How does the petrodollar finance and encourage the US’s bullying?

It is impossible to understand the logic of America’s exorbitant military expenditures and successive wars in various countries – from Vietnam, Iraq to Venezuela and Iran – without understanding the international monetary system. By designing a global mechanism, the United States has been able to shift the “costs of war” onto other countries and continue endless military interventions without suffering major chronic inflation or crippling budget deficits. This structural framework is a prerequisite for analysing many ambitious wars the United States has waged – including the recent invasion of Iran. The starting point of the dollar’s dominance over the global economy was the Bretton Woods Conference at the end of World War II. According to the final agreement, the value […]