the petrodollar no longer exists, having been replaced by ‘Petrogold’.
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With Iran’s currency already hit hard by European and Asian participation in the U.S.-led embargo of Iranian crude, Mr. Cohen asserted that his staff is broadening its efforts to include blocking the movement of pure gold into the Islamic republic.
“I can assure you that we are looking very, very carefully at any evidence that anyone outside Iran is selling gold to Iran,” he said.
The remark came after Rep. Edward R. Royce, California Republican and the Foreign Affairs Committee’s chairman, asked whether the administration was aware of recent reports indicating an uptick in the flow of gold into Iran.
“With its currency now in free fall, the Iranians desperately need gold,” said Mr. Royce, who noted that a U.S. law authorizing the Obama administration to sanction anyone selling gold to citizens inside Iran does not take effect until July 1.
With existing U.S. law only allowing sanctions on the sale of gold directly to the Iranian government, Mr. Cohen told lawmakers the administration is keeping a close eye on the situation.
While Mr. Cohen acknowledged that U.S. authorities have “no question that there is gold going from Turkey to Iran,” he said that “in large measure what we’re seeing is private Iranian citizens buying gold as a protection to the falling value” of Iran’s currency, the rial.
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Iran has been trading in gold with many of it’s trading partners since 2010, since the advent of electronic currencies. Iran accepts most currencies, the idea the US can stop it now is absurd. With the advent of the Sucre by the South American Trade Alliance in 2010, the first electronic currencies that allows member nations to trade in their own currencies without conversion to the dollar, the game is changed. In November of 2010, Russia and China established a similar trading system, allowing member nations to trade without conversion to the US dollar. China went on to Turkey, many South American Nations, many emerging nations in the African region. With the trade sanctions put on Iran last year, Japan and India joined with them.
All of these nations trade with Iran. Iran has gotten very rich thanks to all the corporate enriching wars in the middle east. Iran is now a desirable trading partner, and it will work with all currencies, leaving the dollar out. They pay their bills, and buy lots of goods from China, Russia, India and Brazil and many African nations. We have nothing but paper currency with nothing behind it but ink. We don’t even have technology any longer, that has all gone overseas.
In January of 2010, 100% of world international trades were completed with conversion to the US dollar. By Jan of 2013, we are now fortunate to have 60% of world trade….and our power as reserve currency has petered down. Electronic currencies have made the whole idea of a world reserve currency obsolete.
We are quickly become the Sick Man of Western Civilization, and we don’t seem to know it. Every empire has it’s hour in the sun, but every one also vanishes.
Soon, we will be sitting on a pile of paper currency that nobody else wants. That isn’t going to be 20 years from now, either……..we are eroding each day.
The US should hang up it’s guns and start rebuilding here at home.