“We don’t accumulate greater WEALTH with this situation, it isn’t true,”
[OPEC, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, secretary-general]
El-Badri told the [Spanish El Pais] newspaper in an interview published Wednesday,
reported the Saudi Gazette this week in an article under the title “OPEC tells US to stop harassment”. (1)

“No acumulamos más RIQUEZA con esta situación, no es verdad.” (2)

Now, we know that OPEC wants to accumulate greater WEALTH, not more US dollars.

The dollar-regime is inflating the price of oil-wealth to such an extent that price inflation in third-world countries is three times as high as in the west.

Oil-speculators are not interested in the possession of oil as wealth, but only in concluding wagers over the oil price in order to tap its monetary surplus value.

Hence, untapped oil in the ground has the same wealth-consolidating function as gold.

As Helen Thomas, Financial Times-Lex writer, puts it in her “Message from the Editor” in this week’s “Best of Lex”-column under the title “Crude awakening” in the Financial Times:
The soaring oil price is necessary to change behaviour in the face of dwindling supply. (3)

The World Petroleum Congress (WPC), held in Madrid this week, did not realise that the dollar is the cause of the speculation in oil prices.

Hence, the WPC saw no hope of oil prices decreasing (4),
the delegates being divided between consumer and producer countries on who to blame for the oil spice. (5)

Two articles published in the Sunday 22 June 2008 online editions of Arab News Newspaper explain why it is the USA, and its central bank, the Federal Reserve, with its dollar-debauchment policy, which is to blame for speculation in oil prices.

In an article under the title “Time for OPEC to defend its rights”,
Fawaz Al-Alamy writes that
as oil prices are pegged to the dollar, speculators realised that the actual price of crude is not really high compared to its nominal fixed market price. Therefore, purchasing oil becomes tempting in the eyes of investors transacting in other currencies such as the euro, yen and pound sterling. Instead of speculating with the dollar, investors alternatively speculate in dollar-denominated commodities, such as Oil and Gold. Hence, oil prices keep soaring, while the dollar continues sliding. (6)

Arab News also writes in its “Drive out speculators”-article
that
it is not OPEC members nor other oil producers who are to blame for the present wholly unjustifiable sky-high prices. Consumers must look nearer home. The problem started with investors in the main financial centres — New York, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and the others — as they searched for an alternative to the sinking dollar and began moving into oil. Prices started to rise. (7)

Instead of harassing OPEC, it is the USA itself which must take the blame for the high oil prices.

It’s the US dollar, stupid!

Since 15 August 1971, when US president Richard Nixon broke the Bretton Woods system, the US dollar has no value whatsoever.

Since that date, the US dollar is indeed a worthless piece of paper.

Ivo Cerckel
ivocerckel AT siquijor DOT ws

NOTES

(1)
OPEC tells US to stop harassment
Saudi Gazette report
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID= 2008070310864

(2)
ENTREVISTA: La nueva crisis energética ABDALLA SALEM EL-BADRI Secretario general de la OPEP
“Muchos se están haciendo ricos con el mito de que falta petróleo”
ALEJANDRO BOLAÑOS - Madrid - 02/07/2008
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/economia/Muchos/estan/haciendo/ricos/mi to/falta/petroleo/elpepieco/20080702elpepieco_2/Tes

(3)
Friday Jul 04 2008

(4)
Pétrole: le Congrès de Madrid s’achève sans espoir de voir les prix baisser http://www.romandie.com/ats/news/080703131556.0rff7mwd.asp
SNIP
MADRID - Le XIXe Congrès mondial du pétrole s’achèvait jeudi à Madrid sans espoir de voir baisser les prix, qui ont dépassé jeudi les 146 dollars, alors que les coûts de production explosent, que l’Opep refuse d’admettre un problème d’offre, et que les tensions géopolitiques dans le Golfe inquiètent.

(5)
Oil eases amid profit-taking after reaching all-time highs
Analysts warn upward trend remains ‘intact’
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&artic le_id=93806
SNIP
Divisions between consumer and producer countries on who to blame appeared to sharpen at the World Petroleum Congress this week which brought together political and corporate oil bosses in Madrid.

(6)
Time for OPEC to defend its rights
Fawaz Al-Alamy
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=111106&d=22&m=6&y=20 08

(7)
Drive out speculators
Arab News
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=111107&d=22&m=6&y=20 08