Hans Noeldner explains the marco-economics of oil in a
letter-to-the-editor of
The Capital Times:
Dear Editor: Hooray! The petro-dollar recycling racket that was set up in the 1970s is still working!
Bloomberg online notes: "The biggest quarterly rally for U.S. government securities in five years is getting an extraordinary boost from the burgeoning reinvestment of petro-dollars by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. ... Petroleum exporters are adding to holdings of U.S. debt three times faster than other foreign investors."
No, our nation's invasion of Iraq, massive occupation of the Mideast-Central Asian "axis of oil," and pending bombing of Iran aren't just about supplying Americans with our next petro fix. Nor are they occurring for the sole reason that our government has been hijacked by neocons who have subverted our national interests to the projects of Zionism and worldwide U.S. hegemony.
America's continuing imperialistic enterprise is also about arm-twisting other nations to eat our debt. If we can't borrow money to keep on buying gas-guzzling Chevy Tahoes, what will GM Janesville employees do for work? And if we don't go on purchasing McMansions we can't afford -- if we can't keep the sprawl-building-bubble afloat -- how will our paving machine operators and sheet-rockers make minimum payments on their credit cards, adjustable rate mortgages, and the three-ton Tonka trucks they drive to the Main Street Tap?
The real elephant in the room is that many -- perhaps most -- Americans now have unsustainable jobs. We've automated and outsourced ourselves out of honest, useful work, and today our economy and employment are driven by conspicuous resource-gobbling consumption. The longer this goes on, the more devastating will be our fall, and the worse the hell our children will inherit from us.
Hans Noeldner, Oregon
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