Why Crypto is the Answer to the Kashoggi Murder

in #politics5 years ago

So the latest story being floated by the Saudis is that Kashoggi got into a fight at the embassy and that somehow escalated into his death.

And I have a very fine bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

The sad part is that this isn't really news. The Saudis have been murdering dissenters, gay people, atheists, Yemenis, New Yorkers, and more basically for as long as the kingdom has been around. They are a force for evil in the world.

They have probably been surprised that they are catching so much flak for one journalist. But now there is a cover story. One guy has been fired and another has died in a "car accident." So things will continue on - business as usual.

The question is why? Why does the world, and specifically the US government, turn a blind eye to this?

And the answer is in two parts - oil and the dollar.

For governments outside the US, oil is the primary answer. The Saudis are not the only producer of oil in the world, but they are the largest. They have a lot of influence on the price of oil all over the world. Let's say the EU were to impose economic sanctions on Saudi. The Saudis could respond by cutting way back on production and encouraging their Arab neighbors to do the same with some amount of success. Even though OPEC isn't as unified as it used to be, they would probably be able to spin such a case as an attack on sovereignty and others would go for it.

Like all markets, less supply for a given amount of demand means higher prices. Possibly much higher. Higher prices for oil means higher prices for consumers in almost everything. That leads to unhappy voters. And that leads to loss of power for incumbents.

So no, we can't have that.

In the US the story is more complicated.

Back in the 1970s a new scheme was developed, the petrodollar. This is the global inflationary monetary system we've lived under ever since. The basis of it are simple: all oil producing countries agreed to price their oil for international sale in US dollars. In exchange, the US will support them with arms deals and political cover. So when the Saudis are waging a war against Yemen and killing hundreds of thousands or millions of people, they do it with US-manufactured weapons. The occasional 9-11 not withstanding.

What's in it for the US? It's the flip side of the sanctions argument. Oil is one of the most important goods in the global economy. When there is a requirement to do trade in US dollars, it increases the global demand for US dollars. That allows the US to print vastly more US dollars, export them globally, inflate the money supply, suppress interest rates, and keep inflation low domestically all at the same time.

If the monetary inflation created by the US had to be kept home domestically like most countries, then we would be seeing much higher prices, people would be unhappy, and elected leaders (and possibly unelected leaders) would find themselves out of a job. We can't have that, so a few deals with real deplorables are made. And those that buck the system like Iraq, Iran, Libya, and most recently Venezuela? Well, the world has seen what has happened to them.

That's the global backdrop we are living with. The chances of you or me affecting anything in this picture are slim to none. So why do I bother going through this?

We can opt out.

Like the Six Million Dollar Man (inflation adjusted to 40 billion dollar man) said, we have the technology.

Cryptocurrencies are a way to side-step the monetary system. We can control our own money for the first time in over a century. When we control our money, we are not subject to these insane machinations that are made behind closed doors.

I don't even care which crypto you are a fan of. I'm writing this on STEEM, the uncensorable text blockchain, so clearly I'm a fan of it. But whether you like bitcoin or dash or dogecoin, all of them are ways to vote with your wallet.

We are still in very early stages, and crypto does not yet meet all the requirements of money. I've written about this before. But it's coming. When we take control of money back to the individual level, these global schemes to affect the prices of things to nudge behavior into patterns that are more desirable by the powers that be lose their impact.

I don't know if we are one year away or ten years away from the point when we will able to use crypto in the wider economy.. But I do know that every hodler and user of crypto is contributing to the revolution.

Even something that might appear to be just entertainment, like steemmonsters, is a way of a developing assets in the crypto-economy. The game is just a few months old from the date of announcement but already millions of dollars worth of STEEM and SBD have changed hands playing it. I am excited to be a part of it. Not just because it's fun, and it is, but also because it's a step forward in divorcing myself from the monetary system that promotes war and human misery compared to where we could be without hijacked money.

So whether you are into crypto for the technology, a momo spec trader, a pacifist, an economist, or anything else, I welcome you as part of the crypto revolution.

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Interesting take on the whole situation. The petro dollar is no doubt under attacked from the like of Russia and China. I think it's inevitable that it will fail to an extent and cause panic, the question is how long until that failure?

Yes China and russia’s Bilateral trade agreements are threatening the petrodollar but they are too big to invade. But we are still seeing economic battles develop.

Even so the saudis are the linchpin of the petrodollar system.

But you’re right. Anything that can’t last won’t last. The lag times on governments are enormous though. We are 40 years into this crazy system and it is still going strong.

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