Friday, July 13, 2007

Iran - Keep The Dollars and Pay us in Yen

Many people have speculated that the real reason for the War in Iraq was the decision of Iraq to change the way it was paid for Oil. The rumor is that they were going to request that all payments be made in Euros. Now Iran is starting to request payment in yen from the Japanese.
Iran asked Japanese refiners to switch to the yen to pay for all crude oil purchases, after Iran's central bank said it is reducing holdings of the U.S. dollar.

Iran wants yen-based transactions ``for any/all of your forthcoming Iranian crude oil liftings,'' according to a letter sent to Japanese refiners that was signed by Ali A. Arshi, general manager of crude oil marketing and exports in Tehran at the National Iranian Oil Co. The request is for all shipments ``effective immediately,'' according to the letter, dated July 10 and obtained by Bloomberg News.
The problem for our currency is that Iran is not the only country dumping dollars.
Iran isn't alone in wanting to drop the dollar for pricing oil. Russia has been examining plans to price the Urals oil export blend in rubles to curb currency risks. The nation plans to open the Energy Stock Exchange in St. Petersburg in the first half of next year to trade oil in rubles, UBS AG reported June 14.
Our currency which was the standard around the world is slowing becoming as welcome as Hillary Clinton at a Heritage Foundation conference. The unfortunate part of the slide of the dollars value around the world has been that it has not significantly increased our exports or lowered our trade imbalance.

Will the United States attack Iran for its decision to stop using the dollar? For those who think that was the real reason for the Iraq War, sleeping at night must be difficult.

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