Gwynne Dyer on an Iranian Bourse
In an article last month, that I missed until now, Gwynne Dyer lists a number of reasons that the United States government might not want to allow Iran to set up an oil bourse. The reasons are essentially the same ones that Dan and I covered in our previous articles on the topic (here, here, and here), however Dyer adds an interesting detail.
The United States Federal Reserve has announced that on March 24 they will stop publishing data on what is called the M3 money supply. Essentially this tracks the amount of US dollars held by foreign investors.
The reason that this is important is that it would very quickly reveal if the foreign market, for whatever reason starts to hemmorhage US dollars. Sudden moves by large financial institutions could quickly turn into stampedes and turn small fluctuations into real threats on the stability of the economy, similar to what happened to Japan and Argentina in the not too distant past. As Dyer points out, this might well happen if countries could find a place to shop for oil in euros.
However, he goes on to add on nothing more than supposition, I guess, that the US is not as concerned as some people think they are in what happens to the US dollar or an Iranian oil bourse.
The coming weeks will tell.
The United States Federal Reserve has announced that on March 24 they will stop publishing data on what is called the M3 money supply. Essentially this tracks the amount of US dollars held by foreign investors.
The reason that this is important is that it would very quickly reveal if the foreign market, for whatever reason starts to hemmorhage US dollars. Sudden moves by large financial institutions could quickly turn into stampedes and turn small fluctuations into real threats on the stability of the economy, similar to what happened to Japan and Argentina in the not too distant past. As Dyer points out, this might well happen if countries could find a place to shop for oil in euros.
However, he goes on to add on nothing more than supposition, I guess, that the US is not as concerned as some people think they are in what happens to the US dollar or an Iranian oil bourse.
The coming weeks will tell.
