Arab central banks move assets out of dollar!!!!!!!

[AGENDA21]

Middle Eastern anger over the decision by the US to block a Dubai company from buying five of its ports hit the dollar yesterday as a number of central banks said they were considering switching reserves into euros.

The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, said it was looking to move one-tenth of its dollar reserves into euros, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the US move as "discrimination".

Separately, Syria responded to US sanctions against two of its banks by confirming plans to use euros instead of dollars for its external transactions.

The remarks combined to knock the dollar, which fell against the euro, pound and yen yesterday as analysts warned other central banks might follow suit.

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article351127.ece

[skooooo]

1. Gee, maybe we'll have to start dealing with economic reality..

..instead of pumping up the debt more.

[Warpy]

5. That means total abolition of all social programs

and since that is going to hit the middle class as well as the working class, we're going to see one hell of a backlash over it.

[AGENDA21]

15. Lets wait and see...

[xultar]

2. This more than convinces me that the ports deal was a risk.

[ewagner]

3. The move by the Syrian banks

appears to be unrelated to the ports deal...am I correct on that?

btw: the Iranian oil deal has been delayed correct?

[enid602]

6. Iran

You mean they will NOT change over to the Euro on March 20, as previously stated? I hadn't heard that.

[schmuls]

16. Did anyone answer this person's question about the oil bourse?

I would like to know myself.

[doublethink]

18. "exploring conspiracy theories" huh?

:) ..... okay have some fun with this one; The only article I can find today about the Iranian Oil Bourse being delayed is by a guy named John Partridge (some investment reporter) and he goes on in his article to say it is a 'conspiracy theory' when those of us online try to link the Iranian Oil Bourse with Bush's march to war with Iran. He quotes Chris Cook (credited with coming up with the Iranian Bourse in the first place) and William Engdhal (geopolitical oil writer) .... anyway both men agree that greenbacks (american dollars) would have to be exchanged for more euros in order for this Bourse to have the earthquake economic consequences this 'conspiracy theory' of ours concludes. And they both believe such an act (by a number of countries changing currency's) would in all aspects be a declaration of 'WAR'. So ..... my conclusion to Mr. Partridge's article is ...

1. Why the label 'conspiracy theory' in the first place when the two writers he quotes say it is possible for this to happen, even if the bourse is delayed? And In all the investment guru writer types as himself (John Partridge) that I have read I'd say 90% see the Iranian Bourse as a real possible threat to U.S. Hegemony eventually. His conspiracy theory label seems to be out of place even in the Financial World of Investors.

2. I've read up on both Cook, and Engdhal in the past and kept up with quite a few other aspects on this ..... trying to convince myself we could be over-reacting. My conclusion is the scenario is very possible and has nothing to do with 'conspiracy theory' .....

3. Lastly I googled more on John Partridge just for the hell of it ... seems he knows quite a bit on uranium enrichment (yellowcake) too which made me go :wtf: ..... as far as 'nuclear investments' go ... but hey who's got time for conspiracy theories and the reason people write the things they write? :crazy:

Okay here's the two articles .... first on the Iranian Oil Bourse being delayed .... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060314.RIRAN14/TPStory/Business

And the one John Partridge wrote on 'yellowcake' ...... yea it's the same author ..... here ..... http://www.workopolis.ca/servlet/Content/fasttrack/20060211/RCOVER11?section=Executive Peace. :)

[schmuls]

19. thanks for supplying these interesting articles...

[doublethink]

20. Your quite welcome ....

and if interested here's Engdahl's latest article this John Partridge guy is referring too .... http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=50780

note: Engdahl states.... "More than a year before Bush declared Operation Shock and Awe against Iraq, he made his now infamous January 2002 State of the Union address to Congress in which he labeled Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, as the ‘Axis of Evil’ trio.

* This was well before anyone in Teheran was even considering establishing an oil bourse to trade oil in various currencies. -snip-

And later in the article he states .... "The idea of creating a new trading platform in Iran to trade oil and to create a new oil benchmark crude apparently originated with the former Director of the London International Petroleum Exchange, Chris Cook. In a January 21 article in the Asia Times, Cook explained the background. Describing a letter he had written in 2001 to the Governor of the Iranian Central Bank, Dr Mohsen Nourbakhsh, Cook explained what he advised then:

‘In this letter I pointed out that the structure of global oil markets massively favors intermediary traders and particularly investment banks, and that both consumers and producers such as Iran are adversely affected by this. I recommended that Iran consider as a matter of urgency the creation of a Middle Eastern energy exchange, and particularly a new Persian Gulf benchmark oil price. -snip-

I just thought the above commentary in contemplating these 'dates' together were funny in that Engdahl's own article refutes his own argument that Iran wasn't even contemplating an Oil Bourse before Bush's speech. Cook put this idea before the Iranians in his letter a full year before Bush's speech .... too funny. Anyway Engdahl's article here does have quite a bit more to say which John Partridge's left out of his own, selecting and choosing (selective spin) to make a point. Anyway recommend this thread if ya can, would like to see if anyone else has any comments on these things. Peace again.

[swag]

4. Cool.

That'll make our exports more attractive to producers and consumers in other countries and will help begin a long-needed correction in our massive current account deficit.

But I'll believe a major move when I see it, since the dollar is about exactly where it was two years ago when all the dollar bears really started groaning.

[enid602]

9. dollar

The dollar's holding steady on Oanda.com this AM. No movement yet vis-a-vis the Euro.

[swag]

11. Predictably, Steve Roach of Morgan Stanley is less sanguine

about what a dollar slide (that still doesn't seem to be materializing, though it very well could) means:

http://www.morganstanley.com/GEFdata/digests/20060313-mon.html

[BlueEyedSon]

7. See, we should have let the ports deal go through......

[enid602]

10. dollart

But the Dems will no doubt take heat for to blocking the deal. Putting the cart before the horse; ultimately, the dollar's fate will rest on how well we've managed it by managing debt, federal spending and imports and exports.

[IsItJustMe]

13. NOT!

[Ganja Ninja]

8. It had to happen sooner or later.

If we had conserved our own oil with sensible energy policies we wouldn't be in the mess we're in right now and it's only going to get worse from here on out. We should have listened to John Anderson 30 years ago and put a tax on gas.

[IsItJustMe]

12. For every action there is an eqaul and opposite reaction. If they do go

to the Euros, there will be negatives. But there will be positive things to come out of it as well. Wait and see.

[Just Me]

14. If this stoooopid administration hadn't f-upped our debt so horribly,...

,...this UAE movement of a tenth of its reserves wouldn't mean jack squat. Our dollar's moving closer and closer to crash value all the time. Stoopid freakin' BushCO/neoconsters!!! Not that they care since they seek to basically bankrupt the government so that the needy are all cut off. I CAN'T STAND THESE GAWD-AWFUL PEOPLE!!!! EW! :grr:

[Norquist Nemesis]

17. Last I heard, the "deal" is done and the ink is drying!

The details for the UAEs big announcement to 'divest all interests' to a 'U.S. entity' have yet to be known. Until then, it's as if the deal was signed, sealed and delivered (which it was).