I’ve been thinking about mone-TERROR-ism. Actually I’ve been thinking about the US dollar, the emergency OPEC conference, the big four TRILLION-aires, spending, and solutions. While working as a forensic investigative accountant on the Savings and Loan mess, I was told that when someone owes you $100,000s, you have a borrower. When someone owes you MILLIONs, you have a partner! Taking that to the next levels… when someone owes you BILLIONS or TRILLIONS, it is the one holding that debt who has the real problem, and its’s the debtor who is really the one in the driver’s seat.
You see the many facets of the complex global debt crisis are morphing from the sublime to the ridiculous. A week ago last Friday, the oil moguls of OPEC held the third emergency conference in the organization’s history. While the topic was supposedly oil broaching $100 a barrel, regulating levels of output, and peaking oil production; the real focus was on the continuing decline of the US dollar relative to other currencies and maintaining that dollar as the “official” currency of OPEC. Both of these aspects relate to the TRILLION-plus dollar holdings of these collective OPEC member nations and producers.
They have the problem. They have a huge problem! While they were
supposed to be in a closed executive session, a live media feed was
left on, and Europe was privy to the discussion and debates. I don’t
believe this was an accident. The oil moguls wanted the outside to be
aware that a shift MUST be coming down the pike. The accidental
broadcast was effectively firing a warning shot across the bow of the
US Treasury. Still the comments told the world that while the oil
producers wanted a divorce from the buck, they are stuck in the
loveless marriage for now because the split will cost them way too
much. There is no easy way out, and there certainly was no pre-nuptual
to protect their massive dollar holdings.
Decades of printing fiat currency fueled by this nation’s profligate
consumption of goods, services, and energy – mostly on borrowed (or
printed) money - have made the US the largest debtor on the globe. The
US now consumes about one fifth of the planet Earth’s total output.
Annual deficits – both trade (current deficit) and budget run in the
hundreds of BILLIONs. These have done so for years. As a result there
are now four foreign entity groupings which presently sit on over a
TRILLION in US IOU’s and fiat money. These are China, Japan, the Arab
OPEC’s and the EURO zone. Do they continue to hold their TRILLIONS –
losing purchasing power on an almost daily basis? Or… do they divest
(as is dump) and suffer the consequences – possibly bringing down the
world economies in the process?
Anyone familiar with my columns knows I’ve been muddling over the
threat(s) of our foreign held debt for some time now. Oil/energy, or
the withholding of it, can be used as a weapon. I coined the word
p-oil-itics some time ago and now I want my readers to TH*NK about
mone-TERROR-ism as a further lurking danger to US/us. Here, money, or
rather our own dollars would be used as the weapon against us. Forensic
accountants qualify amounts then analyze how we got to where we are,
what are the ramifications, and what are the solutions (and the costs
of resolution). I’ve been doing just that of late and I must say that
my current conclusions would be laughable if they weren’t so tragic in
the long run.
“The Big Four” with their respective TRILLION-plus EACH can’t dump
them. They can only ultimately continue to hold them, or spend them.
Therein is the true dilemma – just how do you spend a TRILLION? With a
TRILLION… you don’t shop at WalMart, you buy WalMart. You don’t buy a
Cadillac, you buy General Motors. You don’t buy a 747, you buy Boeing.
You don’t buy a computer fully loaded with Vista and Office, you buy
Microsoft. You don’t open a mega-super-jumbo bank account, you buy the
entire financial institution. Then too… there are now millions of homes
coming on the market. If you are in “the Big Four,” is power shopping
gone wild any solution? I don’t TH*NK so. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve
been thinking. You should be thinking, too.
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