It's Too Late, Baby!

Anybody who can remember back to the Energy Crisis of the seventies can remember how the government urged us all to conserve energy. We all bought, or rode around in fuel efficient cars as a way to stick it to the Arabs, who we felt were holding us up at the gas pump. Then something happened we actually did so well that gas pirces levelled off, and we continued on our way driving the smaller fuel efficient car and labelling any car that wasn't efficient a "gas guzzler."
Into the eighties, the smaller cars went by the wayside as fuel prices dropped (not as far as pre-Energy Crisis levels, but enough for us to reconsider that Ford Fiesta)and the opulent Dynasty influenced greed driven decade was in full swing. Soon, we were more concerned with Keeping Up Appearances than being miserly when it came to fuel consumption. This led to the rise of the SUB(sport utility behemoth) as America's main mode of transportation, sold to concerned parents as being safer in an accident than an "economy car", so we sacrificed fuel efficiency (and clean air) for safety, much in the same way we sacrificed our freedoms for security in the days following 9/11.
All of this was possible because of an agreement made between the US and OPEC, you accept only dollars for your oil, and we will prop up your regime. Therefore, if another country wished to purchase oil, they first must come to the US to get there dollars, and exchange we got manufactured goods. This worked out so well, that we started shifting our manufacturing overseas, so in exchange for cheap labor, corporations got bigger profits and Americans got more cheap (er, I mean inexpensive) consumer goods. Which was a good deal, as long as you didn't pay attention to the trade deficit. Whenever there was a need for more dollars, the Federal Reserve happily printed up more, which the American people were happy to take, because they never thought they'd ever have to pay it back.
And everything was going swimmingly, no one dared challenge our dollar hegemony, because it meant the loss of US support of your despotic regime. Then one day, Saddam Hussein, who, along with his country, was suffering under US imposed sanctions on his regime following the first Gulf war, decided, in November 2001, to no longer accept dollars in his oil for food program, instead switching over to the Euro.Uh-oh. Sanctions against Iraq were duer to be lifted, and that meant he could sell his oil on the market for euros. Not good for US dollar imperialism. That meant we needed an excuse to invade Iraq, but we couldn't tell the people the real reason, that America is over extended and can't afford to make good on all the dollars we pumped into the world economy, so a reason that the people could easily believe, and be kept frightened at the same time, was concocted involving WMD. And the majority of the American people swallowed, with only a few of them spitting it out. And so, after his successful "Mission:Accomplished photo op, President Bush signed his first executive order, changing Iraqi oil slaes back to the dollar.
Next week, Iran opens it's oil bourse. This bourse is slated to trade Iranian oil in euros as well. A move that, according to the Associated Press "could lead central bankers around the world to convert some of their dollar reserves into euros, possibly causing a decline in the dollar’s value", which is already in decline against the euro anyway. This will create less of a demand for the dolar, in turn driving up prices here at home.
Then, according once again to the Associated Press:"If the dollar lost its status as the world’s reserve currency, that would force the United States to fund it massive account deficit by running a trade surplus, which would increase inflationary pressures." This causes a problem, as we no longer manufacture enough goods in this country to run a tadre surplus, as we have allowed most of our manufacturing jobs to be outsourced to other countries. And, at this late hour, there is no way to retool our manufacturing to do what needs to be done.
This is what has led to all the rhetoric against Iran, whom we seek to punish with sanctions for the crime of building a nuclear power plant. In reality, it's to stop the inevitable loss of dollar imperialism and the devastating effect that it would have on the economy. But, our good old parents, the US government, doesn't want us to worry about that, or wonder how we ended up this way, so they have concocted the whole "nuke Iran's nukes" scenario, to make it appear, once again, they are protecting us from the "Axis of Evil", instead of covering the collective asses of our politicians who for thirty years have allowed this situation to develop and fester.
And everyone involved seems to prefer it this way. The Federal Reserve has stopped the publication of the M3 report of dollar inflows. The Ameican people refuse to abandon their SUB's and McHouses in the suburbs. And the Federal government has refused to deal with this in any rational way, hoping once again, that when the alarm goes off, the American consumer rolls over and hits that snooze button again, allowing them to sleep until it's too late.